“I very much doubt,” Serena said in a gentle voice, “that there’s anything you could do that would disappoint her.”

He stopped walking and reached for her hand. “The way I acted with you last weekend...she would have been disappointed with that.”

“You’ve already apologized, Sean.”

“But I shouldn’t have treated you like—”

“How about,” she interrupted, “we agree to forget what happened last Friday night? We were both in a weird space and nothing really bad ended up happening, so I’d hate to ruin today by going back to that again.”

He searched her face for several long moments. Finally, he agreed, “Okay, I’ll try to forget the bad stuff, like what a dick I was. But I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to forget everything.” He moved closer, close enough that she could have easily pressed her lips to his before taking her next breath. “Because I really, really liked kissing you, Serena. And I’m really glad you agreed to come get pizza with me today.”

She knew she was blushing as she said, “I’ve really enjoyed hanging out with you today, too. You made a bad day so much better. Thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me for anything, Serena. I’m just glad I was able to be there for you when you needed me. And if you ever want to talk about what happened this afternoon, I’m here.”

Could anyone be sweeter? Not to mention that the way his low voice sizzled through her veins made it hard to think about anything other than her desperate need to kiss him again.

And yet, it was that very desperation that scared her enough to need to take a step away from him. Of course she wanted to experience magic and passion, but at the same time she didn’t have any experience with these kinds of intense feelings. Feelings that had all come on so suddenly…ones that felt like they could zoom ahead really fast. She needed a little time to think, to process, to try to figure out if she could actually manage to do well in school and date, too. Especially given that any guy she was dating was sure to find his face in a tabloid photo pretty darn fast, which also meant that her mother would find out, too.

“I wasn’t trying to blow you off last Friday when I said I needed to study,” she tried to explain. “It’s just that I really need to do well this quarter. That’s why I’ve got to work so hard all the time, even tonight.”

“If I kissed you again now, something tells me you might change your mind about studying tonight.”

Oh God, when he looked at her like that, with so much heat and desire, she couldn’t look away from him, couldn’t move. All she could do was wait for his mouth to cover hers, and for everything else to fade away beneath the inevitable persuasion of his kiss.

Only, right when she could almost feel his lips against hers, he was the one suddenly taking a step back and letting go of her hand. “Damn it, I’m doing it again. Trying to convince you to do something you don’t want to do.” He cursed again, clearly pissed off at himself. “I have no right to ask you to forgive me again—”

“There’s nothing to forgive.” Because the truth was that she’d wanted his kiss just as much. “Any other girl would have been dying for you to kiss her. And,” she added with a small smile that she hoped would soften the blow, “I can say from personal experience that they would have liked it very much.” She took a deep breath and made herself add, “Maybe one day I won’t always have to study quite so hard.”

She hoped he knew that was her way of trying not to close the door forever, and thankfully a few seconds later, he smiled again. Unfortunately, it wasn’t his normal easy smile, because he was clearly still upset with himself. And when he dropped her off at the library a short while later, he was careful not to do anything that could be misconstrued as hitting on her again.

So then, Serena wondered as she headed to her usual spot on the third floor, if he’d just given her exactly the space she’d told him she needed by not kissing or even hugging her, why did her little corner of the library suddenly feel lonelier than ever?

CHAPTER SIX

“Dude, no wonder you weren’t partying this weekend with everyone.” Kurt looked positively gleeful. “You were too busy making your moves on that supermodel again.”

Sean looked up from the bench press. Sure, he’d spent the weekend fantasizing about Serena, but he hadn’t seen her.

“How’d you convince her to let you into her pants?”

Sean didn’t blink, didn’t think, just dropped the weights and approached his frat brother and teammate with murderous intent. “What the f**k are you talking about?”

Belatedly seeming to realize he’d said the wrong thing, Kurt shoved his phone at Sean a beat before he could knock a fist into his jaw. “Zane’s new girlfriend just told us she saw this.”

Sean looked down at the screen. It was one of those gossip sites, full of pictures of Hollywood stars. What he saw had him nearly crushing the phone in his fist.

Someone had taken a picture of Sean standing with Serena on Palm Avenue, just after they’d left the pizza joint. His hand was on hers and it was obvious from the way they were looking at each other that he wanted to kiss her—and that she wanted to kiss him right back. He scrolled down and saw that the second picture had been taken through the window of the pizza place, only this time her hand was on his arm while he’d been talking about his mom. There was also a shot of the two of them laughing together while on their way to get the pizza, when he’d been telling her about his brothers and sisters.

No wonder Kurt believed they were an item. Seeing the pictures and the title—The Supermodel and the Baseball Bad Boy!—Sean was hard pressed not to believe it himself.

Quickly scanning the story, he read that he was not only the top-ranked college baseball player in the country and was related to tech wonder Grant Morrison and rock star Drew Morrison...but that he also had a long and varied track record with women as a major campus bad boy.

Unfortunately, that was the end of the valid part of the story, as it also suggested that Drew was the one to introduce Serena to Sean and that they were now “inseparable.” It even went so far as to claim that Sean was the reason Serena had given up the glittering life of a supermodel—so that she could stay by his side to make sure he didn’t cheat on her with another girl.