Chapter 23

Riley’s POV

Noah conked out around two a.m., sprawled across my bed with his face half-buried in that battered fantasy novel of his. He was snoring like a sleepy dragon, book clutched to his chest, and honestly? It was achingly cute. Kind of. Mostly I was envisioning how unfair life was that he could nap like a contented puppy while I lay tethered to caffeine and guilt.

Thanks to the heroically over-caffeinated second espresso he brewed for me twenty minutes before dozing off, I survived the night’s makeup workload. By sunrise I’d dented the mountain of assignments looming over my brain, bleary-eyed but victorious.

Ten minutes before my alarm threatened to drag me away from academia forever, I poked Noah’s rib cage like it owed me money. He mumbled curses, rolled over, and finally surfaced with a one-minute shower that left him smelling like fresh river stones and—manliness. Manliness I probably shouldn’t be swooning over in the hallway at seven a.m., but he