Page 143 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 1

My shoulders were so tense and my stomach hollow when I heard Caden laugh out loud at something Sawyer and Avery were saying. Sawyer had a cheeky smirk on. Avery was as expressionless as a TV psycho until he fractionally stretched his lips in a grand display of laughter by his standards.

I wished I had sat closer to them.

A twist of fate made that possible. Sebastian was walking away and Tyler hurried after him. They made their way to the bar, constantly moving like conjoined twins, and Avery was texting someone.

I clasped Jordan’s shoulder and whispered I’d check up on Jones after the hard check he’d received. As I got up, Avery’s face reacted to his phone. It was hard to say that it lit up. His slightly slanted eyes sparked, eyelids widening just enough to be noticeable, his ears perking, the curly corners of his lips twitching. Avery was as delighted as I had ever seen him. He stood up stiffly and walked away with the phone in his hand, possibly thinking he was being coy.

I used the opportunity to take Avery’s seat. “Jones, buddy,” I said, nailing it with our forced friendship act for Sawyer’s benefit. “You good?”

“Uh, yeah, why?” He was acting, too, and it stung how dismissive he was. I felt like I was intruding, then reminded myself I didn’t want anything else around our teammates. This was ideal. But the fucker didn’t need to be that convincing, right?

“You were handled pretty roughly earlier,” I said. “You sure you’re up for drinking?”

He lifted the murky, pale wheat ale and swirled it in his glass. “I’m doing fine so far.”

I turned to Sawyer. “Doesn’t he look a little dazed to you?”

“I don’t th⁠—”

“Yeah, you look a bit confused, buddy,” I cut in. “Maybe I should help you back to your room.”

Sawyer slid a little lower in his chair.

Caden cocked his head to one side and put the pieces together. “Now that you mention it, maybe I am a little tired.” He turned to Sawyer.

“Don’t look at me. If Captain tells you to go to bed, you should probably go to bed.”

Caden snorted. “You just want to be rid of me so you can call Noah.”

Sawyer fired a finger gun at him. “You got me.”

I got up first and moved around the table to ‘help’ Caden up.

“I got it,” he snapped. I wasn’t sure if he was pretending to be annoyed with me for our audience or if he really was. Sometimes, I felt as clueless with social signals as Avery was.

On my way out of the bar, I gave a semi-concerned look in Jordan’s direction as if helping a wounded comrade from the goodness of my heart. Yet we barely reached the door when flutters filled my stomach.

We barely rounded the corner before Caden spoke. “I hope you have a good reason for dragging me away from the party.”

I was quiet for a few moments, letting us gain a little more distance from the rest of our guys. When I felt we were safely away, I clasped his shoulder and halted. My grip on him spun Caden around to face me. “I have the best fucking reason you can imagine,” I said in a low voice. He didn’t even fight me as I melted into him, chest on chest, crotch against crotch. His back leaned against the brick wall of a small apartment building and he exhaled. His lips were sweet with the aftertaste of wheat ale when I placed mine over them. I kissed him like it was the last chance I had. I kissed him like he would tell me to stop any minute now. And when he didn’t, I felt it was promise enough that I would kiss him again later. I looked into his eyes. “I was worried about you.”

Caden struggled to inhale, then licked his lips. “If this is how you worry, I’ll have to get hard-checked more often.”

Damn him for making me smile this much. I forced my mouth back to normal. “You won’t hear me complaining so long as I get to worry all night.”

“Easy, soldier,” Caden said, chuckling softly as I leaned into him again. “All night?”

My hand rested on his chest and dragged slowly the remaining length to his neck. I cupped his jaw and made him look into my eyes. “I promised to top you, didn’t I?”

He gave me his cheekiest look of doubt. “I don’t remember making any promises to bottom for you, Partridge.”

“I think we should continue this discussion in our room, Jones.” I gave him a serious look, but he could see the desire burning behind my eyes. I knew he could. His breath hitched and he nodded.

“Yeah, that works,” he said softly and hurried with me. The few short streets back were a blur as my heart raced and my mind spun. Tingles rose from my fingertips. I stumbled up the stairs following Caden, wondering when ass became my favorite feature as I gaped at the curves of his while he marched ahead of me. But that wasn’t entirely correct. Ass was great, but something else had blown my mind last night. Something I could never have predicted. Caden’s biceps. They had been so nicely swollen with exercise. They had bunched and knotted when he handled me. They were so hard to my touch.

I had been around athletic guys my entire life. I had never even noticed their bodies. But this sexy fucker made me drool over his arms alone. When he swiped his card at the door, I was thankful. I wasn’t sure my trembling fingers would have allowed me to do that.

Caden marched to the other end of the room while I shut the door and leaned against it. He was facing the balcony, shoulders squared, chin up. He turned on his heels and lifted two fingers to his lips. “Are we sure about this?”