His Fair Lady (9 page)

Gross
. Mark wrinkled his nose as his appetite shriveled and disappeared. Grabbing a tray, he made a beeline for the salad bar. After all, there wasn’t much they could do to lettuce and raw veggies. He hoped.

Mark dumped a pile of raw spinach on his plate when something made him look up and he saw her, or more to the point, he saw her hair. It tumbled loose down her back, strands of silk in every color of the autumn sunset. No, there was no mistaking that hair for anyone else’s.

Mark abandoned his tray where it was and crossed to the checkout line, coming up behind Josie just as the cashier handed back her meal card.

Mark waited.

Josie lifted her tray, turned, and saw him.

“Hey,” Mark said, giving her his best smile. “I’ve been trying to catch up with you for days.”

“I just saw you night before last, so it’s not that long.” Josie returned his smile and hefted her tray.

“Here, let me carry that for you.” Without waiting for her agreement, Mark took the tray.

“Let’s sit over there.” She pointed.

He walked with her to a small table by the window, set down her tray, then pulled out a chair with his foot. “Your chair, m’lady.”

“You’re such a goof!” She laughed.

He loved the sound of her laugh, low and throaty and sexy. God, he’d pay money to hear that laugh.

Mark swept a dramatic bow before sliding into the chair across from her.

“Where’s your food?” Josie asked. She picked up her napkin and flicked it on her lap.

“Well.” Mark blew out a long-suffering sigh. “There I was at the salad bar, minding my own business and digging for some unwilted spinach. When lo, what to my wondering eyes should appear but a lady of such stunning beauty that I forgot myself and—”

“Oh God, you are so full of it!” But she was laughing, and he saw that the compliment had pleased her.

“Okay, okay. But I did get distracted when I saw you. And you do look great today.”

“Flatterer. Here, eat half of this. I wasn’t going to eat it all anyway.” She separated the halves of the wrap on her plate and pushed the tray across the table until it sat equal distance between them.

“What is it?”

Josie bit into her half of the sandwich. “Mmm, it’s hummus, feta, spinach, cucumbers, roasted peppers, and olives on a spinach wrap. It’s yummy. Try it.”

Mark eyed it suspiciously. He picked it up and sniffed. It smelled okay. He took a cautious bite, chewed, and swallowed.

“See? Isn’t it good?”

Mark nodded. “It would be really good on a burger.”

Josie laughed, and Mark felt his heart lift. Part of him, a very small part he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge, had been afraid, after what happened the other night in Josie’s kitchen, she might have been avoiding him. But it seemed those fears had been unfounded.

So why had she ignored his texts and his calls? He had called her twice, an anomaly for him, since usually the girls called him. He hadn’t left a message either time, mostly because he didn’t know what he wanted to say, only that he’d wanted to hear her voice and her laugh and know that what they’d done hadn’t screwed everything all to hell and back.

They ate in companionable silence. Mark had to admit, even if only to himself, the spinach-hummus-feta-wrap thing was pretty tasty. In fact he could have eaten a whole one.

Josie polished off the last bite of her half and wiped her mouth with her napkin. Leaning forward, she sipped from the straw sticking out of her Pepsi.

“So, Mark, why have you been calling me? And texting me? And stalking me in the cafeteria? If I didn’t know better, I’d say—”

“I wasn’t stalking you in here. It was total accident that I came in while you were getting ready to eat.” Mark gathered the trash from their lunch and piled it on the tray, mostly to have something to do with his hands.

“Hmm, okay then, why did you text me like four times today?”

Mark felt heat rise to his cheeks. It was a novel feeling. Girls didn’t usually call him on the carpet like this.

“I wanted to talk to you, but I don’t want to talk here. Let’s go somewhere else where there aren’t so many ears.”

Josie’s brows lifted. “Uh-oh. What did I do?”

“Nothing. But I don’t want to talk here.”

“Talleo!”

Both Josie and Mark looked up.

Masterson lumbered up to their table carrying a tray laden with food. He plunked it down, nudging Josie’s mostly empty tray aside in the process. Sticking out one booted foot, he hooked an empty chair from a nearby table, dragged it over, and plopped into it.

“Where’s your key, dude?” Masterson picked up one of three burgers on his tray and took a monster bite.

“Hey, Dave, nice to see you too. No, please don’t be shy. Come join us. This is Josie. Joes, this is my asshole roommate, Dave Masterson. He mostly always acts like this, so don’t take it personally.”

Masterson put down his burger and turned to Josie. “Hey, you’re in my astronomy class with Dr. Bitner.”

Josie nodded. “Yeah, I’ve seen you.”

“You always sit with that blond kid.”

“Kyle. He’s my roommate.”

“Oh really?” Masterson waggled his eyebrows and grinned. “Does Talleo know that?”

Josie laughed. “Kyle would be more interested in checking you out than he would be in checking me out.”

“Really?” Masterson picked up the remainder of his burger and wolfed it down.

“Yeah, he’s a huge fan of the Leopards. Goes to every home game. I think he’s planning on trying out for mascot next year.”

“Huh, cool.”

“In fact, I’m going to tell him I ate lunch with you. He’ll be totally jealous. What was your first name again?”

“It’s Dave. But you can just call me St. Dave. They’re going to canonize me for putting up with this douche bag for the past two years.” He flicked a glance in Mark’s direction.

Uh-oh. Masterson was flirting with Josie. Alarm bells began to ring in Mark’s head. If he didn’t get her out of there, and right now, she would fall under the spell of “The Masturbator”!

Mark got to his feet. “Har, har. Guess you don’t need my key after all.”

“C’mon, dude. I was just entertaining your lady friend with my sparkling wit.”

“Yeah, right. Brooooom! Brooom!” Mark pulled the room key from his ring and dropped it on Masterson’s tray. “And make sure you don’t lock the door when you leave either.”

Moments later, Mark pushed open the door to the cafeteria and motioned for Josie to go ahead.

“What was that?” she asked.

“What was what?”

“That brooom, brooom sound you just made back at the table.”

“Oh that. It’s just a little inside joke between me and Masterson.”

“What kind of inside joke?”

“Well…”

It was hard to explain, and he wasn’t all that sure he even wanted to try.

“If you don’t want to tell me—”

“No, I’m just— It’s kind of weird is all. See, Masterson’s dad has this expression about cutting somebody else’s grass. It means trying to score with somebody else’s girl, or guy as the case may be. So whenever one of us sees somebody doing that, we make a sound like a lawn mower like, hey, dude, quit cutting my grass. I told you it was weird.”

“It’s not. I mean, yeah it is, but it’s funny too.” She laughed, then hugged herself.

“Are you cold?”

“A little. The wind’s chilly.”

As if it heard her, a damp wind blew in their faces. It was one of those winds everyone in Pennsylvania knew well for the thief it was. One minute spring was popping up all over the place, then the next one of these wet wintry winds was slapping your face and tugging at the jacket that seemed perfectly adequate just that morning.

Mark laughed, wrapped an arm around Josie’s shoulders, and tugged her in close. “C’mere, I’ll warm you up.”

She snuggled in under his arm and pressed her cheek against his shoulder. “So, does that mean I am like your grass?”

“I guess it does, yeah. Why, don’t you want to be my grass?”

Josie said nothing.

Mark felt a frisson of nerves. What did her silence mean? “Joes?”

“Hmmm?” Wrapping an arm around his waist, she tucked her hand in his jacket pocket. “Now, where are we going? I’m freezing.”

“To the library. Is that okay?” Without waiting for an answer, Mark steered her along the brick path that would take them to the library’s imposing stone entrance.

She kept up with him stride for stride, the wind whipping her hair around her head and howling so loud conversation was all but impossible.

When they got there, Mark tugged Josie up the two sets of curving stone stairs and under the portico, where they were slightly sheltered from the wind.

“We can’t talk in here. It’s the library.” Josie dragged her hair out of her face, gathered it in one hand, and held it.

“Sure we can. I’ll get one of the study cubes.”

But rather than reach for the door, Mark caught Josie around the waist and pulled her close. He had just enough time to see her eyes widen in surprise before he captured her mouth with his.

God, her lips were warm and soft and so, so sweet. He plunged headlong into the kiss, losing himself in the smell and taste and feel of her. He fisted his hands in all that thick slippery silky hair.

For the briefest moment, she remained stiff in his arms, uncertain or unwilling, ; it was hard to tell.

Please, Mark thought. Please. Then gave voice to his plea. “Josie, please kiss me back.”

She made a sound, a quiet moan, then her limbs softened, her body went pliant, and her lips parted, letting him in.

Who knew how long they might have stayed that way—minutes, hours, days—but a long loud wolf whistle split the air.

“Get a room,” somebody yelled. Laughter and a smattering of applause followed.

Mark released Josie, and they ducked inside the library, the heat blasting them in the face as soon as Mark opened the door.

As he turned toward the desk, Josie caught his arm. “I have a class in a half hour, so don’t be long and don’t get the room for longer than that.”

Mark felt a sudden sinking around his heart he recognized as disappointment, but pushed it away. It wasn’t like Josie was going to let him in her pants in the study room if she wouldn’t let him in the privacy of her own apartment. And besides, they weren’t going there to make out. They were going there to talk about the other night. He was not going to put a move on her. Now if she put one on him…

Mark unlocked the study room and held the door open for Josie. She walked in ahead of him and dropped her backpack on the table before slipping out of her jacket and hanging it over the back of a chair.

She looked around. “I think this is the same room I was in earlier with Vi.”

“Vi? What were you doing in here with Vi?”

She smiled, and her eyes twinkled with mischief. “Talking about you, of course.”

Heh heh. That was so not funny.

“Yeah right. For real, what were you doing here with Vi? Running lines?”

Josie nodded. “For our Acting Shakespeare class. I told you about it, the scene from
Othello?
We had to practice.”

“Oh.” Mark felt relief like warm water flowing through him. “How’d it go?”

“Fine, except I have to learn the stupid Willow Song, or I’m total toast.”

“The one Desdemona sings? Vi knows that song. I saw her do it in
Othello
the summer before last. She could probably teach it to you in like five minutes.”

“Yeah, but she wasn’t in a sharing mood, I guess. She told me there’s a movie version of
Othello
where the actress sings the song, but she claimed she couldn’t remember what version it was. So now all I have to do is find the right movie, and I’m set.”

Bitch, Mark thought but didn’t say. Why the fuck wouldn’t Vi help Josie with that one little piece of information? He knew damn well she remembered the movie. That chick never forgot anything.

“I’ll help you find it,” Mark said.

“Yeah? That would be great.” Josie had her hair bunched in one hand and was sliding it through her fingers. It was a thing she did when she was nervous.

Mark took Josie’s hands and soothed them apart. “We’ll go look through the catalog in the film department. Or we can ask Dr. Hathaway. I think he knows every movie ever made.”

“That’s a great idea. I wish I had thought of it.” Josie twined her fingers with Mark’s and squeezed.

Mark squeezed back. “Joes, I want to talk about the other night, about what happened.”

Josie went very still, her hand going lax in his. “What about it?”

But she wouldn’t look at him. Instead she was focused somewhere over his right shoulder.

He had no idea how to continue, only that they should clear some things up, but not what those things might be. He knew he’d felt like shit after leaving her apartment, and he was pretty sure she too had felt rotten after what could have been a seriously hot make-out and jerk-off session. Because Josie had known what she was doing. Holy shit! It was phenomenal.

“It was amazing. You were amazing,” Mark said, then paused, gathering his courage. “But why’d you kick me out afterward?”

Even as he asked the question, he knew it was ridiculous. Hadn’t he been the one who said he had an early class, though he had only said so because he’d known she was on the verge of inviting him to leave?

Inviting him to leave? Ha. More like kicked him out. So she’d kicked him out, so what? He should just treat it like a hookup and be grateful she wasn’t the clingy type who demanded he call her afterward. The bitch of it was, he was the one who felt dissed.

He saw the color flood her cheeks. Quickly she tilted her head, and her hair fell forward and curtained her face. She mumbled something he didn’t catch.

“What? I didn’t hear you. And don’t hide behind your hair.” With one hand, he pushed her hair back. With the other, he tipped her chin up so he could look into her eyes.

She averted her gaze. “I told you I had an early class.”

“Yeah, you did. But…”

Damn it. He didn’t know how to ask the question or even for sure what that question was. He knew only that they had done something in her apartment that should have brought them closer and instead had widened the gulf between them, making her even more inaccessible than before. But all that felt like too much to say, like it would make him seem too needy, as if he were the clingy one.