Page 65 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 1

He laughed harder and hopped up from my bed, then blew me a kiss and wished me luck. “Don’t kill each other.”

Matt left me to simmer in anxiety over letting that puck-chaser into my room and promising to teach him the most complicated and universe-explaining scientific field in existence. The thoughts of Sawyer in my room, at night, droning on about the ways to seduce a guy made me sweat as much as the idea of me lecturing him on the formation of galaxies and the phenomena that black holes were.

I checked the time and decided I could go out for a walk in the cold and crusty snow that covered the ground. February was just around the corner and this winter was only reaching its middle, but I was longing for spring. And not just because Sawyer’s cologne had made me think of it for thirty hours straight.

I walked and walked all over campus until my cheeks were numb and my nose was frozen. When I returned, some fifteen minutes before the appointment with Sawyer, I undressed and hurried to shower off the sweat that had only just cooled on my body.

Just when I stepped out of the shower and tied a towel around my waist in order to moisturize my face, I discovered a new fact about my latest student.

Sawyer Price was not punctual.

Four minutes early, he banged on my door. I cursed under my breath and hurried to let him in before he knocked the door off the hinges. “I hear you. I hear you. Alright.” I pulled the door open and his fist froze in the air while his eyebrows shot up and jaw fell down.

“Oh, wow, okay. Shit. Nice welcome.” His dark brown eyes dropped down the length of my bare torso to where the towel was well secured. “You’re actually cut. I’ll be damned.”

“Come in,” I said and moved to let him pass.

He swaggered inside like he owned the place. “Cool room, man. Are you gonna put something on or did I misunderstand the sort of practice you’re asking for? It’s not a definitive ‘no,’ if that’s the case.”

“Stop talking,” I huffed. How was he even keeping his face straight when he said those things? And how was he not stammering and tripping over his words when he suggested that? I was already nearly trembling. “Gimme a sec.” I hurried away, picking up some clean clothes and bumping into the door of the closet which unhooked the towel from the hip. It fell away with all the grace of a curtain call, but I managed to snatch it and spin around.

“Ass. I saw ass.” Sawyer was dead serious when I spun to face him, clutching the towel over my crotch.

“Turn the fuck away, dammit,” I snapped and walked back into the bathroom. There, I wanted to flush myself down the toilet and never appear anywhere where there were humans again. But because I couldn’t, I put my clothes on, splashed my face with cold water, replaced my glasses, and walked out with the reddest face I’d worn since the night Sawyer spilled vodka all over me in front of a hundred college students. “Can we just pretend that none of this ever happened?” I croaked.

Sawyer, comfortable in my spinning office chair, one leg hanging over the armrest, nodded. “It’s actually good news. You’ve got a nice build.”

His words strangled me. Discussing my build wasn’t how I’d imagined this night unfolding.

“Half your problem is what you’re wearing,” he said. “Consider this your first lesson. You want to attract attention without seeming like you want attention. Have you noticed how everyone looks like they just want you to leave them alone? And that makes you want them more? That’s the trick. We need to go through your wardrobe and find what kind of clothes show off your body without seeming like you’re showing off.” He tilted his head. “Following?”

“Not a bit,” I said, widening my eyes. He looked so comfortable in my chair and in my room. If our places were swapped, I would be, at best, sitting with my back straight at the edge of the bed. And even then, I would feel rude and like I was overstepping the boundaries. “I need to look unapproachable? But also desirable? That makes no sense. You said it yourself. I’m scary.”

“Eh, there’s scary and then there’s scary. You, my friend, are intimidating because you’re smarter than everyone else in the room. Like, when we spoke yesterday, I couldn’t tell if you were mocking me.” He swirled the chair left and right .

“I was,” I admitted.

“Rude. Anyway, the other kind of scary is the sexy kind. You get me?” He looked so hopeful that this style of teaching would work.

“Nope. You lost me again,” I said.

He exhaled, then straightened in the chair. Suddenly, all the relaxed, laid back layers of his image were peeling away. What remained was a sideways look at me, a little pout on his lips, narrowing eyes, flaring nostrils. Right. He looked sort of scary. Like he was so done with this shit. Like a cat that had just been offered lettuce for dinner. But he also became twice as hot if that was possible.

Shut up, my brain reminded me. Sawyer was here for a reason. He wasn’t a canvas for my virgin ass fantasies.

But he looked like he could sweep me off my feet any moment now and I wasn’t sure if I would find the strength to say no. My breaths grew shallower and I discovered that I was holding my lower lip between my teeth.

“See?” Sawyer asked, his voice a little lower and huskier.

Fuck. Me. I crossed my arms on my chest and thanked the Maker for baggy pants that concealed all the filthy, sinful things that were happening inside my banana-decorated boxer-briefs. “See what?” It was a strangled attempt at concealing how my body reacted to his aura.

He tilted his head and raised his chin, the smallest of smirks touching his lips. “You see,” he concluded. “Now we just need to make sure you can pull it off.”

“What? Like, now?” Panic crept into my voice. “I was gonna teach you a learning technique tonight.”

“You will,” he said as he got up and approached me. The scent of grass and leaves and a cool mountain breeze washed over me and I wanted to squirm and rub my thighs together. “Sit here,” he said and pointed at the chair. “Let’s see you relax.”

“I am relaxed,” I lied.