New Romantics

Chapter 10

Salena's chest rose and fell rapidly as she stared at Jace, the electric shock of their kiss burning every molecule in her body with fiery desire. She couldn't remember what they were fighting about. Couldn't think of much aside from how good and right and perfect his mouth felt when he interrupted their vicious argument with a sultry caress of his tongue.

She didn't care.

As the walls of the locker room pressed into her, all she cared about was more. More Jace. More kisses. And suddenly, as if hearing her thoughts, he was on her again, lifting her against his chest, his mouth hungrier than before. The hardness of his erection pressing into her—

"What are you doing?"

With a squeak of surprise, curled into the small, plush green chair on the second floor of Paperbound, an L-shaped bookshelf dedicated to sport-related romance shielding me from the world, I slammed my book shut quick enough to get a papercut.

"You can't sneak up on a person like that!" I shrieked, whirling around and hitting Leo with the nastiest glare I could muster, my heart ready to rip out of my chest. "I almost had a heart attack!"

The shelves surrounding us created a small, paper-scented, rainbow-colored alcove perfect for intimate moments—-both in and out of the pages of the equally intimate books on its shelves. Leo's tall frame made the space even smaller, and the bookstore lights outlined his lightly muscled torso in a silvery glow. He watched me suck on the bloody tip of my index finger with the intrigue of a vampire staring at an open wound. Heat swept over my mouth, and I blushed from head to toe.

"You're such an ass," I murmured, brushing my damp fingers against the hem of my red sundress.

Leaning one shoulder against the shelf, Leo crossed his arms over his chest. He gave me a slow once-over, eyes lingering on my mouth, and asked, "How's the inventory assessment going?"

We both looked at the tiny, hand-held scanning gun and laptop shoved beneath the chair's golden legs. Untouched over the past hour.

I clutched my book tight against my chest. 

This felt like the equivalent of being caught in my underwear. Maybe even worse because I, Aria Shah, was quite hot and bothered thanks to Jace Maxwell, captain of the Blue Devils championship hockey team, and unyielding his desire for Dr. Salena Roy, the biggest and brightest in sports medicine.

Clearing my throat, I brushed a stray dark strand of hair out of my eyes. When did it get so hot in here? "I'm just making sure the book fits the genre. You know how the ghosts like to move things around."

Running his thumb along his bottom lip, Leo angled his head to look at the cover: pale green, with white cursive script bracketed by a hockey stick and stethoscope. "Oh, right. We wouldn't want to create any sort of confusion, now would we? How many chapters did you have to read before you confirmed the book was a sports romance?"

"Twenty-seven," I answered simply. Still holding the book, I stood, pushing the chair and equipment back, and matched his stance against the bookshelf, forcing a calm disposition. "It's a quick read, anyway. Besides, I spent all of yesterday in the library. This was me making up for lost time. Self care. I don't want to burn out this early in the semester."

"You seem to have it all figured out."

"Don't you? Good grades. A bunch of friends. A great love—oh, I'm sorry, social—life. And now, a job at the best place on campus." My mind flashed back to Leo and Jules hugging outside of Morrison Hall yesterday. Dani didn't mention it when I returned home late last night. Jules wasn't sobbing in our living room again.