by Rebel Hart
“Knock-knock.” I looked over at the doorway to the dorm room, and Monica was standing there. “Trouble in paradise? You know, Nina, I am always available to talk if you—”
I crossed the room and shut the door in Monica’s face, not in any sort of mood to deal with her nosiness right now.
“Kai isn’t playing me,” I said to Sydney. She opened her mouth to protest, but I held up my hand. “No. I know that you’re just doing the best friend thing, but it’s my fault that Kai’s coming off so badly, not his. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I’m going to take a shower. Can you lock the door when you leave to head up to Henry’s?”
Sydney didn’t argue. She only nodded her head.
“Thanks.”
I grabbed my toiletries and one of my towels and went into the bathroom. I ran the water as hot as I could and climbed in once the bathroom was totally full of steam. I did my best to wash Devon away from me. If he wanted to poke holes in what I was building with Kai, he had another thing coming. Kai wasn’t a bad guy, and I wasn’t going to let Devon make it seem like he was.
12
Devon
I didn’t know if I was more upset with Nina for not believing what I told her or at myself for actually thinking that she would. We’d only known each other for a few weeks, but I thought she held my opinion in higher regard. That she honestly believed I’d say something to her just to hurt her wasn’t only infuriating. It was painful, too. I considered Nina a friend, which was something, considering Henry was the only real friend I’d ever had in my entire life. I was willing to let Nina past a wall that I’d spent twenty-one long years building, and in return, she accused me of trying to upset her intentionally?
This is exactly why I didn’t like making friends or opening up. It was the quickest way to be let down.
I heard the wall crack under the weight of my dorm room door as I slammed it open.
“That’s okay, Devon. We don’t need that wall,” Henry said simply as I stormed in. “What’s your deal?”
I shook my head. “Nothing. I’m fine.”
“You’re doing it again,” Henry said.
I sat down on my bed and looked over at Henry, who was sitting at his desk with his computer open. “Doing what?”
“You’re holding everything in again.” Henry crossed his arms. “It’s because you don’t think of me as a real friend.”
I blew air out of my nose in frustration. I didn’t like unloading my problems onto Henry. He’d dealt with my issues enough. I didn’t need to pile on.
“Oh my god.” Henry balled up a piece of paper and threw it at my head. “Are you trying to piss me off? Just tell me what’s wrong.”
“It’s Nina,” I said finally. “She likes…this guy…and today, I happened to find out that he’s just using her. I tried to tell her, but she flipped out on me. She told me I was trying to cause problems in their relationship and kicked me out.”
“How did you get mixed up between her and the guy she likes?” Henry asked.
I was reluctant to come clean, but Henry started to ball up another piece of paper, so I held up my hands. “She told me about it. She wanted to blow the whistle on the whole room switch thing, so I told her if she didn’t, I’d help her bag this guy she’s into.”
“Good lord,” Henry responded. “You could reach into a fight between two lockjaw pitbulls and risk less. You couldn’t find something else to keep her quiet?”
“What do you want from me? You and Sydney contrived this whole plan without thinking about how it would affect her. She was all upset that her best friend was abandoning her, and she had every right to be. She’s risking academic probation just so you two can get it on.” Henry’s eyes opened wide, and he was speechless. “What?” I finally asked.
“Nothing. That’s the first time you’ve ever talked to me that way before. I feel like we’re actually friends.”
I scoffed. “We are actually friends.”
Henry grinned. “Well, I finally feel like it, and my first order of business as your friend—”
“You’re an idiot.”
“—is to…” Henry stood up out of his seat, leaped into the air, and landed right in front of me. He looked up at me with a dramatic expression on his face and started pointing at me like an immature child. “You like her.”
I smacked his hand away. “I do not.”
Henry started to shake his hips back and forth, looking like a frog doing a dance. “You do! It wouldn’t bother you if you didn’t. You just yelled at me for the first time ever because of her.” Henry stood up and continued to dance around the room. “You like her. You like her.”
I glared at him. “You’re being infantile. I don’t like cars with no scratches.”
Henry stopped and pointed at me. “That’s not true. Women like that are better for you because they force you to open up.”
I remembered my get-to-know-you session with Nina and how quickly she got me to admit to stuff I would otherwise keep under lock and key. I hated to admit that he was right, but that didn’t mean that I liked her, only that I respected her.
Clearly, the feeling was not mutual.
“Whatever,” I said with a sigh. I unzipped my backpack and pulled out the envelope that contained my first paycheck. I handed it over to Henry. “Here.”
Henry took the envelope without questioning it, and I was surprised, thinking he’d finally come around to being paid back. The second he lifted the lip of the envelope and saw what was inside, he turned around and handed it back to me. “No.”
“Henry.”
“No,” Henry said. “I already told you that I’m not taking your money. I don’t want to be paid back.”
“Who doesn’t want to be paid back. Please? It’ll make me feel better. It has nothing to do with our friendship and everything to do with my pride. Just take the money.”
Henry considered this quietly for a moment before talking again. “Fine. How about a compromise.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “What kind of compromise?” Henry was pre-law. I knew better than to let him do too much talking. He could sell ice to Eskimos if he really wanted to. “No tricks.”
Henry shook his head. “No tricks. Here’s the compromise. You keep the money, but you spend it on what I tell you to. Doesn’t matter if I tell you to buy a pink tutu and wear it around campus for a month. However I tell you to spend the money, that’s how you spend it. We’ll keep track, the same as if you were actually paying it back, and once you’ve spent the same amount of money I shelled out, you’re free to do as you please with your money again.”
I studied him carefully for signs of mischief. It sounded like an okay compromise. Even if it wasn’t exactly what I wanted, if Henry had a say in how the money was being spent, I’d feel like he was exercising some control over it like he would if I was giving it back to him. Hopefully, he was joking about the pink tutu.
“Fine,” I said.
Henry stuck out his hand, and I took it. We shook. “Good,” Henry said. “How much is this?”
“Three hundred and fifty dollars.”
Henry whistled. “Wow, that’s more than enough.”
“More than enough for what?”
Henry handed the envelope back to me. “More than enough to take Nina out on a really nice date.”
I dropped my jaw. “No. I’m not doing that. Just take the damn money.”
Henry looked at me as if I’d just broken his heart. “We shook on it.”
“I’m not asking Nina out. I don’t like her.”
“Are you backing out on the deal?” Henry asked. “Because there’s a clause in my mental contract that says if you do that, you’re owed punitive damages, totaling over five thousand dollars.”
“That doesn’t make any sense. You would be entitled to damages if I broke the contract.”
“Correction,” Henry said. “I would be entitled to compensation, which for me, would be absconding you from this debt.” He poked his
head. “It’s all there in black and white.”
“Arguing with you makes me want to jump into a vat of lava.”
“Fine, just don’t do it before your date,” Henry replied before turning to me and starting up his immature dance again.
I slid the money back into my backpack. I had no intention of using it to take Nina out, but I’d need some additional time to figure out how to get Henry to take it. Before anything else could start, there was a light knock on the door, and then Sydney walked in.
She giggled at Henry, who was dancing his way around the room. “Oh, I like that dance, baby.”
Henry smiled. “Thank you.” He kissed her. “I’m surprised to see you. I assumed after the blowout, you’d be staying in your own room tonight.”
“Oh,” Sydney said sadly, and Henry rubbed her cheek.
He looked just as disappointed. Damn my chivalry.
“No, it’s fine. I’ll go down.” Henry instantly started dancing again at my words, and I glared at him. “I could stay.”
Henry stopped moving. “No. I’m sorry.”
Sydney gave us each a confused look. “I don’t get it.”
“Long story,” Henry said.
I rolled my eyes as I passed Henry. I gave Sydney a single pat on top of her head, and she hissed at me but did say, “The door’s unlocked.”
“Thanks,” I grumbled and left the room.
As I made my way downstairs, I tried to think of what I could say to Nina to at least get her to see that I wasn’t trying to hurt her. Whether or not she chose to trust me about Kai was up to her, but I needed her to know that I’d never upset her on purpose.
I gave the door a single, noncommittal knock and walked in, knowing that Sydney had left the door unlocked for me. I took one step into the room and stopped short.
Nina was standing in the center of the room with her hair down and glasses off, still dripping wet, with nothing but a towel wrapped around her otherwise naked body.
13
Nina
For a brief moment, when Devon opened the door, it didn’t raise any reaction out of me. Despite the small spat that we’d just had, the few weeks of living with him had given me a sense of comfort when he was around. It was only when his jaw dropped and his eyes started to slowly wallpaper up and down my form that I realized I was standing in the middle of the room in nothing but a towel. Suddenly, I started to overheat. Devon’s gaze on me was heavy and capturing. I held the towel to myself as tightly as I could, but despite one half of my brain telling me to cover up or kick him out, the other half was trying to entice me to unwrap myself and present myself fully.
No. What the hell was crossing my brain? “What the fuck are you doing!” I finally managed to bark. “Get out!”
Devon didn’t respond. He was dumbstruck. I could see him swallowing hard as he drank in the sight of me, and it was forcing all of my trains of thoughts to collide into one another. I waved my hand in front of his face, snapped, flicked the remaining drips of water at his face, but nothing seemed to knock him out of his stupor. He stood there, staring, taking me in. My skin started to sizzle. If I stood there under his scrutiny any longer, I had no idea what I’d do.
“Are you—” I lifted one of the pillows off my bed and chucked it at him. “Quit staring, you pervert! If this is all part of your little game, you better knock it off.”
That seemed to shake him up. “My game?” he responded, annoyed. “I’m not the one standing in the middle of an unlocked room in nothing but a towel.
“Unlocked?” I screeched, and then anger burned so heavily inside me that it felt like steam would come out of my ears.
Sydney.
I’d told her to lock the door on her way out, but instead, she left the door unlocked and ran upstairs to send Devon down. Every time I felt like I was going to forgive her for the shit she pulled, she’d do something else, and I’d want to throttle her again. This time, she wouldn’t be so easily forgiven. She knew that Devon was a good guy and would never make a move on me without my consent, but she was trying to force us together, probably more so now that she knew I was back to trying to date Kai. She’d be getting reamed later, and it was going to take more than some friendly ribbing to cool me down this time.
“Whatever,” I finally spat. “Just get out.”
Devon was back to not responding. The playful jester of a roommate that I’d known up to that point was totally gone. He was staring at me with a lust-filled gaze, the likes of which I’d only seen on TV up to that point.
“Devon.” His eyes locked on mine, and it was as if he’d shot out a chain and hooked it through my stomach. I was ensnared by his hazel eyes and the carnal hunger seated behind them. “You…”
Words weren’t coming to me easily anymore. All hopes of having a logical argument were fast flying out the window. No one had ever looked at me the way he was looking at me, and the half of my brain that wanted to give in was slowly pushing the logical half out of the seat of control.
“You should leave,” I said, this time because I was afraid of what I might do if he didn’t.
Devon took a dangerous step toward me. “I can’t,” he said with faux innocence, belied by the growing stare of need. “This is my room, too, remember?”
“Just step out for a second so that I can get dressed.” My voice was barely above a whisper. I was trying to convince myself more than him. “I’ll be quick.”
“Where would I go?” he asked. “It’s not like I can hang out in the hallway with Monica around.”
He continued to advance on me like a predator over prey. It wasn’t that Devon would do something that I didn’t want—he could sense that I wanted it, too. My resistance was waning, and with an additional ounce or two of pressure, it’d snap. How could one person go from being a goofball to exuding an exponential amount of sexual magnetism? Devon was good looking. I never denied that fact, but someone different was approaching me now. Someone downright sexy. Someone that wanted to devour me, and someone I was quickly coming to think I might be perfectly okay with letting feast.
I backed away from Devon until I was against the frame of the bed and had nowhere to go but down. “Devon,” I said, using the last of my strength. “Get out.”
Devon’s arms went to either side of me, clenching around the post of the bed frame to keep him held just slightly above me as he leaned down. His cologne wafted off of him and coiled around me.
“Do you really want me to go?” he asked.
I feared the word that may come out of my mouth if I answered, so I remained quiet. I looked up into his eyes and could nearly feel the towel slipping away from my body at his beckon. I’d lost the last strand of refusal that I had. When I moved again, it would be to drag Devon down onto the bed. The thoughts terrified me and excited me equally. Was I going to lose my virginity to Devon?
“Sorry, I hope I’m not interrupting.”
I didn’t know if the growl that filled the space between Devon and me belonged to him or me, but we both looked toward the dorm room door with irritation. I was growing increasingly more convinced that Monica was aiming to show up at the worst times only. She had a shit-eating grin on her face, and her arms tied together in front of her chest.
“I thought I heard a commotion.” Devon stood aside, and Monica’s jaw dropped at the sight of me in nothing but a towel. “You should really put some clothes on.”
“You should mind your own business,” I hissed back.
“I heard screaming,” Monica said, side-stepping the insult.
Her persistent sticking her nose into my life was beginning to wane on my patience. “It just caught me by surprise that he saw me in a towel, okay? It’s fine, so just get out.”
I saw Devon shift uneasily next to me, and Monica tilted her head to the side. “I don’t understand. If you’re a couple, why would it bother you that he saw you in a towel?”
Shit.
I was so flustered by Devon and annoyed by Monica that I spok
e without thinking. Thanks to Sydney, Monica thought that Devon and I were a couple, and whether or not she was a nosy busy body, she was right to question what I’d said, given the story that we managed to convince her was true.
“Uh,” I said with my cheeks warming significantly. “It’s…”
Devon sighed. “One of these days, you’re gonna get enough of dipping into our business.” He slid himself behind me and wrapped his arms around my torso. His head rested on my shoulder. “Do you want to know the real truth? Are you sure?”
Monica leaned in as if she was about to get a juicy tidbit of information. “I’m here, aren’t I?”
I had no idea what was about to come out of Devon’s mouth, a growing problem for me as of late. He kissed me after Sydney told Monica that he and I were dating, and he’d insinuated we were sleeping together to Kai. His elevating stories were cause for concern, but it wasn’t like I could pull myself away from him in front of Monica. If she knew we weren’t really a couple, knowing how nosy she was, it’d only be a matter of time before she managed to put all the pieces together. Instead, I decided to feed the ruse. I leaned back against Devon, but it proved to be a huge mistake. I folded myself against his body and was met with the shocking feeling of a bulge poking my back.
Was he turned on? By what? I bit the inside of my cheek to try and remain level-headed while I waited for Devon to finish dealing with Monica.
“We’re role-playing,” Devon said, and I bit down harder. Role-playing! What was he thinking, telling someone that? She could start rumors about it. “I know she looks innocent, but little miss Nina here really gets off on the strange intruder kink.” He kissed my cheek. “It’s my job to know what my girl likes, after all.”
I was certain my skin was going to start melting off of my body. I didn’t know if it would be best to run, scream, or just pass out. I stared at Monica, hoping that if I just stood stone still, that would be enough to convince her that I wasn’t as shocked as I felt.
