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Alex was so used to being on edge, so used to checking for adverse effects in anyone he even brushed against. He didn’t want to hurt anyone, at least not without meaning to. But maybe Pinky really could handle touching him; it turned out their sudden dilemma had nothing to do with his poison at all. Imagine that; him walking hand in hand with a pretty girl and the worst thing to come out of it was her realizing his name was longer than she thought. That still had him ready to bust up laughing, but he did his best to swallow down any further outbursts of mirth. He didn’t want to laugh at her, but damn, that was the funniest s**t.

Not that Ophelia seemed to mind. She lit right up like one of her suncatchers when he started laughing. A girl like her shouldn’t be wasting time worrying about him, but she was. And he was going to stop resisting. Especially now that she was finally getting around some of his rough edges. Not like he was grumpy all of the time anyway, but this was still even better than usual. He felt lighter. He didn’t have that niggling worry in the back of his mind that kept his hands shoved in his pockets and his arms covered with long sleeves. Even wearing shorts felt like a risk, usually. It was nice not having to worry about it for a little bit.

But somebody should have maybe warned Pinky that his mouth was foul, all day every day. Alex grinned from ear to ear when her face flushed a bright red and shy laughter tinkled out of her lips. Honestly, he didn’t think she would catch on, but this was even better! The duke chuckled as she yanked on his arm, hurrying forward as if she could outrun his dirty mind. If only it was that easy.

Don’t take offense? Now he was really interested. What did Pinky even think she could say that would offend him? Would she drop a four letter word? Man, he would eat that s**t up; he couldn’t even actually imagine it. There was no goddamned way. It would have been hilarious, but instead Pinky mentioned something about Lex being too perfect a name to pass up. Alex didn’t get it, but hell, he told her to call him whatever she wanted. ”Sounds good to me.”

She would save Ah for special occasions. Alex laughed again, the bold and playful words surprising the sound right out of him. ”So if I’m not playing suncatcher, I better come runnin’!” He felt like he could barely get the words out around his laughter and he lifted his free hand to brush away a stray tear that had squeezed out. She really was a ******** riot.

Oh s**t, class was about to start soon, huh? Looked like he wasn’t going to get in a swim after all, but Alex wasn’t bothered. He got something way better out of it. He felt plenty awake now anyway and he made a cute new friend that he just wanted to stuff in his pocket to keep her around. If she really was a kitten, he really could just keep her in his pocket. Weird thought; maybe he shouldn’t share that one.

”You sure you don’t plan to string me up to your ceiling? Should I show up with some pretty stones to catch the light while I’m up there?” Alex teased, still grinning hard enough to make his face hurt. ”I’ll take my chances. Sure; I’d like to come around sometime.”