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  He reached for my hand, uncurling my fingers, only to wrap them

  around his cock, then kept his grip on my knuckles as he squeezed,

  pressing my sweaty palm into his hot skin. His face was so close that

  when he licked his lips, I felt the tip of his tongue tease over me. I let

  out a shaky breath, close to coming just like that.

  “But you’re right. Trick question.” His words fell over my lower

  lip on an exhale, and I could tell by his eyes that he was smiling that

  enigmatic smile. It was a moot point. He’d just proven that he didn’t

  even have to open his mouth and I’d do whatever the fuck he

  wanted.

  It irritated the shit out of me.

  It also got me hotter than hell.

  I scowled as his grin broke wider and he squeezed my hand again,

  in turn squeezing himself so hard another bead of precome dripped

  from his slit. I sucked in a shaky breath as it ran down my knuckles.

  And then he pulled his hand away and said, “I’ve got shit to do.”

  Dismissed in a span of seconds. Typical fucking Eric. It was frus‐

  trating to no end, but I couldn’t deny the exhilaration that accompa‐

  nied it.

  He planted his palm in the center of my chest and shoved himself

  upright, then stood, picking up my pants from the floor and tossing

  them toward me.

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  I caught them one-handed, stuck my feet in, and arched my hips to

  pull them up. “You’re such a dick sometimes, you know that?”

  “I know you like it. I know it gets you hard. That’s what I know.”

  I rolled my eyes at his back, stood up as I fastened my pants, then

  headed for the door. “I’ll be around,” I tossed out, as nonchalantly as I

  could while still sporting a giant, throbbing erection.

  “Nate.”

  I turned back to see him fishing through his nightstand. He took

  out a folded piece of paper and frisbeed it in my direction. I missed

  and had to pick it up from the floor before I could open it and stare

  uncomprehendingly at the numbers. “What’s this?”

  “Lab results. If you want to keep doing this, maybe you should get

  checked out, too.”

  My head immediately populated with filthy images of his bare dick

  plunging inside me. The blazing heat, the unrestrained surge of his

  come through me, filling me, dripping from my hole. Fucking Christ.

  The paper in my hands was going limp with how much my palms

  were sweating over the prospect. I tossed it back on the bed and

  squeezed my dick through my pants while he smirked.

  “Did that after Ashley. All good. I’ve only been with you since.”

  He perked a brow in what looked like surprise, then nodded. I

  don’t know why I hadn’t mentioned it before, except we moved so fast

  and unexpectedly that I guess I hadn’t really given it any thought, but

  fuck was it in my head now, knocking around like temptation on fire.

  I opened the door and listened to the quiet before pulling it wider.

  “I’m heading to the gym in a little while, so if you want to tag along…”

  So much for playing it cool.

  “Thought you said that’d be a danger to your health?” A muted

  smile quirked his lips that I couldn’t help but match.

  “I was just fucking around. I do have some self-control.”

  I expected some quip in return, but Eric only looked at me a

  second longer and turned away to shut the drawer. “I’ll probably pass.

  Got a shit ton of assignments that’ve piled up.”

  Yeah, if I hadn’t gotten it before, that was definitely a dismissal. I

  flagged his back a peace sign.

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  “Hey,” he said, and I paused yet again in the doorway. “I like it, too.”

  I wasn’t sure whether he meant this weird morning we were

  having, the weird power struggle, or just…everything we’d been

  doing, and it wasn’t until I got back in my room that I thought harder

  about what that piece of paper and his question meant. It wasn’t like

  he’d asked me to be his boyfriend or anything, but there was a tacit

  implication in it that meant he wasn’t sleeping around and I wasn’t

  either.

  I sat down on the corner of my bed and gnawed my lower lip,

  staring dazedly through the window until my phone buzzed in my

  pants pocket and I pulled it out, finding a text from Mark stacked on

  top of a bunch of others.

  And it was a good thing. Otherwise, I might’ve sat there a lot

  longer, going down some rogue emotional path that I had no business

  being on this early in the day.

  Mark: Srsly dude

  I groaned.

  AN HOUR AND A HALF LATER, I jogged down the front steps of our

  house, my gym bag bouncing against my ass as I trotted across the

  dewy grass toward the U’s gym, which was about a half-mile walk. My

  breath frosted in the air, and I shoved my hands in the pockets of my

  track pants as I went. I wasn’t one to romanticize the seasons, but I

  did really like the fall—and not just because it meant football. The

  cooler temperatures and smoke-scented air got me a little nostalgic,

  and I found myself looking forward to going home for the holidays,

  hanging out with my parents and some of my high school friends. I

  wondered what it was like for Eric. He rarely mentioned going home,

  rarely talked about high school. Or maybe I just hadn’t been paying

  attention before, like he’d said. After all, I’d totally missed the whole

  bit about his dad and stepdad.

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  My phone vibrated in my hand.

  Eric: Ass is looking good in those pants. Would look better in my hands.

  I grinned down at the screen and didn’t even give him the pleasure

  of looking over my shoulder before I replied while still walking.

  Nate: Perv

  Nate: Terrible line, btw

  Eric: Never claimed to be charming, just dirty

  Couldn’t argue with that.

  “WAIT THE FUCK UP!”

  Damn, that voice lived under my skin. An obnoxious twitch of my

  cock followed, but I stopped and turned around, adjusting the strap

  on my bag as Eric trotted through the grass toward me while I tried to

  ignore the stupid thrill of happiness I got out of him deciding to join

  me after all.

  “Decided maybe I should burn off last night,” he explained, falling

  in step beside me.

  “Pounding me like you were trying to launch me into orbit wasn’t

  enough?”

  “You’re still walking on solid ground, aren’t you?”

  “Barely,” I muttered, and he stopped, grabbing my elbow to stop

  me, too, concern flitting through his eyes and making a firm line of

  his mouth as he angled toward me.

  “Did I hurt you?”

  I wanted to roll my eyes and laugh it off, but the sincerity in his

  expression held me back. I shook my head. “Nah, man. It’s good.”

  “You can tell me to ease up, stop. At any time and I would.”

  I laughed, a little uncomfortably. “What, like some kind of safe

  word or something?”

  He shrugged. “Maybe, yeah.”

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VE WILDER

  I did roll my eyes then. “Fine, my safe word is: fuck off. I told you

  it’s all good. Relax.” Because what I’d originally meant when I’d

  spoken had nothing to do with the physical. At all.

  He studied me a moment longer, then released me and we started

  walking again.

  “We’ll get you set up with a nice, light walking program on the

  treadmill,” I told him, trying to steer us away from the sense of heavi‐

  ness that seemed to move with us. “And they do have some two- and

  three-pound hand weights.” I gave him a smartass grin that he

  mirrored.

  “Will I need to spot you with those, or you think you can manage

  on your own?”

  Fucker. I broke into laughter, shaking my head, and yanked open

  the glass-fronted door, warm air and the tang of sweat and gym

  equipment rushing out to greet us.

  INSIDE, I claimed a tread and dropped my gear off in the locker room

  while Eric got started, then rejoined him, punching the screen to start

  the belt. The long line of TVs in front of us blared newscasts, sports,

  interior design shows and cooking demos, and usually I just popped

  my earbuds in and got lost to the tempo of my running playlist, but

  today I was tuned into Eric beside me, the steady rhythm of his foot‐

  falls, his breathing as it sped up, resembling… I groaned internally and

  focused on a lady on the screen as she dumped a bowl of what looked

  like vegetables into some kind of batter. Gross.

  “You run and I just never noticed it?” I asked, without looking

  over; he was moving at a pretty decent clip. I’d bumped up the speed

  on my belt and was starting to get nice and winded, that breathless

  feeling I loved tightening my chest, firing off dopamine and twitching

  through my muscles. In absence of a fuck, exercise was about as close

  as I could get to accomplishing the same sated, muscle-drowsy feeling

  afterward.

  “Here and there. Not much. I played soccer in high school and a

  few other sports. Think I’ve got decent muscle memory.”

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  “What position? In soccer I mean.” I snuck a glance aside at him

  and glimpsed the faint curve of his lips. His neck was shiny with a

  thin layer of sweat, the muscles of his calves popping with each stride.

  “Forward.”

  “Were you any good?”

  He huffed out a breathy laugh. “Not good enough to try to pursue

  it. It was just for fun. I was home-schooled, so it wasn’t the same as a

  school team or anything. Didn’t you play football or something?”

  “Yeah,” I said, grinning. “Same answer, though—not well enough to

  do anything with it.”

  “Guess the habits lasted better in you than in me. You’re in stupid

  good shape.” He reached out, knocking down the speed on his tread‐

  mill. “I’m starting to fade already.”

  “You did it wrong. Gotta start slow and ramp it up.” I wasn’t

  about to address his comment on my body with some return compli‐

  ment, because even though I found his lean definition smoking

  fucking hot, there was no way I’d be able to say it without sounding

  like a total lech in the middle of the gym. Though shit, he’d probably

  like that.

  “Yeah, that’s one way to do it.” He cut a sidelong look at me that

  lingered suggestively a couple of beats and sent an extra kick of heat

  dancing through me.

  “You should know.”

  WE MOVED to the free weights next, running through a bicep, tricep,

  and back-focused set in front of the gym’s wall of mirrors. Without

  my earbuds, I was hyperaware of the other guys around us: the

  scrawny fella trying to lift too heavy, a rugby dude who was definitely

  slacking with those 25 pounders, and a guy I’d come to silently refer

  to as the Grunter who, no matter what he was lifting, always made

  noises like he was trying to pull a car off an old lady. I’d had him in a

  survey course once, and he’d been much the same. Grunting with

  every shift of his body.

  After a particularly loud grunt, Eric caught my eye in the mirror,

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  his mouth tight as he tried to hold back his laughter, and it was all I

  could do not to crack up, too.

  As we moved on to the larger weights, Eric passed me by, lowering

  his voice. “Can you imagine what he sounds like when he comes?

  Gotta be like an elephant trumpeting. You need to step up your game.”

  I did crack up then. “I can’t be anything close to him. Really?”

  Though, usually when I was in the heat of the moment, I was hardly

  even aware of what planet I was on, let alone what kind of sounds I

  was making. Was I really that noisy of a fucker, though?

  Eric’s grin was sphinxlike and brief as he turned away to crouch

  down and select some weights for the chest press. I helped him slide

  them onto the bar and tried not to stare too long when he ducked his

  head inside his shirt to wipe sweat from his forehead with the collar,

  exposing a lean stretch of glistening abs to my hungry perusal.

  Next, he positioned himself on the bench, and I stepped closer to

  his head, wrapping my hands around the bar and preparing to help

  him lift it out of the cradle.

  He gave me a wicked twist of a smile. “I might be being ambitious.

  Don’t let me die.”

  “Don’t piss me off.”

  He winked at me, then lifted the bar. His nostrils flared as he

  exhaled, straining under the weight as he lowered the bar, paused,

  then pushed it back up. I kept my hands hovering at the ready,

  watching for any telltale wobble.

  Veins at the sides of his temples popped into relief, but he kept his

  breaths measured and steady, chest puffing out with each inhale,

  shorts drawn tight over his tense thighs and crotch. Jesus, I could get

  down with him staying like this forever, stripping him right where he

  was like a goddamn sin buffet there for the taking. I blinked the

  imagery away and darted my hand out to help guide the bar back into

  its cradle as his biceps trembled. Somehow in the span of a month, I’d

  become deeply depraved.

  After another set, we switched places.

  “Don’t you need more weight?” he asked as I settled beneath the

  bar and found my grip.

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  “I’m doing an easy day today.” I cut him a grin as I lifted the bar, all

  too aware of the heat rolling off his body near my head.

  “Braggart. You come every day?”

  “Pretty much.” I paused with the weight close to my chest, then

  exhaled and pushed it up again in one smooth, solid contraction of

  muscle that felt good.

  “Why?”

  “Why?” I tilted my head back to look at him, and Eric flicked his

  hand out to steady the bar as it tilted to one side.

  “I got it,” I assured him. “Clears the clutter, I guess. I dunno. Or it’s

  habit. Don’t think there’s some deeper motivation there, if that’s what

  you’re asking.”

  “Just curious what it takes to maintain.” Eric stepped closer, h
is

  shorts brushing the top of my head as I busted through another

  couple of reps. I slowed as I caught his gaze drifting over my body and

  going hazy and hungry. My dick responded immediately and I pushed

  the weight up again, then fit the bar back in its home base. “Watch it.”

  He gave me light, teasing crinkle of a smile. “I am.”

  “Well, stop. Not like that when I’m spread out on a bench in shorts

  this goddamn thin. Do you know how fucking annoying the way I

  react to you is?”

  He caught my wrist as I released the bar and sent it skimming

  along the fabric over his crotch. Quick, but enough for me to feel his

  semi. “What do you think?” he asked before letting me go.

  SOMEHOW WE MANAGED to finish working out without becoming

  completely obscene. I was drenched and Eric wasn’t much better off,

  and we stopped at the water fountain so he could grab a drink and I

  could refill my water bottle.

  “Gonna shower and head to my chapter meeting.” I thumbed

  toward the locker room as he sucked at the stream of water.

  He straightened, tipped his chin in a slight nod, and glanced over

  his shoulder before his gaze swerved back at me as he wiped

  his mouth.

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  I considered for a second, then added, “We could go get something

  to eat later. Shoot pool or something.”

  Goddamn the smirk that spread over his face. It hit me like a

  flinch, but there was something in his eyes that belied the cocky

  expression, and that was the only reason I didn’t roll my eyes at him

  and tell him to forget it, because my stomach was already flip-flop‐

  ping all over itself for asking in the first place.

  “Just you and me?”

  “Unless you want to invite your fan club of two, yeah.”

  “And after that?”

  I hesitated. I knew what I wanted. Still wasn’t keen on asking for

  it. But shit, I was pretty sure Eric wanted it, too. That’s why he was

  standing there, right? Why he’d kissed me back the way he did last

  night, like he didn’t care if he ever breathed again. “There’s that spot

  at the quarry.”

  “We gonna cuddle up nice and cozy while we listen to the radio?”

  he teased.

  I eyed his raised brows. “No, asshole. No radio. Just those noises

  you make when your dick’s in my mouth and maybe some of my own

  when you’re fucking me and I don’t have to worry about how

  goddamn loud I’m being.”