Not Just Another Romance Novel by Lisa Suzanne

voice, but I could also tell he had moved forward. He appeared to be in the perfect place to get into something new.
    Austin’s warning hung in my head, though. I didn’t want to fall into something only to find myself hurt in the end.
    Dax wasn’t a relationship kind of guy, but he made me feel comfortable. He didn’t give off a douche vibe. He didn’t seem like the type who only wanted me for one night.
    Plus I would bet money that Austin had given Dax a similar warning to the one he’d given me.
    “Almost a year,” he clarified.
    I decided to go for it. I had nothing to lose, and I wanted him to know I was interested. “Her loss is my gain.”
    His eyes met mine across the table, and his were heated. His voice was husky when he spoke. “Seems like my gain, too.” His eyes flicked from mine down to my lips just as my tongue darted out to wet them.
    He shifted in his chair and his eyes returned to his plate.
    There was no mistake. Something was definitely blooming between us.
    Our dinner conversation turned back to lighter topics. Through it all, a sexual undercurrent I’d never really felt with another man before pervaded our space. He made me want to put off the other dates just so I could see what might develop between us.
    But I had a project to complete, and I hardly knew this boy.
    I just knew for sure I wanted to get to know more of him.

11
     
    Dax generously treated for dinner, and the two of us walked the streets near the bistro. The air felt warm and balmy for a gorgeous San Diego evening. Bars and restaurants lined the streets as we walked along. “Tell me more about your band,” I said. We’d spent the majority of dinner talking about me, and I wanted to know more about him. Plus I wanted the attention off of me and my research. It was a lot of pressure trying to ride the line of the truth without feeling deceitful.
    His fingers twined loosely through mine. Walking hand-in-hand with Dax felt easy and natural.
    “We first got together in middle school. We jammed on and off throughout high school. More off than on. We actually broke up when my junior year, but after graduation, three of us picked it back up and added two new guys.”
    “How did you come up with the name MFB?”
    He laughed. “Very few people know the real story, but you seem like the kind of person I can trust. Can I?”
    I felt like he was asking about more than his words indicated.
    I looked over at him, and his eyes latched onto mine for a second. I nodded and smiled encouragingly. “Of course you can. I won’t tell anybody. Even when you guys make it big and you forget about your date with the Psychology major book nerd.”
    “You definitely don’t strike me as a nerd.”
    “You haven’t spent enough time with me yet.”
    He rewarded me with another one of those manly giggle things, and I subconsciously clutched onto his hand a little tighter.
    “So MFB. We came up with it in middle school. I had to be in…fuck…early seventh grade? So maybe twelve? Anyway, our math teacher was horrible. Mrs. Fenwick. Adam called her Mrs. Fuckwit. She was evil. Like put me in detention three times a week for bullshit I didn’t even do kind of evil.”
    “I’m sure you didn’t have it coming.”
    He looked at me with such feigned innocence that I was certain I could see the young Dax stirring up trouble in a seventh grade math classroom.
    “So Adam, Brody, and I were jamming in Brody’s garage with our fourth member at the time, and we decided to name our band. Adam said, ‘How about Mrs. Fuckwit’s a Bitch?’ and Brody said, ‘Mother Fuckin’ Bitch.’ We were split on it, and we were twelve. We couldn’t tell our parents we named our band Mrs. Fuckwit’s a Bitch or Mother Fuckin’ Bitch, so we shortened it to MFB. When Brody’s mom asked what MFB stood for, he somehow said ‘My Favorite Band’ right on the spot. And our actual name was born that night.”
    I giggled again. I found myself doing that a lot with Dax. I