He was smiling at her, but his pale blue eyes didn't seem nearly as friendly as his smile should have suggested. Predatory. That was how it felt. As if he was imagining her without her clothes on...
"You're a bright young woman, Serena."
Trying not to betray her nerves, she said, "Thank you. I'm very passionate about literature."
"Passionate," he repeated in a low voice.
The word hung between them, and she inwardly cursed herself for saying exactly the wrong thing. For all she knew, he'd think she was trying to lead him on.
"What I mean," she said, fumbling over her words now, "is that I really enjoy reading. Everything from classics to genre fiction to literary novels."
"When I first received the class list and saw your name on the roster, I'll admit I had my doubts. But your analysis is spot-on, your use of language is far beyond your years, and you have a knack for explaining your reasoning in a way that often helps the others better understand the material."
Again, she thanked him, but where pleasure at his compliment should have been was only wariness about what he might be leading up to.
"As this is the first year I've taught such a select group of students, I have come to realize that I should make some changes, and quickly, so that everyone will get the most out of the course. How would you like to be my teaching assistant for the quarter?"
"I thought teaching assistants have already taken the classes they're helping with?"
"Actually, it's far better that you haven't yet taken my class. What I'm proposing is that you and I work together a week or two ahead of the rest of the class. I will run my weekly plans by you and then you can let me know where I need to clarify or highlight certain aspects of my lectures and assignments."
She should have jumped at the opportunity. It was all of her dreams come true to work with an academic of Julian Fairworth's stature. But...he made her so uncomfortable.
Rationally, though, Serena knew that every guy in the world didn't want to get in her pants, no matter how much her mother had raised her to believe that they did. And she'd be crazy to give up this opportunity when she needed his recommendation to the admissions department so that they would make her a permanent student after this quarter.
"I'd love to help you out in any way that I can."
He returned her smile with another one of his own that she couldn't quite bring herself to buy into, even though she wanted to. "Wonderful. I will email you several things tonight and if you're able to get through them quickly, we could meet Monday afternoon a couple of hours before class begins."
"Okay," she said, belatedly adding, "Great!" just in case it sounded like she wasn't as excited as she should be about helping him. And, really, with all the windows in this room looking out on the main Quad, it would be pretty difficult for him to actually try anything inappropriate with her. No doubt, she was worrying for nothing, letting her mother's endless and crazy warnings poison her.
"I'm so pleased you're amenable to my plan, Serena. I know we're both going to get a great deal out of it. As there is another class in this room before ours, I'd like for you to come to my office for our meetings. In any case, given that all of my materials are already there, it makes the most sense to meet there."
He hadn't said or done anything inappropriate. Despite that, she could still barely stop a shiver at the thought of being alone with him in his office next Monday.
"Sure," she made herself say, "that will work."
Serena was just reaching for her bag to sling it over her shoulder when he held out his hand to shake on the deal. She willed hers not to tremble as she put it in his, but when he closed his fingers around hers and somehow managed to tug her closer, she froze as renewed panic skittered up her spine. Unlike what she'd imagined most English professors would look like, he was fairly tall and muscular. And all she could think in the few moments that he held on to her hand was that if he wanted to overpower her, he could easily do it. Very easily.
During the course of her modeling career, she'd been in many high-pressure situations. But standing here alone with her professor on campus felt more stressful than all of them combined. Her mother's hovering had often frustrated Serena--but at least Genevieve Britten knew precisely how to scare men away from her daughter.
No longer able to pretend to be comfortable, she said, "I need to get going." She slipped her hand out of his and quickly grabbed her bag to hold it between them like a shield. "The dining hall closes soon and I've got to get all the way across campus before it does. I'll look for your email and see you on Monday in your office. Thanks, 'bye."
She didn't manage a full breath until she'd made it down the long pathway to the corner of the Quad and onto the bike-and footpath between the buildings.
What had she just gotten herself into?
Because no matter how much she tried to tell herself that she was making something out of nothing--would Professor Fairworth really jeopardize his career at one of the most prestigious universities in the world just to try to get into her pants?--she couldn't stop freaking out about it. Especially now that their private Monday meeting in his office was looming over her like a dark shadow.
When she blinked, she could feel wetness on her lashes and was afraid she was going to start full-on crying any second now. But she couldn't. Not here in the middle of campus, not when she'd seen so many students take pictures of her on their phones during the past few weeks and there was a good chance someone might catch this moment on film, too.
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.
A really hot friend.
"I'd love to hear about the rest of them."
"Grant is twenty-five, and never lets any of us forget he's the oldest. His office is actually not far from where we're having pizza, near a bunch of other high-tech companies."
"That must be nice that he's still in the area."
"It is, though we haven't seen much of him since he founded Collide."
"He started Collide? The social networking company with the tagline When Worlds Collide?"
"Yup, that's Grant's company."
She knew she was sounding like a dork, first with how she'd goggled over his rock-star brother, and now how stunned she was to learn that Sean's oldest brother had founded one of the fastest-rising social networking companies in the world.
"That's amazing."
"It is. But," he said with another grin, "if you tell him I said that, he'd probably have shirts printed up with the word amazing and his face on them. So let's just keep that between us, okay?"
Since she seriously doubted she'd ever get the chance to meet Grant Morrison, she wasn't particularly worried about breaking Sean's confidence.
"Drew is the next oldest, and then my sister Olivia. She's a senior here, majoring in Education."
"Are you all geniuses?"
"Olivia definitely is," he said with a fondness that told Serena just how much he admired his older sister. "Although my brother Justin's brains pretty much put all of us in the dust. He's also on campus, doing a double major in Biology and Robotic Engineering. He got all the brains in our twin cave, but I'm okay with that."
"Twins?" Her mind reeled trying to imagine a second guy who looked as good as Sean walking around campus. No doubt just seeing them together in one place would make a girl's brain melt out her ears. "Are you two close the way they say twins are?"
"Yup, we get along pretty well, probably because we're so different and rarely compete for the same stuff. Although, he's one hell of a baseball player."
In the week since she'd met--and kissed--Sean at the frat party, Serena had learned that Sean was a junior and the star first baseman and hitter on the Stanford baseball team. Funny, she thought as they crossed at a traffic light, he spoke so easily about his family but hadn't yet mentioned anything about his own achievements. Wouldn't most guys have bragged about themselves by now?
"Does Justin also play on the Stanford team?"
Sean raised an eyebrow at her also, as if to say, So you do know something about me, huh?
She blushed in confirmation as he told her, "Nope. He'd rather spend hours geeking out in a lab than standing in the outfield waiting for someone to hit a fly ball in his direction."
"Do you guys have that twin sense you hear about in movies? You know, where one of you cuts himself and the other feels it?"
Sean laughed. "No, thank God. Although, sometimes I do feel like I can read his mind. Especially when it comes to this girl, Taylor, that he's been friends with forever and is secretly in love with. He's so frustrated, it's sad."
"If he's in love with her, why doesn't he let her know how he feels?" She was surprised to find herself asking such a personal question, but Sean made it so easy. "Is it because he's afraid to ruin their friendship just in case it doesn't work out?"
"Maybe. Or maybe she's made it clear that she's just not interested."
"Do you think she's not interested?"
He thought about it for a second. "Taylor is a cute girl, but all up in her head like Justin. She's pretty nervous around guys." He shrugged again. "Heck, who knows if she's even been on a date before."
Serena tucked her head down just in case Sean might guess from just looking at her reaction that she'd never been on a date before, either. Maybe she'd have to go look this Taylor up and the two of them could bond over their utter cluelessness around men.
Especially the Morrison twins.
"And then there's my sister, Maddie. She's still in high school, graduating this year." He shook his head. "She's a little spitfire. Not to mention too smart, too talented, and too pretty for her own good. We all try to watch out for her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble, but it's hard now that we're not at home with her anymore."
Sean opened the door to the small pizza place and they stepped into what had to be the best smelling restaurant on the planet. "What do you like on your pizza?"
Pizz
a was one of the many menu items at the top of her mother's Do Not Ever Eat list. But, what the heck? If Serena was going to eat pizza, she might as well do it right. "Everything."
He looked momentarily surprised and then pleased as he said, "Two slices with everything. And two Cokes."
The restaurant was small, with only a handful of scratched-up Formica tables. A couple of minutes later when they were sitting down with the biggest pieces of pizza she could have imagined in front of them, she said, "Your brothers and sisters all sound amazing. I'll bet your parents are great, too, aren't they?"
Suddenly, that same pain she'd seen in his eyes on the dance floor at the party flashed through them again.
She instinctively reached out to him. "Sean?" His arm was warm beneath her hand. "What happened?"
His expression had already shuttered, but he told her, "You're right, my parents are great." He swallowed before amending it to, "Were great. My dad is still around," he clarified. "He works in real estate, gives out loans to people. It's my mom." He inhaled a breath that she could see shook him. "She passed away three months ago from breast cancer."
"Oh Sean, I'm so sorry."
"I am, too. She was great. A schoolteacher. Third grade. Everyone misses her."
Serena had never come face-to-face with such grief. "She sounds like she was an amazing mother."
"She was." But it was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it anymore. "What about your family? You said you're an only child, right?"
"It's always been just me and my mom." She wasn't telling him anything he couldn't have read online if he wanted to look her up, but it still wasn't easy to admit, "I never met my father."
"That sucks."
She looked up at Sean, surprised by his bluntness. But somehow, it helped settle her down a bit. "Yeah, it does. But I've never known anything else."
"Must have been hard for your mom to let her only kid go away to school."
"You have no idea." Her mouth felt so dry that she picked up her Coke and gulped down half the bottle.
Soda was another thing she'd very rarely had due to the empty calories and potential bloating from the sodium and carbonation. But as she licked her lips to savor every last drop...wow, all those bubbles and sugar and caffeine tasted so good. No wonder people got addicted to it.