Page 43 of Prince of the Sun

He looks… God, he looksdelicious.

“Hi,” he says.

“What, exactly,” I ask, “are you wearing?”

“Study clothes, of course.” He holds up the donuts. “May I come in?”

I can do nothing but gape as he strolls past. A Prince of the Sun is walking into my common room. With donuts. Wearing fuckingLululemon.

“Hey, Cara,” he says, setting the pink box down on the coffee table.

“Hi, Daer.”

Daer?

I must be staring at my roommate like she has anaimean root growing from her eardrums, because Cara glances at me and shrugs.

“Want a donut?”

“Actually.” Cara pushes herself off the doorframe and shuffles out to the common room. Her fuzzy slippers whisper over our area rug. “I have two separate CS psets to finish tonight. So, yes, I wouldlovea donut.”

I blink at the two of them.

“Gosh, Q.” Cara selects a glazed twist, then straightens up and looks around the room. “It’s oddlycleanin here today, isn’t it?”

I pick up a pillow from the armchair and throw it at her head.

She ducks and, laughing, scampers back into her bedroom. “Study well, children!”

The door shuts, leaving Daerios and me alone.

For a long moment, neither of us looks at the other. I study every inch of the common room not occupied by his body.

Then Daerios clears his throat. “Donut?”

I roll my eyes. “Maybe later.” The futon sighs as I sink onto it. “Let’s brainstorm.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He sits mere inches away from me on the futon, despite the fact that there’s an entire open armchair to his right. I hold my breath. Sparks crackle in the space between our thighs.

“So,” he asks. “What interests you in the world of linguistics?”

The way your tongue works.

I want to slap myself. What thefuck? Where did that thought come from?

“Um,” I say.

“Ah, yes.” He grins. “Your favorite word.”

“No. Not that. Although—” I perk up, clapping twice. “Did you know that filler words—ones likeumanduh—are not signs of a lazy speaker, the way people think they are?”

“I did not.” Daerios leans forward and props his chin onto his fists. “Tell me more.”

“In truth, they’re carefully placed spacers within a sentence, intended to give the speaker extra time to string together a complex sentence. Or to give thelistenerextra time in preparing for the more complicated language to come.”

“So, you’re saying something highly complex was going to follow thatum.”

“Maybe.” I grin. “Or maybe I just thought your slow-ass mind needed extra time to prepare for whatever brilliance was about to be said.”