Shatter (True Believers #4)(10)
Author: Erin McCarthy

She glanced over at me before going straight back to reading. “Sure,” she murmured. “He’s a kinetics genius.”

Whatever. “Isn’t he totally cute?”

Now she swung her head completely and stared at me. “I guess. Yes. He’s attractive. How do you know Darwin?”

I waved my notes at her. “He is the tutor I met Thursday night. He helped me study.”

“How do you get a cute tutor?” Jessica asked, sprawled across the easy chair on the other side of the coffee table. She was wearing yoga pants and lying on her back. “When I was still at UC, the one time I tried to get calculus help I got a girl with a mustache. I mean, hello, there are at-home wax strips. Try them.”

“Not everyone has your aesthetic,” Rory told her. “Besides, maybe there are religious reasons she can’t alter her body.”

Jessica waved her hand. “Fine.” She had enrolled in cosmetology school in October and while we were studying for our college exams, she was studying for her own first round of exams. Apparently even stylists need to know the muscles in the head and I was looking forward to when she would need to practice shampoo and massage techniques.

“But my point is, I did not get a hot tutor while Kylie apparently did.” Jessica studied me. “You are so crushing on him.”

“No, I’m not!” I protested, because I wasn’t. Not really. I honestly didn’t expect to ever see him again. But he had been exactly what I had needed right then, whether he knew it or not. “I totally had sex with him, but I do not have a crush on him.”

Jessica shrieked. Rory’s head fell off her hand.

I grinned. Well, it was fun to drop that little bomb.

Rory looked totally scandalized. “You had sex with Darwin Kadisch? Are you serious?”

Wait a minute. “His last name is Kadisch? But that’s my teacher’s last name.”

“He’s Professor Kadisch’s son.”

“He is?” Oops. “I did not know that. At all.” That seemed bad. “Is that bad?”

“It’s only bad if one of you tells the professor,” Jessica said. “Which I seriously doubt he is going to do unless he and his father have a TMI relationship with each other. And you’re not going to tell.”

“No. Definitely not.” I chewed my lip. “He said he wasn’t going to say anything. He actually said Professor Kadisch would kill him. He didn’t say anything about him being his dad. That’s weird.”

“His father is head of the undergrad chemistry program,” Rory said. “He must’ve been trying to stay professional.”

Jessica snorted. “Sure, he was. That’s why he and Kylie were playing naked Twister. Because he’s totally professional.”

Rory made a face. “Good point. I guess the real question here is . . . was it good?”

“Rory asks an excellent question. Was it good?”

They both stared at me expectantly. I let them sweat it for a second.

“Oh yeah.” Then I couldn’t help it. I threw myself back on the cushion and rolled around, kicking my feet. “Holy shit, it was soooo good. I feel hot just thinking about it.” I did. My cheeks were burning and so was my vajayjay. It had been three days and I was trying to set the experience aside and study very seriously, but he popped into my head when I was least expecting it.

Jessica laughed. “Well, that’s good. Was he huge or something?”

“No. I mean, maybe slightly above average. It was more that he took his time. It was two hours and mostly, it was about me.” I cuddled the blanket and sighed. “I really needed that.”

“I haven’t seen you this excited since Voldemort f**ked you over,” Jessica commented. “This is awesome.”

I had forbidden my friend’s to use Nathan’s name in my presence so he became he-who-shall-not-be-named and then Voldemort. It worked for me. “Don’t spoil my post-sex happiness by mentioning Sir Dickhead,” I told her.

“Sorry. I’m just really glad to see you having fun.”

“Was it kinky sex?” Rory asked, looking very curious.

“Rory!” Sometimes she said things that seemed totally out of character. “What do you mean by ‘kinky’? And, actually, no. However you could possibly define ‘kinky,’ it wasn’t.”

She shrugged, her auburn braid falling over her shoulder. “I don’t know. I guess I just envisioned him trying to defy the laws of gravity.”

I had been taking a sip of my orange soft drink and at her words, I choked and sprayed it out of both my mouth and my nose. “OMG!” I was laughing and coughing at the same time as my friends both lost it, too. There was orange pop all over my notes and the coffee table. It dribbled down the front of my hoodie. “You kill me.” I wiped my nose.

Rory sat up, still laughing. “God, this floor is so hard. I think I’ve dented my elbows.”

“It’s better than that stinky-ass carpet that was here before Riley and I ripped it up.”

“True.”

I let them go off on a carpet thing for a minute, happy to daydream about Jonathon. Who would have thought nerd sex would be so hot?

When I rolled onto my side and reached idly for my drink again, I realized they were both grinning at me, no longer speaking. “What?”

“You look downright dreamy.” Jessica grinned. “So when are you seeing him again?”

“Oh, I’m not.”

“What? You let him leave without getting his number? Girl, you’re slipping.”

“I have his e-mail. I could get in touch with him. And I could have said something to him before he left, but I don’t know. I didn’t want to ruin it.” I ran my finger over the formulas he’d written in my notebook. “I don’t want to find out he really is some huge asshat. It was fun, and it made me feel sexy for the first time in a long time, and I just want to leave it at that.”

Rory nodded, but Jessica looked sketch about the whole thing. “But if it was good, don’t you want to do it again? It’s not like every guy is willing to be going down on you for two hours. Trust me on this one. I’ve done some research.”

I tried to explain. “But what if it was just A Moment? One of those like rare combinations of the right time, the right place, the right level of hormones or whatever. What if we did it again and it sucked? Not only would it suck, it would lessen the good factor of the first time. You know what I mean?”