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He grabbed our coffees, and I tried not to watch him swivel his hips to get around the students spilling into the narrow path between the tables. I failed. I wasn’t the only one.
Noah attracted attention. On top of his huge stature, he was fucking hot. His dark auburn hair, just starting to curl at the ends, begged a woman to shove her hands through it, and when he focused his eyes on you—hazel today, instead of the usual green—it was like you were the only woman in the world.
I quickly shoveled cinnamon roll into my mouth to mop up the drool while glaring at the skinny blonde with the cute little nose stud at the next table. She didn’t notice, and luckily for me, neither did Noah as he approached our cramped corner.
He pulled his chair out as far as it would go with his foot and eased down. With one shoulder pressed against the wall, he stretched his legs out, bracketing mine under the table. Noah met my gaze with a tiny smirk, making me question the sanity of my table choice. Tingles raced up my arms and across my back as I realized I couldn’t get up without basically climbing over him.
We weren’t touching, but I swore I could feel the heat of his legs just below my knees. I felt a different heat pulse much higher and squirmed to relieve some of the ache caused by all the direct eye contact.
Noah set both cups in front of him on the table. “I get two questions now.”
“That wasn’t the agreement.” I snatched my coffee, setting it as far away from him as possible in case he got handsy.
Noah rested his arms on the table, leaning forward to eye my late lunch. “Neither was that monstrosity, yet you’re already halfway through it.”
I licked icing off my lip, and a petty part of me enjoyed the way his gaze followed the movement. See? I didn’t need nice smiles from him when I could get his attention other ways. He might not want to pursue the attraction between us, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
Not that it mattered in the least. I didn’t chase guys who weren’t interested. Hell, I didn’t chase guys whowereinterested. I wasn’t the relationship type, too much opportunity to fuck things up, but I liked to know they wanted me enough to put in some effort.
If they couldn’t see my worth, they weren’t worth my time.
I took a quick sip of my drink, wincing when the hot liquid scalded my tongue. “Ask your questions, and we’ll see if I answer the second one.”
Noah lowered his voice, forcing me to mimic his position to hear him. “Why did you really transfer here?”
Only my parents and D knew about the fire and the dean’s subsequent strong suggestion I pick a new school. I wasn’t in any hurry for that reputation to follow me to TU, but I didn’t like the idea of lying to Noah.
D trusted him, and so did I, or I wouldn’t keep running to him for help. Still, I could answer his question with most of the truth without making myself look like a criminal.
“My last school wasn’t a good fit for me. They were pretty strict about their graduation requirements, and I wanted to be able to explore a little more in my educational choices.” I patted myself on the back for a solid five seconds, proud of the truth-adjacent answer.
Noah didn’t take his eyes off me as he took a slow pull from his drink, and a heavy feeling of foreboding twisted in my gut.
“Did you decide that before or after you set your dorm on fire?” he asked innocently.
Fuck. I was going to kill D and his big mouth.
3
Panic flashed across Chloe’s expression at my comment, and I nearly ruined the moment by smiling. The effort to maintain a straight face paid off when Chloe launched into a quiet series of very inventive curses. Her jaw locked for a long second, and I thought maybe I’d finally crossed the line that would push her away from me.
The moment tore me in two. On one hand, I wanted to spread her across the ridiculously small table and live out one of my dirtier fantasies which suddenly involved cinnamon roll icing instead of peanut butter.
On the other hand, if she decided to give up on tormenting me, I could finish out school without betraying one of my closest friends. I was already in deep.
True, the coffee at the facility was surprisingly bad, but I could have hit up any of the coffee shops on our side of campus. Eva loved this place, and she’d talked about how lucky Chloe was to have a class right next door.
The timing had worked out in my favor.
Chloe slumped back in her seat, apparently done raging at her brother, and slurped her coffee. “How long have you known?”
“Since a couple of days before you moved in. D wasn’t sure you’d follow through until then, and he wanted us forewarned in case your pyromaniac habits continued at TU.”
“It was onesmallfire, and it was an accident.” Her dark eyes caught mine, the usual confidence replaced with trepidation. “Please don’t say anything. There’s…”
She trailed off and flailed her hand around as if waving away smoke. I got what she meant. A fire in her dorm, no matter how small, had to come with serious complications and a hell of a blow to her reputation.
“I don’t spread gossip.” She nodded with relief, but I wasn’t done. “You haven’t answered my question yet. Why did you transferhere?”
