“I want you to meet Cassie,” she says, and Cassie turns out to be a fairytale-pretty girl Ev used to work with, at a sports store downtown. Cassie is here with her best friend, a long-legged brunette with the most amazing dark, long-lashed eyes I’ve ever seen, and jeez Louise, is everyone picture perfect in here? I’m starting to feel like the ugly duckling.
They both smile politely – two porcelain dolls, one fair, the other dark. They ask if I’ve been to Madison before and how I like it here—
—and by the time they turn away to talk to someone else, the living room has turned into a porn movie.
Or what I imagine a porn movie to be like, anyway.
Bodies writhing on the sofa. Bodies writhing against the walls. Bodies humping and grinding in corners, leaving a few odd ones out who are uneasily swaying to the music in the middle of the room.
Crap.
But Ev doesn’t even bat an eye at the mess. She drags me inside, past a threesome on the coffee table, and keeps moving.
“So if Micah and you are moving in together, who is Seth moving in with?” I ask as she tugs me along.
“He isn’t. He’s getting a new roommate.” She stops, glances around. “Man, can’t see Jesse, but there’s Shane. Let’s go say hi. Don’t let him scare you off. He’s your typical tall, dark, silent type.”
She links her arm through mine and pulls me across the living room as if the porn scene unfolding around us is perfectly normal.
Maybe it is, and the hot, dark current zipping under my skin and sending an ache through my core only makes me more uneasy by the minute. I feel like a voyeur, and it makes me wish for something I’m too scared to chase after anymore.
How sad is that?
“Hey there, Shane,” Ev trills. “Glad you could make it.”
Shane tilts his head to the side, regarding us. His hair is long and shiny black, caught in a ponytail. A silver dreamcatcher hangs from one earlobe, and if anything, he’s even more exotic-looking than Seth, with his almond-shaped dark eyes and tanned skin.
“Micah promised beer,” he says, his voice deep like a gong, sending goosebumps over my skin. He lifts his beer bottle in evidence. “How could I say no?”
“Right. Of course.” Ev shakes her head and rolls her eyes. “Have you seen Jesse? Can’t seem to find him anywhere, and I thought he came with you.”
He takes a swig from his bottle and then frowns as if in thought. “Chicks.”
“I’m sorry?”
Shane waves his bottle at the room and the hot, grinding bodies. “Plenty of chicks here. He must’ve caught one.”
I gape at him. Is he seriously talking about girls as if they’re fish on a line?
“I see. Have fun, then.” Ev drags me away as I try to decipher Shane’s expression, to detect any glimmer of humor in his eyes, but his face is still, as if carved in stone.
“Is he always that witty and entertaining?”
“Always.” Ev giggles and then squeals. “Joey! Oh my God, you made it. Over here!”
And she ditches me between a couple humping against the wall and another writhing on the couch.
She ditches me in order to wrap herself around a hottie with dark hair and sparkling eyes.
What in the world?
He laughs and returns the hug easily.
“Evie, you dork,” I hear him say as I approach them. He pulls back and ruffles her hair. “You look real pretty, you little shit. Look at you, all dolled up. How’s it hanging?”
Okay, who’s this guy, and what’s going on? I glance around for Micah, expecting him to come punch this asshole off his feet, but Micah is grinning from ear to ear, heading our way.
“Joel, man, what’s up?” Micah and this Joel guy shake hands and clap each other on the back. “You here alone?”
“Yeah.”
“Ellen couldn’t make it?” Ev blinks innocently at Joel, her eyes a tad too wide.
“Nope.”
“You didn’t ask her out, did you? Be honest.”
He scowls, and I seriously consider turning on my heel and going to look for a beer, because I have no clue what’s going on and what they’re talking about.
“Amber.” Ev comes after me before I take two steps. “Come meet my brother, Joey.”
Blinking, feeling a bit stupid and a whole lot annoyed that I didn’t guess as much, I do my best to grin at Ev’s handsome brother and assure him it’s a pleasure to meet him.
They don’t look one bit alike, but oh, Lord, I’m so glad I didn’t open my mouth earlier. So glad I didn’t immediately think he was insulting Ev and didn’t attempt to kick him in the nuts or slap his handsome face.
Crap.
Stammering an excuse, I make my escape and go look for that beer. I’d leave, but this is my apartment now. Nowhere else to run and hide.
So beer it is. Or wine, or whatever such buffer I can place between myself and the real world. A door with a lock would have been preferable, all things said and done.
And why the hell not? This is my apartment, my bedroom. If I want to lock myself inside, if I want to be antisocial and stand-offish, that’s my right, isn’t it?
I’m actually heading that way, the pull of peace and quiet too strong to withstand—when the bathroom door is thrown open in my face, missing me by an inch. As I jerk back, it bangs against the wall, and someone stumbles out into the dim hallway.
I back away, but the hallway is three feet wide, tops, and the guy, because it is a guy, tall and broad-shouldered, bends toward me from the waist, his lips curling into a grin like the sin of the angels. Lazy. Sexy. Beautiful.
Dangerous.
“What have we here?” he whispers, his eyes going half-lidded, bright against his tanned skin, a startling blue-green in the shaft of light falling through the open bathroom door. “A girl.”
Holy crap.
My throat clicks. My lips move. No sound comes out. Could be because he chooses that moment to straighten, and I finally notice he’s bare-chested, flaunting the most perfect abs and washboard stomach I’ve seen outside of magazines.
Silver hoops decorate his small, brown nipples. Black lines and colorful shapes wrap around his thick biceps and corded forearm. Tattoos, I realize, curling on his smooth skin. A worn leather bracelet encircles his strong wrist.
I can’t breathe. Oh, God. It’s as if someone has sucked all the oxygen from the room.
Oblivious, he leans on the doorjamb and folds his arms over his chest. “Know what? You remind me of someone. Have we met before?”
Of all come-ons… Not that I can speak. Not when he’s looking at me with interest sparking in his gaze.
“What’s your name?” he asks. When I don’t answer, those startling eyes narrow, and vaguely I think they must have been many a girl’s downfall. Then he thumps his chest with his fist and drawls, “Jesse.” He points at me and lifts a brow. “Jane?”
A choked sound leaves my throat. Is he for real?
“You’re drunk,” I say breathlessly, and why the heck am I breathless? Just because this guy is too beautiful to be real doesn’t mean I’ll pant after him, like, like…
“Jesse?” A woman appears at the bathroom door, right behind him, adjusting the straps of her blouse. “Come back here and finish what you started.”
“I’m quite finished,” he mutters, his eyes never leaving me.
My face turns to stone. Panting after him like this woman. Like a bitch in heat. Yeah, not in this lifetime.
“We weren’t done yet.” She drapes her arms around him, and I notice she’s wearing shorts that are just glorified panties and that her cleavage is so deep one of her nipples is winking at me. Her long blond hair is tangled, her lipstick smeared.
Jesus on a pogo stick.
“Yes, in fact, we were,” he counters, his voice so low and throaty it lifts the fine hairs on my arms. “Very, very done, Natasha.”
“It’s Veronica,” she mutters and pushes off him, glaring at his back. “Asshole.”