By the Numbers (Love Logic, #3)

by K.M. Neuhold

Actually, no because negative numbers still exist. The chances of me calling are the square root of negative one, they don’t exist.

I hit the buzzer and a minute later, the intercom crackles to life. “Forget your key again?” Theo guesses, his deep voice sounding tinny through the speaker. “I’m told my forgetfulness is charming,” I offer, grinning even though he can’t see me. The sound of his chuckle is cut off by the buzz of the door unlocking.

I jog up the steps to the second floor and kick my shoes off as soon as I get inside.

Did I mention my new roommate is a straight up smoke show? Because, yeah, he’s bangable. Not that I’m going to go there. Nope, because that would be stupid, and as he pointed out, I am in fact a certified genius. No bad decisions happening over here, not a one.

“It’s Event Horizon, sci-fi, horror, and a whole lot of ‘what-the-fuck?’,” he tempts,

holding the bowl of popcorn out to me. “Dammit, that combination is my Kryptonite,” I complain, snagging a handful of popcorn for myself and heading straight for the living room. You know, horror/sci-fi/what-the-fuck movies and cute guys with brown eyes.

On the other hand, I recently learned the very important life lesson: if I want something, I’d better go for it before my brother, Pax, swoops in and fucks it. Or eats it in this particular case.

Not that I’m salty about the whole my brother stole the guy I’ve crushed on for years thing. Besides, it’s not like I ever got around to telling Elijah or Pax about my feelings before they went and fell in love. It’s all a moot point anyway. What’s done is done, and the bottom line is that I’m going to keep wolfing down popcorn like it’s

my last night on Earth because popcorn is officially my one and only love. Popcorn can’t break my heart; it’s fo...

Not that I begrudge Alex whatever kind of social life he wants to have, but the sound of the buzzer when he got home might’ve been my favorite sound in the world.

He snorts at the movie, and I glance over to find him grinning with amusement.

Alex polishes off the last of the popcorn and then takes the bowl from my hands and stands up. “Want some more? I feel like I ended up hogging most of it.” “Considering how fast I was hoovering it up before we even sat down, I think it was fifty-fifty at worst. But I’ll definitely take some more.” He gives me a dorky little salute I can’t help but laugh at as he walks out of the room. I

hate to admit it, but I steal a quick glance at his ass because he’s cute and I’m human.

Alex returns from the kitchen with a fresh bowl of popcorn and sits back down. He offers the bowl, and I jokingly open my mouth and point at it. He raises his eyebrows and picks up a piece, closing one eye and checking his aim. “Trigonometry, physics, just the right calculations and…” He launches the piece

directly into my open mouth, and I crunch down on it with a smirk. “Bullseye,” Alex says smugly. “That can’t be that hard.” I reach for a piece, and he opens his mouth. But apparently, it’s not as easy as he made it look. My first try bounces off his nose, the next his chin, a few graze the rim of his mouth before tumbling onto his lap. The fact that he’s laughing hysterically and not even attempting to hold still doesn’t help matters, and by the sixth or seventh try, I’m not even genuinely trying to get them

in his mouth, I’m just chucking popcorn at him fo...

More popcorn ends up on the floor and in our laps than in our mouths, and we end up goofing around and talking more than watching the movie…it’s nice. When the movie ends, I haul myself off the couch, an avalanche of popcorn falling from my lap to the ...

A sharp elbow catches me in the side, and I look up from the almost perfect rough sketch of a cock in the margins of my notes that has been occupying me for the past twenty minutes.

“Forty-thousand kilometers per hour.” The professor nods and turns back to the smart board. Next to me, my friend breathes a sigh of relief. “I didn’t think you were paying attention,” he whispers, darting a glance at my paper, the blush on his face deepening when he sees the sketch of the still not totally perfect erect cock. I’m not sure what there is for him to be so embarrassed about. He has a boyfriend; I’m

sure he’s seen a dick before. Not to mention, I assume he also has a dick that he’s probably seen. Although, assuming can be a hazardous pasttime. For all I know, neither Elijah nor Pax have penises. It’s not exactly my business either way.

The front door swings open again. I grab Elijah’s arm, yanking him out of the way just in time before Alex comes barreling through the door, no doubt completely lost in his own head as usual. Aside from the key issue, in the past two weeks I’ve learned three important things about my new roommate: he loves math puns, he’s scary smart, and he walks into things at least twice a day

because he’s never paying any attention to his surroundings. “Oops, shit. You okay?” Alex checks, doing a quick eye check of Elijah. “I’m fine.” “Perfect timing from both of you. I just pulled dinner out.”

“I know,” I assure him again. “I just meant that usually when you imagine a mega genius, you imagine all they read is obscure medieval texts or physics textbooks.” He waves his hand dismissively again, cookie crumbs flying everywhere. “I read all that shit when I was twelve. It’s boring; no one ever kisses. Now, someone getting dicked down hard? Definitely not boring.” I nearly choke on the bit of cookie I just bit off. Another thing you don’t typically imagine when you think of geniuses is the phrase dicked down hard.

Technically, I’m too young to be allowed in, and on Friday nights, they actually do have a doorman checking I.D.s, but I may have given him a blowjob last year, so all I

have to do is bat my eyelashes and give him a sweet smile, and he waves me through without a problem.

It doesn’t take us long to spot our friends gathered around a table near the bar. Bishop, Hudson, and Leo all touch and flirt with each other as well as Riot, who seems to be working tonight, which is probably the reason for the location close to the bar. Elijah and Pax are all ove...

Theo orders a drink from Riot, but I hold off. I know Riot won’t serve me since I’m underage, but if I play my cards right,

I’m sure I can manage to get a drink.

Once everyone falls into their own conversations, I slip away to see if I can get a drink. I manage to score courtesy of a cute guy in his mid-twenties seated at the bar. “Aren’t you underage?” Pax asks, eyeing the drink I return sipping. “Yeah, but I didn’t tell that guy,” I say cheekily, indicating the dude who bought me said drink. “He’s giving you fuck me eyes,” Hudson says as if I didn’t already know that. I sip my drink and shrug one shoulder. “I still have to study tonight.” It’s not technically a lie; I should probably get some work done when I get home, but I highly doubt I will. It’s a good enough excuse though without having to explain to all of them that I’m trading in my slutty ways for a few months of celibacy.

I catch Theo shooting a longing look at Elijah, who’s leaning into Pax and blushing

furiously at whatever is being whispered into his ear. Ugh, I want someone to whisper filth into my ear.

Theo manages to tear his attention away from his best friend and brother. I’m not sure how Elijah never noticed the longing looks, or why Theo seemed surprised that I’d figured it out considering how obvious he is about the whole thing.

For what it’s worth, the way Theo looks at Elijah is nothing like the way Pax looks at him, so I’m holding out hope for my roommate that he just doesn’t know what real love feels like quite yet. Not that I have any room to talk, seeing that my entire construct of romance comes straight from the pages of romance novels.

If the only hazing I have to endure to join their slumber party is to put on seasonally inappropriate pants, I can probably live with that. I stand back up and shed my jeans on the spot, earning a startled sound

from Theo and furiously red cheeks from Elijah. I toss my pants aside and step into the reindeer pants. “Getting naked in front of each other is not part of the slumber party,” Elijah complains. “Afraid my cute butt will tempt you away from your hunky boyfriend?” I tease, shaking my now completely clothed ass in his direction. He squeaks and pushes his slipping glasses back into place. He really is adorable. I can totally see how he hooked Pax.

When the video ends, I set my phone down and hop up, moving around to the other side of the coffee table so I have a little bit of space. I’m not the best dancer, but the video was simple enough with lots of hip rolls and ass shaking. Unfortunately, I didn’t account for the fact that I ditched my

underwear when I put on my pajama pants. The way Alex’s eyes widen and stay glued to the area between my legs while I dance lets me know that it’s more than a little obvious that I’m freeballing it. I finish my dance, and he clears his throat, forcing his eyes back to my face. “Well, then,” he says, and I shoot him a flirty wink. It’s either that or feel awkward that he just watched my dick flop around.

An amused sort of affection fills me as I watch him sprint from the room, grumbling in annoyance at his own bladder for forcing him to get out of bed.

I figured he’d give me a second to get out of his bed before he started stripping. Apparently, I learned nothing from his willingness to drop his pants in the living room last night. He turns around and shoves the pants down, taking his underwear along with them. I suck in a sharp breath at the sight of his bare ass…his very taut, round, nice, bare

ass. There are reasons I’m not supposed to ogle him, I’m almost certain there are, but they’re hard to remember at the moment.

Alex opens the second drawer and pulls out a pair of purple boxer briefs, stepping into them one leg at a time, followed by a comfortable looking pair of jeans. I manage to yank my hand off my dick just in time

for him to turn around, looking entirely too innocent for a man who just mooned me.

As predicted, I find my bed empty, and when I locate my phone, there’s a text letting me know he left early but had fun last night. It’s time stamped just before five this morning. I wonder if he set an alarm to be up in time to get home at the same time as Pax or if he’s just so in tune with my brother that

he sensed his presence back in the city. I roll my eyes at the jealous feeling that bubbles up inside me. The weird thing is it’s not even at my brother, it’s for the fact that I can’t imagine anyone ever being as crazy about me as the two of them are for each other.

I’m so focused on trying to assess his pupils, I’m caught completely off guard when something wet swipes across my nose. I rear back, wiping the back of my hand across my face. “Did you just lick me?” Alex grins. “I’m concussed; I’m not thinking straight.”

When we get to the Urgent Care, it’s surprisingly quiet. Without even thinking, I follow Alex back when the nurse leads him to an exam room. He hops up on the table, swinging his legs like he doesn’t have a care in the world. It helps that he doesn’t seem terribly bothered by his accident, but I still feel like a complete asshole.

I shouldn’t peek, I really shouldn’t, but on the off chance he’s in a towel, I abandon the refrigerator and poke my head around the corner. Yup, towel city. Ungh.

Theo’s dark hair is plastered to his head, droplets of water clinging to the miles and miles of bare skin he graciously has on display. The towel hangs low on his hips, his equally dark pubes poking

out just over the top, the slight bulge in the front almost enough to make me believe in some kind of god. It’s so stupid to crus...

A sharp poke in my side alerts me to the fact that everyone seems to be packing up their things. I guess class is over.