Audrey nodded nervously, and he cupped her face with his hands, curling his fingers beneath her ears and running his thumbs softly along her cheeks. When he stooped to kiss her, his scent washed over her, fresh and clean and warm, and she melted into him. But not for long. He pulled away and wrapped her in his arms, tugging her tightly against his chest for an enormous hug.
“Okay, get in there. No more stalling,” he muttered when she didn’t try at all to escape. And then to drive the point home, he lowered a hand, ran it down her back—
And very firmly grabbed her ass.
She gasped and jumped back in surprise, and he grinned at her while he lifted his mask back over his face, his expression positively wicked. He’d never doneanythinglike that in public before.
“Theo!” She tried to hiss his name, but it was awfully hard to do through the laughter bubbling up. “These are my classmates! They’re watching!” A few were, it was true. And they seemed awfully interested in whatever was happening.
“I’ve been dying to do that for weeks. Now go ace your test.” He shooed her inside the room with another playful smack on her ass before turning and making his way toward a nearby vacant table and chair.
Audrey gathered herself and took her usual seat, cheeks still burning fiercely. But the warmth in her face and her chest did help steady her nerves while she got out her pencil and settled in.
“Let me seethese wires here…you might just need to adjust them a bit, hang on. The contact points aren’t quite right, and that might be your issue. Hand me those wire strippers?”
After her exam, Theo crouched to examine her battery and circuit in the lab with interest. Once Audrey had gotten started, it was a whole lot easier to ease into a problem-solving mindset, especially knowing Theo was waiting for her outside, and it was more fun than she initially thought it would be to have him there in her capstone lab. But since it was a Friday, they were the only two there.
It was perfect timing.
And the perfect place for him to feel comfortable without his mask out in public.
“I can’t believe you told me, ‘I know a thing or two about circuits,’ and this entire time you’ve been a fuckingmaster electrician,” she grumbled, begrudgingly passing him the tool while he plucked curiously at her wiring. “Way to bury the lede.”
He shrugged and unwound some of her handiwork. But he was right: on a second glance, she hadn’t put that together quite as thoroughly as she’d needed to.
“Yeah, well, it seemed like a useful license to get. I started earning my hours when I was in high school, and then I ended up choosing an art form that uses electricity for the crux of…well,everything, so I’m glad I decided to follow through.”
His brow furrowed slightly while he concentrated, and Audrey had to admit: she loved watching him work, even if she hadn’t seen him do his real specialty yet.
Someday, maybe he’d let her watch him in his own studio.
“Sure, butmaster, though?”
“I don’t do anything by halves. And I meananything.” He raised an eyebrow at her before he finished snipping the wires and rewound them, making sure the copper was thoroughly in contact with the rest of it. “Honestly, this is great work, you just need some minor tweaks.” When he went back to his investigation, his phone buzzed with a text, the vibration louder than normal against the wood of theworktable. But he only glanced at the screen and dismissed the message immediately.
“What does your family think of all this? Your art, I mean?”
He froze.
“My family?”
“Yeah. You never really talk about them.” She rested her chin on her hand. “If I had a family, I’d never shut up about them.”
“I don’t talk to my family,” he muttered, plucking at more wires and testing their connections. “I was close with my dad. And now my dad is gone.” His phone buzzed again, but this time, he threw it bitterly inside his satchel without looking at it.
All right.
She wouldn’t press him.
At least, not about that.
“What are you doing for the holidays, then?” She frowned. “Surely you don’t spend them alone?”
“Diego’s mom invited me this year, which was nice of her. But I was just going to try to work on my piece for the charity gala. I don’t mind being alone. It’s better that way, honestly.” He grabbed a soldering iron and placed it in her hands. “Touch that part up.”
Audrey peered at where he’d pointed. He was right: it wasn’t properly joined all the way. “Thank you.”
But his distraction didn’t hide how deftly he’d avoided her question.
