Chapter 9
Leigh had been late to class. Dean knew because he’d been early. He’d hoped to catch her in the hallway before class. He had a feeling that she’d known that and avoided him on purpose. She’d never been late before.
After class, which he didn’t hear a word of, he jumped up and practically bolted out into the hall. She’d have no choice but to walk past him. He didn’t want to act like a stalker, but he damn sure wanted some answers.
Leigh raised her chin as she walked out into the hall. Dean beckoned for her to join him and she did, albeit stiffly.
She crossed her arms. “Yes?”
Dean frowned in confusion. From the tone of her voice, anyone would think that the past few weeks hadn’t happened. He pushed his hand through his hair.
“What’s wrong?”
She shook her head. “Nothing.”
“Come on, Everleigh. I thought...” he paused, completely out of his depth with a woman for the first time in his life. “I mean, we had plans yesterday--”
“I’m sure you weren’t lonely.” She winced. She hadn’t meant to say that. She hadn’t wanted to give away what she’d seen.
Dean bit his lower lip. “I’m guessing that you saw Kristen?”
“Oh, is that her name?” Leigh tried for a casual laugh, but her throat was too tight. “She looked nice.”
“Everleigh, I--”
She held up her hand, tears sparkling in her dark blue eyes. “Don’t, Dean. Please.”
All he wanted to do at the moment was pull her into his arms. He knew better though, so he stayed quiet. God, it was killing him that she was crying.
“It’s obvious that we’re two completely different people who want two completely different things,” she said after a moment.
“But we’re not!” Dean protested. “I want you!”
“But you kissed her.”
“I...” he sighed. “Look, would you let me explain?”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I don’t want an explanation. You don’t owe me anything. Just leave me alone from now on.”
He swallowed hard. “Okay. What about the project?”
She gave a huff of a laugh. “I’ll finish it up. And I won’t say anything to Professor Kennedy. You did your fair share.”
Leigh turned and walked away, leaving him standing there. Dean watched her go. It felt way too familiar. Her walking away from him.
Was that it? Was he supposed to just watch her go? He took a deep breath. No. Not without a fight.
But what could he do? She’d already proven herself adept at ignoring his phone calls and texts. She’d successfully eluded him in class too. He wasn’t going to be the jackass who bothered her at work.
Dean walked absently across the quad. Then the solution hit him. He doubled back so quickly that he would have done his coach proud and jogged back to his dorm room.
He grabbed his laptop and opened his email. Everleigh had sent him the compilation just before the game. All their research and notes. It just needed to be put into paper form. Dean cracked his neck and got started.
“The things I do for you, Everleigh Rice,” he muttered, hoping with everything in him that it would work.
He barely glanced away from the monitor for the next seven hours. Dean ignored three invitations to parties, five shouts about football from people wandering the corridors, and several text messages from friends as he wrote and wrote.
Eventually he rubbed his eyes and saved the finished paper to a flash drive. Only two more steps. With a sigh of relief, he stood and stretched. Then he headed to the library to print the paper off.
When the final page had fallen into the tray, he gathered them together and carefully highlighted one sentence. Something from one the interviews Everleigh had done last week.
He paper clipped a note onto the stack of papers and headed for her house. This was his only shot and he knew it. With a deep breath, he pushed the paper into her mailbox and jogged away. He’d know in a few hours.
****
Leigh skipped class for the first time all semester the next day. She’d barely gotten any sleep the night before and she honestly didn’t need the class time. She walked out around noon and checked the mailbox. A stack of paper had been pushed inside.
With a frown, she pulled it out.
“A Study in Mental Health Practices in the Foster Care System” was typed in 12 point Times New Roman on the first page.
“What the hell?” she whispered, plucking the yellow post it note off of the front and seeing Dean’s spiky, messy penmanship.
“Everleigh. I really can explain. And I really do want to. I miss you. Dean.”
She flicked through the pages, still in shock. One yellow highlighted section jumped out at her.
“I think it would have been good to have someone to talk to,” the subject says. “It might have helped me with some of the issues I still struggle with...trust, mainly. Once you’ve been hurt by someone as important as a parent, it affects all of your other relationships if you’re not careful.”
Leigh stared at the section for several long seconds. Then she went into the house and called Dean. He answered on the first ring.
“Hey,” he said quickly. “Did you get--”
“Yes,” she said. “If you really want to explain, then come over.”
“I do,” Dean said eagerly. “Everleigh, I--”
“I’ll see you when you get here,” she said, disconnecting quickly.
She started to change into jeans and a tee shirt and then caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and decided to jump in the shower quickly first. She washed as fast as she could, but she was only halfway through drying her hair when she heard a knock at the door.
Leigh gathered her damp hair into a bun and hurried to the door. She took a deep breath before opening it. Dean stood on the other side, looking totally exhausted. He hadn’t shaved and his hair was sticking up in several places.
“Hi,” she said, stepping back to let him in.
“Hey.”
His voice was rough. She crossed her arms, doing her best to steel herself against the desire to lean against him.
“You said you could explain,” she reminded him.
“I can. I just...I don’t know how you’re going to feel about it,” he admitted.
“Were you cheating on her with me?” Leigh asked, finally voicing what she’d been afraid of.
“No,” Dean said firmly. “I’ve never cheated on anybody and I don’t plan to start now. Kristen and I...we had a casual thing.” He shrugged. “No commitments. Just...just sex. She didn’t know about you, that’s why she kissed me. Once I told her, she said she was sorry and she left.”
“Told her what?” Leigh asked.
Dean rubbed the back of his neck. “I told her that I was in love with somebody.”
She caught her breath. “We’re not even official.”
“Well, I was going to ask you after the game,” he said. “But that didn’t exactly work out.”
Leigh looked at him. “Are you being honest?”
Dean reached out, cupping her cheeks in his hands. “Baby, I’ve never lied to you. And I’m not going to. You’re the only one I want.”
“And you...” She could hardly believe it.
His gorgeous emerald eyes sparkled. “Yeah. I love you, Everleigh.”
She flung herself into his arms, pressing her face against his neck and breathing in the scent of him. She’d missed him so much.
“I love you too, Dean.”
“Have we known each other long enough yet?” he asked, trying to pretend like he wasn’t desperate for her answer.
She looked at him seriously for a moment. Then, slowly, she nodded. “I think so.”
Dean caught his breath and Leigh’s heart skipped a beat. No one had ever looked that amazed at the thought of being with her. In a split second, he’d scooped her up into his arms and headed down the hallway.
“Which room is yours?” he asked.
She pointed at the door in front of them. “In there.”
He carried her in, kicked the door closed behind them, and dropped her to the bed. Then he closed the curtains, dropping the room into half-darkness. Leigh propped herself up on her elbows and looked up at him. Dean knelt on the bed beside her, dragging her up for another kiss. And another. And another.
She shivered when he groaned against her mouth. He caught the edge of her tee shirt and tugged upward. She did the same for him. Piece by piece, they undressed each other. His hands on her breasts, her fingers digging into his biceps. His tongue twined with hers, and her gasp as she felt his full length in her hand for the first time.
Dean pushed her back onto the bed again, following her down, bracing himself over her. Leigh took a deep breath, but he didn’t move forward, instead he kissed his way down her naked body. He flicked his tongue over her nipples wickedly slowly, until she arched up, feeling his shaft pulse against her stomach.
“Eager?” he asked.
She nodded. She wasn’t capable of speaking.
“Too bad.”
Dean moved down, swirling his tongue around her belly button as he cupped her heat in his palm. Leigh moaned, her head tossing on the pillow.
“Dean, I want you!” she gasped out.
“Good,” he said, his voice rumbling through her as he pressed kisses to her inner thigh. “Because I want you too.”
The first lick made her gasp. The second made her moan. By the third she was crying out his name. Dean pressed first one finger and then another into her wetness as he continued to lap at her clit. When he began pumping them deeper and deeper, her back arched and she clenched the sheets in her fists.
“Oh God!”
Dean looked up for a split second. This was how he’d wanted to see her. Writhing in pleasure, lost to everything but what he was doing to her. It was worth every second of frustration. Everleigh was always beautiful. On the verge of coming on his fingers and his tongue, she was perfection.
Her back arched again and he felt her grow tighter and tighter. Then she screamed. He felt her fingers in his hair, but she didn’t seem to know whether she wanted to push him away or hold him in place. Dean remained where he was, forcing her to ride out the pleasure. He wanted her soaking wet when he fucked her.
When she was practically sobbing in pleasure, he finally moved up. He took a second to put on a condom, kissing her while he did so, and then slid to the hilt in one smooth thrust.
“God, Everleigh, you feel so damn good,” Dean managed to say.
“So do you,” she gasped, locking her arms around him tightly.
He’d been able to tell that she was tight when he’d fingered her, but this...feeling her all around his shaft, squeezing it as she continued to come... This was pleasure that he hadn’t thought possible. When she wrapped her legs around him, he moved forward, pushing deep. She moaned in pleasure, so he continued.
In the end, Dean didn’t know how long he fucked her. He didn’t know how many times she came for him. He only knew the moment he couldn’t hold back anymore. He pressed his face against the side of her neck and he swore that the whole damn world went dark for a second as he came. He’d never come so hard in his whole life.
When his vision and hearing returned, he realized that he was still on top of Everleigh. He moved so that he wouldn’t crush her, but she held on.
“Not yet,” she said, her voice a little rough from her screams of pleasure. “I like this.”
Dean braced himself on his elbows above her and pressed a kiss to her lips. He didn’t think he’d ever get tired of kissing her. “I like it too,” he assured her. “But I’m going to squish you.”
Reluctantly, she allowed him to move. They lay in silence for several long moments, her head resting on his shoulder and his arm around her as they caught their breath.
Then Dean broke the silence. “So. What’d you think of my report?”
Leigh laughed. “I think we’ll get an A. After a week of proofreading and editing.”
He grinned and pulled her closer. “I guess I can put up with you for that long.”
****
Three weeks later, Professor Kennedy called the two of them to her desk at the start of class. “I’m handing the reports back later today,” she said. “But I wanted to give you two a sneak peek.”
She held up the report. A huge red “A” was emblazoned on the cover page. Leigh smiled. Dean whooped and pulled her against his side, kissing the top of her head. Professor Kennedy looked between the two of them with a raised eyebrow.
“I didn’t mean you had to take him on permanently, Leigh,” she said wryly.
Leigh shrugged and gave a long suffering sigh. “Somebody’s gotta do it.”
Dean ruffled her hair. “Yep. I need my rainbow schedule and someone to keep me on it.”
Professor Kennedy shook her head. “I probably don’t want to know. Take your seats, class is about to start.”
They did as she asked, Dean’s hand sneaking under the table to rest on Leigh’s thigh. She entwined her fingers with his and faced their professor as she began speaking with a smile.