Chapter 1

Piper was tall for a woman at five foot ten, with bright blue eyes and dark brunette hair and with her lean body that she worked hard to maintain with gym trips multiple times a week she could be described as eye-catching. Today she sat at an open seat in a row in one of her classes in college that had just started, wearing what she thought looked nice without being dressed up. A sleeveless white blouse with a long jean skirt that came down past her knees, it being designed to look like it buttoned down the full front of it. Filling out a form as she sat there the twenty year old young woman bounced her foot in a way that caused her leather flip flop shoe to make a soft clapping sound as it slapped against her foot.

“Piper Lara Lanska…” Piper heard the voice from the young man about her age say, him sitting in the seat next to her. She would have kept filling out the form and ignoring him, if it wasn’t for the fact that he had put his index finger on the form she was filling out, just below where she had to write her full name. Keeping her face neutral she glanced over to the person so rudely reaching into her personal space and interrupting what she was doing.

Sitting there she saw a young man, a boy is what she mentally filed him away as he tapped his finger on her paper. He had brown hair on the darker side that was longer than most men wore it, the hair coming down long enough to almost touch his shoulders. She had seen the look in his eye before, he was more interested in hitting on her than any other motive or so she assumed from the limited experience she had gained when dealing with males. Growing up she had shot up in height early and developed right around the age most girls did in middle school and had seen the same look in many of her peers.

Piper’s expression was pleasant, though she didn’t want to look happy to be gaining the attention of a guy skinnier than her, even if he was about the same height as her if she had to guess. “That is my name, if you would, I need to get back to filling out this form for the teacher. I presume you need to fill out your own.” It was a dismissal, one she didn’t want to come across as rude, but wanted the message to be clear.

“Yeah? I’m all done, but not everyone is as gifted as me at getting things done. I could help you if you like Piper.” he said using her first name that he had learned from the paperwork in front of her. “You really do have a beautiful name, though I think it would sound better with my last name there instead.” he smirked. The pretty brunette sitting next to him had been a few minutes late for class and the way she bounced her foot, her shoe making sound made it seem like she was just asking for attention and he was happy to provide exactly what she wanted.

Taking a deep breath, Piper held it in as she counted to five and finally gave the man child hitting on her a real look instead of just a glance. He had sunglasses up on his head, as if he would be putting them back down at any minute despite being in class. A pair of bulky, but trendy headphones around his neck, both seemingly at odds with the more cultured clothing he chose to wear. Black jeans in good condition, a plum colored blazer with a white buttoned up shirt underneath, complete with a matching tie. The dress clothing with the dark jeans and gray sneakers gave him a professional, on the side of casual look.

“Thanks…” She was retorting sarcastically, going to be firmer in her dismissal, not wanting to make a scene while sitting in her first college course of the day, but she hadn’t gotten out more than a single word before he interrupted her.

“You're welcome, just calling it as I see it and I’m going to tell you gorgeous, I see you and I like what I’m seeing. I’m John, but if you play your cards right you can just think of me as your boyfriend.”

Her controlled expression slipped, just like her jaw did as it fell slightly ajar from the pure gall of this person. “You're kidding.”

The smile only grew on John’s face as he gave the blue eyed girl a slight shrug. “I get it.” John nodded, despite not truly getting what she was saying at all, him mentally putting what she said as a question instead of the statement it was. “Really though, from where I’m sitting you have a great opening hand, so it shouldn’t be too hard to play it right. How about after class we get to know one another better and I can even share with you a few tips and tricks I have learned around here on campus to be a better student. That way you win twice, getting to spend time with me and learning a thing or two.”

“John.” Piper said his name, forcing a smile to her face, it wasn’t a large one, but still there. “Dear John.” she continued, thinking about the phrase of a dear John letter, but instead of ending a relationship she wanted to prevent one from ever being attempted to be formed. “How about you…” For the second time in the class what she was saying was talked over, interrupted, but this time it was from the professor.

“Miss, if you could please refrain from talking in class, I understand the temptation to talk to people around you at your age, but if you could please put more focus on what you are doing and less on your dating life, I know I would appreciate it so that others could go about what they are working on without interruption.”

‘What the hell!?’ Piper explained mentally at the admonishment from the man teaching the class, or would be teaching the class once the initial self evaluations of their academic career had been filled out. The assignment was an odd one to start a class, accessing where they think they are academically, but being called out for what the annoying person next to her was doing. She didn’t want to talk to him at all and now… Now she blew out a breath through her nose, feeling a small spike of shame from all the attention in the room from the other students, a spotlight put on her. “My apologies professor. It will not happen again.”

For John’s part he only smirked, the pretty coed seemed to be just as interested in him as he was with her. The way she said his name, repeating it and adding the word dear, as if she was already feeling an attachment. Looking her up and down once more a small thought came through his mind about how pretty she was, how fast she had moved to calling him dear and the talks he had heard from others about the hot to crazy scale. Leaning over he touched her forearm lightly, giving it a slight squeeze before whispering. “We can talk after class, don’t worry, we have all the time in the world to get to know one another.”

A spike of rage flared through Piper, she wanted to slap his hand away, but it was gone before she needed to do a thing and even if she had, it would more than likely bring the professor down on her more. She hadn’t been the greatest student so far now that she was out on her own… semi out on her own. Sure she still lived at home with her mother and younger sister, but her mother had been **** to spend so much time out of town that she was practically in charge. It sure as heck wasn’t her step father… at least not now with how she had handled things.

Thinking about what she had done to Brooklyn, her step father who was really only six years older than herself, she glared daggers at the man sitting next to her. She had promised her mother that while she was gone that she would do better in school. How she wasn’t in private school anymore where the educators were on top of their students all the time to make sure they succeeded, now that she was in college she had slipped a bit. This self centered jerk had put her on the wrong foot in her class and considering how he acted, she couldn’t imagine him not acting like some chauvinist till he learned a lesson.