Love Bites

LOVE BITES Chapter 32 : Antics

Chapter 32 : Antics

A smile tugged at the corner of my lips as I watched an absentminded Alastair doing my school work.

He was seated across from me on the floor, our knees touching beneath the coffee table and the fire crackling off to the side.

I found it both heavenly fascinating and insanely comical that he could be this absorbed in my grade 12 math work. He was in his own little microcosm, completely unbothered by anything in the outside world. I had long ago given up, finding something more worth my while to focus on instead.

It was only fair that he helped me out. It was, after all, his fault that I didn't get any work done the night prior.

Not that I minded all that much.

The light from the fire danced across his face, reflecting off his eyes and shadowing the other half of his face. It made his features appear sharper and more brilliant. Every time he blinked his long lashes would quiver, sharp eyes analysing the tough equations with a calculative mindset. The bangs brushing over his cheekbones had curled sinisterly, bugging me to sweep it aside and expose those lovely eyes of his.

Resisting the urge, I continued to watch him with building inquisitiveness, noting how those sinful lips of his often moved whenever he read something, whispering a tumble of words without a breath's pause. His forehead would crinkle every now and then, and he would tap the pencil, held delicately between his fingers, rhythmically against his jaw in thought.

"Nikki?"

It was just too hard not to stare at him...

"Nikki."

I jerked out of my stupor at his authoritative tone.

"Y-yes?" My voice sounded foreign and guttural. I cleared it. "Yes, Alastair?"

Sighing, he dropped the pencil on the coffee table and fell back on his hands. "You haven't done a single question in the last 20 minutes. What's going on inside that head of yours that has you so distracted?" He leant over and flicked the side of my head. I yelped.

Rubbing the sore spot I whined, "This is boring, I can't help but be distracted."

"You're the one who wanted my help," he chuckled.

"Yeah but I didn't think you'd be that much of a distraction," I mumbled, tearing at the corners of the math sheet.

"Oh I see."

My head snapped up. "What?"

"I'm the reason you can't focus. Even though I'm just sitting here, minding my own business, not even touching you." He had that look in his eyes, a dark look that said he owned my thoughts and emotions right there and then. "You do often get a little skittish in my presence."

I narrowed my eyes. "Are you saying I get nervous, or flirtatious around you?"

"Both."

I bit out a laugh, crossing my arms over my chest. "Ha. Do not. I am a very confident person I'll have you know. Your presence hardly affects me."