It was definitely something I should have kept to myself, especially since it would betray the fact that I’d been watching him, but now it was out and I was sucking it up.

Antony’s face froze momentarily.Caught.“What?”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “WithOliver.”

I didn’t even know him and I already hated that name.Oliver. So stupid. So…basic.

“Oh,” Antony responded, shoulders relaxing.

Oh?

My jaw hardened. “I thought I told you no dating.”

He shrugged, a grin stretching his lips. Cocky Antony was in the house again. “I didn’t think a little study date would have counted.”

Was he for real right now?

I wanted to punch something. Like a plaster wall. Or a face.

I was no fighter but I would give it a try just to get this jealousy out of my system.

“‘No dating’ meansno dating, Andino. You’re breaking the pact and not even twelve hours have gone by. I thought you were a man of your word.”

It was Antony’s time to huff. “Comeon, Henry, this is not adate.”

Crossing my arms over my chest, I countered, “You were flirting.”

Antony gave me a look. “We were just talking.”

“You werenot.”

“Flirting isn’tdating—”

I uncrossed my arms and stepped toward him, backing him against the shelf. “Let me make myself blatantly clear, then: No dating, no flirting,no talking and pretending not to flirt, and no hooking up.”

It was at times like this that Antony astounded me. I had my arms on each side of him. He was literally cocooned and with no escape—well, technically he could go under my arms—and yet he was completely unaffected. His grin was firmly placed on his face, eyes almost glittering—becauseof coursehe got off on pushing all of my buttons—and he was leaning back, as if this was just another relaxing day at the library, and he wasn’t basically being threatened by the most powerful guy in this college.

“If I were someone else, Henry, I’d think you were jealous.”

My throat felt suddenly thick, the back of my neck hot. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Antony looked at me for a long moment, but if he’d been about to comment on it further, he decided not to. He just sighed. “I don’t know what sort of casanova you think I am, but I’m not overwhelmed with offers ofcourtship, you know? A guy who spends way too much time studying, worrying about grades, whose second home is this very library, is hardly boyfriend material, if you catch my drift.”

I caught no drifts. “You’re not boyfriend material, Antony. You’rehusbandmaterial. And sooner or later, people are going to find out.”

I just hoped it wouldn’t be on my watch.

Unexpectedly rosy lips parted at my statement, like it was the last thing he’d have expected me to say, and for some reason, my own words hit me like a gut punch.

Because Antony Andino was the exact thing my parents would have wanted me to be. He was everything I was meant for and the furthest thing from what I was, which meant that Antony and I were like two stars, floating so far away in this endless universe, we weren’t even in the same galaxy.

The thought was enough to make me realize just how futile it was for me to be here, to be fighting him on this, to be trying to pull him harder against me, when we were just polar opposites.

I started pulling away, unable to meet Antony’s eyes any longer, but clearly he had a thing for tormenting me, because he caught my T-shirt and tugged me toward him again.

I was too weak when it came to him, so I let him.

“Don’t get all frowny, Henry. I didn’t do anything wrong,” he said, his hands now on my hips, thumb tracing an inch of bare skin that had been uncovered with his tug.