Love and Learn (Voretti Family Book 2) (10 page)

The world around her slowed, going fuzzy around the edges, like she was watching him through a zoom lens. He looked like Prince Charming gazing at his princess on the last page of the fairytale. Like he’d slayed dragons and scaled mountains and crossed deserts, all to get to her. Like she was everything he’d ever wanted.
 

Like, this time, things would be different.

He spun her out, and the slight distance was enough to allow rational thought back into her brain.

You’re smarter than this, Annabelle. You remember what happened the last time you gave your heart to this man
.

But it was hard to concentrate on things that had happened seven long years ago when Ty pulled her close. When he leaned in to hear her over the music, like every single word that tripped out of her mouth was vitally important.
 

As they left the club, he held the door open for her. He drove her home, manning the steering wheel with his left hand, his right holding tight to hers, and she forgot this wasn’t a real date for minutes at a time.

Only a lesson
, she chanted inside her head.
Not a date
.

Ty squeezed her hand. He pulled into a guest space in front of her building.
 

She popped her seatbelt and leaped out of his truck before he could do something really upsetting, like open her door for her. The key was to say a quick goodnight and get inside. Once she had a locked door between herself and Ty, she’d start thinking rationally again.

“Thanks for everything,” she called. “I had a great time.”

Ty slid out of his seat. “Hold up. We’re not done yet.”

Keep walking, Annabelle. It doesn’t matter how sexy his voice is.

“I think that was a good lesson. I think we…you know. Accomplished a lot.”

“So much that you’re running away from me?”

She skidded to a halt inches from Ty’s chest. His side of the truck was closer to the stairs, and he’d cut her off. “Of course not. I need to get to bed, that’s all.”

“So I’m not making you nervous?” His gaze dropped to her mouth, like he was thinking about what he might do to it if he had her alone on a bed. And—crap—now
she
was thinking about it too. She was thinking about it so hard, her lips were tingling.
 

Focus, Annabelle.

“Of course not.” She pressed her lips together, trying to get rid of the tingles, but that drew Ty’s gaze right back where she didn’t want it. Or, maybe, where she wanted it too much. “I have an early morning tomorrow, that’s all. And you probably have…you know…classes and…” There was an end to that sentence, but for the life of her, she couldn’t remember it.

His lips turned up into a grin. “Why don’t you let me worry about my classes?”
 

He turned toward the stairs, and she took advantage, insinuating her way past him and sprinting to her door. Except, the darn thing was locked. She dug through her purse for her keys, keeping tabs on Ty’s slow progress up the stairs
 
out of the corner of her eye.
 

Wallet. Phone. Lipstick. Tampon. Where the heck were her keys?

She risked a glance down.
 

There
! Hiding under the mini first-aid kit.

She grabbed the ring and jammed the key into the lock, but the old piece-of-crap refused to turn.

Ty reached her side.

She tried wiggling the key, but that didn’t help.

Ty moved in.

Danger! Danger!

She sent out clear instructions to every single muscle in her body.
Do. Not. Respond.

She couldn’t let Ty kiss her goodnight while she was in this vulnerable state of mind. But her body didn’t seem to understand her brain’s direct order, because, slowly but inevitably, she felt herself turning toward him.

“Wait!” she shrieked.

“Shit!” He jumped away from the door. Which he’d opened.
 

He’d been helping her with the lock, not moving in for a kiss.
 

Obviously. After all, he’d been so unimpressed with her make out skills back in high school he’d left the country.

“I’m perfectly capable of opening the door,” she snapped.

“Sorry.” He backed away, hands in the air. “I meant for that to be…you know…chivalrous. Can we pretend I cooked you dinner instead of acting like you don’t know how to use a key?”

Her entire body heated with embarrassment. “No.
I’m
sorry. You were only trying to help. I’m just jumpy. I guess I thought you were going to…” She waited for him to fill in the incredibly obvious blank, but he stared at her, and the silence grew increasingly awkward.

“Steal your PEZ dispenser collection?” he tried. “Track mud on your carpet?”

“No.” Her hands flew in futile circles around her blazing cheeks. “Never mind.”

“Oh.” The wrinkle in his brow smoothed.

“Oh?” Her voice hit a note so high she’d never heard it before. “What does ‘oh’ mean?”
 

“Annabelle.” He leaned toward her.
 

Her heart beat full speed ahead, but her feet stumbled backward. She hit the cool stucco wall.

She didn’t want cool. She wanted more of Ty’s heat.

“I want to kiss you, sweetheart. Believe me.”
 

His hungry eyes broadcast exactly what he was thinking about doing to her, so strong and clear she could feel it. His fingers tunneling through her hair, positioning her exactly where he wanted her. His lips meeting hers, soft and slow, even as her heart pounded faster than it ever had.

He’d played it off like he was offering his tutoring services as a favor, but maybe it was more than that. Because it sure seemed like he wanted her.

And if that was true… If that was true, it changed everything. She wasn’t some loser getting a tutorial on the art of love because Ty felt sorry for her. She was a desirable woman who was about to be kissed.

Her lips tingled, anticipating the heat of him against her. The pressure. She wanted—

Ty stepped back, pulling in a deep breath. “But I’m not gonna get ahead of myself. That’s tomorrow’s lesson.”

“Tomorrow?” she asked, sluggish and stupid and full of frustrated desire.

“I’ll pick you up at seven.” His smile caught all the remaining light in the sky, dazzling her and short-circuiting her brain. And, before her rational thought process had come back online, he was gone.

T
HE
ENVELOPE
WAS
on Annabelle’s desk when she arrived at her “office”—a tiny, windowless cubicle on the fourth floor of the Evolutionary Biology building. It was plain white, perfectly generic aside from two words written in Ty’s neat print.
LESSON TWO
.

Her heart stuttered. She tore the envelope open with shaking fingers, and a single sheet fell out.

Lesson Two:

Purpose: Learn how to make out like a teenager.

Key Concepts: Have fun. Do what feels good. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

“There you are!”

Annabelle yelped at the sound of Calli’s voice. She stuffed the note in her pocket. “What are you doing here? I mean, hi. I mean…” She took a deep breath. “You startled me.”

“No kidding.” Calli set two fancy espresso frappes and a bakery bag onto the desk. She scanned Annabelle up and down, taking so long she might’ve been reading Ty’s note off Annabelle’s forehead.

Annabelle turned away, pretending to be very interested in the frappes. “Is one of these for me?”

“Of course.”

Annabelle took her time picking up the drink, but eventually she had to turn around. Calli was still staring at her, perfect brow wrinkled.

Annabelle adjusted the drink, so that it covered the bulge in her pocket. Calli didn’t know. She couldn’t possibly—
 

“I’m so sorry. I had too much to drink, but that’s no excuse. Please say you’ll forgive me.”

What the
what
?
 

“I have no idea what you did. But if you brought me a ham and cheese croissant, you have a clean slate.”

“I ditched you. Last night was supposed to be about finding you a rebound man, but I let you go home alone.”

I didn’t stay there for long.
 

Heat swept across Annabelle’s cheeks. She took a long, deep pull of her frappe to compensate. “I’m the one who wanted to leave.”

“Only because I’m the worst wing-woman in history.”

“That’s not true.” She should tell Calli what had happened with Ty, but she was afraid. Calli had heard her angsting about him way too many times to approve.
 

“But I think I found a way to make up for it.” Calli somehow wedged her tiny butt onto Annabelle’s desk without knocking anything over. “It turns out Edward is in town to talk to OneWorld Ventures about investing in some Anderan tech startups. He introduced me to one of the principle stakeholders last night, and—I’m telling you, Annabelle—this guy is perfect for you. And I don’t mean as a rebound.”

Annabelle couldn’t even think about a blind date. Not until she’d gotten through the next four nights with Ty.
 

Time to change the subject. “It sounds like your date went well.”

Calli beamed. “He was such a
gentleman
. We talked about everything. He’s the first guy who has ever been interested in my family. At the end of the night, he took me home in his limo and kissed my cheek. That was it—he didn’t even try to talk me into bed. And he called first thing this morning to ask me out to dinner.”

“He sounds…”
Too good to be true
, finished the cynical voice inside Annabelle’s head, but that was the same voice that told her she’d never get over her sexual hangups, and she was done listening to it. “He sounds perfect.”

“But we’re not talking about me. We’re talking about you, and what you want to eat tonight. I’m thinking double date. That way, if the two of you don’t click, there will be other people to talk to. But I think you’re really going to like this guy. He’s that smart, geeky cute type you like.”

Annabelle flashed onto Ty, all strapping muscles and confident grins, nothing geeky about him.
 

Geeky isn’t always my type.

“What?”

Crap
. Had she said that out loud? “Nothing. I appreciate this—I really do. But—”
 

“At least check out Jeff’s bio before you say no.” Calli opened the bakery bag. The buttery scent of fresh baked goods wafted out, but instead of handing Annabelle a ham and cheese croissant, Calli gave her a slightly greasy sheet of paper. The top showed the OneWorld Ventures logo, and under that was Jeff’s photo.
 

“He got his undergrad degree from UCSD, like you. He likes hiking. And he’s interested in directed evolution of enzymes. I’m not exactly sure what that is, but I think you tried to explain it to me once.”

Jeff’s headshot stared up at Annabelle; polished, urbane, and utterly unappealing.

Where was that sexy hint of stubble? The deep tan from hours outdoors? The glint in his eye that promised every minute together would be a new adventure?

“So?” Calli prompted. “Perfect, huh?”

“He looks very…stable.”

“Isn’t that what you want?”

“Of course.” She dropped into her chair and swiveled around like a little kid. “Only, not like that.”

“Come to dinner tonight. If you don’t like him, I won’t ever try to set you up again.”

She swiveled back around. The crumpled note in her pocket dug into her thigh with every microscopic shift of her weight, reminding her of the night ahead. “I can’t.”

“Of course you can. You put down your microscope and—”

“No. I mean, I kind of…you know…”

Calli stared at her blankly.

“I have plans.”

Calli’s brow wrinkled, like Annabelle’s simple, three-word sentence had been in Swahili. “What kind of…”
 

All at once, the wrinkles smoothed, and she beamed. “
Oh.
Why didn’t you
say
you had a date?”

“It’s not a date!”

“What is it, then?”

Annabelle tried to find the words to explain it—the magnetic pull of Ty’s grin; the hint that, maybe, she could get over her sexual hangups with him. She leaned close to Calli, lowering her voice to a whisper. “You know how I’ve had…problems being intimate with guys?”
 

She glanced at the cubicle partition. No one was visible over it, but it was anyone’s guess who might be lurking on the other side. She lowered her voice further. “Well, I found someone who’s…I guess you could say tutoring me. To try to get me over my hangups.”

Calli’s eyes went wide. “Who’s the guy? Where’d you meet him? And why am I only hearing about this now?”

Dear God
. Annabelle went for the bakery bag.

Calli snatched it before she could make contact. “Oh no. First you talk, then you eat.”

Annabelle pulled in a breath.
Do it fast. Rip off the bandage.
 

“It’s Ty, okay? Ty’s back in town.”

Calli stared at her, like she couldn’t possibly have heard right. “So, what you’re telling me is that you’re having an affair with the guy who broke your heart?”

“It’s not an
affair
. It’s more like…lessons.”

“They didn’t offer lessons like that when I was going to school.”

“I know you don’t approve.
I
don’t approve. But Ty is the only guy I’ve ever been able to be intimate with without freaking out. If there’s a chance he can help me, I have to try. But I’m going in with my eyes open. This is going to be purely physical. I’m not going to fall for him again.”

“There’s no such thing as a purely physical relationship.”

“It’s not a
relationship
. It’s—”

“I know. I know. Sex lessons.”

Just hearing Calli say those two words made Annabelle want to curl up in a little ball and hide under her desk, but she forced herself to brazen it out. “Exactly.”

“You think that’s going to protect you? Honey, I
know
you. You’re not going to be able to let yourself go with a guy unless there’s a strong emotional connection. And what about him? Why is he doing this if he doesn’t have feelings for you?”