Page 6 of Until Him

He looks mildly disgusted. “Oh Jesus, no more, please.”

“Yeah, yeah,” I mutter.

Theo takes a deep breath and then delves right in. He doesn’t even ask if I’m ready; he just starts talking and drawing on his board, and I’m left scrambling to write everything down. But once the initial panic wears off, what he’s saying starts to actually make sense. The concepts that seemed so foreign to me in class sound completely logical with how he explains them. No wonder he came so highly recommended. No wonder he’s booked out a year in advance. He’s fucking amazing.

He also seems a hell of a lot more personable when he’s teaching about chemical bonds and thermodynamics. His scathing attitude falls away and I get a small peek at the pleasant—dare I say happy?—side of Theo.

When the book closes with a thump an hour later, I lean back astonished. My hand is slightly cramped from all the writing I’ve done, and my brain feels a size too big for my skull, but I actually understand a hell of a lot more than I did when I arrived.

Maybe I won’t sit on the bench for the rest of the season. Maybe I actually have a shot at this.

“Well shit, Theo,” I mutter, watching as he sets the whiteboard and marker on the floor. The cat walks over and swats at it, rolling it right under the bed. “You’re a genius.”

He fiddles with the pencil tucked behind his ear. “Technically, I’m not.”

“To me, you are,” I murmur and then feel my cheeks begin to flush because I’ve just remembered that my tutoring session is over, and it’s time for fucking. “Alright,” I say, just wanting to get this over with. I run my sweaty hands over my thighs and exhale shakily. “What do we do now?”

Theo doesn’t answer me right away. I look up at his face and he’s just sitting a foot away, watching me, assessing me. His arctic blue eyes are unreadable, and I start to squirm. What the hell is he thinking?

He reminds me of a cat, actually. Maybe Curie is his spirit animal.

“You’re making me nervous, man,” I mutter, and he blinks slowly, almost as if coming out of some kind of trance.

“I need to see your test results.”

Oh shit, yeah, I forgot all about them, and it’s important. My hands tremble slightly as I pull them up on my phone and show him. He eyes my screen and then pulls his up on his phone.

The words swim and shift on the paper, but I see enough.

He’s good to go.

So, as crazy as this is, we’re not being reckless.

“Alright. Now, on the bed, shirt off, face up,” he says.

My heartbeat is in my ears as I push myself off the floor and sink down on his bed. The mattress is a little lumpy and uncomfortable, and as I wrench my shirt off and lean back, I wonder how the hell he comfortably sleeps on this thing.

“All the way back,” Theo says, and I flop the rest of the way down. My fingers clench the soft fabric of his comforter, and my eyes are fixed on the popcorn ceiling. Curie has hopped onto the bed and sits on the pillow directly next to my head, watching me intently.

Oh, fuck this.

Two sets of eyes on me are making me nervous, like I have to perform or something.

I’mneverthis nervous. I always perform so well under pressure, but for some reason, my entire body is thrumming with nerves now. This cat watching me is pushing me over the edge.

“Can you move the cat?” I ask. “It’s just a little weird.”

Theo tosses the pencil onto his desk. It clatters noisily against the tabletop as he moves toward me. He crawls up the bed and straddles my thighs.

“No.”

“Shit,” I mutter, trying to block Curie from my vision, but that puffball is all I can see. She’s lying down now, purring. It’s fucking distracting.

Shit on a stick.

What did I say about the family curse? It can’t get any more terrible than this.

“Are you afraid of cats?”

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