14. FOOL
"Why's he looking at you like that?" Mike whispers in her ear. He shuffles in his seat, flinging an arm across the back of hers in an act of possession.
She leans away, not wanting him to touch her. Not wanting the professor to see. Still she stares at him. Like a fly caught in a sticky web, like the fool she is.
"Like what?"
She pulls her eyes away from the intense man leaning on the lectern, and it feels as if something's crushing her chest. Her breath comes out in little stuttered gasps, her heart racing. Just from one smile. One dangerously beautiful smile. Like snow on a summer's day or a flower growing in the desert, it was so out of place yet so perfect.
When Bella glances up, he's started to speak, his eyes on his notes. She barely hears a word, can't focus on the slides, can only stare down at her blank notepaper, thoughts swimming, slithering like eels in her mind.
She doesn't know what it is about him that affects her so much, but her response to him is visceral, almost painful. She wants to talk to him again, to linger behind after class. If only he'd ask her to, or demand it even.
Want to do something tonight? Mike passes her the paper, and she looks down, brows creasing as she reads. Again she sees a flash of the future, soft touches and hard kisses, meeting parents, flying somewhere warm for spring break. It's all mapped out like a fashion advert. Toothy grins and All-American tans.
But she burns at the first sight of the sun.
I have to be somewhere. She scribbles furiously, then passes it back. It isn't a lie. Everybody has to be somewhere.
Maybe she's crazy, but sitting here in this lecture room she can't think of anything but that man up front. The way he talks, the way he stares, the way his lips curled in a secret smile solely meant for her.
Though there's a part of her that wants the fairytale, the white knight riding in to scoop her onto his trusty steed, the darkness spreads its bony fingers and beckons her. Seeps into her skin, curling around her chest like smoke from a bonfire.
When he looks at her again, she doesn't flinch, doesn't turn away. Doesn't miss the flash of interest that lights up his eyes.
It's too delicious to ignore.