“Kind of.” Aislin grabs a small paper from her purse, places it on the desk in front of her and runs her hands along it to smooth out the wrinkles. “The office people were kind of jerks.”
He looks over his shoulder as he tips back the chair and the two front legs disconnect from the floor. He arches his eyebrows at me, probably because I’m staring at him with my mouth hanging agape. There’s probably even some drool on my chin.
I discretely wipe my chin with the sleeve of my jacket, relaxing when it feels dry.
Aislin revolves around in her seat and beams a grin at me. “Gemma, this is my brother Alex.”
I extend my hand out to him, wondering what it’s going to feel like to touch him and if it will strike up the spark again. “It’s nice to meet you.”
His eyebrows furrow as his gaze cuts to my hand and then back to my face. He lowers the chair legs back to the ground and shrugs me off as he faces his sister. “So how much unpacking do you have left?”
My fingers grip around the pen until my knuckles turn white and it takes every ounce of energy not to stab him in the back of the neck. Thankfully, Professor Sterling enters the classroom and begins his lecture on sky charting. The interruption calms me down.
I jot down a few notes, but my concentration keeps straying to Alex. He is leaning back in his chair with his arms tucked behind his head and his eyes are half open. His shirt is riding up and his rock hard abs are peeking out. I rest my chin in my hand and focus on the lines of his muscles, his luscious lips, his firm jawline. Every now and again, he bites down on his bottom lip and I picture myself sucking it into my mouth, biting down on it and then sucking it into my mouth again. I imagine my hands touching every inch of his body, feeling how hard he is.
I’m thoroughly enjoying how hot the mental picture makes my body feel when he unexpectedly tilts his head toward me. Our gazes collide and a fire crackles inside me, flaming passionately; full of a need I can’t quite grasp. Then he glares and the fire goes poof, fizzles, and I feel put out; extinguished to nothing more than a thin trail of smoke. He quickly looks away and everything goes back to normal.
As class continues, the silence of the electricity is maddening. In a twisted way, I want to feel it because it feels good, but does it really exist? Just as the thought crosses my mind that maybe I have imagined it, a sharp spark nips at my lips. It is gentle at first, barely a tingle, but it grows stronger as it streams down my neck and my skin, causing a vibration deep inside me. I flex my hands and cross my legs trying to suffocate the tingling between my thighs.
Alex’s jaw is taut as he stares ahead at the front of the classroom where Professor Sterling is yammering about something that is probably important, but all I can concentrate on is the untamed desire I feel. I want to do things to him, like jump over the desk and peel his clothes off.
Alex jerks his fingers through his hair and cocks his head to the side to capture my eye. His expression is a mixture of emotions: fear, anger, longing; they mirror my own perfectly. It’s becoming harder than hell to keep my hands to myself. I finally have to tuck them between my legs before I end up reaching out and touching him.
Seconds later, Alex breaks our gaze and redirects his attention to the front of the classroom, clicking his pen over and over again through the rest of the lecture.
At the end of class, Professor Sterling assigns everyone to a group to work on a project and my group gets assigned to create a presentation about Gamma-ray bursts. I hate when he does this. I thought after high school that it’d be over, but there are always a few Professors who think it’s beneficial to aid each other in projects. Worst of all, he pairs me with Alex and Aislin, which has to be fate slapping me across the face. Hopefully, I can keep my Goddamn hands to myself, but at the moment the idea doesn’t seem plausible.
I gather my stuff and put my books into my bag before swinging it over my shoulder. Trying not to look at Alex, I start down the stairs, but his shoulder rams into me as he exits the aisle. I trip sideways, slamming my hip into one of the corners of a desk. Something inside my skull pops and images deluge my brain like little pieces of glass.
Alex and I are in front of a glistening lake, crisp with blue ice and encircled by frosted trees. Death is in the air and the sky is opaque and ominous. Snowflakes twirl around us and the temperature is well below freezing.
“It will be alright,” Alex whispers to me, his breath clouding out in front of him. His lips are purple from the cold and there are dark circles under his green eyes. Shavings of ice have formed on his eyelashes and drops of snow stick to his hair. “I won’t let anything happen to you. I promise I’ll save you no matter what.”
Tipping my chin up, I grip onto his strong arms, like it’s the last time I’ll see him. “But what about you? Who will save you?”
He sweeps my hair out of my face and kisses me with so much passion it nearly melts the snow. He sucks on my tongue, his hands straying around to my backside as he pulls my body against his. They linger there momentarily before he draws back. “As long as you’re okay, I’ll be fine.”
“But Alex,” I start to protest, but a large group of hooded figures charge from the forest and my words are sucked away by the wind.
The beat of their march shakes the world as they head for us. Ice topples from the trees and hits the ground. Alex pulls me against him as flames blaze through my body and then all I see is light.
I blink back to the Astronomy classroom right as my legs give out and I fall toward the floor, but Alex’s arm encircles my waist and he catches me before I hit. I freeze, stunned, feeling the heat and the intensity caressing my skin, causing more confusion.
Well, what the hell was that? A dream? In the middle of the day? Awake?
“I do know you,” I say as I stare up at him and this time it isn’t a question.
His hands tighten around the small of my back and for a moment he holds me, frozen, as people pass by, heading down the stairs and looking at us like we’re crazy. He’s breathing fiercely, his chest rising and falling, as he stares at me with confliction in his eyes; his pupils round and large, and his lips are parted.
Foggy images fill my head. “I think I…”
“Alex,” Aislin’s voice rises over the moment. “We need to get to our next class.”
He blinks and then wrenches his hands away from my back, giving me very little time to get my footing. He glares at me, his eyes pooled with hatred, but I’m not sure it’s directed at me. Then he trots down the stairs with his sister at his side.
I watch him leave, very aware that he never denied that I know him.
Chapter 3
I’m pretty sure I'm suffering from delusions; that my stability has snapped like a broken rubber band, and my ability to grasp reality is gone. I’ve been really into psychology lately, doing a lot of research about it for class and for personal interest. It’s an interesting thing, the human mind. There are so many different mental illnesses that can control a person, make them think a certain way, do specific things, see things that aren’t real. Schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and delirium are just a few and, in some cases, there is very little the person can do about it. I wonder if any of those apply to me.
I’m sitting on a bench out in the cold with a scarf wrapped around my neck, fingerless gloves on and a hot cup of coffee in my hands. I’ve called Sophia six times in the last two days and left her three voicemails. In each one I beg her to tell me about my parents. Please. Pretty please. I deserve it. However, each call is unanswered and the silence is more infuriating than the cold-hearted refusal she usually gives me.
The campus is busy for how early it is, lots of people going to and from class. As I try to analyze what is going on in each passerby’s head, I notice a person lurking near the alleyway between the main office and the building next to it. He… she… it seems to be watching me. There are shadows obscuring its identity, but it looks unnaturally disproportioned and misshapen. There’s also some kind of greyish smoke lacing out of its mouth and a hood blocks its eyes, but I swear there is a faint glimmer of yellow radiating from them. As the realization of what it could be strikes me across the face, I feel a spark flare inside me.
“Do you always sit outside in the cold and freeze your ass off?” The sound and feeling of Alex’s presence encases my body.
I peer up at him. “Umm…” My gaze darts back to the alley, but the figure is gone. Again, I question my sanity. I tip my chin up, angling my neck to look up at Alex. “What did you say?”
He stares down at me with an annoyed look on his face, but there is also a trace of discomfort in the way he stands; like he’s trying to relax, but can’t quite get there. His hair is tucked under the hood of a heavy coat, black boots cover his feet and there is a tiny tear on the knee of his jeans.
He glances over his shoulder where I thought I’d seen the figure, and then levels his gaze back on me. “Isn’t it a little bit cold to be sitting out here?”
“It’s not that cold,” I lie and take a sip of my coffee, basking in the heat of the hot liquid as it spills down my throat.
He cocks an eyebrow at me and there is doubt in his eyes. “It’s not that cold, huh? Then, why are your lips purple?”
I touch my numb finger to my even number lips. “I was actually working on an assignment for sociology.” Another lie.
He looks around at the snowy campus yard and heavy traffic by the stairs. His forehead creases as he looks back at me and tucks his bottom lip up between his teeth, biting on it. “I have a question.”
I fold my hands on my lap. “Okay….”
He peeks over his shoulder again and then vigilantly lowers himself beside me on the bench. “You said you thought you knew me? Why?”
I scroll over his green eyes, his full lips, and his knee that is only inches away from mine. It’s unnerving, yet, comforting, which makes absolutely no sense. Half of me is attracted to him, like metal to a magnet, while the other half is repelled by him, like oil and water. “There’s just something about how you look that seems familiar.” My third lie in the last minute. I’m on a roll.