“Ah, crap, I’m sorry.” Levon knelt to recover the woman’s effects, and was surprised when his questing fingers brushed a smaller pair that joined him. “I shouldn’t have just busted in like that.”
“It’s all right… really, I… ow!” The woman’s head knocked against his as they leaned forward to stand in the same moment. Levon caught hold of her before she could fall back to the ground; he knew he had a thick skull, and wasn’t exactly sure how hard they had collided. It was just his luck to head-butt Olive Owen, but he could only hope she wasn’t seriously hurt.
Olive Owen. The beauty in his arms gazed up at him; then, to his surprise and great relief, she laughed. Hopefully that wasn’t a symptom of a concussion. “Levon Asher? Wow, uh, I thought that might’ve been you I saw earlier on the bleachers in the gym, but wasn’t sure. Didn’t expect to see you here. You didn’t come to the five-year reunion.”
“No,” he said, fumbling for words, distracted by how good she felt in his arms. Or maybe that awful rum punch he’d had before was more potent than he’d thought. Whatever the reason, he was currently making an ass out of himself. He let her go and stepped back, watching her from under his lashes. Man, up close, she looked even better than before, those perfect cheekbones of hers all glowing and rosy. He wondered if maybe Olive had enjoyed a bit too much punch herself.
“It’s good to see you,” he said, for lack of anything better, shuffling his feet. “You look great. If science class had been at all like this, I wouldn’t have skipped so often.” His throat constricted with embarrassment. Damn. Way to be not smooth, dude. Heat blasted up his face. “I mean, not that you didn’t look great back then. I mean…”
She snorted and pushed those glasses higher up her nose again. For some reason, it made her look even hotter. Kind of a sexy librarian vibe going on. Or maybe that was Levon’s overtaxed mind. Exactly how many drinks had he had again? “I know what you mean,” Olive said at last, letting him off the hook, though the air between them still seemed to sizzle. “Anyway, you didn’t skip that often.”
She crossed her arms over her chest, thrusting those perky boobs of hers higher and crap. Now all Levon seemed to be able to see was that. Those. Them. His night was suddenly going from bad to worse. Or better to best, depending on how you looked at it. If Olive noticed his pointed perusal at least she didn’t mention it.
“I tried not to,” he said, his deep voice even gruffer than usual as he tried to force his attention away from her body and back to her eyes. It wasn’t usually this much of a strain to hold himself together and avoid tripping over his tongue. He needed to get laid. That was it. He’d been too long without a woman. That had to explain his crazy urge to pull his old lab partner Olive into his arms and take her right there on the science room floor, right? Or, given the way his libido seemed to have taken over his verbal responses, maybe not. Before he could stop himself, he said, “Not when my lab partner was so—”
“Helpful? When it came to studying for the quizzes?” she suggested, raising a dark brow at him. “I remember spending an awful lot of nights doing that together. Afternoons and mornings too. In fact, we seemed to do nothing but study back then.”
Levon could think of lots of activities he’d like to do with Olive Owen now that didn’t involve any kind of textbooks or papers. He tried to hide the desire pulsing through his bloodstream—and failed miserably, if the flat look she gave him was any indication. “Uh, yeah,” he managed to say at last. God, he needed to contain his crazy reactions to her before he messed this up even more. He’d spent years fantasizing about meeting her again and now that he finally had his chance, he was fucking it all up. Get your shit together, dude. Levon scowled down at the floor and concentrated on ship schematics and battlefield diagrams, anything to cool the ardor boiling within him. “I was thinking of a different word.”
“Really?” Olive tapped the toe of her pump on the floor, clearly having had enough of his crap. He remembered her doing that back when they were in school too. She’d never put up with his excuses back then either. Always pushing him to do his best, always believing he could do better, be better. Honestly, she’d been one of the few people who didn’t let him skate by because of his looks and his charm. Levon wasn’t sure he’d be where he was without Olive’s help. A new emotion, gratitude, joined the vibrant attraction humming through him like an electric charge. Her snarky response only increased his interest. Her dark eyes were twinkling and the pink in her cheeks had darkened. If Levon didn’t know better, he’d think she was flirting with him—that she was just as turned on by this volatile chemistry between them as he was. But that couldn’t be right, could it? Olive back in high school had been all work and no play. Looking at her now though, all sexy and sophisticated, maybe more than her appearance had changed. She gave him a tiny half-smile full of smoulder and said, “What word is that?”
He tried to come up with an equally provocative response, but his mind was too preoccupied with how she looked, how she smelled, how she might taste if he
