Read Online Deceived by Julie Anne Lindsey - Free Book Online Page B

he grew up and how he got here. We could get to know each other.
    His eyes jumped back and forth between mine, examining one then the other. “What were you doing here?” He nodded toward my leather-bound journal, clearly not a schoolbook, obviously meant to be kept private.
    “Journaling.” I shrugged.
    “Mmm. About a flirtatious guy who bought you coffee?” The muscles in his jaw relaxed. His shoulders dropped back.
    “And now he’s my classmate, in almost all of my classes. That’d make a good story.”
    “Who’d believe it?”
    My tummy yanked back against my spine. “Not me.” Silently, I willed him to scoop me up and carry me away. Pixie had called us soulmates. I forced the words out of my mind.
    His eyes narrowed.
    I would’ve looked away except I enjoyed him looking at me. In class, he never let his eyes land on mine for more than a second. Here, alone, beside my wall, the look felt intimate. I liked it. I returned his stare, matching his intensity.
    “You’re astute. I like it. That’s both an admirable and necessary quality.” He smiled wider. “You’ll live longer, too.”
    I sucked in air. My heart hammered, and heat ran up my neck. Skipping breakfast had left me woozy. The tension mounted until I leaned against the wall for support. His words seemed to hold double meanings. Being alone with him tied my lungs in knots. My instincts said he was dangerous. They also said I was smitten. How was that for complicated?
    “You know, if you need anything, if anyone bothers you, or if you feel … uncomfortable, about anything, you can come to me. I can help you.” He frowned as he finished his strange statement. “New places can be a challenge.”
    Ah, this was his attempt to sound like a friend. Complete fail. “I’ve been in a dozen new places.” Francine Frances wasn’t my first rodeo. No need to worry about me. “I’ve moved nearly every year my whole life.” I tried to open a line of trust between us. “Sometimes we stayed longer, but Dad would eventually be reassigned and we’d move. Anyway, aren’t you new, too?” Maybe he was from here. He had never said.
    “Reassigned?” His eyes narrowed further.
    “My dad? Yeah, for work.”
    For a tiny second, his face showed surprise, but he covered it and a smirk appeared. “For work.” He nodded.
    “Yeah.” I had caught his interest. “He travels on business, and sometimes it means we have to move. Actually, it always means we have to move.”
    He smiled as if we had shared a joke. His lips parted, and then his phone rang. Injustice.
    He held up one finger and stepped away from me, angling himself to see me, but keeping his voice low and his words brief. I wished I could read lips. The mowers stopped, and voices danced in the distance. School would begin soon. A handful of maintenance men walked to the parking lot. I envied them. Their day was probably over. Mine hadn’t started. Brian shoved the phone inside his pocket and returned to me.
    I’d had just enough time to pack up my things.
    “Where are you going?” He looked annoyed.
    “To the library. You’re not supposed to have a phone on campus, you know.”
    “I didn’t.” His tone and expression confirmed his lie as truth.
    I blinked. “So, where are you from? I mean, before coming here?”
    “D.C.” His brows twitched. He was new, too.
    I opened my mouth to speak, but the words never escaped.
    He bent to tie his shoe.
    I looked away, clearing my head and breathing in the spice of his cologne and a hint of shampoo or soap.
    “Talk to you later.” Not a question. He stood poker straight and strode away, leaving me alone, confused, bewildered, and a touch irritated.
    “Good morning, gorgeous.” Davis was twenty or thirty feet away, closing in on me at a racer’s pace. “Coffee?”
    “Yeah, thanks.” Black. I had smelled it the moment he reached me.
    “I missed you at the coffee shop. I figured you’d be there. I skipped hotcakes in the dining hall for you.”