Clay made a buzzer sound, the noise so loud a few students at the tables around us looked over their shoulders. “Impossible. No one who’s actually dating avoids PDA.”

“Fine.” I made a face. “Then we need a safe word.”

“A safe word?” Clay chuckled. “Do you think I’m going to be tying you up, Kitten?”

Something wicked gleamed in his eyes, like he’d just thought about what that would entail, and once again, he leaned his large frame over the tiny table.

“I mean, that can be arranged,” he added with a smirk. “If you’d like.”

The way my lips parted at the invitation, how my heart skipped a beat before galloping a little quicker than before, was not okay. Fortunately, I covered it pretty well as I rolled my eyes.

At least, I hoped I did.

“I just mean that if you do something I’m uncomfortable with, I want a way to tell you.”

“Why don’t we just go through what is okay?” he suggested.

I tilted my head, considering, and then nodded.

“Holding hands?”

“Of course.”

“Kiss on the cheek, forehead, etcetera?”

My cheeks warmed. “Yes.”

Clay arched a brow. “Kiss on the mouth?”

Again, my heart was beating out of rhythm, but I tucked my hair behind my ear, lifting my coffee mug to my lips for a sip of the foam that had gone cold. “I suppose it would be weird if we didn’t.” I snapped my fingers, pinning him with a glare. “But no tongue.”

“No tongue?” Clay sucked his teeth. “Who’s going to be envious of a peck on the lips? Certainly not your boy Shawn over there, I can promise you that.”

I grunted, and like a bucket of ice water being thrown over me, I realized how incredibly stupid the whole premise was. I didn’t live in a freaking book — I lived in real life, where there was no plausible way any of this would turn out in our favor.

“This is absurd,” I said. “It’s not going to work. And it’s weird and desperate, and we should just forget the whole thing.”

I started gathering up my things, but Clay reached out, his hand folding over my wrist so softly it surprised me given the mass of that calloused hand.

I stilled, swallowing as my eyes crawled the length of his toned arm, finding him watching me with a deep sincerity. It unnerved me, that gaze, how steady and yet somehow… terrifying it was. I wondered if this was what his opponents felt on the field, fear spiking the hairs on the back of their necks.

“Meow.”

I cracked a laugh. “Meow?”

“If I go too far, if you’re uncomfortable and want me to back off, just meow.”

“Oh, my God.”