Page 16 of Cold as Ice

Mal ground his teeth together.

“Well, that should be fun,” Jane said brightly. “Should I expect to come home one day and see the apartment building reduced to rubble?”

“No,” Mal said emphatically.

“Just asking,” she said in a light, casual tone.

Mal glowered and then felt guilty for glowering. It wasn’t Jane’s fault. “I can control myself. I don’t want to physically attack him or anything.”

“No? You sure about that?”

“Jane—”

“You know my theory.”

He knew her theory. She’d imparted it last year, in the late spring, just before the semester ended, after she’d gotten drunk on coconut rum and confessed that she was pretty sure Mal’s annoyance with Elliott Jones was mostly frustration that he wanted him so badly and had decided he couldn’t have him.

Him. Wanting Elliott fucking Jones.

“That’s ridiculous.”

And okay, Elliottwasgood-looking. That was a factual thing, not an opinion, even. And not evenMal’sopinion—more the opinion of the many, many guys desperately panting after the jerk.

Otherwise, he could barely stand to be in the same vicinity as Elliott.

“It’s not ridiculous, it’s clear as day,” Jane said bluntly. She leaned in. “You’re in major denial. He hit on you, and you froze—”

“He hit on me in the most ridiculous, smug, egotistical, over-the-top way. I was never even tempted to say yes. I didnotfreeze,” Mal reminded her. Especially since after that night, more than a year ago, Elliott had had what felt like hundreds of guys looking at him and he’d hardly stopped himself from looking back.

Mal hadn’t been special. Elliott hit on everything that moved and breathed and had a freaking dick.

“You should’ve said yes,” Jane said sternly. “Maybe that would—”

“Don’t say it!” Malcolm yelped. “God, don’t say it out loud.”

“You have a real problem, Mal, and he couldhelp,” Jane said with a sigh.

“It’s not a problem,” Mal insisted, though it kind of was, at this point. “It’s a situation, and I’m not unhappy about it. I don’t mind.” Though, yes, he kind ofdidmind.

At twenty-two it would be kind of nice to have someone touch his dick besides his own right hand.

“You’re lying to yourself. You’re not a virgin out of choice. You’re a virgin because one bad experience soured you and then you got caught up in the bullshit your dad told you was real and you didn’t know how to untangle yourself.”

“I wish you would stop saying that word,” Malcolm said. Ignoring the rest of what she’d said about his dad.

He didn’t know if it was true.

He didn’t know if it wasnottrue, either.

Jane leaned back in the booth. Crossed her arms over her chest. She was wearing a baby pink sweater today. It should have made her look like a delicate prima ballerina, priming to get on stage. Instead, she looked more like a drill sergeant, ready and willing to kick his ass.

“You wish I’d stop because itbothersyou and you don’t even know how to go about dealing with it. That’s why. You know how to solve every problem in your life except this one. I’m begging, let the two of them solve each other.”

“I’ll tutor him and that’s all,” Malcolm said with finality, and he hated how much he sounded like his dad.

Jane had only met his father once, but she probably heard it too, in the inexorable, iron edge to his voice. She might’ve said it, too, but there was evidence of just how much Jane loved him, because she didn’t.

“And you also reserve the right to change your mind,” Jane said lightly even though they both knew how infrequently Mal changed his mind.

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