Chapter 11

11

I n his uni days, Brock had avoided the quadrangle. A large open space almost the size of a city block bordered by the university’s old sandstone buildings and flanked by an alley of bustling cafés, it housed two things guaranteed to keep him away: cool kids and couples.

He would walk an extra kilometre to a smaller student hangout to have his dry ham and cheese sandwiches every lunchtime rather than sit in that quadrangle and watch happy people who only accentuated that he wasn’t.

He’d been a brooding, grumpy introvert. Truth be told, still was, though he hid it well for his business. Being the number one go-to guy for IT in Melbourne was a far cry from that dirt-poor kid surviving on scholarships to get ahead.

But he’d be lying if he didn’t admit that a small part of him still looked over his shoulder every goddamn day because he thought the life he’d worked so hard to build could be ripped away in a second.

Stupid, because he’d invested his growing fortune wisely to prevent that very scenario happening, but being back here triggered every fucking insecurity he’d ever had.

‘I’ve never seen this place so quiet,’ Jayda said, her hand warm in his.

‘That’s because it’s the ass-crack of dawn and we’re idiots for being here.’ His dry response garnered an elbow to the ribs.

‘Listen, Loverboy, shelve your inner cynic for five seconds so I can enjoy this, okay?’

‘Loverboy?’

‘And don’t you know it,’ she said, her coy smile sending a jolt straight to his cock.

‘Fine, you win. I’ll make the most of my first time here—’

Damn, why did he have to go and say that? Predictably, she pounced on it.

‘You never ate in the quadrangle?’

She made it sound as if he’d never set foot in the entire university and had got a fake degree online.

‘No.’

Her disbelief didn’t waver as she stared at him in open-mouthed shock. ‘How could you spend four years here and not—?’

‘Because I was a geek, okay? And only cool kids hung out here,’ he said through gritted teeth, hating that she’d dragged it out of him.

Not that it was the entire truth but it would appease her for now. It had to. No way in hell would he ever tell anyone, let alone a short-term fling, what had driven him to stay away from the sickening PDAs on show here every day.

Short-term fling…

Jayda had the potential to be more than that and he knew it, which was exactly why he’d keep the truth from her.

‘Sexiest geek I ever saw,’ she said, bumping him with her hip. ‘I’m glad your first time is with me.’

Trust her to know when to back down, but he saw the speculation in her sideways glance as they strolled towards the pop-up truck situated on the outskirts of the grassed area.

‘Let’s eat,’ he said, not surprised when Merv of Merv’s Mobile Meals recognised Jayda and his eyes lit up.

‘I remember you, girly.’ The beefy sixty-something with bulging biceps leaned out of his window to stare down at them. ‘Egg white omelette, grilled tomato, with a side of spinach, hold the butter.’

Jayda gaped and Merv laughed. ‘I never forget a pretty face.’

‘Or the order of a pretty face, apparently.’

Merv chuckled at Brock’s response. ‘Didn’t you know, big guy, if I wasn’t cooking in a truck for the last forty years I would’ve been studying rocket science in one of those fancy buildings behind you?’

Jayda smiled at his self-deprecation and Brock found himself doing the same.

‘So what’ll it be, folks?’ Merv raised a brow at Jayda. ‘Same for you as the old days?’

Considering Jayda had eaten barely anything since they’d met in the hotel bar last night, Brock wondered if she’d break with the habit of a lifetime and order a decent meal.

He knew why she’d ordered the low-fat breakfast Merv had divulged; the same reason she’d only drunken diet sodas and hidden behind dark clothing. Even if she hadn’t revealed her body issues to him the night they’d hooked up six years ago, he would’ve understood. Curvy girls were bombarded with skinny girl images everywhere. He hated it. Give him a lush handful of woman any day.

‘Actually, I think I’ll have one of your famous breakfast burgers, please,’ she said.

Surprised, Brock added, ‘Make that two. Along with two large lattes.’

‘Coming right up, folks.’

While Merv set about whipping up their breakfast, Brock squeezed Jayda’s hand. ‘You okay?’

A hidden fire smouldered in her eyes. ‘Why? Because he remembered I used to starve myself most days to get through uni?’

Her bitter comeback left Brock speechless. It had never entered his head she might have had an eating disorder and it wasn’t his place to ask about it now.

She must’ve seen some of the shock on his face, because she shook her head. ‘I wasn’t anorexic or bulimic, if that’s what you’re thinking. But by the time I reached here I’d spent enough years calorie-counting to know I couldn’t binge on junk food like the rest of my cohorts.’

‘You have a beautiful body—’

‘Thanks for the validation but I don’t need it anymore,’ she said, easing her hand out of his to brush a strand of hair out of her eyes. ‘I’m five kilos lighter now than I was back then and I’m happy with how I look.’

A small part of him had wondered if that was why she’d left his bed the first time last night, because she’d felt vulnerable lying naked under the covers. But he’d dismissed that notion pretty damn quick when she’d bared herself to him in the kitchen before happily being ensconced in his bed for the rest of the night.

He hoped she understood by the way he’d caressed and licked and touched her all over repeatedly last night how much he desired her. He loved how confident she sounded now and that she’d admitted to being happy with how she looked. Someone as gorgeous as her should be shouting it from the damn rooftops.

‘You’ve always been beautiful to me,’ he said softly, clasping her face between his hands and kissing the lips he’d dreamed of for four long years before he’d had a chance to sample them.

When he eased away she had tears in her eyes and he inwardly cursed for being a doofus when it came to women. This was why he didn’t do relationships or anything longer than a night or two. He had no fucking clue how women worked. If he did he would’ve dragged his mother away from a dead-end marriage and a bullying loser years ago.

‘Burgers are ready, folks.’

Glad for the distraction, Brock said, ‘I’ve got this,’ giving her time to compose herself as he paid for their breakfast.

Juggling the cardboard coffee tray and the surprisingly heavy burger bag in one hand, he draped his free arm over Jayda’s shoulders and guided her to a wrought-iron bench under a towering oak.

When the silence stretched between them, he placed their breakfast on the bench, dropped another kiss on her lips, and said, ‘Sit. I’m ravenous.’

She blinked several times and did as she was told, reaching for the bag. ‘I always envied those freaks with fast metabolisms who ate these every damn day.’

She opened the bag and inhaled, an expression of pure bliss on her face. He’d seen that expression before and the thought of him eating her out made his cock surge to life in a big way.

‘They smell good,’ he said, sitting beside her and waiting until she handed him one of the brown-paper-wrapped burgers.

‘Toasted roll, fried eggs, onions, bacon, and Merv’s special BBQ sauce. I think I’m in heaven,’ she said, a second before biting into hers.

He could’ve sworn her eyes almost rolled back in her head. ‘That good, huh?’

‘Oh. My. God.’ She’d barely got the words out before she took another bite, and if the aroma assailing his nostrils was half as good as the tastem he’d have to agree with her.

Brock had never had a big appetite, existing on coffee and energy drinks for long nights at the office, but one bite of Merv’s breakfast burger converted him.

‘This is fucking amazing,’ he said, wiping BBQ sauce off his chin with a napkin. ‘Best thing I’ve ever tasted.’

‘Mmm…’ she mumbled, her mouth full, her eyes sparkling, and in that moment Brock felt an uncharacteristic pinch in the vicinity of his heart.

Jayda was beautiful and never more so than right now with genuine enjoyment lighting her eyes.

He stuffed the burger into his mouth to prevent blurting exactly how she made him feel and stared straight ahead in time to see pale pink and mauve streak the Melbourne skyline. She must’ve glimpsed the sunrise at the same time because she glanced at him, her eyes wide with wonder.

He knew the feeling. He’d never seen anything so special and he wasn’t referring to the sun cresting the horizon.

They finished their burgers in silence, watching the glowing golden ball rise. When they were done, he bundled their rubbish and lobbed it into the nearby trash, before handing her a coffee.

‘What do you think?’ She asked.

He heard the uncertainty in her voice, as if she couldn’t get a read on his mood. ‘I think I should’ve braved the cool quadrangle years ago if this is what happened every morning.’

She didn’t look at him, so in an effort to reassure her, he placed a fingertip under her chin and gently swivelled her face towards him. ‘And I’m not talking about those incredible burgers, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

He took a breath and blew it out. ‘It’s being here with you.’

There. He’d said it and the quadrangle hadn’t caved and the centuries-old stone building still stood.

But he knew he’d made a mistake being honest the second her gaze met his, because what he saw in her eyes sent a tremor of terror through him.

Expectation.

Hope.

A yearning for more than he could ever give.