He normally doesn’t give any chick the time of day. He’s a very serious guy, so seeing him laugh and joke with them is endearing. Plus, it seems like Kylie has taken a liking to him too.

She’s nice, and I’ve yet to see her not smiling. I can see why Cash is friends with her. He said they met back at WSU, and they used to hang out all the time together with his old roommate—and ex-boyfriend—Xander. He’s never mentioned Xander being his ex, and I sure as shit am not going to bring it up. That would be an admission of my internet stalking, and I’m good with all that.

Cash’s head turns toward me, a smile splitting his face as he catches me watching them. Without another word to them, he gets up, sauntering toward me, and I can’t peel my eyes away from him. I’m still amazed that he even agreed to come tonight. I really didn’t think he would. This is different than at work, and it’s different than grabbing drinks during the week. This is my territory and my people, and he said yes anyway.

And everyone loves him. He’s so naturally extraverted, always making friends easily. There’s never any awkward shyness. It’s like he fits right in here, and it makes me feel much better than it should. It doesn’t matter if he fits in here, because we can’t ever be anything more than this… friends. He’d never allow that. I hurt him once, and I can’t see him allowing me in again.

He stops when he’s about a foot away from me, his eyes glassy and his cheeks flushed. “What’re ya thinking about?”

His question throws me off. “Why do you ask?”

“Because you have this serious face on… your serious professor face that I haven’t seen for years. So, what’s on your mind, Dean Philips?”

His eyes darken when he asks me that, and my pulse races in my ears. There’s something so sensual about the way he says my name, and it never fails to heat my blood.

“I was just thinking how easily you fit in here.”

“You think so?” He lifts his solo cup up to his lips, and when his Adam’s apple bobs on a swallow, my gaze tracks the movement, causing my mouth to water. Fuck, what I’d give to run my tongue along his throat, sink my teeth into his neck, and make him cry out with a mix of pleasure and pain so good it’d make his cock twitch in his jeans.

Nodding my head once, I reply, “I do.”