Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
I’d wanted to find out for myself.
Of course, to do that I signed up for a (fake) tutorial session with her. As one does. Note the sarcasm. I am very much aware that one does not in fact fake signing up for tutorial sessions for a degree I’m not even working toward.
I was not a psychology student.
My degree was in civil engineering.
Truthfully, I hadn’t thought much beyond assuaging this intense curiosity about Lily. I hadn’t expected to like her so much that I’d want to be her friend in a more permanent way.
Something that would soon be impossible if I didn’t get up the nerve to tell her the truth.
“What made you want to do the podcast?”
Lily grabbed the book she needed and then leaned against the bookcase. She shrugged. “Me and my roommate and our friend Sierra run it. Beth—you met her that first session—she started it when she studied here.”
“You didn’t start it?”
Her pretty hazel eyes searched my face. They really were the most extraordinary color. Golden mossy. “Beth did. Then she invited me on in my first year. I took it over when she graduated the following year. At first, I wanted to push myself. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m kind of an introvert and not the most confident person.”
“Why? You’re smart and gorgeous.”
She swallowed hard, her gaze dropping to my mouth.
Bloody hell.
“Thanks,” she muttered, seeming to have to wrench her attention off my lips.
Be her friend, be her friend, be her friend. Only her friend.
I cleared my throat against the heat building low in my gut. “You were saying?”
“Right. Aye, at first I was challenging myself. Then …” Lily shrugged sheepishly. “I realized how much I got out of helping people. I never realized how curious I was about what made people the way they were and how it was possible to help them onto a path that could alleviate certain emotional and mental health issues by understanding what was causing them in the first place. I switched my major from English lit to psychology after only a few weeks on the podcast. And I’ve applied to Edinburgh for my postgrad to become a psychotherapist.”
Wow. She was really in it for life. This wasn’t some college pastime for her. “It means a lot to you? The podcast?”
“Aye, it does. It’s not … I’m not trying to be famous. In fact, I never wanted any part of that. I …” She lowered her eyes and shrugged. “It might be difficult for someone like you to understand.”
I frowned, leaning into the shelving so our bodies were almost touching. “Someone like me?”
“Someone confident who knows he’s good-looking.” Lily shrugged again, staring at her feet. “Sierra’s like you. Even Maddie, to an extent. But more people are like me. Uncertain of themselves. Awkward.” She winced. “We don’t find social interactions as easy as some people. It’s an effort. And we kick ourselves for saying stupid things and get anxious about certain social situations, including dating. I represent everyone like me, and I think having someone like me talk openly and vulnerably about what it’s like to be a shy dater helps people feel seen. Also, the girls have helped me, given me great advice, and it’s wonderful to be able to share whether that advice works for my personality type or how I’ve tweaked it to suit me. Listeners have really responded to that. And when we get call-ins or emails thanking me for helping them find love or ask out their crush … it makes being vulnerable worthwhile.”
I swallowed hard, my heart pounding loudly in my ears for reasons I didn’t quite understand. “You’re a really good person, Lily.”
Her dimples flashed as she shyly looked me in the eye. “You’re full of compliments today.”
For a moment, I forgot what I’d promised myself. That Lily was off-limits. Friend-zoned. It was easy to forget when she was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, and I suddenly found myself desperate to know what her moans of pleasure sounded like.
My skin flushed hot. All rational thought fled my mind and there was nothing more important than learning how soft Lily Sawyer’s plush mouth really was.
I bent my head toward her and at the hitch of her breath, my balls tightened.
“If you aren’t going to use the study room, should I give it to someone else?” A voice had Lily jerking away from me with a squeak of surprise.
Irritated, I blinked out of my sexual fog and turned to find a woman standing in the middle of the aisle.
A woman I recognized.
Bloody hell, it was Lily’s mother.
I straightened and turned.
“Mum.” Lily pushed off the bookshelves, her eyes wide with embarrassment. “I was just grabbing a book before we used the study room.”
I’d never met Olivia Sawyer, the head librarian. I’d seen her around and heard some of the blokes making crass, sexist jokes about her being a MILF. She’d given Lily her coloring, including the hazel eyes. However, she was much curvier than Lily, a little taller, and if I was being honest, a little plainer in the face. She didn’t look old enough to be Lily’s mum.