The Theory of Attraction by Delphine Dryden

much attention to the movie. As soon as the lights dimmed, Ivan had leaned in toward me, just close enough to encroach on my seat a little. The armrests were the flip-down kind, so nothing prevented his thigh from pressing against mine from the knee halfway to the hip. The first five minutes or so of the movie were completely lost on me as I processed this. By “processed,” I mean, of course, tried to slow my breathing and control the rampant hormones that made me aware of body parts I usually tried not to think about in public.
    On my left Athena was ignoring me, because she was pretty into her date and they were giggling about the movie. So I chanced a little gambit, nudging my knee against Ivan’s under the guise of getting more comfortable. I ended up with my right knee cocked and resting ever so lightly along the top of his thigh. Like it had arrived there by accident.
    He saw that bid and raised it, sliding his hand over my bent knee and holding it there. No accident. I stared straight ahead, and if I’d had laser vision I would’ve burned a hole straight through the center of the screen. I had no idea what was being projected there. Ivan’s hand was only twelve inches of thigh away from my girly parts, and whether or not it was all a façade designed to fool the crowd, the whole arrangement was doing very strange things to my rational thinking process.
    Jeez, I really needed to get laid.
    “Careful,” Ivan whispered in my ear. I sucked in a breath and held it as the brush of his lips raised every tiny hair on my body. “You probably don’t want to play that kind of game with me.”
    I might be needy, but I wasn’t desperate enough to fool myself into thinking there was any point in pursuing a guy who just wasn’t into me. Been there, done that, no interest whatsoever in reliving the experience.
    I started to slide my leg away, trying to keep up the casual appearance—darn, these seats weren’t all that comfy, what a shame—but Ivan’s long fingers wrapped around my knee, keeping me from moving. Startled, I looked his way, but couldn’t read his face in the flickering light of the dimly lit scene in front of us.
    “Watch the movie,” he whispered. And when I turned back to the screen, puzzled and embarrassed, his lips brushed my ear again with predictable results. “You gave me control, remember?”
    I nodded, flicking a glance Athena’s way to see if she had noticed anything amiss. Her head was on the guy’s shoulder now. I wished I could remember his name, since it seemed likely to come up later. Jacob? Jason? Something with a J, anyway.
    “Watch the movie. I may give you a pop quiz later to see if you were paying attention.” Something in his tone and the touch of his lips against the shell of my ear turned my entire right side to liquid heat, and I shivered before I could stop myself. His fingers tightened against my leg in a slow, deliberate squeeze that made me want to whimper.
    What the hell was his deal? He really was going to have to come clean about his big secret at some point.
    A nudge at my left elbow shocked me from my musings, and I turned that way to see Athena glaring daggers first at my face, and then at Ivan’s hand on my leg. Then back at my face, her expression one big silent “What the fuck?”
    I whispered, “Tell you later,” and tried to settle back down to watch the movie just in case Ivan was serious about the whole pop quiz thing. But between his hand on my leg and the occasional whispered remarks in my ear, I was pretty much a libidinous basket case by the time the film was over, and damned if I had any remote idea what the thing had been about. Some attractive young people had been lured to an old house, and all but one had died horribly after being mind-fucked in every possibly way. Beyond that I was clueless.
    If there was to be a pop quiz, I knew I would fail it miserably. And I found myself wondering whether that might not have been the goal.
    The heat