CHAPTER 4
Emerald green eyes stared right at Kian.
The air in his lungs whooshed out as he stared back. Alec had to be at least six feet tall. Sandy brown hair was cut short, like someone in the military. The scruffy, unshaven face gave him a more rugged look. Not that he needed stubble on his face to give that impression.
Kian felt his mouth go dry as his gaze moved down to the chiseled muscles of Alec’s chest and arms that seemed to have been well honed from hard work. His gaze continued to take in every detail about Alec. Kian became fixated once more on Alec’s right bicep. That unusual tattoo that circled his arm seemed to be moving, mesmerizing Kian. Never having understood why people would get a tattoo, he was beginning to understand the appeal. It looked hot. Alec even had six-pack abs that seemed to ripple as Kian’s eyes feasted on them.
Blushing furiously as Kian’s gaze continued its downward path, he suddenly realized what he was looking at. Quickly forcing his eyes to look back up, he didn’t miss that Alec was smiling at him with an eyebrow raised, as if he’d known exactly where Kian’s had been staring.
Mortified, Kian was sure his face must have been beet red considering how hot it had become. Practically leaping from the chair he’d been on, he told Lynwood, who he’d been sitting next to, he was going back to the room and scrambled away.
Blindly, he’d pushed through the crowd. His only thought was to get as far away as possible from the guy he’d been dreaming about all day. In his mad dash, he hadn’t noticed the water that dotted the cement around the pool until his feet slipped.
Kian’s stomach dropped as he felt himself flailing backward. All he could do was brace for the impending impact, not to mention the humiliation as everyone would see his clumsiness, as he once more, disgraced himself.
Instead of hard cement slamming against his body, a strong arm wrapped around him, stopping his momentum. Kian winced at the squeak that erupted from his mouth. If he was lucky, no one had heard it above the sounds of the partying.
Heat surrounded Kian as his savior steadied him on his feet. Warmth suffused his entire body with embarrassment as he turned to thank...
Emerald eyes stared at Kian with concern. His breath caught in his throat even as his heart sped up. There was no way this was happening. Like every dream he’d had about Alec, Kian was in those strong arms, held as if he were precious.
Alec gazed down, worry showing on his face as Alec stared at Kian. “Are you okay?”
No. He was anything but okay. He’d just humiliated himself in front of his dream guy. Then there was the fact that he was in Alec’s arms and Kian would swear every point of their bodies that were touching had tingles of energy racing between them.
Mortified at his clumsiness, yet excited to be this close to Alec, Kian had to admit to feeling more alive in that moment than ever before. His heart raced, palms sweated, throat parched. Kian was far from “okay.”
Ducking his head, Kian refused to look at Alec. “Um, yeah. Thanks,” he managed to finally get out.
A finger went under his chin as Alec forced Kian to look at him. Alec’s touch caused Kian’s body to heat even further. His eyes met those emerald ones again and Kian found himself drowning in their liquid depths.
One arm continued to stay around Kian’s waist, while the other moved from his chin to cup his cheek. As if he had no control over his own body, Kian felt his head tilting into the touch.
Laughter nearby startled Kian, giving him a chance to find his equilibrium once more and take several steps back. A shiver went through him at the loss of Alec’s body heat, but Kian somehow managed to ignore his body’s plea to return to those strong arms.
It took far more effort than it should have but Kian found his voice to say, “I need to go.” Then, like the coward he was, Kian hurried away, this time paying more attention to the ground so he wouldn’t make a bigger fool of himself than he already had.
He’d known it was rude, but social situations weren’t something he knew how to handle. Who was Kian kidding? Unless it had to do with school, he wasn’t good at anything. Despite Alec asking him out, Kian hadn’t been able to answer that he would love to go out with the sexy man. Even after three years as Kavi’s roommate, Kian had never felt comfortable enough to make casual conversation, something Kavi never seemed to have trouble doing.
He’d nearly snorted at that thought. What was he saying? Kavi loved to be the center of attention. It was what he thrived on.
Then again, considering Kavi was dating one of the most popular football players on campus, making both of them almost royalty around there, it was no wonder Kavi had more confidence than anyone Kian knew. It was as if his friend was loved by everyone.
Then again, Jace wasn’t exactly a slouch in that area either. He’d left a string of hearts broken across campus the past three years. The only one who seemed as lost as Kian had been Lynwood. Admittedly, a huge part of that reason for Lynwood was that he cloaked himself in his religion, which too often turned people off. That and the fact that to appease his parents he kept trying to date women, which might have worked if he was bi, but based on how extremely awkward he was just having to touch a woman, even casually, made it obvious that was doubtful.
Even though Kian practically ran away, he was still careful. He was in flip flops after all, and the last thing he needed was to trip and fall. Being scraped, bruised and bloodied as school was getting ready to start hadn’t seemed like the smartest decision.
It wasn’t until he’d pushed through the front door and locked it behind that Kian was able to slow his breathing to a more normal level. Next thing he knew, he was kicking himself for having been too chicken to take the opportunity to get to know Alec better.
Then again, what would he have said? ‘Hi, I’m Kian, one of the only seniors on campus who was still a virgin.’ No thanks.
That was a mortification he could live without. Well, until Kavi learned what he’d done. Then Kian was going to get the lecture of a lifetime.
Maybe he should head to bed. He might not be able to sleep anytime soon, but he could pretend with the best of them. Not that Kavi would necessarily would fall for it, but Kian could always hope.
Rushing into his room, he quickly took care of his business and changed into his pajamas before diving under the covers, just as he heard the front door slam open hard enough he was fairly certain it bounced off the wall. Kavi was home. There was no way any portion of this was going to go his way, but Kian was determined to close his eyes, smooth out his breathing and pretend to be asleep.
When the door to his room bounced off the wall, it was impossible to continue to fake sleeping at that point. Sitting up, Kian obstinately said, “I’m not talking about it.”
Too bad his friends weren’t that easy to push off.