Page 34 of Fundamentals of Chemistry

The sound had come from somewhere in the back of the room. I was sure of that. One speaker had already been discovered in a lab coat pocket. But we hadn’t found anything in the cabinets yet, so I decided to start my cat hunt there. I hoped it would meow again and draw me right to it. Otherwise, this little task could take me all afternoon. The speakers were teeny.

Naturally, I was bent over on hands and knees with my head in a lower cabinet when the door opened behind me. I knew it was Cooper without having to look. There was a shift in the air, and my skin suddenly felt too tight for my bones. We hadn’t been alone together since the night of orientation, weeks ago, a confrontation that had left me shaken for days.

A lot had changed since then. Cooper might still think I was a spoiled princess, but I was confident that he didn’t hate me anymore. Hell, if the circumstances were even slightly different, I would probably consider us friends.

But that didn’t mean that I loved him finding me with my ass in the air and my skirt riding up my thighs.

Just perfect.

As gracefully as I could, I straightened up, adjusted my skirt, and closed the cabinet before turning to meet his crooked grin. He looked great today. His hair was perfectly in place, as per his usual, but the top two buttons of his Oxford shirt were undone, displaying the long column of his neck.

I assumed what I hoped was a nonchalant posture and pasted on a sunny smile for good measure.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” I said.

“Did you know that the loudest cat purr ever recorded was sixty-seven decibels?”

I was momentarily dumbstruck. I don’t know what I had been expecting him to say, but it hadn’t been that. “You don’t say,” I said.

“That’s nearly the volume of a vacuum cleaner. Most cats purr at twenty-five decibels which is more like a whisper.”

“I didn’t know you were so into cats.”

“I’m not.”

“Or acoustics.”

“I’m not.”

This might be the strangest conversation I ever had if I hadn’t had the context. “Then why are we talking about cats?” I teased.

He looked shy, his lips quirked into a crooked grin and eyes shining with mischief and amusement—and something else that I couldn’t identify but made my insides liquefy. His hands were in his pockets, and he rocked back on his heels.

“Looking for something?” he asked.

There it was. I was right—he had come to tease me. I had no intention of giving him the satisfaction.

I wiped my palms on my skirt. “Oh, nothing. I thought I dropped something earlier, but I must not have after all.”

I brushed past him, trying to casually resume my search. I opened one of the upper cabinets along the back wall and stood on my toes, craning to see to the back of the shelves.

“Did you drop something in there too?”

His voice was close, right over my shoulder. A shiver ran deliciously up my spine. I paused, hands flat on the cool surface of the counter, to consider my next move. Was I okay with him being this close? Yes. Yes, I really was.

Slowly, I turned to face him. He was still smirking. It both thrilled and irked me—this little game we were playing.

I loved games. I had always been competitive.

“Just checking the supplies.” My voice came out breathier than I would have liked.

Cooper stepped forward and leaned a hip against the counter to my right. A few, measly inches separated us. I could practically feel electricity sparking off of him like a human Van de Graaf generator. Every nerve synapse was on high alert.

I tilted my head back so I could meet his eyes again. They weren’t black, like I had thought. The color was a deep, rich brown, like hot cocoa or espresso. I wanted to drink them in.

“Did you find everything you were expecting?” His warm breath ghosted over my face, smelling like mint and herbal tea. I began to feel lightheaded. After spending so much time thinking about him and stealing glances over the last few weeks, having him this close felt intoxicating.

“No,” I breathed. “I haven’t found what I’m looking for.”