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A laugh escapes me. “You’ve really thought of everything.”
The curve of his mouth turns seductive, and he grazes his nose against mine, murmuring in a smoky tone that goes straight to my core. “Best of all, I can touch you anytime, anywhere. Like right now, because I really want to kiss you.”
My lips part and he takes advantage, dipping his head to kiss me. It leaves me dizzy by the time he pulls back, hovering his mouth over mine with his eyes hooded like he can’t decide if he’s done kissing me or needs another. My heartbeat thrums.
“So fake dating,” I murmur. He hums in agreement, still fixated on my mouth. “Okay. I propose a practice run. We know we’ve got no problem between the sheets, so selling our chemistry won’t be a problem.” He interrupts me with a gravelly chuckle that makes me bite my lip. “What we need is practice to make sure we’re believable as a couple.”
Cooper grins. “I expected nothing less from you, which is why I was serious about taking you to the pier.”
I lift a brow. “Presumptuous.”
“Prepared, baby,” he rasps with a charming wink. “Prepared, confident, and anticipating your needs, like a good boyfriend.”
My heart stutters. The playing field has been effectively leveled, but now we’re in an all new game—one where we’ve gone from Cooper being my sex tutor I’m crushing on to pretending to date to cover up being friends with benefits.
If there’s one thing Cooper was right about, it’s that we can never be just friends. Not anymore.
TWENTY-SIX
COOPER
An odd sensation fills my chest as Tatum and I arrive at the pier hand in hand for our practice run. Our first fake date. I picked it because it’s a basic one to set her at ease.
Tatum looks cute as hell today in a denim overall dress over a cropped white t-shirt. The tantalizing peeks of her skin on the sides tempt me to map every inch of visible skin.
“We’ll need to get our story straight,” Tatum says when we’re in line for tickets. She pulls out a travel-sized notebook from her backpack purse and twirls a pen. She peers around and lowers her voice, playing it off like she’s whispering something flirty to me. “How we got together, that sort of thing.”
Tatum being Tatum about this makes my chest feel tight and warm.
Satisfaction rushes through me as I wrap my arms around her. She stills for a moment, then relaxes into my embrace. I’ll never get tired of being able to do this without worrying about getting caught.
“We’ll keep it simple. Build it backwards from the bonfire.” I keep her in my arms, shuffling us forward when the line moves. “The rest works from there if we stick with the story that we were dating on the DL because of Jackson.”
She nods, bracing her notebook against my chest to jot down notes. “We’ll need a whole new plan for how we’re going to do this because rule one is officially out the window.”
Tatum’s right. There won’t be any chance of taking it slow. Not when I feel like I go crazy from how much I want her. This isn’t about learning and body talk anymore—we know we’re good on that front.
“I have some thoughts.” Tatum flips through her notebook to a different page. “I’ve been thinking about them the last few days and jotting them down. Oh, I think one might be on my phone, too. I woke up in the middle of the night and wrote downfeels timeline.” Her face scrunches. “I’m not really sure what I was going for with that, but 4am Tatum thought it was groundbreaking enough to pull me out of a dead sleep.”
A raspy chuckle rolls out of me and I grin. “I can picture it. You get this specific look on your face when an idea strikes.”
Peering at me through her lashes, she bites her lip. “Like what?”
The line moves again, and I resist the temptation to pick her up and carry her, settling for nudging her thighs with mine. “Your eyes go all bright and you get this little line right here.” I brush hair away from her forehead, tracing the space between her brows. “Every time.”
“Sometimes my thoughts race too fast, so if I don’t stop and give the idea attention, then write it down, I forget it. Writing something down is a proven method of strengthening memory retention.” Sliding her lips together, she waves her notebook. “Anyway, my study blocks are already mapped out with my class schedule. Send me yours and I’ll see where we line up to nail down a game plan that covers boyfriend and girlfriend time, study time for both of us, and—” Glancing around, she lowers her voice. “—studytime.”
Heat shoots into my veins and a rumble works its way through my chest. “Now you’re talking, babe. We can multitask. Library quickies are my specialty.”
Tate’s lips part, a gleam of arousal flickering in her blue eyes. I want to explore that later for sure, my mind filling with all the ways I can take Tatum apart while she tries to stay quiet.
She forges on, staying on task as always. “I think we’ll need to be seen together a minimum of thirty percent of our time on campus between classes. We can grab meals together when our schedules line up.”
I struggle to hold back a smile at her serious expression. She taps a pen against her lip while talking out her plan. And I can’t help myself. I swoop in, capturing her mouth in a kiss, swallowing the tiny sound of surprise she makes. Our lips glide together and something feels like it shifts into place.
“What was that for?” Tatum murmurs.
I smirk. “Anytime I want, remember?”
