Needing to get some place where no one could see her, Serena ducked off the main footpath and walked quickly through the doors of a random building.
Straight into a guy’s broad chest.
“Whoa,” he said as his size and her speed nearly sent her toppling backward. He had to put his hands around her waist to keep her from falling. “Steady now, I’ve got you.”
His voice sizzled through her system a beat before his touch sent a rush of scorching heat through her…and she looked up, stunned, into Sean Morrison’s green eyes.
CHAPTER FIVE
He’d been smiling at her, but the moment he saw her face—and the fact that she’d obviously been about to lose it—his smile fell away. “Serena, what’s wrong? Did I hurt you?”
She shook her head, but before she could manage to get any words out, his hands were already moving over her. Not in a deliberately sexy way, but with concern.
“No,” she finally said, although given how his touch was making her feel, the word sounded like it had at least two syllables. “You didn’t hurt me.”
His hands finally stopped at her waist again, and he was still frowning at her. “But you’re upset.” His frown deepened as he asked, “Did another jerk bother you for a picture?”
“No.” Although in many ways, her professor seemed way worse than any of those guys who hadn’t even bothered to hide their dirty thoughts about her.
“Then what happened?”
“It’s nothing,” she said automatically.
“I doubt that,” he said softly, and from the way he was looking into her eyes, she knew he could see he was right.
Sisters, she reminded herself. He’d told her last week during his apology that he had sisters. She could guess that he’d probably spent plenty of time soothing them when they’d skinned their knees or had their feelings hurt.
Still…she didn’t know him, so it felt risky to trust him. Besides, how would it sound if she told him how much her professor creeped her out? Or how lonely she felt in her crowded dorm even though she was surrounded by a hundred other people? Or how she wished she could just be normal for one day of her life?
“Sorry about barreling into you like that.” She made herself step out of his arms. Arms that were, amazingly, just as comforting as they were arousing. “The dining hall will be closing soon and since I missed lunch I should get go—”
“Come grab some pizza with me.”
He didn’t reach for her again or try to keep her from fleeing, but his abrupt suggestion had the same effect. “You want to go get pizza with me?”
She could still see the concern in his eyes, but he was doing his best to mask it with a grin. “Have you eaten at Pizza My Heart on University yet?”
“No.” She hadn’t ventured too far off campus yet. Barely beyond the library, in fact.
“Then someone’s got to introduce you to the best pizza place on the West Coast.”
She’d made herself walk away from him so many times already. But right now, she just didn’t have it in her to do it again. “Okay. I’d like that.”
He reached for her bag and had it off her shoulder and onto his before she could think to protest. “I know why you looked so upset,” he said as he shifted her bag over his back.
She’d been walking beside him as they headed down from the path to Palm Drive and into downtown Palo Alto, but now she stopped cold. “How could you possibly know?”
His brows lowered as he stopped and faced her. “I was making a joke about how the load of bricks you’re carrying around in this bag is practically making me cry.” He reached out for her again, put his hand on her arm. “Serena, what the hell happened today?”
Sympathy was the worst thing of all, she realized, because it brought up all the emotions again. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Belatedly, realizing how cold her response must have sounded when he’d been nothing but awesome today, she added, “I mean, you’ve been so nice about it, but—”
“You don’t know me.”
She blinked up at him, surprised that he’d understood. Sisters, she thought again. Something told her he’d been a good brother to them.
“Given what I do—” She stopped to correct herself. “I mean, what I used to do—”
Ugh, she didn’t want to sound like a prima donna, or as if she thought she was such a big star that she couldn’t say anything to anyone for fear that it would end up in People magazine. But the problem was, sometimes it did. It was the same reason why she hadn’t really hung around her dorm room much since the frat party the week before. Of course Abi would want to know what had ended up happening with the guy Serena had been making out with. On the one hand, Serena desperately wanted a girlfriend to confide in. But on the other, what if it turned out that Abi wasn’t trustworthy?
“I get it,” Sean said easily as he walked beside her. “My brother Drew has a band that’s getting pretty big. He’s into it for the music, not the fame, but there doesn’t seem to be an easy way for him to escape the spotlight.”
“Wait a minute,” she said as she suddenly put two and two together, “Drew Morrison is your brother?” When he nodded, she said, “I love his music.”
“It’s pretty good,” Sean agreed with another heart-stoppingly gorgeous grin. “We’re all proud of him.”
From the way Sean talked about his brother, she could see that he really was. There was no jealousy over Drew being one of the biggest up-and-coming rock stars on the planet. Only good-natured ribbing from one sibling to another.
“You mentioned sisters before. How many of you are there?”
“Six.”
“Wow. I’ve always thought it would be cool to have siblings, but I always imagined one or two. Not growing up with five other people always around. Do you like having such a big family?”
“I do. Most of the time, anyway. Everyone’s got their weird quirks, but you learn pretty quickly how to avoid the rough spots...or use them to your advantage if you need to.”
She laughed, realizing with no little surprise just how easy he was to talk to. And to kiss, a little voice inside her head reminded her. But she shouldn’t be thinking about kissing Sean right now. Not when she was enjoying their conversation so much that it no longer seemed completely impossible that she might actually be making a friend.