“CAME TO SEE YOU,” Dean answered.
“Me?” Phaedra’s eyes lifted in surprise.
“Yeah.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” He felt stupe saying that, but it sounded better than giving her the real reason.
“You don’t know?” Her question became a challenge.
For some reason, knowing he shouldn’t have but feeling it and giving in to the emotion all the same, Dean got angry. “That’s right!”
“Shh!” Phaedra uncoiled her fist and put her forefinger to her lips.
They both glanced at Bitha, who slept on.
Dean swiveled his head back to Phaedra, gazing at her lips and wondering why he hadn’t noticed how ripe and full they looked. He breathed in again, deep, but trying not to let her know what he was doing. The scent of vanilla filled his nostrils, and he knew he’d never forget it.
“Don’t sit there smiling,” Phaedra chastised.
“Was I smiling?” Dean put on a serious face.
“You still are.”
Dean tried not to let his gaze linger too long on the rounded breast almost visible under the lavender blanket. He’d never known lavender could be so attractive, either. “I always look like this.”
“Uh-uh.” Phaedra shook her head, her gold locks flying. “Usually you’ve got a bored look on your face.” She smiled, her eyes narrowing. “You don’t look bored now.”
“Getting punched in the nose kind of knocks the boredness right out of you.” He moved his nose as if he were worried about it. In truth, he’d almost forgotten about it. Probably he would have, except for the occasional throb.
“So what brought you to my room?” Phaedra asked.
Guile was second nature to Dean, having been raised for so long by Rona to protect his father’s identity and keep things about himself secret. “I didn’t know this was your room.”
She raised her eyebrows, the smile dimming only a little. “Oh, and who else’s bedroom have you been prowling around in the dead of night?”
“I didn’t say I’d been prowling around in anyone else’s bedroom.” Dean was feeling mad all over again because she was being so accusing about everything. Maybe it would have been better if Phaedra had just screamed. Talking to her wasn’t something he really wanted to do. At least if the dorm sec people got hold of him, they’d ask him what the hell he thought he was doing and he could just say, “I don’t know,” shrug and be done with it.
But then he’d have Nicholas Brody to contend with.
The prospect made him think maybe talking to Phaedra might not be as dire as he believed at the moment.
“You got in here by accident?” Phaedra’s tone took on heavy sarcasm.
Lying, he sensed, would only have brought out the big blasters. “No,” Dean said.
“Whisper!”
“I am.”
“Then get better at it!”
Dean’s face flushed and burned.
“If you didn’t get here by accident,” Phaedra said, “then you planned to be here.”
But not caught , Dean wanted to say. He nodded. “I’ve got to go.”
Phaedra frowned at him. “You just got here.”
“This isn’t exactly a visit,” Dean said.
“Then why are you here?”
“Will you?”
“Shh!” Phaedra’s forefinger zipped to her lips, and the blanket slid down to reveal a bare shoulder.
Dean waited.
In her bed Bitha stretched, yawned and rolled over the other way.
“She gets restless,” Phaedra explained in a whisper. “Usually when her period is coming on.”
Dean also decided he could have done without that bit of information. “I’ve got to go.”
“You can’t go.”
Dean smirked. “Look, you might have surprised me with that punch to the nose because I wasn’t expecting it, but there’s no way you can keep me from going.” He stood.
Phaedra glared at him. “I can scream.”
With the way the light was hitting her, Dean thought he could see the outline of one pointy nipple jutting out from her breast That one little bump of flesh tonight intrigued him more than all the naked breasts he’d ever seen. “Why would you scream?”
“Why not?”
Frustrated, Dean sat on the edge of the bed. “You’re confusing.”
“I’m confusing?”
“Yes, and you’re turning everything you say into a damn question. I feel like I’m in the middle of one of Coco Copeland’s math exams.”