This was easy enough.
This I could handle.
A nice evening on the couch with two nice people, with no confusion about stupid flirting rules or etiquette.
And if I managed to keep my eyes on the TV screen instead of on Brody, I might even be able to keep my composure.
8
Brody
“Oh, you totally want to rip me apart right now,” I told Logan as I leaned back on the couch, running my hands through my hair.
“I do not,” he said. But he was staring at me intently. “I just know you can do it. Tell me something that happened after the Revolutionary War. We talked about it yesterday, and we made up a whole story about it.”
I didn’t know how the hell I was supposed to talk about the Revolutionary War when I was thinking about kissing Logan again, but for him, I was at least trying.
“I know. I know,” I said. “But I can’t fucking remember. You don’t know how bad my memory is, Logan.”
Roman had left the apartment to go begin his overnight work shift about an hour ago, and the TV was still on in the background. But at some point, Logan had decided to blindside me and start quizzing me about the stuff he’d tutored me in yesterday, and now he was discovering the truth. That I just wasn’t as smart as him and probably never would be.
“Um,” I said, wracking my brain. “After the Revolutionary War, in… the 1780s, they wrote a new constitution.”
“Yes,” Logan said, his eyes lighting up. “And what was it replacing?”
I was drawing a complete blank.
“God, I’m on the spot, here,” I said.
He got a devilish grin on his face. “That’s a good way to learn,” he said.
“Through intimidation?”
He shrugged one shoulder. “Sometimes it’s nice to have some stakes.”
I smiled. “You’re just looking at me like you can see right through me,” I said. “Like you’re stripping me naked or something. Actually, can we do that, next time we study? Just strip naked together? I’m pretty sure that would help me understand the facts better.”
“I’m pretty sure that would make me die of embarrassment,” Logan said.
“I’m sure you look phenomenal naked,” I said. “Give me a break.”
“You’re just trying to distract me from asking you about history,” Logan said.
“Is it that obvious?”
We both laughed, and I could see a light blush on Logan’s cheeks. I loved that. I liked making him think about me naked, too.
“Okay, fine. I’ll try to stop thinking about you naked. The new constitution was replacing… a different constitution?” I offered.
He bit his lower lip then released it. Why the hell did he insist on looking so sexy while he was quizzing me on this? “Remember the guy we made up,” he said.
“Our made-up guy. Jimmy. I know.”
“So what was Jimmy doing?”
My mind was drawing a complete blank. But the longer Logan stared at me, his blue eyes relaxed and fixated on mine, the less I could focus on whatever historical facts he was trying to make me remember.
“Jimmy was walking around, drinking a beer,” I said. “Oh! And he thought about his sister, in New Jersey.”
Logan nodded once. “Right. And…”
“And she was witnessing them ratify the new Constitution there.”
“You’ve got it.”
I was silent for a few moments. Logan looked more excited than he had all night.
He loved this. And I wished so bad I could give him the satisfaction of a correct answer. I really wanted to impress him, I realized. I wanted him to have a good opinion of me.
Actually, I was a little bit intimidated by Logan right now. There was something powerful about watching him snap into such confidence.
“Can I be honest with you?” I asked.
“Please. Always,” he said.
“It’s really hard for me to focus on school stuff right now because your hair has been all messed up from the wind all night, and I also keep thinking about how you blushed when you came in, and… basically, Logan, I’ve been wanting to kiss you all night.”
“Fuck,” he whispered, finally relenting, sitting back a little on the couch.
A fire smoldered inside me, glad to have finally just spoken the truth about what was on my mind. I’d felt like I was holding back for hours, ignoring the very big elephant in the room—the fact that I was so attracted to Logan I’d been sporting a half-chub under my pants most of the evening.
But I was worried that he’d have that reaction. The one I’d just seen, where his confidence evaporated, and he was like a stunned animal.
“See? That’s why I didn’t want to be too honest,” I said gently. “I didn’t want to freak you out.”
“I’m not freaked out,” he said, reaching down to fiddle with a loose thread at the seam of his pants.
I lifted an eyebrow.
“Okay, maybe a little,” he admitted. He swallowed. He looked like he was mustering up the strength to talk, sitting up a little straighter. “But only because I’ve wanted to kiss you all night, too.”