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“Lab.” He drags a hand down his face. “Right. I like lab.”

I chew on my lower lip and put my books into my backpack. Then I stop, because I’m stalling.

“Daniel…”

“Yeah?”

“Your offer the other day…the trading of tutoring.” My ears are already on fire. “I’ll do it. If you still want to.”

He freezes on the bed.

I keep my eyes focused on my bag. “We’ll need rules, of course. And I don’t want anyone to know, so you can’t tell anyone. And you can change your mind. I can, too. But, if you are still interested, this is me saying yes.”

The room is very quiet. I risk a look. He’s staring at me as if I just set the room on fire with an experiment, not that I’ve ever done that. Okay, I’ve done it once. But it wasn’t a big fire.

“Okay,” he says, pulling me out of my thoughts. “Yeah. I’m still interested, and the rules are good. Any others?”

My heart does that jump again. I still don’t have a name for it. I shake my head. “No, that’s all I can think of right now. But maybe you would know better?”

He would know better. He knows this stuff…the foreplay. Probably as well as I know our class.

He swings his legs over the side of his bed and runs his fingers through his floppy hair. “Well…” he clears his throat. “Let me get a quick shower, and we can talk about it.”

“Okay.”

My eyes don’t leave him as he pads barefoot over to his dresser and pulls out some clothes. He’s very toned. His abs have that cut six pack look to them, although there is a little dusting of hair that disappears into his sweats. His chest looks firm. Pink nipples. They’re hard right now; he must be cold.

I glance at the thermostat. I had turned the air lower last night, because I was hot.

When I bring my gaze back to him, he catches me looking, and I immediately find my backpack extremely interesting.

“Ten minutes,” he says.

“Okay.”

The bathroom door shuts, and the water kicks on a second later. And still, my heart rate doesn’t slow down. It’s exciting to learn something new, I tell myself. I do love to learn new things.

I sit on the edge of my bed, my hands in my lap counting down the seconds until the water shuts off. When he comes back out, my gaze takes in his dripping wet hair and bright smile.

“Now that I’m awake, let me just double check… you said yes to the tutoring a few minutes ago, right?”

I lick my lips and nod.

“Okay. Good.”

“Rules?”

He smiles again, and it’s the one that takes over his whole face. “We can start simple and add more if we need them. One. Kissing only when we both agree. Two. Stop means stop. Three. Not outside the dorm room. And four, we don’t tell anyone, it can be our secret.”

I nod. Those are good rules.

“When do we start?” I ask, and then I want to snatch the question back because I sound impatient. I’m not. I just like knowing the schedule.

Daniel laughs. “Not before lab. My brain’s still half asleep, and we both actually care about the grade. Tonight? If you don’t have plans. If you still want to.”

“I’ll still want to.” It comes out too fast, and I snap my mouth shut before clearing my throat and adding. “The Analytical Chemistry part, too. We should do that first. So it’s even.”

“Deal.” He rubs a towel over his hair, and it goes in every possible direction. “You help me get through the first six chapters without feeling like I’m dying. I’ll…start with the basics.”