Discipline

“So we’re waiting on one more?” Linh asked. When I nodded, she held up a bottle of vodka. “Well, Mike and I brought this from our apartment. You can use it to punish him for being late if you want.”

I smiled as I accepted the bottle. “Thank you. I’m tempted but he has a meeting early tomorrow morning.”

“At the new school?”

“Mm-hm.”

But when Aaron arrived five minutes later, Linh gave him the vodka anyway. From my bedroom, as I ran a brush through my hair, I made out the sound of Mike giving him a warning.

“Don’t get too drunk, man. You’re already gonna have trouble when you see her.”

All I heard in response was Aaron’s low, sexy laugh as he accepted the vodka. Peeking out my door, I watched him bring the shot to his lips. But just as he tipped the glass back, his eye caught mine in my doorway.

“No.” He immediately set the shot down, shaking his head with a laugh. “Not that dress, Nina. Don’t do this to me.”

“It’s a test of your self control, Aaron,” Adriana teased. “If you can go the whole dinner without mauling her, we’ll let you two skip dessert and go to Red Hook so you can rip her dress off in the comfort of your own apartment.”

Aaron laughed. “I can get through dinner.” He bit his fist for a second as he gazed at me. “Just… let me have a word with my girlfriend really quick.” As he came into my room, the girls teased him.

“You go have a word with her, Mr. Teacher.”

“Just a word, though! Not a hump — the food’s gonna get cold!”

“Ade!” I called at her before letting Aaron close the door behind us. Immediately, his hands found my hips and then dipped to my backside, his lips tenderly touching to mine.

“Do they know what date it is?” he asked, his murmur a warm hum against my mouth. “Not even Linh?”

“No, but it’s better this way, so they don’t try to make us go to Todos or Mike’s bar and just party our asses off till seven,” I giggled. “You have that faculty meeting tomorrow and I need to get to class by eight.”

In preparation of my second real semester of college, I’d kicked June off with summer classes at Baruch. They were just Gen Eds though — so I could have them fulfilled before getting to school and figuring out what I actually wanted to study.

Aaron grinned. “We’ll keep it to ourselves then.”

We were the only ones who seemed to remember anyway. Despite the fact that Linh and Mike had met on the same day, they didn’t seem to remember that exactly a year ago, we had all sat down at that restaurant in Nolita. Back when I’d been remembering how to live without Ben, when I was still wary of Adriana and when Aaron had strictly been Mr. Cole. All because of Woodhill, the place that neither of us had been to in eight months, though it felt like an eternity by now. A good one.

“Yes. We’ll keep it to ourselves.” We didn’t keep many secrets these days anyway. I closed my eyes, a content smile sliding across my lips as Aaron backed me against the door, his lips brushing mine as he slid his hands over my dress, his fingers hooking into the little holes.

“Shit,” he murmured as one of the holes stretched and ripped.

I smirked. “Don’t worry. It’s about time you finally got to do that to this dress.” Aaron raised his eyebrows as I grinned. “It’ll be your anniversary gift. Just wait till we get to your place tonight. You said you could get through dinner, right?”

Aaron only nodded, biting back his smile of disbelief. “And I thought you’d finished fulfilling all my fantasies.” His blue eyes studied mine as I shook my head.

“That doesn’t stop,” I said softly, feeling a flutter in my heart as Aaron kissed my lips “We’re together now. It’s our fantasy every day.”

His words were a warm murmur against my lips. “But better.”