Page 46 of Caught Up In You

But I pause just outside the doors to the gym.

“We walked out of here together with an awful lot of purpose, Dr. Boy Scout. If we go back in together?—”

“With you all flushed like that,” he says, running a finger along the apple of my cheek.

“Yeah. If we go in there together, it’s going to look like?—”

“A pineapple?”

I snort. “The metaphor might be breaking down.”

Owen drops my hand and shoves his into the pocket of his thrifted flight suit. He looks bashful, and it’s sexy as fuck. “Whatever makes you comfortable,” he says, with not a trace of judgment. “You go ahead. I’ll sneak in the back door by the locker rooms.”

“Shit, you know all the secret spots in this place.”

He grins. “I’m notalwaysa good boy, Wyatt.”

My body lights up. “Don’t I know it.”

He winks, and then he’s gone, striding down the hall with all the confidence of a man who just brought a woman swiftly to orgasm in a chemistry classroom.

CHAPTER 17

WYATT

I’m trying to pour myself a cup of punch and adopt the look of a woman who didn’t just come in a high school chem lab when Grace comes skidding up beside me so fast she nearly takes out the entire refreshments table.

“You were in the hookup nook!” Her voice is pushing the limits of a whisper.

I raise my eyebrows. “It has an official name?”

“I went there with Tyler Jessup during junior homecoming,” she says, working to catch her breath. “So, you and my brother? It’s happening?”

“It’s just sex,” I say.

Her nose wrinkles. “Okay, ew, I don’t need the details.”

I roll my eyes. “No, I need you to hear me. Owen and I talked about it. I’m not his girlfriend. We’re just having fun,” I say, like I’m laying out a business plan. “I don’t want to sneak around or hide things from you, but I also don’t want this to become…”

“A relationship?” she says, her voice hopeful.

“A thing,” I say, because ther-word sticks in my throat. “It’s categoricallynota thing. Please hear me on that.”

She nods solemnly. “Okay. Absolutely. Just…” She wrinkles her nose, clearly uninterested in labeling her brother my fuck buddy.

So I help her out. “We’re calling it a pineapple,” I say.

Now she looks really confused. “A what now?”

“I swear it sounded a lot less insane a few minutes ago.” I shrug. “Just go with it.”

“Well, okay, then. I support you in your…pineapple.”

Carson slides through the crowd and sidles up beside me.

“I heard about you and Owen!” she squeals, and at my wide eyes, she points directly at Grace. “From her. I heard it from her, and I told no one else.”

“Nor did I,” Grace chimes in. “I mean, Decker was there, so he knows, but?—”

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