Page 107 of Hide and Seek

“Are there ever times when it’s not like that?” he asks, some of his shyness from earlier coming back.

“Are you asking if I’m faking right now? Or maybe earlier when I had you bent over in your room?” I arch one eyebrow at him.

He nods, and the flare of heat in his eyes makes my cock stir.

“I don’t fake it with my family. I only do that with people who don’t matter to me.”

“So you don’t fake it with me?” he asks, his voice catching.

“No.” I look at him so he can see that I’m telling the truth. “I never have. That’s how I knew you were different. And it’s one of the reasons I was so interested in you even before you put that note in your window and challenged me.”

His smile is soft and sweet, and more of those warm feelings fill my chest. I like seeing him smile like that, and I really like being the reason he does.

The rest of the walk to Boone House is filled with idle chatter, mostly Myles asking me an endless stream of questions about myself and my life. I already know almost everything about him, but he knows so little about me that I don’t mind, and I answer every one of them the best I can.

“Sorry if it felt like I was interrogating you just now,” he says when his dorm comes into view. “I’m just so curious, and I can get carried away when I get on a roll.”

“It’s fine,” I tell him. “It’s only fair you know as much about me as I do about you.”

“You didn’t have to walk me home,” he says as we approach the gate.

It’s wide open, as usual.

“I didn’t walk you home.” I pause as he taps his card over the sensor to log his entry.

“Huh?” He shoots me a confused look as we pass through the gate together.

“Walking you home implies that I’m dropping you off.”

“Aren’t you?” he asks as we make our way around the side of the building and toward the back entrance.

“No.”

“I’m so confused right now.”

“I’m not dropping you off. I’m staying over.”

He stumbles beside me. I catch him with one arm around his waist and steady him, not breaking my stride. “You are?” he squeaks. He clears his throat. “I mean, you are?”

“Yes.” I toss him a smirk.

“Why is that so hot?” he mutters.

“Why is what so hot?” I wait for him to activate the back door.

“You being all bossy. I swear any kind of heavy-handedness or people making decisions for me usually makes me stabby and is the best way to make menotdo something, but it’s so hot when you do it.” He shakes his head as we climb the stairs together. “But then again, nothing about how any of this happened should have been hot, but here we are.”

“Here we are,” I agree with a soft chuckle.

Myles pushes the door to his floor open and holds it open for me.

“I still can’t believe any of this happened,” he says as he pulls his keys out of his pocket. “It’s so crazy to think how much changed today.” He sticks his key in the lock and twists it. “Iwoke up in a bad mood, then I had a shitty day and almost got my head blown off by an overeager rent-a-cop all before two in the afternoon.”

I close the door behind us and lean against it as he stops a few feet into his room.

“Then I spent the next however many hours trying to convince myself that you’re my stalker while also telling myself it could never be you. Then you show up in my room, and you show me your face, and we…” His eyes flick to the bed. “And then I hung out with your friends like I was one of you, and now you’re staying over.” He shakes his head. “I’m still waiting to wake up and realize this is all a dream.”

“It's not a dream. And youareone of us,” I tell him.