“Apparently so.”

They didn’t speak again until they hit the campus.

As far as she was concerned, that little ten-minute trip was the longest ever. Conall parked as close as possible to the building she needed to get to, then he shut off the motor and stared straight ahead. Miki grabbed her backpack, ready to storm off, but his voice stopped her. “When you’re done, come back here. Don’t go anywhere else. Don’t try and sneak off. ‘Cause I will find you. And if I have to do that I’ll be much less pleasant.”

“You’re being an asshole.”

“Sorry. It must be the aftereffects of the drugs you gave me!”

Miki didn’t even flinch when he started yelling. “You’re going to hold that over my head forever, aren’t you?”

Conall stared at her with his mouth open.

“What?”

He turned away from her. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

Okay. Fine. He wanted to be an unforgiving asshole, he could be an unforgiving asshole. Self-righteous prick.

She jumped out of the SUV, pulled her backpack over both her shoulders, and cut across campus toward her advisor’s office.

“Hey, psychopath!” Miki, halfway to her destination, turned around to see Amy and Craig walking toward her.

“Hey.”

“You okay?” Amy knew her well. “I can’t tell if you’re pissed or sad.”

Both. “It’s nothing. I’m okay. What are you guys doing up so early? Or did you even bother going to bed?”

Amy sighed. “I gotta teach a bunch of freshman about quantum physics. Three hours of my life I’ll never get back.” She bitched a lot, but Amy was one of the best associate professors the university had. And if they were smart, they’d cough up and give her tenure before MIT or Harvard finally stole her away.

“And I’m here to see Professor Leucrotta.” Miki felt a shudder go down her spine at Craig’s muttered words. And it wasn’t one of those cool ones Conall gave her. But one of those creepy shudders she got like when she saw a spider crawling around her bathtub.

“Why?”

“Don’t worry. He agreed to meet with me about the grant money. Maybe I’ll be able to track down his password while I’m in his office.”

“Be careful. Don’t do anything stupid.”

“Who? Me? And where is my fifty bucks?”

She smirked. “I believe you forgot to give me that this morning.”

“You’re not giving that back to me, are you?”

Miki grinned. “Nope. But thanks for checking up on me.”

“Anytime. We felt like we couldn’t leave you alone with Conan the Barbarian.”

“Hey, Mik.” Amy nudged her. “Check it out. Your boring dream man.” Miki followed Amy’s nod and saw Troy Benson walking toward her.

“Miki? Is that you?”

Miki braved a smile at Troy and quickly slipped her backpack off her shoulders. Nothing geekier than walking around with a giant backpack attached to you. And Troy was so not geeky. Almost six feet tall—a nice normal height, unlike some other abnormally large males she knew—with light brown hair and dark green eyes. She’d had a crush on him since Advanced Chem. Not surprisingly, Troy had his arm around some tall, blonde babe who looked like she didn’t eat without throwing up after, but he kissed her on the cheek and sent her on her way before walking over.

“Wow, you haven’t changed. Still my little Miki.”

Funny, that didn’t seem like much of a compliment.

* * *

“Did she say anything else?”

Conall leaned against the passenger door of the SUV, his cell phone against his ear, and stared out at the deserted campus. It was still early and students were just starting to appear. “Said she was trying to get herself a cowboy.”

“I don’t really think that’s helpful.”

Conall grunted and Zach was silent for a moment on the other end. “Is everything okay with you?” he finally asked.

“Yeah. Why?”

“I’ve just never heard you sound so much…like me.”

Conall chuckled. “I’m fine.”

“Miki still giving you a hard time?”

“Something like that.” He wasn’t about to admit to his Alpha Male he let some crazy woman drug him and take off in the middle of the night. If for no other reason, he knew Zach would never let him live it down.

“I’m sure she’ll get over it eventually. Anyway, did you believe her?” Yes! But he was never going to believe short, vicious women again. Especially ones whose whole bodies shook during orgasm.

“Who?”

“Victoria Löwe.”

“Oh…uh…yeah, yeah. I did. I believed her.”

“Okay. Well, you two be careful anyway. Soon as Miki’s done, bring her ass back here before my mate forces me to start drinking. When she’s stressed, she paces. It’s driving me nuts.”

Conall sniffed the wind coming from the direction Miki had headed. He smelled something. Miki’s scent, but mixed with something else. Something…male.

Conall growled.

“Conall? Are you listening to me?”

“Yeah. Sure. We’ll be careful. Gotta go.” He shut off the phone and followed.

* * *

“So? Still living in Texas, huh?”

Miki took a deep breath. She would stay calm. She could do this. Although it wasn’t like Miki was exactly Miss Smooth with the moves. In fact, she could be kind of a doofus with men…except Conall. With him she didn’t seem to have any problems wrapping her legs around his waist while he slammed her against a wall.