Read Online Foreplay: The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan - Free Book Online

nodded.
    “Let me guess. Dartford?” There were three universities in the area, but Dartford had the most prestigious reputation.
    “Yes.”
    “Thought so. You’ve got ‘Ivy’ written all over you.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “You look sweet and nice. Smart.” We were almost to my car when he added, “And you’re not a regular, but you’ve been here three nights in a row.” Not a question. Just a statement.
    Again, that he was aware of me made me go all warm and fuzzy inside. “My friend, Emerson, comes here a lot. You’ve probably seen her before. She’s hard to miss.” He neither confirmed nor denied this. “She invited me along. I don’t do the bar scene all that much.”
    “So you’ve decided to start living the college experience in full then. Is that it? Last night didn’t scare you off?”
    I frowned. “Oh, you mean that guy by the bathroom. Should I have let that scare me?”
    He didn’t say anything, and I thought back to his comment on Thursday night about nice girls getting eaten up in places like Mulvaney’s. “Oh. That’s right. Nice girls like me should stay home.”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    We stopped at my car.
    The low rumble of his voice continued. “Getting mauled outside the bathroom might have turned some girls off from coming back again the next night though.”
    “I’m not most girls.” He had no idea. I might look naïve and innocent, but my scars ran deep. It took a lot to spook me.
    I fumbled for my keys, the slow burn of my temper making my hands shake.
    “I might look like some nerd college girl and not one of the sexpots tripping through the bar every night, but—”
    His voice cut in smooth and deep, no hint of the temper I was feeling. “I didn’t say that, either.”
    “You’re thinking it.”
    “You’re right. You’re nothing like the other girls I see every night.”
    “Oh, that’s nice,” I muttered.
    My fingers closed around the hard steel of my keys. Unlocking the door and pulling it open, I looked up, ready to tell him off, but then I lost myself in those pale blue eyes until I wasn’t sure what I was mad about anymore. Those eyes made everything inside me go hot and weak all at once.
    “And that’s not a bad thing. Trust me.”
    Suddenly my knees felt all trembly, and I knew I needed to sit down.
    “Thanks for the walk.” I started to duck inside the car, but his voice stopped me.
    “Tell me something, Pepper.”
    It was the first time I’d heard my name on his lips.
    I nodded dumbly, the open door at my back. “How old are you really?”
    The question caught me off guard. “Nineteen.”
    He laughed, the sound loose and dark, curling through me like hot chocolate. “Thought so.” His well-carved lips quirked. “You’re just a kid.”
    “I am not a kid,” I protested. I haven’t been a kid since I spent my nights in motel bathrooms, listening to my mom getting bombed with random guys on the other side of the door. “How old are you?” I shot back.
    “Twenty-three.”
    “You’re not that much older than me,” I argued. “I’m not a kid.”
    He held up both hands as though warding me off. His half smile mocked me. “If you say so.”
    I made a growl of frustration. “Don’t do that.”
    “What?”
    “Condescend to me,” I snapped.
    One of his dark eyebrows winged high. “Uh-oh. I made you mad. College girl is pulling out the big vocabulary now.”
    How did this guy get girls to make out with him? He was a colossal jerk. I could blame it on his looks, but not all hot guys were jerks. Hunter wasn’t.
    “Prick,” I muttered as I turned to slide into my car. “Why don’t you go back to serving beer and stale peanuts?”
    His hand closed around my arm and pulled me back around. I looked down at his hand on my arm and then up to his face.
    “Hey,” he said flatly, all hint of a smile gone. My pulse skittered at my neck and I resisted the urge to press a hand there and steady the wild thrum of my blood. I