Page 43 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 1

“What?” Cam murmured.

“It’s morning,” I said, panic touching my voice. “We fell asleep. Dammit.”

I got up first, no matter how much it pained me to leave the warmth our bodies had created under the sheets. Naked and dazed, it took me a moment to find my clothes and put them on. Cameron followed, reluctantly leaving the bed and also getting dressed. His hair was unruly as fuck from the pillow and from the action last night in which he’d been lying on his back for a solid forty minutes.

He was cute as a disgruntled kitten now, but I didn’t have time for that. I went for the door and took the knob. Several voices were loudly talking outside.

We had been getting significant glances now and then, but we’d just tossed that to the oddness in the change of our behavior toward one another. Cameron and I had stopped bickering. And while I was sure Caden had his suspicions, he and I rarely spoke of intimate things and he knew how to keep a secret if he knew one. But the rest of them hadn’t picked up on it just yet.

And now, we were screwed.

“I’m coming with you,” Cameron offered bravely.

“Chivalry lives,” I replied, my grimness matching his bravery. “Let’s just get it over with, alright?”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” Cam said.

We opened the door to dead silence. Every spoon stopped midway to its designated mouth and every pair of eyeballs moved to find two messy-haired, sleepy, and blatantly well-satisfied in the sex department guys filing out of Cam’s room.

We stopped at the door and waited numbly as the silence drowned the room.

“God fucking dammit.” Sawyer stomped his foot hard and pushed a hand into his pocket, pulled out a small wad of cash, and counted a couple of bills which he crumpled into balls and threw at Avery.

Avery, in turn, hooted. “I fucking knew it. Pay up, bitches.” He collected the bills shamelessly, then thrust his hands out for others.

Several growly guys were muttering their annoyance.

Horrified as much as I was, I couldn’t stop gaping at the scene that played out before us. Cameron and I quietly filed out of the room to the overall disapproval of one half of our team and the cheers and applause from the other half. Sebastian glared at us. “You couldn’t keep it in your pants, could you?” There was a slight hint of a smirk on his lips as he handed some cash to Tyler.

“Hold on, hold on, hold on,” hurried Avery. “How long has this been going on?”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I have no idea what this is all about.”

“Drop the act, Cap. Your shirt is inside out. How long?” Avery demanded, so fucking smug. “September?”

Cameron was the one to give in and nod.

Avery clapped his hands and walked up to Tyler with an even less bearable smirk on his face. “Now you pay up.”

Tyler rolled his eyes. “Fuck. I really thought it was Christmas.”

“Wait, let me get this straight,” I said. “You’ve all been betting on us fucking?”

Avery shook his head. “No. Of course not. Are you crazy? That’s not how betting works. Only half of us were betting on you fucking. The other half are losers.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Sawyer said. “I really thought I had a nose for these things.”

“Do you even know how disrespectful that is?” I asked, but try as I may, I couldn’t hide the smile that was lighting up my face. They had all speculated about this. That had to mean there was something real about this thing Cameron and I had. Right? There was something here if the entire, mostly straight team of hockey jocks picked up on it.

“Oh boo-hoo,” Avery said. “Let me wipe your crybaby tears with all this cash.” He laughed out loud and I couldn’t stop my own laughter from breaking out.

“Asshole.” I punched his shoulder playfully.

By the kitchen island, I spotted Caden. It was his heavy gaze that drew my attention. When our eyes met, he gave a little nod and the faintest ghost of a smile.

I smiled back at him, but a sense of foreboding filled me sooner than I could keep up with my own thoughts. By the time I replied something to Avery and Sawyer, who were in a heated argument with Tyler detailing the entire timeline of my rivalry with Cameron, Caden had disappeared from the common area.

I tossed it aside and made my way to the fridge to grab some breakfast. Laughs and questions that had no place being asked among friends were filling the room. Which one was the bottom? Had we ever done it in other rooms? Was there preferential treatment on ice?