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“It’s cold outside,” I blurted out when I couldn’t take it anymore, my brain latching onto the first thing it could think of—which, of course, had to be the weather.

“Mhmm.” Rhodes nodded. His gaze dropped briefly to my sweatshirt and then back to my face. Yeah, I still didn’t have a jacket. “It’s cold outside, Theo.”

“I know,” I said, swallowing hard.

“And you walked here.” There was no accusation in his voice, which somehow made everything worse.

“It wasn’t that far.”

“Theo.”

“I had a hat!” I exclaimed.

“You’re not wearing a hat, Theo,” Rhodes told me. I reached up to touch my hair, only to realize he was right. I’d left my hat at the frat house.

“No wonder my ears are cold,” I mumbled.

Rhodes sighed, and some of the intensity in his expression softened as he crossed the kitchen toward me. He didn’t stop until he was directly in front of me, crowding my space in that way that always made my brain short-circuit a little. His hands settled on my hips, and before I could decide whether I was supposed to apologize or defend myself again, he guided me backward until the edge of the counter pressed into my lower back.

“You’re freezing,” he commented.

“I did tell you it was cold,” I retorted, and his eyes narrowed slightly. Right. That probably wasn’t helping my cause.

He slipped one hand beneath the hem of my sweatshirt and shirt, his warm palm flattening against my stomach. I sucked in a sharp breath at the temperature difference, but Rhodes only frowned harder as his fingers spread over my chilled skin.

“Theo,” he said quietly, concern replacing whatever annoyance had been there before. “Why didn’t you just call me?”

“I didn’t want to wake you up,” I answered a little pathetically because I knew that wasn’t an acceptable answer.

“Next time, you call me.”

“Even if—”

“I don’t care what time of the morning it is, just fucking call me,” he interrupted. “And if I can’t fall back asleep, then you’ll be responsible for entertaining me all night.”

My cheeks flushed for an entirely different reason. The suggestion made my stomach flip with excitement.

“Oh, I like that idea.” I grinned. “I like that idea a lot.”

“I figured you would,” Rhodes said. Leaning in, he kissed me. I melted into him, the cold from the walk disappearing embarrassingly fast as Rhodes pressed closer. His body pinned me against the counter, and I wrung my fingers into the front of his shirt.

My lips parted as he deepened the kiss, his tongue stroking mine. His hand slid over my stomach and up my rib cage. I shivered at the contact as every nerve lit up at once. When his mouth left mine and drifted along my jawline, my head tipped back against the cabinet, giving him better access to my neck. His teeth teased the skin over my pulse, and I groaned loudly.

A door clicked open down the hall, and we froze. For one agonizing moment after another, neither of us moved. Maybe if we stayed perfectly still, Jude would go back to bed, and we could continue uninterrupted.

Unfortunately, Jude shuffled into the kitchen just as Rhodes’ teeth left my neck. He paused in the kitchen doorway, staring at both of us.

“No,” Jude whined dramatically. Rhodes’ forehead dropped to my shoulder while my cheeks burned painfully hot. Jude pointed to the other side of the house. “I’m going that way! I don’t know what’s that way, but it’s farther away from whatever you two are doing—I don’t want to know!”

“Our room’s on that side of the house,” Rhodes told him, never once looking up.

“Then you two go on that side of the house,” he exclaimed as he turned and went right back to his room. A moment later, he yelled, “No dicks in the kitchen!”

I broke down laughing, the sound bursting out of me so hard and so suddenly that I had to grab Rhodes’ shoulders to stay upright. Whatever had been building between us evaporated in an instant. I felt his chest move with the laughter he was trying hard not to let out, which only made it worse.

By the time I finally caught my breath, my eyes were watering, and my stomach hurt. He lifted his head and sighed, bracing his hands on the counter. From the look on his face, there was absolutely no recovering the moment after that.

“This is what it’s going to be like living with him, isn’t it?” Rhodes asked.