The bookstore was just as crowded as Lily suspected it would be. All the new freshmen were eager to get their things sorted quickly. At least this was her last year here, the last year she'd have to deal with seeing Adam and Sue together. He was her best friend and she loved him, but being around him hurt a lot. He'd never seen what was right in front of him. He preferred the blonde airheads.

Pushing those thoughts aside, she fought her way to the front counter, only to discover the book had not yet arrived. Class started on Monday, and they didn't expect it in until sometime next week. Well, that was just flippin' great. More money out of her pocket on an Amazon digital textbook.

Dejected, Lily made her way back to the cafeteria. At least she might be able to grab a bite to eat before she went to check on the girls at the dorm. As a resident adviser, she was in charge of her floor. It earned her a steep discount on her room and board.

The do's and don'ts speech she had to give later this evening was not something she looked forward to because it would go in one ear and out the other for most of the girls. Inevitably, each semester, someone just had to try sneaking either booze or their boyfriends into their rooms after hours. College kids were college kids, no matter the school.

Lily snagged a salad and a Coke from the all-natural health food store before heading into the main cafeteria area. It was more of a mall food court than a cafeteria with tables taking up the bulk of the room with stalls and shops lining both sides and even more outside the main space.

She nodded to people as she walked. Several waved her over to their tables, but she wasn't in the mood for chit chat. Depressed over Adam's deciding to bail on lunch, she refused to try to be sociable with anyone else. Instead, she found an empty table and sat. If people came over, she'd just excuse herself, but most everyone knew to leave her alone when she sat by herself.

Stabbing a piece of tomato, she imagined it was Sue's smiling face. What she wouldn't give to be able to tell that woman what she really thought of her just once, but Adam loved her, and that was that.

This was exactly the situation she'd wanted to evade after high school. But Fate was not on her side. She wanted to put her feelings for Adam behind her, or at least suppress them enough so she wasn't miserable all the time, but how could she when he was always there?

Boston was supposed to be her escape from everyone and everything from her past, but Adam found out she was going here and decided to tag along. She'd specifically chosen Boston because he wanted to go to LSU. He'd been given a full football scholarship. Who knew he'd go and change his mind? Boston offered him a full scholarship too, but their team was nothing compared to LSU. And Adam lived and breathed football.

At first, she'd taken it as a sign that maybe she meant more to him than she'd first thought. The man had followed her to Boston over LSU, after all. She later found out he didn't think she could handle it on her own, and his big brother instincts kicked in, trying to protect her like he always did. He'd never see her as anything but a little sister. Then he'd met Sue in their sophomore year.

Nail—coffin.

New York was her new out. She'd worked her ass off over the summer, and it paid off. The literary agency where she'd interned told her they'd be willing to take her on as an assistant to one of the agents when she graduated. Lily loved books, and the opportunity to work where she could one day represent authors who wrote awesome books was amazing to her.

She, herself, wanted to write but had always been afraid to try. Now that she'd had the opportunity to understand what agents looked for when reading query letters and partials, she had a better grip on how to present her own work to them once she finally sat down and started to write.

"So, is it just me or men in general?"

Lily's head snapped up to see Nikoli sitting down across from her. Her eyes narrowed when he gave her a grin designed to melt her bones—and it did—but she refused to let him see how much he affected her.

Her best bet was to get up and leave. She'd come over here to sulk in peace and quiet, not listen to BU's self-proclaimed connoisseur of women attempt to hit on her for the second time today with that sexy accent of his.

"I think it's just you," she told him and sighed. There went her lunch. Maybe she'd be able to grab a bite after her floor meeting with the girls.

"Aw, now, Lily Bells, that's not very nice, and everybody says you're the nicest girl around."

"Did we, or did we not, already have this conversation?" she asked. "I have no plans to sleep with you, so go find some other poor, unsuspecting girl to play with."

Nikoli laughed outright at that. "I don't do poor, unsuspecting females. They know what they're in for right up front. Sex. That's all I want, and if they delude themselves into thinking anything else, it's not my problem. I want to make sure you understand that right up front too. It's just sex. Mind-blowing sex, but still, just a one-time deal."

The eye roll she gave him irritated Nikoli. She seemed to be insulted that he'd decided to have sex with her. There wasn't another girl in this cafeteria who would turn him down, and he knew it, so why was he bothering with Lily Holmes? Because she didn't want him, dammit, and that rankled.

"Why don't you want to sleep with me?" Nik honestly wasn't sure if he wanted to know the answer.

She wrinkled her nose and screwed up her eyes. "God only knows what diseases you have."

"I use condoms, or we don't do shit," he told her, offended. "I get regular health checks too."

"The very fact that you need to get checked for STDs regularly is a complete and total turn off." Her voice dripped with disgust.

"No, it just means I'm smart," he countered. "I won't apologize for liking sex. It's nothing to be ashamed of."

Oddly, though, looking into her eyes full of scorn and disdain, Nikoli felt a little bit ashamed of how many partners he'd had over the years. It wasn't an emotion he was used to and one that made him angry. Angry enough to lash out.

"Is that why you're so uptight, Lily Bells? Do you need to get laid and are just too ashamed to admit to your own needs?"

Her face paled, and he frowned at the strange reaction. Was she ashamed of sex? When she shot out of her seat and prepared to storm off, he grabbed her wrist, and she yanked it back with a look of terror on her face for a fraction of a second. He could almost think he'd imagined it if he hadn't been looking directly at her.

"Don't touch me," she hissed. "Don't you ever fucking touch me!" Her voice was barely above a whisper, but all eyes in the cafeteria settled on her.

She had no idea how beautiful she looked with her ivory skin all flushed and her blue eyes flashing. It made him want to do some very naughty things to her, but he ignored his own lust for a minute. Something was wrong here. Very, very wrong.

"Calm down, Lily Bells," he said softly. "I didn't mean any harm. I just didn't want you to run."

"I wasn't running." Her voice remained low, and it went even softer. "I just didn't want to suffer your unbearable ego one more minute."

As much as he wanted to focus on her reaction, he was a guy, and he couldn't ignore what was right in front of him. His gaze swept from those luscious lips to her perky breasts, to her trim waist, and down to her petite feet.

Color flooded her face, and blood rush downward to settle right where he didn't need it to. But, again, he was a guy, and he loved the opposite sex. He especially loved Lily's reactions to him. He couldn't help but to needle her just a bit.

"I was hoping you'd run so I could chase you."

"Problem here, Lily?"

Nikoli wanted to shout in frustration. No fewer than six members of the football team, two of whom were from his own frat house, stood behind Lily. How the hell was he going to wear her down if he couldn't get five minutes alone with her?

"No, Jimmy." She smiled up at the guy who'd spoken. "Nikoli and I were just discussing his STD status."

His mouth fell open. She did not...the little...oh, hell no. He stood, ready to...damn, he didn't know what he wanted to do.

He heard laughs all around, some not as concealed as others. Fury radiated from him in the next second. The laughs stopped as fast as they'd started when he rolled his shoulders, muscles rippling. Football player he wasn't, but he fought with the best of them and had beaten all the guys standing across from him bloody at one time or another over the last three years. They knew better than to cross him. He gave them his best hard-ass stare, and several took a step back.

"You know what?" Lily shook her head and started walking away. "I don't have time for the testosterone showdown. I have more important things to do."

"Let me buy you dinner, at least." Nikoli leapt after her, ignoring the snickers behind him. He wasn't letting her get away that easily. He made sure not to touch her this time around, though. "You didn't get to eat your lunch."

"Will you go away and leave me alone if I let you buy me dinner?"

He gave her his patented cocky grin. "Trust me, Lily Bells, you won't want me to leave you alone."

She gave him a long-suffering sigh, one reserved for an unruly child, and resumed walking, leaving the food court and heading back toward the dorms. "I am not sleeping with you now, tomorrow, or a year from now. What do I need to do to get it through that thick skull of yours?"

"Milaya, there are so many things I can think of you doing to me."

"What does that mean?" she asked, frowning.

"It's Russian."

"But your last name is Scottish."

"My mother is Russian, but my father's family originated in Scotland before they moved to the United States. When he joined the Marines, he was stationed in Russia, where he met my mother."

"Did you grow up in Russia?"

He had her talking, and he let out a little sigh of relief. While he didn't normally talk about his life to women, he made an exception for Lily because she wasn't falling for his usual BS.

Nikoli noticed her football player friends following them at a discreet distance. Luther was right about one thing. Lily was not one to be taken lightly with so many would-be protectors waiting in the wings. Even knowing he could get the shit beat out of him, he didn't care. He wanted her.

"Until I was fourteen. Then Dad sent me to live with my uncle Brian in Virginia the summer before I started high school. Papa did that with all of us. He wanted his sons educated in the States where he grew up. My parents still live in St. Petersburg, though."

She smiled. "I've seen photos of the city. It looks beautiful."

"It is," Nikoli agreed. "I miss it sometimes. There are so many places I used to roam when I was a kid. My brothers and I played in old ruins and pretended we were great knights fighting for Mother Russia." He let out a laugh. It had been years since he'd thought of that.

"How many brothers do you have?"

"Five." They always brought a smile to his face. All of his brothers, except Mason, were older, and he'd been their punching bag until he was old enough and strong enough to beat them black and blue.

"No sisters?"

He laughed. "Thank fuck, no."

She gave him a curious look.

"My brothers and I are all very much alike, and if we'd had to defend a sister against guys like us..." He shook his head. "We'd never have had any fun."

"So, they're all jackasses too?" She looked up at him, her tone innocent, but her eyes danced with mischief.

Nikoli grinned, thinking about his brothers' reactions to that statement. They'd like his Lily Bells. Hold up...his Lily Bells? What the hell was he thinking? It had to be all this talking shit. Dinner, sex, and he wouldn't have to do any more of it with her.

The dorms came into view, and he frowned, glancing at his watch. Damn. He'd spent fifteen whole minutes talking to this chick. His longest conversation began and ended with, "Your place or mine?"

"So, dinner?" he asked as they came to a stop outside of one of the East Campus Brownstones, one of the smaller dormitories on campus. He liked it and the area where it was located. There was a lot of old-world charm to the dorm, not like all the modern ones built in the last couple decades. The architecture screamed colonial, and it reminded him of some of the buildings in Russia. It was also close to Kenmore Square where his favorite restaurant was located. He rubbed his hands together at the thought of how quickly they could have access to a bed or couch—or anywhere, really. He wasn't that picky when it came to sex. The floor did the job as well as a bed.

"I thought you might have forgotten that." She let out a long-suffering sigh. "You do realize if I go to dinner, we are not having sex afterward? I'd just be going so you'd leave me alone the rest of the year?"

"I might change your mind."

"No, you won't. I have more self-respect than some of the women I've seen you with. Besides, I've had to clean up after you before, and it's not a situation I'd ever put myself in."

"Clean up after me?"

She laughed harshly. "Remember that spiel you gave me about women knowing it was just sex, and if they had other thoughts, it was on them?"

Nikoli nodded slowly, a sinking sensation creeping into the pit of his stomach.

"I've had to sit and listen to some of those girls, let them have a good cry, and then tell them you're nothing but a jerk and not worth their time. Why would I ever do that to myself?"

"You wouldn't," Nikoli replied quickly. "You know the deal up front. Just sex."

She sighed like he'd missed some big point. In her mind, he probably had, but Nikoli was clueless as to what. He didn't speak girl.

"Why the hell not?" she muttered. "Not like I have other plans, anyway. If you'll go away, then yes, I'll go to dinner with you, but you have to promise you'll stay away from me for the rest of the year."

She just waved a red flag in front of his face, and she didn't even know it.

"You've got a deal, sweetheart."