“Rainbow?” Matteo says before removing the toothpick from the corner of his mouth. I don’t respond. I never respond to people I’m scared of, and he scares the heebie-jeebies out of me.

“I see you’re still as quiet as you were in college, yeah?” He scrunches his nose.

Izzy jumps up from the floor, waltzes up to him, holds out her hand, and he takes it into his tattooed hand, kissing it. Her face turns fire-truck red. Izzy is boy- and girl-crazy. She’ll gush over any person she thinks is hot. In fact, that’s how we first met. I was sitting at the café on campus. She came up to me, told me that I was hot, and asked me out on a date. Flustered, I told her sure. I didn’t know if I was into girls, but after our first kiss, I figured women weren’t my jam. But we became friends shortly afterward.

“And who are you?” Matteo asks Izzy. Gunner and I stare at both of them as they gawk at each other like two horny teenagers. The sexual charge between them is enough to start a battery.

“I’m Izzy.”

“I’m Matteo, but you, bella, can call me Matt.” He says something in Italian and she giggles. Loud and annoying. Matt is every bit her type. Bad boys and men with accents.

Izzy removes her hand, flattens her purple Daisy Dukes and removes invisible lint from her white tank top like she always does when she’s nervous.

“You two want to fuck like rabbits, get a room, preferably not here,” Gunner says, then heads to his room, and I turn on the balls of my feet to follow him. My heart gallops and I’m horny. He’s going to see the mess I made in his room. What if he kicks me out? No, I’m being irrational. Gunner wouldn’t do that. I rush past him and block the door.

He surveys me from head to toe like I’ve lost my mind, and I have. Where did it go? I don’t know.

“Gia, get the fuck out of the way,” he says, taking a step forward so I feel his body heat radiating off him, and his cinnamon spice caresses my nostrils, making me melt like butter. It’s because I haven’t gotten laid in a while and the alcohol in my system is wrecking my body.

“No.” My voice pleads guilty as I shake my head.

“Have you been drinking?” He arches his eyebrow, and I want him to kiss me everywhere on my body.

“Yeah.”

Plastering a fake smile over his mouth, he picks me up and sets me to the side. When he opens the door, his eyes drink in the mess I made.