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I twisted around to find an adorable puppy-dog expression on Brandon's face. He looked hopeful, yet tentative. I couldn't blame him for being nervous; I didn't have the best track-record of accepting his gifts. But things were different now. We had a different level of trust, and I had finally started to let my issues about that sort of thing go.
"What is it?" I asked as I examined the envelope. "What did you do?"
"Open it," he said, blue eyes sparkling with anticipation.
Inside the envelope were several pamphlets of various locations in South France, and a slip bearing a confirmation for a flight bound to Toulouse.
"You got me a trip to France?" I stared at the papers with wide eyes, not quite believing what I saw. "Really?"
Slowly, like he was next to a wild animal, Brandon nodded.
"I thought maybe you'd like to make some better memories there than you did in Paris," he said. "You deserve a break, Red. You've been through a lot the last few months. If you don't want to go here, we could go somewhere else. I just thought now was a good time to get away." With a quick glance at Jared, who was still watching with an increasingly dark expression, Brandon added, "Together."
I looked at the confirmation slip again, which had both of our names on it. We were supposed to leave the day after tomorrow.
"Can you afford to take all this time?" I asked quietly. "It's not like you don't have your own stuff to deal with right now."
Brandon just pressed another chaste kiss on my cheek that promised more than it showed.
"The truth?" he asked.
I nodded.
"I might have booked our flight the second you agreed to come to dinner that night." He gave a sheepish smile. "I might have been planning this for a while."
Slowly, unbidden, an ear-splitting grin spread across my face until it felt like my cheeks were going to crack in half. Suddenly I was so excited, I was practically vibrating in my seat.
"Toulouse?" I asked again, my voice hitching up another octave. "Really?"
Two weeks in Toulouse. In the summer. Alone with Brandon. I literally could not think of anything better.
"For a night," Brandon said, now with a megawatt grin that mirrored my own. "Then we would go down to Marseille. Mark agreed to loan us his villa on the water."
Okay, except that. That was definitely better!
"What do you say, Red?" Brandon asked, picking up one of my hands and bringing it to his lips. "Will you go to France with me?"
The question was so formal and out-of-character for Brandon, such an obvious attempt not to go overboard (despite the extravagance of the gift), that my heart squeezed and my response came freely.
"Yes!" I sprang out of my seat, threw my arms around his neck, and peppered his laughing face with kisses. "Yes-yes-yes-yes-YES!"
Brandon laughed as he held me off the ground, causing a few of my classmates to turn around and smile at us.
"Well," I said with a grin to Jared as I was set back down. He looked like he was going to be sick. "I guess I'm going to France for my vacation."
Jared immediately pasted a polite smile on his face. "That sounds great," he said. Then he looked over my shoulder and waved at someone. "Excuse me. Just going to say hi."
Brandon watched him go with a satisfied expression that was far too similar to a lion who had just kicked out the weaker member of the pride. I elbowed him in the gut.
"You could wipe that smug expression off your face, Sterling. It was never a contest."
"I know, Red," Brandon said. "That guy couldn't handle you anyway." His expression dropped to a frown as he considered something. "But I'm glad you're not going to be studying together anymore. I don't like the way he looks at you."
"How's that?"
Brandon looked at me with a positively predatory gleam. "Like you're something to eat."
I stared at him with my mouth open, something in his feral expression robbing me of my capacity to speak. Brandon revealed a few white teeth with a half-smile, then slipped an arm around my waist and pulled me against his tall, hard form.
"Are you ready to celebrate alone yet?" he asked with a quick nip to my earlobe.
I shuddered as his hands slid down to cup my ass and squeeze gently. I stepped out of his embrace, concerned I might combust right there in the bar, in front of all of my future colleagues, if I let Brandon keep touching me like that.
He just smiled again, baring his teeth like a lion on the hunt. I was his prey, and I couldn't be happier about it.
~
