“That wasn’t too hard,” he said. “Are you going easy on me?”
I winked.
His eyes zeroed in on my lips before he looked away, running his tongue over his bottom lip. I was the one who couldn’t look away. We were close enough that I could see several freckles at the corner of his lips.
The sound of my dragon being shot brought me out of my dirty thoughts involving Alexi’s lips and tongue.
“Shit.” My dragon crumbled to dust. All I could do was watch Alexi laugh as he burst bubbles and increased his score until he was finally killed by one of the bubbles of doom.
“Not bad for a newbie, right?” The smug sideways look he gave me made me want to kiss the hell out of him. Whose idea was it to come here again?
“Beginners luck.”
“If you say so.” He bumped my elbow with his. “Maybe if you focus on the game, you can do better.”
“I think it’s time I taught you a lesson.”
He laughed. “Don’t threaten me with a good time, Mr. Mason.”
Fuck. And now I was full-on hard.
I pressed start and declared war. The soundtracks of the hundreds of games around us and the people shouting as they played were music to my ears.
The rumors about Elite, the future sale of the company after graduation…none of that mattered anymore.
Alexi elbowed me as his dragon tried to shoot mine, but I had years of practice. I wasn’t going to let his perfectly kissable lips or his green eyes distract me this time.
My eyes were on the screen, laser-focused.
I elbowed him back. “Stop cheating.”
“I’m not cheating. You take up too much space with your big muscles.”
“There are many advantages to having muscles.”
“Like what?”
I lowered my voice. “My dragon can lift yours, push him against the wall, and show him who’s in charge.”
He groaned as his dragon had a near-miss with a bubble of doom. “My dragon isn’t as weak as your dragon thinks he is.”
“Of that, I have no doubt.”
We battled for our dragons, smack-talking and drinking beer until Alexi accepted defeat.
“You’re pretty good at that,” I admitted. “I wasn’t expecting to have to fight so hard.”
“I’ve had some practice.”
“You have?”
He bit his lip, fighting a smile. “Yeah, I used to play with a friend, but we never went all the way.”
“All the way…” My mouth suddenly became too dry.
“To the end of the game.”
Were we still talking about the game? Fuck, being around Alexi made me go dumb, but there was no way I was going to keep my distance now.
