Page 29 of Totally Geeked

“And I’d rather be back in this bed with you right now, but you’re right, I need sleep before the reading, and you need to be at that training. How would it look if you flaked on the first day?”

I rub my hands over my face and then through my hair.

“And I live with Duckie and you live with Gordon. It’s going to be forever until we can be alone like this again, I mean unless we get really good at sneaking around.”

“I can be sneaky,” he says, and I smile.

“I’m sure you’d be great, but you shouldn’t have to be. I was hoping tonight wasn’t just a random hookup. I mean, if that’s what you wanted here, tell me now, but I’d like to see where this goes. Us. I really like you.”

His cheeks grow warmer, and he puts one hand on my thigh, sending a rush of heat through my leg.

“I want to see where we go, too. Gordon might understand,” he says, with a hopefulness in his voice I don’t want to crush. But I know how protective Gordon is of his brothers. He also knows every bit of my past, the hundreds of hookups, the nights out,constantly flirting and looking to get my dick wet. This is not like that.

“I’m not sure he would. Not yet, anyway. Maybe after we know what we are we’ll have a better chance at explaining it to him in a way he’ll understand that this is not a hookup.”

“You are way more than a hookup,” he says, his voice sure, more sure than he’s ever sounded, and it makes my chest swell.

“Okay, so we wait, we tell Gordon when we know he might actually understand. Until then, we get good at sneaking around?”

He nods, and I point at the bathroom.

“Okay, now that’s decided, you get in the shower and get some sleep. Tomorrow is a big day.”

He walks to the door, then pauses in the doorway and looks back at me over his shoulder, his red mess of hair hiding half his face the way he does when he’s nervous.

“Will you sleep in here with me?” he asks, and I smile.

“I was hoping you’d want me to, but what about my snoring?”

“I will never have an issue with any noises you make in my bed.”

I catch the blush rising to his cheeks before he closes the bathroom door behind him, and the shower starts.

I grab my shirt from the floor, pour a little water from a bottle on the nightstand over it and wipe myself over, then pull on my sweats and lie back on the bed. I can shower in the morning. I want to smell like him as long as I can.

My phone chimes, and I grab it and check the message.

GORDON: Poker at my place tomorrow night, you in?

I guess this is it, time to start showing Gordon that my flirty easy days are behind me. Fuck, I hope he believes it’s true because if he doesn’t, I might have to choose between a guy I’vefallen for hard and my best friend in the whole world, and that’s not a choice I think I will ever be ready to make.

HARRISON: You can poke her all on your own, I’m into guys.

GORDON: Funny, dickhead. You scared I’ll win back all those $$$ you stole from me last time?

HARRISON: I take offense to being called a thief. I can’t help it if the poker gods like me better.

GORDON: So you in or not? Ryan keeps texting me to ask you. I think he has a little crush.

Seriously?

HARRISON: Dude, you know my rule. No Banana Ballers are getting near this bat and balls. Tell the Funky Monkey he’s climbing up the wrong tree!

GORDON: I’ll try. So are you in or out?

HARRISON: That’s what he said. ***winky face***

I send the text, then realize it’s probably not going to help me convince him I’m a changed man. His reply is as expected.

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