“I’m here so much that they don’t check my backpack too carefully when I come in.”
He sat on the edge of the work table and stared down at her, his expression unreadable. “I know I’m always asking you this, but are you sure this is what you want to do tonight?”
It would have been easier to shake her head, to laugh it off and tell him the contents of her bag were a joke. But what could be more normal for a college student than getting drunk on a Friday night?
So instead of backing down, or apologizing for following her instincts, she told him, “I’ve never been drunk before. And according to my roommate and every college movie I’ve ever seen, it’s an important—and very normal—rite of passage for a freshman. The thing is...there’s no one I’d trust with it but you. Especially since I have no idea how I deal with drinking—” She almost held the rest in before deciding to spit it out. “—and I hate always feeling like I’m a dozen steps behind everyone else.”
“You’ve had experiences, and know how to do things, that ninety-nine percent of people on this campus will never know. Will never deal with. Will never achieve. Getting drunk is nothing special—take it from a guy who knows firsthand. But I get that you want to know that for yourself.” He took her face in his hands and gently stroked her cheekbones. “And you’d better believe that I don’t want you drinking with anyone but me.”
She’d missed his lips on hers all week long, and it was with such relief—and pleasure—that she pressed her mouth to his. Just like always, their kiss quickly spiraled from soft and sweet to desperate and wild.
Finally, he tore his mouth from hers. “So, where are you thinking about getting me drunk?”
He was teasing her, but she’d be lying if she didn’t admit that the thought had occurred to her that perhaps Sean might be a little less careful with her under the influence. It wasn’t that she didn’t love how concerned he was that every step they took should be the right one for her…but at the same time a part of her wondered what it would be like if they both just threw caution to the wind.
“Abi mentioned a path up at the Dish that’s off the regular trail.” Her roommate had said the park in the foothills at the edge of campus where students and faculty went to exercise would be perfect for the two of them to find a private spot. “I thought we could kill two normal birds with one stone tonight, since I’ve never hiked the Dish either.”
“Your roommate knows about your plan?”
“She’s the one who got the bottle for me. She’s been really awesome about keeping everything I tell her private, actually.” And she thinks you’re in love with me. The thought flustered Serena so that she started saying, “If you think there’s a better spot, we could go somewhere else. Or we could just forget about the whole thing, since I know it’s a crazy idea, and there are probably lots of other normal things we could do together.”
“The Dish is perfect.” He stood up and held out his hand. “Shall we?”
Loving the way he said it, as if they were going out for an elegant night of dinner and dancing rather than hiking up to a secluded spot on the top of a hill to pound shots, she answered him with a kiss.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Serena had to stop halfway up the hill to lean over with her hands on her thighs and suck in large gasps of oxygen. “Abi forgot to mention,” she said around her panting, “how steep this path is.”
“Why do you think it’s such a secluded spot?” Sean teased.
Despite the fact that the climb was practically vertical, he wasn’t even breathing hard. She knew from looking at him—and having touched his rock-hard, rippling chest and abs—that he was in great shape, but shouldn’t he at least be sweating? So much for any plans she might have had for seducing him. Who in their right mind would want to get sexy with her when she was like this?
“You knew how hard this was going to be, didn’t you?”
He surprised her by lifting her into a standing position and dragging her damp body against his. Before she could protest, he licked her neck just below her earlobe. “Mmm, you taste a little salty.” When she went to pull away, he kept her against him. “I like it.” As if to prove it, he ran his tongue across the other side of her neck, making her shiver despite how warm the hike had gotten her. “A lot.”
“I can’t believe you even want to touch me when I’m all wet like this.”
His eyes darkened as he looked down at her. “Promise me you won’t talk about being all wet again once we start drinking,” he said in a low voice that only intensified her shivers. “Because if you do...”
It was, she realized, a sign of just how incredibly safe she felt with him that she found herself wanting to do just that. To talk about being all wet again, but to mean something else entirely...and then to finally find out what he was going to do about it.
“I’ve got my breath back now,” she told him, even though being in his arms had made her lose it all over again. “Let’s keep going up to the top.”
She was already heading up the path when he called out, “You didn’t promise.”
Feeling light and flirty and fabulous for the first time in her life, she threw him a deliberately sensual look over her shoulder. “I know.”
* * *
Sitting on the blanket she’d brought, he let her do it all—unscrew the top of the tequila bottle, put out the salt shaker between them, pour the shots, cut up the lime—and she knew why. Yet again, he didn’t want her to feel that he was forcing her to do anything. He wanted to be sure that everything she was doing was her decision.
But while she hadn’t changed her mind about her plans for tonight, and the tequila thankfully smelled better than she’d expected it to, that didn’t mean she felt all that confident about how to actually drink it.
“I looked up several ways to do the shots on the Internet,” she admitted. “But I’m sure you have some favorites.”
He reached out and brushed his thumb across her lower lip. “I do.” His gorgeous mouth tipped up into a smile. “But I’ll need you to come closer so that I can show you what they are.”
Every inch of her wanted every inch of him already. It had been that way from the first moment he’d held her in his arms at the frat party, but now that she knew how amazing he was...well, she was barely a heartbeat from shoving aside all the drinking paraphernalia and tackling him.