Page 14 of Puck You Not

“Did he write you again last night?He did, didn’t he?Are you holding out on me?”

I looked down at my feet, pushing one through the grass.“We may have messaged back and forth a few times last night….and this morning.”

“Did you ask his name yet?”Nash demanded.

“Nope.Not since the fall.”

“Has he asked yours?”He sounded incredulous, refusing to believe Parrish and I were still anonymous.

I side-eyed him.“A few times.”

Again, I’d withheld some info from Nash.God knew, if I let on that there was a bet between me and Parrish, Nash would be hacking into my email then backtracking the connection to Parrish.I didn’t knowhowhe did that.I just knew he could.

Nash chuckled.“Look at you being all coy.I want to hear every detail about it later.”He stood and hefted his backpack onto his shoulder.“I’ve gotta get to the computer lab.”

“Yeah, I need to head back to the library.To study this time.My Egyptian mythology paper isn’t going to write itself.”

“Are you sure?I have an app for that.”

I narrowed my eyes at him, glaring.

He lifted his hands, laughing as he walked away.“I know, I know.NoRise of the Computersallowed.I was only joking.You’re just so easy to rile up.”

My death stare only made him laugh harder.

“Go slay some cyber-demons and keep your AI far, far away from me, andmaybe,I won’t get olives and ham on your pizza,” I growled.

He mimed a gag then slapped a hand over his heart and lifted the other into the air.“I’ll be good.Promise.”

Spinning, he jogged off toward the computer tech building.I shook my head while I watched him go.It was too bad we had zero attraction to each other.Well, that and the fact we both liked guys.Other than that, we were basically birds of a feather, both a little nerdy.Both outside the orbit of the most popular people on campus.Wallflowers.Both doing our best to get through college and make something of ourselves without support from our families—anddespiteour families, truth be told.

Still, Nash was exactly the type I could see myself with when I finally paired up for the long term.SomeonelikeNash.ButnotNash.I wanted a full romanticand physicalrelationship someday.

Gathering my things from the bench, I realized the sky was clouding over.It was getting a little chillier, and I didn’t have a coat with me.Slinging my bag over one shoulder and shoving my phone into my back pocket, I started toward the library, halfway across campus.

As I hurried, I was wholly unprepared for a body slamming into me from behind, tackling me onto the grass and tumbling with me down the shallow incline beside the path.Somehow, as we fell, the larger frame wrapped around me and tried to protect me during our tumble.Ineffectively.I still stopped with a jarring thud, a heavy weight atop me.

“Shit!I’m so sorry.I wasn’t—” The guy broke off as he pushed up on his hands, the rest of him still sprawled over me.“I wasn’t looking, and I… Are you okay?”

I licked my lips and swallowed, trying to get words to form as my lips moved, but no sound emerged.Stunned, I stared up into a pair of wide, whiskey-brown eyes.

Parrish.It was Parrish Locksby.Sprawled over me as if all my daydreaming had materialized him.Every hard, solid inch of him pinned me down.His legs tangled with mine on the cold, slightly damp grass.His groin pressed against mine.

Holy hard ridge, Batman.

That was his dick pressed up to me all up close and personal.

“I… It’s… I… It’s okay.I’m okay,” I managed.

“No, it’s not okay.”He shook his head.“I shouldn’t have been running backward and yelling over to my friend.Shit.Are you sure you’re okay?”

My chin trembled into a nervous nod, but I couldn’t get words past my constricted throat.I couldn’t banter with him like I did on email.Not while I inhaled the dark notes of Parrish’s cologne and the heady scent that was all him.Plus that…ridge.

His brow furrowed, and I knew he was sizing me up, taking in my Plain Jane-ness.Summing me up.Forming a judgment.It was exactly why I’d never revealed my name to him.I was just an ordinary, awkward girl outside his echelon, computer screens and the wide expanse of the internet separating us.

Or so I’d thought.Yet, here we were, face-to-face, chest-to-chest, and breathing each other’s air.

I might never recover.

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