Page 57 of The Fake Date Agreement

“Thanks.”

“Everyone needs help sometimes, and you’re doing way more for me than I am for you.”

A hint of a smile curls his lips. “I’m not so sure about that. Want to come to my room and study?”

His eyes dip to my mouth as he speaks, and butterflies form in my belly.

I lick my suddenly dry lips. “Why did you say study like that?”

“Like what?” His smile is innocence personified.

“Like you meant something else.”

“Now, what else would I want to do with a beautiful woman in my dorm room?”

That butterfly sensation in my belly tightens.

I eye him steadily. “You keep flirting with me, even when no one is around to hear you.”

There are students around, but they’re feet away.

His smile grows. “And apparently failing miserably at it.”

“I thought the point was to help each other out.” I jump, startled, when he slides his arm around my shoulder and steers me toward the other side of the quad. “You know? The fake-date agreement we have.”

He laughs. “Is that what you’re calling it?”

I blush. “I figure I have to call it something. What are you calling it?”

“Project Headless Ex.”

I look at him.

He widens his eyes. “What? It’s a good name. Bloody and memorable.”

“Max…” I ask myself what I’m doing bringing up Max, who has been gently encouraging me to sleep with three hot hockey players, not for revenge but to have fun.

“Max?” His forehead furrows in a frown.

“A girl on my floor. Maxine Ryan.”

That line melts away. Almost as if…

No.

Do not let your mind go there. Reid was not jealous because he thought you were talking about a guy.

“Oh. What about her?”

He continues guiding me toward Reynolds Hall, his strong, warm arm a pleasant weight around me. “We bonded over a mutual dislike of hockey,” I tell him.

“Don’t let Caleb hear you say that,” he says with a grin. “He’ll never forgive you.”

I smile. “Not just hockey. Most sports.”

I catch a girl staring at us like she can’t believe I’m with Reid.

I’m struggling to believe it as well.

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