“I’ll find you a tutor,” she promised. And she would. God help her if she’d let him fail after all the time and effort she’d put into him so far.

“How was your summer?” Janet asked, bringing Lily’s attention back to her.

“It was great.” She smiled. “I spent most of the summer interning at a literary agency in New York.”

“You were in New York all summer?” Janet’s eyes lit up. She wanted to move to New York after graduation to become a journalist, and Mike wanted to work on Wall Street. The two of them had been together for almost two years now. Lily was expecting Janet to show her a ring soon. Mike was over the moon for her.

“I can’t believe you were in New York all summer and didn’t think to call up and say, ‘Hey, Mikey, I got a pad in NYC!’” He looked seriously injured. “Do you realize the epic parties we could have had?”

Lily laughed at his outraged expression. “Sorry, Mikey.”

“Dude, not cool.” He glared. “Not cool at all.”

She laughed “I’ll catch you guys later. I do need to check and see if my book is in before all the new freshmen swarm the bookstore.”

Every time Lily was around Adam and Sue, she got so frustrated it was all she could do not to scream. She honestly couldn’t figure out what Adam saw in the little tart, aside from her being a blonde, blue-eyed Barbie doll. Adam had always been a sucker for blonde hair. There was no substance to Sue. All she cared about was herself. There wasn’t a kind bone in her body. She had even attempted to stop Lily and Adam from being friends, but that was where Adam had drawn the line. He’d told her in no uncertain terms that Lily was family, and if she pushed, she wouldn’t like the outcome. Sue had shut up, but she still did little things to try and separate them. Like lunch today. Lily would guarantee the emergency was nothing but a ruse to get Adam away from her.

Sighing, she shook her head and headed for the bookstore. Maybe at least something would go right today and her book would be in.

Nik watched Lily walk away from the crowd gathered under the tree and debated following her. She was going to prove to be a challenge. He couldn’t think of a single time he’d ever had to work for a woman. They usually fell all over him, but not Lily. She had outright told him she had no interest whatsoever in him. Maybe she was just playing hard to get? Something told him that wasn’t her game, though. She had zero interest in him, and it rattled him.

Luther joined him under the tree, and the disgusting grin across his face irked Nik almost enough to punch his best friend. Not that it wasn’t warranted; it just rankled he could wear the grin at all. This was a new experience for him, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“She shut you down in less than a minute!” Luther crowed.

“Shut the hell up, man,” he grouched.

Luther laughed. “Hell, no. This is a first, and I am going to take extreme advantage of all the ribbing I can do.”

“Not for long,” Nik said darkly.

“Leave it alone, Nik.” All the laughter had gone out of Luther’s voice. “Lily is not the kind of girl you just fuck.”

“Then what kind of girl is she?” Nikoli’s mind was already plotting how to get her into his bed.

“She’s the kind of girl you marry,” Luther told him.

“That’s bullshit, man,” Nik scoffed. “They’re all the same, just have to figure out the right notes to hit with her.”

Luther shook his head. “Your funeral.”

Nikoli knew Luther was only looking out for him, but Luther’s warning wasn’t going to deter him.

He always got what he wanted.

Chapter Three

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 never saw what was in front of him. He preferred the blonde airheads.

With a sigh, 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. Dejected, Lily made her way back to the cafeteria. At least she might be able to grab a bite to eat before she needed to go check on the girls at the dorm. She was in charge of one of the floors and got a steep discount on her room and board because of it. The do’s and don’ts speech she had to give later this evening was not something she looked forward to. 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 before heading into the main lunch room. She nodded to people as she passed. 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 people 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, but Adam loved her, and that was that. Lily had been determined to put her feelings for Adam behind her, but how could she when he was there all the time?

Boston was supposed to be Lily’s 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 there. Who knew he’d go and change his mind? Boston offered him a full scholarship too, but their team was nothing compared to LSU.

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. She later found out he didn’t think she could handle it on her own, and his big brother instincts had 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, was polishing up a manuscript to start sending off to prospective agents. 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.

“So is it just me, or men in general?”

Lily’s head snapped up to see Nikoli sitting down at her table. Her eyes narrowed. 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. Right now, she just needed to get up and get out. 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 Russian accent of his.

“I think it’s just you,” she told him with a sigh. 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.” Nikoli’s smile widened when he saw the flush creep up her face. “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.”