Page 149 of Arctic Titans of Northwood U: Volume 3

Damon threaded his fingers together and put his elbows on the table, leaning in, eyes only looking at me. “Tell me about yourself. What’s Seth Kane like?”

I laughed. “You know me, Damon.”

“You’d be surprised how little I pay attention,” he teased.

After another laugh, I decided to play along. “Very well. I’m a, uh, what you’d call a nerd.”

His eyebrows danced playfully. “Anakin Skywalker was my sexual awakening.”

“No way he was,” I said.

Damon nodded. “Sure was. When he says he hates sand, says it’s rough and coarse and gets everywhere. It was like, ‘This guy gets it.’”

I laughed so loudly that heads turned to our table. That he could even quote it was a miracle. “We don’t discuss the quality of dialogue, Damon.”

“Wonder why,” he said. “It’s like poetry on crack.”

“But it’s fun,” I said.

“And I’m not kidding. There was a promo poster with Anakin wearing that hood that just made something click in my head. Well, I say head, but…” He glanced down in the direction of his lap, and I laughed again, hiding my face behind the wine glass.

“Seems like I wasn’t paying attention either,” I said. “I never knew that about you.”

“I bet you thought I was just a performative gym rat with a body to die for,” he said.

“Eh. To die for?” I shrugged.

He pretended to be wounded, grabbing his heart and caressing his pec for a moment or two until I smiled again.

“I’ve seen your Instagram,” I said. “You don’t do a lot to shake off that image.”

“What were you doing browsing my profile, you naughty little thing?” he said. It was a tease, but it did something ridiculous to me. It made me soften a little in my chair, made me lean in closer. He still hadn’t looked away from my eyes. How was he doing that? The weight was almost unbearable, yet without it, I would be lost.

“You crossed my mind a time or two,” I said. “This whole year since we last saw each other…a lot has happened. Sometimes, it was nice to remind myself of simpler times.”

“Was it simpler?” Damon asked, folding his arms on the table, gaze dropping to my lips as I bit them. He looked up into my eyes again. “Sneaking around seems so complicated now that I think about it.”

“It’s still the best option,” I said, drawing the line there. Why risk Nick’s anger and disappointment for something as inconsequential as a little hookup?

“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not arguing against that. There’s something very hot about tonight, Seth. Planning a place, coming separately, meeting in your room after…” He left those words hanging in the air, a grin playing across his face.

“We’ll see about that,” I said, pretending I hadn’t decided to invite him over the moment I’d turned the corner and saw him in that tight, white shirt. “Are you always this nice on dates, or am I just the lucky fifty-seven?”

“Let’s see about that after the dessert arrives. You might be sick of me by then,” he said. “It’s not like us not to wish a plague upon each other after five minutes together.”

“Death threats are my love language,” I said, taking another sip of my wine while he laughed, his cheeks turning a touch pinker than I’d ever seen them before.

“It’s a pleasure to be the target of all your voodoo attempts to be rid of me,” he said. “It’s nice seeing you relaxed like this.”

“You sound like a therapist,” I said.

“Do you have a habit of looking at your therapist’s lips, wanting to kiss them?” he asked.

“If he’s cute enough.” And charming. And chivalrous. And gentle. And so, so focused on me that the world seemed to have fallen off the edge, and we were the last two boys sitting here.

Damon’s teeth moved over his lips, and he lifted his glass. “To first dates. And all that will follow.”

I toasted that, taking a long sip and looking into his warm eyes, attention burning in them. “We’re not really dating, though.”