I dropped my jaw. Holy fuck. Yes, this guy was my type. He checked all my boxes—shorter, maybe five-eleven to my six-five and with a lean build, and fuck if he acted like he didn’t know how stunning he was. Okay, first impressions. Maybe he knew?
“Come in.” He stepped aside and cleared his throat. “We could work on the couch or the table. You pick.” He stepped into the main room, neatly laid out in a no-nonsense way with a leather couch and dark wood tables. The place itself had been updated to include white cabinets with black counters and a grey laminate wood floor.
As I panned the room, my gaze landed on a small fireplace with a grey stone surround. “Nice place. It’s not common to have a fireplace in an apartment. Does it work?” I stepped toward the couch and sank onto the end, setting my backpack on the floor.
“It does. It’s wood, so…” His gaze darted across the floor as he brushed his hands across his hips. “Can I, uh, get you something to drink? I have water and, uh, Gatorade.” The corner of his lips twitched as his gaze flashed to mine.
“Sure. I’ll take a Gatorade. It’s the drink of choice for athletes.” With a sly grin, I fixated on the rounded ass under his grey board shorts when he turned and strode into the kitchen. “How long have you lived here?” I swung my arm onto the back of the couch and loosely crossed my legs. Maybe I could stretch our study sessions out to get to know him better. If he weren’t queer, then I’d leave it alone. God, I was already thinking things I shouldn’t.You’re here to study, Tex.
“A little over a year. I rented the place when I came here to start my master’s.” He approached the couch with a bottle of water and an orange Gatorade and then handed me the Gatorade. “Hope you like orange. It’s all I have.”
“No problem. That’s fine. I wasn’t expecting you to wait on me when I got here.” I unscrewed the cap. “But it’s a nice touch.” As I gulped my drink, I watched him, staring at me while I swallowed. Was he queer?
“Oh, uh, sure. I like to be cordial to my students.” He scraped his teeth across his lower lip. “You said you played football, so I…” He twisted the water bottle in his hands and glanced around the room. “Doesn’t matter. I have a, a friend who plays hockey. My best friend. He likes the orange flavor.”
“You do?” Yeah, he didn’t know how fucking gorgeous he was. “Who is it? Does he play for ASU? I know some of those guys, well, indirectly.” Was he a friend of Myles and Cooper’s?
“No, I don’t know why I brought it up.” He freed a stammered laugh and dropped into the opposite end of the couch. “His name is Evan Crosby. He plays for the Phoenix Firebirds. Anyway, we’ve been friends since high school.” He sucked in a deep breath. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
I took him in from his head to his bare feet. He had a frat boy look to him, but I highly doubted he was in a frat. For one, he lived too far off campus, and two—he seemed too…awkward, maybe? “Hey, are you in a frat?” Fuck my mouth for blurting that out.
“No.” He furrowed his brows and sipped his water. “Why do you ask?” His gaze dipped to my lips for a beat and then rushed away.
Was he queer? I peeked at his mouth and the dusting of shadow above his upper lip. How would he appear with one of those mustaches that were so popular these days? I bet he could make it look hot. “I don’t know, just wondering. You sort of look like one.” I choked on a laugh.Stupid, Tex.
“Oh, is that a compliment?” He gave a slow smirk. “Do you usually date frat boys?”
He knew my status. That wasn’t surprising. The entire school knew. “I?—”
“Don’t answer that.” He held his palm out to me. “I’m sorry, that was a stupid thing to say.” Lifting his chin, he inhaled deeply. “Show me the assignment you’re stuck on.”
“Sure.” I pulled my laptop from my backpack, opened it andset it in my lap. “I already have it on my screen.” I’d come prepared. “I have to create a pivot table from the data and…”
He slid next to me on the couch, his body heating my side. “Pivot tables are easy once you get the hang of them.” He turned the laptop screen toward him, his arm muscles thicker than I’d expected. “I’ll tell you what to do.” He leaned in a little closer.
The scents of lemon and cucumber wafted from his hair. Goddamn, he smelled good. I could get used to this. “Do you work out?” Somehow, I didn’t see him going to the gym.
“A little.” As he turned his head, his gaze locked on mine for a beat, and his lips parted. With a swallow, he inched away. “I like to run, but Evan taught me some weightlifting techniques. I use the gym inside the apartment complex.” His gaze dipped to my chest. “You um, obviously know quite a lot about lifting weights.”
“Yeah, guess so.” I huffed a laugh. “It’s my job, basically, to lift weights. I’m a guard on the offensive line, so I have to throw a lot of big dudes on the ground.”
He nodded and then blinked. “Okay, well, back to the pivot table.” He explained what buttons to push, and we were on our way.
After an hourof data visualization using the pivot tables, we took a break. “How much longer do you want to study?” I stretched at a set of sliding glass doors leading to a balcony with a plastic table and chairs. If he had time, maybe I could hang out and get to know him better?
“Let’s get some fresh air on the patio.” He unlocked the slider and opened it. “I can keep going another hour if you like. I know you have a deadline.”
I stepped onto the patio overlooking the greenery between buildings, and the cooling evening air surrounded me, alongwith a chorus of chirping birds. “With all these gigantic trees around here, you must have a shit ton of birds.”
“Yes, you should hear it in the morning.” He sat in a chair and sighed. “What’s your take on these assignments we discussed? Are you ready for your test or?”
I fell into the chair beside him. “I feel a lot better about it. But…” Shit, I wanted to stay with him longer. “More instruction would cement it in my brain.” I tapped the side of my head. “You know?”
“Yeah, I get it.” A small smile curled his lips. “I do have a hard stop in another hour. I have another student coming.”
“Oh.” Fuck. I’d have to go home to make dinner after all. “What are you tutoring next?” Did the next student find him as attractive as I did?
“I’m helping a junior with her accounting class. She’s having a rough time figuring out what counts as a debit versus a credit.” With a soft laugh, he shook his head. “It’s amazing how hard that concept can be.” His gaze swung to mine. “You would have taken that class last year.”