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  You’re totally right, Ty wrote me back. Let’s both get really good studying in now so we can fool around later. I smiled with relief at the fact that at least Ty wasn’t offended by me turning down his invitation.

  Yes! I bit my lip as I typed out my response, adding, How about on Monday, once you’ve got the test behind you? Ty texted back that he thought that sounded like a great idea, and I set my phone aside. I was hot all over, tingling from head to toe; I was never going to get any studying done when I was distracted like that. I put my books aside and went into my room to grab my towel and bathrobe, and then I stepped into the shower and turned the water on.

  The cold water that blasted me was the farthest thing from comfortable that I could imagine, but it did the trick within a few minutes, cooling me off. I was definitely looking forward to my date with Ty, and I thought that maybe—just maybe—I’d give into temptation the next time, if the opportunity came up.

  Chapter Eight

  Monday afternoon, I got my exam done as quickly as I possibly could; I knew I’d be seeing Nicole again that night, and I wanted to hurry through the day as much as possible, to get to the part of the day where we would be spending time together. I had made plans for us again, and I thought that maybe for the third date—if the second date went well—I’d open it up to Nicole to pick where we went. I’d called a restaurant that I used to work at in my sophomore year and got reservations for us; Monday nights were never all that busy when I was working there, so I figured it would be pretty easy to get a table. I’d been right; they were happy to have me in.

  I texted Nicole to make sure she was still going to be able to go out with me that night, and when she sent me a picture of her smiling into the camera in response, I got back to the dorms as quickly as I could and started getting ready to go out. I took a shower and checked on my bank account. Since I’d been to the restaurant before once as a customer, I knew I didn’t have to make myself crazy dressing up—and I texted Nicole to tell her that we would be going to dinner, and that she didn’t have to stress out too much, either.

  I changed into a pair of black pants and a dress shirt, and counted down the minutes until I could walk over to Nicole’s dorm to pick her up. I debated getting in my car and driving to the grocery store to buy her flowers; part of me thought it would almost certainly demonstrate how much I liked her and wanted to get even closer to her, but another part thought she would probably think it was hokey and lame. I told myself that I’d find a reason to get her flowers for another date, when I found out if she even liked flowers—and if she did, which ones she liked.

  Finally I was able to walk over to her dorm. My heart was pounding in my chest with anticipation of what Nicole would look like, how she’d like the place I was taking her to. Well if she hates it then obviously we won’t be good together, so at least there’s that, I thought as I took the stairs up to her floor of the dorm. I hoped that she had taken my advice—that I wouldn’t see her come to the door having stressed out over how much she should dress up, or that she’d taken me too seriously and would be wearing jeans and a t-shirt and I’d have to tell her that she needed to change.

  I shouldn’t have worried. When Nicole came to the door a minute after I’d knocked, she was absolutely stunning. She’d put her dark hair up into some kind of convoluted bun, leaving her neck exposed, and she was wearing a black dress that fit her just perfectly, falling to just above her knees. I was torn between wanting to take it off of her right away and just loving the way it looked on her. “I know I shouldn’t stare, but you are just…” I shook my head. “You’re unbelievably gorgeous.” Nicole blushed, smiling slightly, and stepped out of her room after a quick check of her purse.

  “You look really good, too,” she said, looking up into my eyes. “I was so worried that I was going to overdo it or underdo it.” I leaned in and kissed her lightly on the lips—and had to make myself pull back before instinct took over and I went for more.

  “You look absolutely perfect,” I told her, taking her hand in mine.

  We got into my car and I made my way off campus, checking the time. “Where are we going? You didn’t actually tell me anything specific,” Nicole pointed out.

  “We’re going to a place I used to work at,” I told her. “It’s a nice place but not one of those that’s like a million dollars a plate or something.” I grinned at Nicole. “I know it probably totally ruins your image of me to think of me waiting tables.”

  “I can picture it,” Nicole said, her lips twitching with the start of a grin. “Why did you stop working there?” I shrugged.

  “I stopped when summer break came around, and the next semester I’d gotten more student aid, so I was able to make ends meet better. I still love the place though. I gained weight sophomore year as much because of the free food from there as the dining hall.”

  “You gained weight?” Nicole raised an eyebrow, looking me up and down. “That I don’t believe for even a second.” I laughed.

  “It wasn’t a lot of weight, but I did put on about ten pounds. It was great.” Nicole snorted and shook her head, still giving me a disbelieving look.

  The minute we walked into the restaurant, I was so glad that I’d thought of it; I was so glad that I had Nicole with me. She looked absolutely stunning, and she walked in on my arm as if she went into nice restaurants every day. “Ty! Good to see you, brother,” one of the waiters said, keeping his voice just below a shout.

  “Who’s your new girl?” I smiled at the hostess, Emily.

  “This is Nicole,” I said, taking in the approving nods of the front-of-house staff who had paused to say hello. As always, the restaurant—called Allegro—smelled amazing, enough to make my mouth water. “I brought her here so I could impress her with all the food knowledge this place hammered into my head.”

  “If you really wanted to impress her, you’d have taken her to a place where you wouldn’t get half your ticket comped,” Emily said, giving me a wink.

  “Hey! I don’t count on you guys giving me any kind of discount. I have enough money in my account to pay full price.”

  “Look at Mr. High Roller here,” Emily said, glancing at one of the other hostesses with a grin as she grabbed two menus. “All right, we won’t sabotage you. We’ve got a table ready for you over in Bryce’s section.”

  Emily pulled out Nicole’s seat first and then gave me a look to tell me I was on my own, and handed the menus to us each. Allegro changed its menu seasonally, but since I’d worked there for almost a year, I knew enough to be able to figure out what they’d changed and what would be good to get. “How familiar are you with Italian food?” I looked up from my menu to look at Nicole.

  “I know a little bit about it,” Nicole said, shrugging. “My parents like Italian a lot. But I’ve never been to a place quite as nice as this.”

  “Most of it’s pretty straightforward,” I told her, looking down at my own menu for a moment. “What kinds of foods do you like? Other than carnival food.” I looked up and grinned at her.

  “I like everything,” Nicole said, returning my grin. “That’s part of the problem. Everything on here sounds so good.” I chuckled.

  “I know that feeling,” I said. “I definitely always have a tough time choosing when I come in here.”

  Bryce finally dropped by the table, pad in hand. “Good to see you in the dining room again, brother,” he said, before glancing at Nicole. “You do me a favor and keep this animal in line, okay? Ever since he got too good to wait tables, he’s a real menace.”

  “I thought everyone had agreed not to humiliate me in front of this beautiful woman,” I said, shaking my head in pretend disappointment. “Tell Nicole about the specials.”

  Bryce went through them and I listened carefully; I knew that Emilio, the chef, used the specials to move things we had too much of—but he also had really exacting standards. He wouldn’t put anything on a plate that was close to expiration date. Anything that came out of the kitchen would
be good.

  Nicole settled on the linguine with shrimp and I went with the osso buco. “Do you remember which wines we have?” I rolled my eyes at Bryce’s question.

  “Considering you guys change them up every three months, no,” I told him. “What do you recommend for the osso buco?”

  “I think a good red,” Bryce said. “We’ve got a good chianti in, that would go great with it.” I nodded.

  “That’s what I’ll have then. What kind of wine do you think you want, Nicole?” She hesitated and I remembered that she was underage; Bryce looked from her to me, raising an eyebrow slightly.

  “Should I ask her for her ID?” he asked me. I shook my head.

  “We’re just having a glass or two of wine, and anyway you know I’m not going to tell,” I told him. Bryce looked around quickly, shrugged, and turned his attention onto Nicole.

  “With the shrimp, I’d definitely say the pinot grigio is the way to go,” he told her. “You could probably also enjoy a sauvignon blanc—and we do have one—but the pinot just makes everything taste amazing in the dish.”

  “That’s what I’ll have then,” Nicole said, smiling a little nervously. Bryce took the rest of our order—I insisted on Nicole getting the fruit with zabaglione for her dessert—and then left us. “Are you sure it’s okay for me to have wine here?” I shrugged it off.

  “They’re normally not big on carding anyway,” I told her quietly. “If they know without a doubt that someone’s under twenty-one they’ll do it but as long as you’re not going to get shit-faced and destroy the restaurant or get the cops called on you, they kind of try and look the other way. It’s just wine after all.”

  We started talking about my short-lived career waiting tables, and about food, and everything else and I watched Nicole relax, bit by bit. She sipped her wine in between bites of food and thanked Bryce for recommending it, and I felt like an absolute king: sitting at a table with a beautiful woman, eating delicious food, absolutely at my ease. “I think this night might actually be better than graduation will be,” I told Nicole.

  “That’s right, you’re graduating in the spring, aren’t you?” Nicole looked away for a second and then smiled again.

  “Now don’t get all squirrely on me—assuming you don’t get tired of me before then, I am not just going to run off after graduation. You’re stuck with me until you tell me to go to hell,” I told her.

  “What are you going to do after you graduate?” I shrugged.

  “I’m hoping that I can get a job with the accounting firm my dad works for, as a CPA,” I said. “I know it sounds really boring, but I’ve always been great with numbers.” Nicole nodded.

  “It’s good, too, that you’ve got your dad to help you sort of find your way,” she said.

  “What do you want to do when you graduate?” Nicole laughed, finishing off her pasta and putting her fork aside to take another sip of her wine.

  “I don’t know, actually,” she said, looking away for just a moment. “I used to think I knew what I wanted to do, but I’m still trying to figure it out.” For just a second, there was a look on her face like she might cry; but then it was gone.

  “Well you have plenty of time,” I told her quickly. “There’s all kinds of things to look into. And yours doesn’t have to be as boring as mine!” Nicole smiled a little more genuinely and Bryce came to the table to ask if we wanted our dessert.

  When Nicole took her first bite of the fruit and zabaglione, she closed her eyes and let out a little moan, and I swear it sounded exactly like the sound she’d made when I nibbled at her neck a few nights before. I felt a hot, electric jolt shoot through me at the sound of her pleasure and I knew I’d made the right choice.

  I didn’t give her the chance to even consider looking at the check when it came at the end of the meal. Just like Emily had said, they’d given me the wine for free, and given me the “employee” discount on the meal. I compensated by putting the rest of what I had thought to spend for the night as a tip when I signed the receipt. I walked Nicole to the car and unlocked the passenger side door. “Oh god, I think I ate too much,” Nicole said, carefully sliding into her seat. I grinned, pleased as hell that I had been so successful.

  When we got back to campus, I hesitated in the car. “Do you want me to walk you back to your dorm?” I wanted to ask her to come up to my room with me, but I didn’t want to push her. Nicole’s cheeks lit up with the bright pink blush I knew so well and she smiled slowly.

  “Actually, I kind of thought I wanted to go back to your room,” she said shyly.

  Chapter Nine

  I wasn’t sure how far I was willing to go with Ty on our second date, but I knew that I wanted to go up to his room with him. I’d spent all of dinner thinking about how good it had felt to make out with him on our first date, and how much I’d wanted to give into the temptation for more. When we got to his room, he started to lead me toward the couch in the common area. “Do you want to watch something on Netflix?” I thought about it, and then remembered his roommate.

  “No,” I said, pressing my lips together. “Could…do you think we could maybe go to your room? And put some music on?” I was so nervous; part of my brain was screaming that I was making a huge mistake and that it would end up being horrible, while another part of my brain insisted that I would regret the hell out of it if I didn’t at least take the chance of getting more with Ty than I had the first time we’d gone out. Ty gave me a quick, curious look, but then he took my hand and led me toward his side of the dorm room.

  He closed the door behind us and gave me a quick kiss on the lips before turning his computer on. “I’ll just put on Muse or something,” he said, glancing at me to see if that was okay. I nodded my agreement, feeling nervous and jittery and excited all at the same time. The music came on and Ty walked back over to me, letting his hands fall to my waist. “If you need me to slow down or stop…”

  “I’m okay,” I said, smiling even as my nerves tingled and my whole body started to warm up.

  Ty leaned in and started kissing me slowly, barely brushing his lips against mine, caressing me slowly along my waist, up to my ribs. I shivered against him but didn’t break away. Instead, I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pressed my body along his—it was the only way I could stop myself trembling. The kiss became more and more intense by the moment, with Ty nibbling at my bottom lip, his hands starting to drift up to my breasts, down to my hips.

  He led me toward the bed and then pressed me down onto it and I didn’t stop him; I was buzzing all over, every nerve in my body tingling with the need for more. I loved the feeling of his weight on top of me, the heat of his body underneath my hands as I explored his back and shoulders.

  I barely even heard the music playing in the background as Ty’s lips left mine, shifting down to my neck to kiss and nibble there. I moaned softly, tilting my head back, my breath catching in my throat as I got hotter and hotter.

  Ty stopped all at once, his lips barely an inch away from mine. “Are you okay with this? Do you need me to stop?” I shook my head.

  “No. Don’t stop,” I told him. He smiled against my lips and kissed me again, his tongue sliding against mine, his teeth nipping into my bottom lip, his hands wandering over my body everywhere.

  In a matter of minutes I was soaking wet, trembling underneath him, my whole body on fire, and I started tugging and pulling at his shirt.

  “Oh—you really don’t want me to stop, do you?” Ty looked down at me with a grin, one hand moving up to give my breast a squeeze.

  “I want you to keep going,” I told him, reaching around to the front of his shirt to try and unbutton it. My fingers fumbled, and I could have screamed from the frustration that was building up in me.

  After our first date, after the text messages, the only thing I could think of was how much I wanted to see Ty naked, to feel his body against mine. I somehow managed to get the shirt off of him, and Ty found the zipper along the side of my dress and tu
gged it down. I squirmed underneath him, sliding my hands over his chest and shoulders, feeling how soft his skin was, how hot he was to the touch.

  Bit by bit, we stripped each other down, and I had no idea where any of my clothes went. One moment I was almost fully dressed and the next minute I was in nothing more than my panties. Ty buried his face against my breasts, kissing and licking and sucking, sending jolts of pleasure through my body that were almost too much for me to bear.

  I struggled with the belt on his pants, and then with the zipper and button on the fly, but all at once, Ty and I were in bed together, in nothing more than our underwear, rubbing against each other and kissing each other everywhere we could reach.

  Ty slid one hand between my legs and started stroking up and down along my labia, rubbing me lightly through the lacy fabric of my panties.

  “Fuck,” he murmured against my neck, shuddering a little bit. “You’re so wet, Nicki. God…”

  I reached down and found the bulge of his cock, straining at the front of his boxers and stroked it just a little bit. I couldn’t tell for sure, but I thought he might be bigger than Dillon. The thought was almost as scary as it was exciting. Ty’s fingers slipped underneath the fabric and I moaned out loud as he began to touch me, nothing between us at all, his fingers slipping and sliding against my soaking wet folds.

  When I was sure I couldn’t possibly take any more teasing, he tugged my panties down over my hips and I squirmed under him, kicking and twisting, to get them all the way off. I didn’t know or care where they ended up; all I cared about was the fact that Ty was kissing a trail down from my mouth, along my throat. He stopped at my breasts and looked up at me with his green-gray eyes glinting. I shivered as he claimed first one and then the other of my nipples with his mouth, sucking and licking.

  It felt like every time his tongue rasped against my nipple it sent a shock of pleasure all the way down to my pussy, making me hotter and wetter and tighter by the moment.