Unable to fight the temptation, he looked up just in time to see her smile big at the muscle-head who towered over her. There was another couple with them. The guy she was addressing was clearly enjoying her flirting. Byron had barely looked at her long enough that morning to notice her clothes. All he remembered was there was nothing that stood out about it. If he’d had to guess, she was dressed in normal casual classroom attire.
Now she was in workout gear. Tight, body hugging black training leggings and an equally tight bright pink crop top. Just like the first day when he noticed she was petite in stature; the womanly curves contradicted any assumptions that she was really just a little girl like Beast had suggested. Sure, she was young and her wide-eyed reaction to being gawked at by a total stranger, had been somewhat proof of her possible inexperience. Though at the moment she looked anything but shy or innocent.
For a second, he considered the possibility that this wasn’t her. He’d only ever seen the girl twice and both times he hadn’t allowed himself to look at her too long. Even the other girl with her didn’t look like any of the other girls he’d seen her with at the signing. And this guy she was so shamelessly flirting with was not the same one whose lip she’d wiped something off from just that morning.
Breathing a little easier and not understanding why, he’d just about convinced himself of it now. Byron had definitely been wound way too tight lately. So much so, he was letting stupid shit like this boggle his mind. Like any of this should matter to him in the first place. But that’s all it was. He’d forced himself not to think about it all day and now the first girl that even resembled or sounded like her he convinced himself it was. He’d been mistaken, and he was sure of it now, this wasn’t her.
And then their eyes met, and he froze.
There was no denying it now. This wasn’t someone who just resembled her. This was her. Feeling like an idiot for having been caught staring, yet again, Byron sucked in a breath waiting for the inevitable. For her smile to flatten and for that wide-eyed stare. For the third time he’d been caught and now on the same day in two different places. He wouldn’t even blame her if she saw fit to call security on someone, she no doubt thought was stalking her now.
To his utter surprise her smile didn’t wane this time like it had all the other times. Instead, it remained, and her teeth sunk into her bottom lip. It was subtle and not quite as blatant as some girls, but she fluttered her lashes at Byron. He actually turned around to check if she might be doing all this on someone else’s account. Glancing back at her again Byron could not believe the reaction his entire body had to this girl. His insides were doing the thing he hadn’t felt since way back when he’d first discovered girls and flirting.
It wasn’t until the guy said something and she turned to him laughing again that it all abruptly came together for him. She’d been having coffee and laughing it up with some dude that morning, flirting with this meathead now, while at the same time fluttering her lashes at Byron
Doesn’t matter what kind of reputation they get because once they’re done with school, they go back to mommy and daddy with a clean slate, and never look back.
As disappointing, as the awakening slap of reality was, Byron welcomed it. What this girl’s laugh, those eyes, and a fucking smile had begun to do to him without him knowing anything about her—not even her name—was ridiculous. He refused to even glance at her now, especially as he continued to hear her laugh but in that different way. That he could be so aware of the minor difference in a laugh from a person he knew nothing about, was beyond exasperating.
Only thing Byron could think now was that he had been way too wound up lately. He needed a release and maybe Nine was right. It’d been a while. With no desire to stick around and continue to listen to that laugh he knew would be impossible to ignore now, he grabbed his towel and keys and started out.
Like an idiot he was once again incapable of walking by her without giving into the temptation of looking at her one last time. Even as she continued to carry on with the other dude she still turned to Byron and not so casually took him in from top to bottom, smiling sweetly the whole time. Then just like that, she turned back to the other guy and indulged him with that same sweet smile. As if she were used to throwing that smile and lash fluttering gazes around like nothing.
It wasn’t until he was in his car that he realized how tensed up he’d gotten. What the hell? Rolling his neck, as he turned on his car, he glanced into the rearview mirror at his still disgusted expression. He just couldn’t make up his mind what he was more disgusted with. Her behavior in there or his unreasonable reaction to it. Why the hell did he even care?
As he drove back to his place in complete silence because he wasn’t even in the mood for the radio, something else dawned on him. Not since Lizzette, had he ever felt anything remotely close to the unreasonable yet seething irritation he was feeling now. Not even when he’d ripped into the guy making out with Barbara. In hindsight, he knew now without a doubt his reaction that day had everything to do with his ego than anything else.
Easing up the grip-of-death he had on the steering wheel, he was doused with a sudden and unwelcome realization. One that had him choking up suddenly. What he was feeling right that second had nothing to do with the random girl he’d become so fixated with for no other reason than her sweet laugh. Lizzette young sweet and completely innocent, despite their being each other’s first everything. He’d been just as innocent as she was back then. The entire experience with her had taken him by storm. It’s what this girl sweet laugh was bringing back to him now.
Sure, he’d felt the similar gut tightening irritation he felt today since Lizette because of Barbara. But not that other emotion the sweet laughter brought on. He hadn’t allowed himself to think of Lizette in so long he’d completely suppressed all the memories he’d had of her. Her sweet innocent laugh and those wide-eyed stares she so often wore. More importantly what they did to him.
When he’d fallen into that deep depression after his mother died, he’d pushed all and any memories of both his mother and Lizette even further into his subconscious. With reminder after reminder lately Byron had become such a miserable bastard Beast had even proposed he seek therapy again. He’d done so when his mother had first passed. Though at the time Beast said it’d been at his wife’s suggestion. But his brother had agreed with Byron then that psychiatrists were all quacks. This time he seemed to be agreeing with his wife, that maybe it would do him some good. That had to be it. It’s the only thing that could explain this. Even women he’d actually been in somewhat of a relationship with since Lizette had never had this effect on him. How in the hell could one he’d yet to even formally meet—one he didn’t know the slightest thing about—be doing this to him?
The visual of those fucking beautiful eyes going so quickly from his to that other guys assaulted him suddenly. His fist slammed against the steering wheel with such force he heard it crack. Breathing deeply, he felt his heart thud against his chest, as the shock of what he’d just done sunk in.
“Well shit,” he muttered under his breath. “Maybe it is time your psycho ass considers seeing a shrink.”
Four
Practicing an Approach