Sparring Partners [18+]

Chapter Seventeen: Study Buddies

"A reminder that the Student Library will close in thirty minutes. Please make sure you have all of your belongings as you leave, and that you throw away any rubbish in the designated bins. If you need to speak to anyone at the reception desk, please do so now."

"What the fuck?" I muttered, annoyed. I directed my glare towards the speaker in the corner of the ceiling, as if whoever had spoken could see me. "Why is it closing? It never closes! I have so much shit I need to get done tonight. I have at least four hours of work to do."

It was a Friday evening, and after a long week of bullshit at uni and idiot customers at work, I was ready to crawl into bed and sleep the weekend away. But instead, one of my stupid module leaders had decided she wanted to see a first draft of an essay that wasn't even due until the end of term, this Monday.

"Just take out the books you need and do it at home," Markus suggested, frowning at the giant stack of books I had only just finished assembling. I'd only sat down two minutes ago to start my essay, and I'd already set up everything I needed ready for a long evening of work, from snacks and drinks to my notebooks and the research I'd already done. Just my bloody luck that I'd have to pack it all up again in the next twenty minutes.

"Sarah has friends over for drinks tonight. It's someone's birthday. I'll be lucky to get five minutes alone to concentrate on this."

I groaned again, slumping in my chair like a sad, deflated balloon. I knew if I didn't get this done now, there was no chance I would get anything done until late Sunday night. Then I would be sleep deprived and irritable for the following morning.

"We can work at mine," Markus offered simply, and the unexpected statement had my brain stuttering to itself.

"What?" I asked, needing another few seconds to process his words.

Work at Markus' apartment... Work at the apartment where we'd had sex... Work in his living room, sat on the leather sofa where he had fucked me to within an inch of my life...

"I'll be up late working too," Markus added with a shrug. "My place will be quiet. You can work there, if you want?"

"Uh..." No, no, no. "Sure."

What the fuck, Daisy? That was not what you were supposed to say.

Markus nodded and immediately began packing up his things. He slipped his laptop into his bag, along with his phone and ear-buds. When he noticed my wide-eyed stare, he explained, "We should just go now, then."

To my dismay, I wasn't able to bring all the books I wanted with us; not when only five fit in my backpack. Still, I had stupidly decided to try to carry another six (very thick and heavy) books in my arms - as if that wasn't going to become tiring on the walk home.

Already I was feeling stressed about the direction this evening had taken, and it didn't help that I was also freaking the fuck out about going back to his place. It was impressive how well I hid my internal panic, though, as I packed my things away, checked out the library books I needed, and followed Markus towards the entrance of the library.

"Hold my card for a second," Markus uttered, handing me his student card as he took most of my library books from my arms and shoved them into his bag. How sweet.

If he had done that earlier, I probably could have checked out more books.

I kept my ungrateful thoughts to myself and examined his student card instead. He was, unsurprisingly, glaring in his ID photo, and unlike every student card photo I had ever seen, he somehow still looked insanely attractive. He was also wearing his signature plain black hoodie in the photograph - the hoodie that was currently still draped over the back of my desk chair. Oops.