UNEDITED
After violating campus rules and committing student misconduct, twenty-three-year-old Warren Ashford is deep trouble and at risk of losing his volleyball scholarship -- the one thing he truly values other than his bad boy reputation, and hi...
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Nova
My traitorous heart skips a beat as soon as the door closes.
He can do the most unexpected things; say the sweetest things; make me feel things I never thought I'd feel again.
And that's why he's so dangerous.
Yet, as I stand in the silence of my change room and think, every inch of me craves the very sensations of his body heat and lips. Tonight, I want him to be lying next to me and know that I purposely excluded the pillow barrier between us. I want to wake up in his arms tomorrow morning. I desperately want him.
The guilt pools in my stomach like a puddle of acid, but my logical side speaks up. I'm still living – Carter's not. How am I supposed to keep moving on with my life if I'm stuck in the past? The pain and guilt are the chains that are holding me back from stepping into a relationship. Being with Warren but still having a small place in my heart for Carter would not be a sin.
Stripping out of the black dress he chose, I quickly change back into my jeans and white crop top. Warren is all that crowds my mind through the process. I wonder what he would say about the sudden revelations I'm having with myself, about him being the reason a feeling I never thought I'd feel again has returned.
Julia would probably send me to an asylum for these thoughts.
But the thing is, I can't see Warren as the jackass who rudely told me he didn't want me as a roommate. We sneered at each other, despised each other, but time changes people. We've gotten to know each other a little better, and this trip has been...magical in many ways. There are certain things I've noticed about him that I never did before: the way his eyes soften during deep conversations, the sweet taste of his lips, how open he really is.
On top of that, he knows I purposely push people away yet he still sticks around. And now that I think about, even before we learned to like each other, there was a pull; our pointless small talk and constant bickering were part of that – it was almost like we wantedit to happen.
It hurts to think about how obvious my attraction to him has been.
I think this is the moment where I realize that I'm no longer falling for him – that I've officially fallen head over heels for Warren Ashford.
I think this is the moment where, even though I never meant to, I've realized I love him.
There's only one question: Does he actually like me, or is he just playing a game and trying to add me to the notches in his bedpost?
