“So you’re what? In a hotel tonight?” Rick asked.
“More than likely, I’m sleeping in the truck.” He thumbed toward the window where he could see his vehicle in the parking lot. “Vick went off with women, so...”
“Who’s Vick? The guy peeling those women off you at the end of your race?” Was he jealous? Coop certainly hoped he was.
“Yeah, that’s Vick. He’s my best friend. We grew up together. He’s way spoiled. His parents were in the same country club as mine.” He rolled his eyes dramatically. “He doesn’t ride, but he’s always been there for me.”
“Friends are important.”
“Yeah, but they’re not everything.”
“What do you mean—?”
The server placed plates of food on the table. The scent of the grilled chicken had Coop’s stomach growling. He picked it up and took a big bite.Not bad.As he chewed, he watched Rick dump ketchup on his own sandwich. A ton of it. He swallowed. “You’re ruining that.”
Rick scrunched up his nose. “Everything’s better with ketchup.”
Coop thought he was cute, but ketchup was gross. “Whatever.”
Rick’s sinful humming when he took his first bite put very dirty and inappropriate thoughts in Coop’s head. He wanted to hear more of it, but in bed. They ate quietly for a bit, until most of Coop’s food was gone.
“Coop?”
“Yeah?” He forked up the rest of his hash browns.
“Maybe, uh...you could, uh...”
“Spit it out.”
“Fine. Maybe you could come stay with me tonight? I mean, my roommate won’t mind if you stay over, and I hate thinking of you sleeping in that truck, especially if you have to ride tomorrow.”
Bingo. “That’s really nice of you, but...” Coop protested, knowing he would totally take Rick up on his offer, and hopefully sleep inhisbed.
“Seriously. Come on.” He held up a hand, encouragingly.
“You don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.”
Does he?Did Coop know enough about Rick? They were both young and eager for fun. Rick was totally sexy, and the scorching energy was already pinging between them. He couldn’t deny wanting that. “Well...you don’t look like a serial killer or anything.”
When Rick smiled, the light in the room increased tenfold. He was stunning. All-around gorgeous, but it was the spark in his eyes that hooked Coop. Then he wiggled his eyebrows. “Yeah?”And that oh so charming smile!Coop couldn’t resist him if he wanted to.
“Yeah. Okay. I’m sure it will be better than sleeping in the truck.” Coop pulled his phone out of his back pocket. “Let me text Vick where I’ll be. Not that he’d worry or wonder. Fucker.”
He followed Rick uptown toward the university. Apparently, he lived in an apartment complex near there with his roommate, Drew. Coop wasn’t interested in meeting the guy at all. It was too much like meeting the parents, leaving a nervous twitch under his collar. Coop was the bad boy, the rebel, not the nice kid-next-door you brought home to mama. Or roommate. He huffedto himself but still pulled up next to him in the parking lot in front of a chain-link fence. He put the truck in park and took a long breath. Would sex with Rick be worth all of this? If the roommate were there, they probably wouldn’t get all that far anyway. At least he’d have a better place to sleep than the hard bench seat in the truck. He slung his duffle over his shoulder and got out.
“How safe is my bike going to be?” he asked, jutting his thumb toward the truck.
Rick glanced at the bed of the truck where he had his 450 strapped down. “Oh. We don’t have problems like that here. We have security patrolling.” He shrugged. “I don’t think it’s a problem. Come on.” He nodded to the front of the complex. It wasn’t a huge place but still sported three stories in a U configuration with a pool area in the center. Rick led him to a ground-floor corner unit on the far side. He would prefer to see his bike out a window or something, but he could live with it for one night. “Here’s my place.” Rick opened the door and gestured for him to enter.
His heart pounded hard in his chest as he stepped into the open living room. Surely, this couldn’t be as difficult as racing. He took another breath and exhaled through his nose. The apartment was nice. Black appliances and dark cabinetry, not like he thought college students’ dorms would be, lined the wall to the left. To the right was a couch that was in decent shape, but obviously not new. It faced a flat screen on a stand that held game consoles, but what really stood out was the big ass print of a military plane on the far wall. When he stepped around the couch, he found other prints, this time of helicopters, three of them hung in a column between the window and the wall.
“Those are Blackhawks,” Rick said, pointing to the pictures.
“Okay?” He glanced at Rick, looking for some sign that he was a military fanatic, but he looked normal.
“We’re in ROTC. I’m going to be an officer.”
