38

Kassie

Make You See Heaven

I faltered coming out of the elevator. And I wasn't supposed to. I was supposed to come swinging out like a bad bitch in a hot, borrowed dress, ready to shake some donors' hands. Except then I saw Ryan Cross, in a dark suit, freshly shaved, with a bouquet of roses in his hands. My brain flatlined.

"You clean up nice," I managed, a little more than flustered.

Oh my god, the Bird Pants plushie .

I bumped into one of my roommates and came to a sudden stop when he offered the flowers. Flowers were part of every romance movie ever invented, from the beginning of time, a staple, but I'd never gotten flowers beforehand and I didn't know how to react. I had no idea what to say.

"It's good for the cameras," Ryan told me and I nodded.

I held the flowers close. "Thank you."

There were no cameras around us, no reporters, no fans. And the flowers were beautiful and my date was so good-looking, I could barely form a sentence.

Instead, I could do something real stupid.

I grabbed his arm and leaned up on my heels, kissing him on the cheek.

"Thank you," I murmured.

For a long moment, I had my hand on his arm until I finally drew it away. Subtleness had gone out the window. It wasn't like I dragged him off to a bathroom and got on my knees but I never knew a single kiss on the cheek could be so intimate.

Ryan paused for a long moment, gazing at me. "We have to get going."

Of course. The Earth hadn't completely stopped on its axis.

It was a quick walk to the car and Ryan opened the door for me. But the moment I took my seat, Zariah was there, urging me to roll down the window. She kept shaking her head wildly. At one point, she was motioning at her neck for some reason.

Ryan opened his door and slipped in and Zariah backed away, taking a casual walk back to the entrance.

I rolled down the window. "Z?"

"It's all good! Don't worry about it!"

With a frown, I settled back in my seat.

"I have a question for you," Ryan said quietly, driving away from the Roman Forest.

I turned over to look at him, casually resting back in his seat, watching the darkness outside. He had my curiosity. Was this some interlude to a football thing I had to agree to?

"Yeah?"

"How do you draw people?"

Not what I was expecting .

"What do you mean?" I asked, surprised.

"When you draw people, it's easy to recognize them," he explained. "I've been trying to figure it out. How do you do it?"

A faint blush touched my cheeks. Ryan and I talked about football twenty-four-seven. It made sense, basically dictated our days. But I loved talking about art. It was one of those things I could ramble about for hours and I would never let the opportunity pass me up.

"We call it the Five Line Rule in Mr. Ishisaka's class," I explained. "If you start with a base, you can draw anybody, as long as you have the five lines picked out."

"Like hands and a face? Is that all one line?"

Pleased, I snuck another look at him. "No. They're like the little things that make you recognize someone. Like…Coach Lawson with the baseball caps."

"Huh." Slowly, Ryan nodded, taking a left on the road. "Zariah has…curly hair."

"Yeah, you got it. Adam's always smirking."

"And your lips."

For a moment, I gazed out to the road, letting the words sink in, and I didn't steal a look, I openly took one in surprise. He was serious and wasn't afraid to show it.

"My…lips?"

"Your lips," Ryan said, his voice soft. "Your bottom one is a little bigger than the top and there's an indent on the left side when you show a real smile."

"A real smile?"

"Sometimes I think you smile to smile. And then sometimes you have this real smile and it comes naturally. Those are the ones worth drawing."

Heat pooled between my legs and I had to work to steady my breathing.

Ryan wanted to fuck. I could practically taste it in the car, in the way he spoke to me, in the deep timbers of his voice. We had football practice tomorrow morning but after the alumni night, after we nailed it and put on the song and dance, I was going to direct him to his dorm and find all the ways to make Mr. Intense lose his good composure.

A grin tugged up on my lips as I caught sight of the view. Thousands of little lights were strung on the trees outside the alumni center. Everyone was decked out in their formal wear and lines of expensive cars prevented us from reaching the valet stand.

Perfect. That gave me just enough time.

"Your eyes," I murmured, watching the valet move between cars. "That's one of your five lines."

I could feel Ryan's eyes on me. "My eyes?"

"They're an interesting color."

"They're…brown," he said slowly.

"Brown is a hundred different shades of wildly different colors. Big art moment here, ball dribbler," I teased him. "Yours are dark honey."

Ryan eased the car to a stop on the curb and he shifted to look at me. "Don't get out of the car."

"Why not? You want to open my car door?"

"Yes."

I watched him walk along the car, long legs and everything. Goodness, was he gorgeous. And with him outside, I could gawk all I want. The grumpiest, most uptight captain in the world was about to be late for practice tomorrow.

"I'm going to suck your dick so good, you're going to see heaven," I said in the silent car.

Ryan opened the car door and held out his hand. "Did you say something?"

"I don't think so." A flush crept up my neck. I took his hand and stood next to him. "Why?"

"I saw your lips move."

"Seems like you're studying my lips a lot recently," I murmured.

He grinned. "They're worth studying."

We weren't exactly on time but there were still plenty of other people filtering in. All the donors, all the important people for Marrs, and every single football player that we saw at six o'clock in the morning. I immediately spotted Adam, with a girl in his arms that I'd never seen before, but I couldn't see King or June anywhere.

Ryan brushed his fingers along my waist, resting comfortably on my hip.

I had to resist biting my lip. Couldn't ruin my lipstick.

"Are you ready for this, Ragar?" he asked, scanning the room.

"Born ready, Cross."