The Party Boy's Guide to Dating a Geek (Clumsy Cupids) by Xara X. Piper;Xanakas Vaughn

shorts out of Ash's hand.
    "Why not?"
    "Because you're not going to his party," Carley
    said, holding the shorts away from Ash's reach. He
    turned back to the closet and started rifling through
    Ash's clothes.
    "Carley—"
    "Try this on."
    "What?" Ash looked at the shirt Carley was
    holding out. He had a pair of jeans in his other
    hand.
    Carley sighed. "Look, you're going to visit your
    brother, not going to Fee's party. If you show up in
    shorts, you might as well take a present."
    "A present!" Ash said. "Do you think I should go
    get one?" He had been going back and forth about
    picking something up all week.
    "No, Ash. Jeez, one would think you'd be better
    at subtlety." Carley selected a white belt from the
    cluster on top of the dresser. "If you show up in
    shorts bearing gifts, you might as well abandon
    your cover story now." He held the belt out. Ash
    took it with a smile.
    "Thanks, Carley."
    "Yeah, well, we'll see."
    Ash changed into the outfit Carley picked and
    held his arms out for inspection.
    Carley made a few adjustments to the shirt and
    picked at a seam before nodding his approval. "I
    still think this is a bad idea, but break a leg."
    Ash gave him a hug. "Have a great day," he said
    as he left the apartment.
    His palms were sweating by the time he got to
    Jack's place. He stopped outside the gate to the
    courtyard and took a couple of deep breaths. "You
    can do this, Ash. He's just another guy." He pushed
    the door open and looked around.
    There weren't many people by the pool. A few
    guys Ash didn't recognize pushed each other
    around in one end of the water and Mari sat at a
    table talking to an older woman. Ash felt a stab of
    disappointment when he didn't see Fee or Jack
    anywhere, but a splash to his left caught his
    attention. He turned and nearly forgot to breathe
    when Fee stood up in the shallow water. Fee's hair
    covered his eyes and his arms flexed as he reached
    up to push it off his face. Streams of water ran
    down his neck and chest. Ash had to snap his
    mouth shut to keep his tongue in it. Otherwise, it
    may have tried to escape his body on its own and
    lick every bit of water off Fee. Ash couldn't take
    his eyes off Fee's abs. The defined muscles
    tightened and relaxed as he laughed and flicked
    water at the other guys. Jack jumped up from
    behind them and tackled Fee. They both fell into
    the water with a huge splash.
    "Hey, Ash. What brings you over?" Mari asked.
    He coughed in surprise because he hadn't seen her
    get up and walk over to him.
    "Oh, hey Mari. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt
    anything."
    "Uh-huh," she grunted.
    Ash's gaze was stuck on Fee wrestling with Jack
    in the pool. "Really."
    "Yeah. I'm totally buying that." She chuckled and
    bumped against his shoulder.
    "Well," Ash hedged, searching for an excuse. "I
    was wondering if you could give me some
    advice."
    "About?"
    Ash faced Mari. "I want to buy a new
    computer."
    "Really."
    "Yeah. I need something for my work."
    "What did you have in mind?" Fee asked from
    behind him.
    All kinds of things ran through Ash's mind just
    then. Naked things having nothing to do with
    computers. With Fee standing next to him, wearing
    only a pair of soaking wet shorts that clung to his
    hips and thighs as the water dripped from his body,
    Ash could barely remember his own name.
    Ash cleared his throat. "Oh, hi," he said.
    Fee used a towel to wipe his torso, and Ash had
    never wished to be a piece of fabric more in his
    life. "So, what were you thinking of getting?"
    "I …"
    "Windows, Mac? Linux?"
    "I'm not sure."
    "What about configuration? What kind of
    memory and CPU do you need?"
    "I." Ash felt his cheeks burning. He fought the
    urge to pull at his collar as Fee asked him more
    questions.
    "How about an Android tablet? Or an iPad?"
    "I haven't really thought that much about it," Ash
    said. In fact, he hadn't thought anything about it. It
    was just the first thing that popped into his head
    when Mari asked why he was there. "I guess