Page 30 of Frat House Fling

“I could come back,” I offered. But he shook his head.

He stepped back, indicating the sparsely furnished room, and said, “There’s not much to clean.”

“Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.”

“I will,” he said, already closing the door, but I wasn’t offended. He obviously had a lot of work to do for his classes. I could understand; I was only taking one class this summer. I wondered how many he was taking. Unfortunately, since he didn’t need his room cleaned, it was time to go upstairs to workon Bennett’s and Grant’s suites. The third floor was definitely not my favorite.

I knocked on Grant’s door first, and there was no answer. He was probably down in the gym. I often saw him heading down there in the mornings. His room didn’t take too long. He’d thrown some clothes on a chair, so I put them in a hamper and cleared away some of the bottles of that special beer he drank. I didn’t know much about beer, but I wondered why he liked it so much. I’d tried to look it up online, but since I couldn’t remember what exactly the label looked like, it was rather hard to do. I found something that looked similar from a brewery in Luxembourg, where he’d said it was from, but all I had found was a non-alcoholic kind.

My grandpa had always bought the cheap beer that came in a can. Most years for Christmas, I’d get my neighbor to buy a six-pack of his favorite ale for me to give to him. He was always thrilled to get it. And now I was living in a house where entitled young men had an entire storeroom full of bottled beer. And wine and kegs. It was a wonder this entire household didn’t have to attend AA meetings.

It took longer to clean Grant’s bathroom. It was larger than the ones on the second floor, but not as big as the one in Bennett’s suite. That one was approximately the size of our living room back home.

Back when itwasmy home.

When I knocked on Bennett’s door, I heard a voice call out for me to come in, and my heart sank. I really didn’t want to work on his suite while he was right there. It always made me feel self-conscious when he watched me work, which he frequently did. I couldn’t figure out if it was because he liked seeing someone be subservient to him, or just because he liked watching women. It was hard to tell with a pompous man like him.

I dragged the vacuum cleaner and bucket full of cleaning supplies, sponges, and gloves inside through the entryway of his suite. I couldn’t help but take a quick peek over my shoulder when the door shut behind me. Thankfully, the French maid costume wasn’t hanging on the door like it had been before.

But my luck ran out when I entered the living room. Bennett called out to me from his bedroom, so I had no choice but to go in there.

My gasp was audible as I stopped dead. He was in his king-size bed, with only a sheet pulled over him. His chest and arms were bare. “Sorry, I can come back,” I said, already beginning to back out of there.

He dismissed that suggestion with a lazy hand wave of his hand. “Don’t be ridiculous.” He sat up, leaning his back against the headboard, and I was pretty sure, judging by the way the sheet draped over his legs, that he wasn’t wearing anything. My heart beat faster, but not in a good way. He was objectively handsome, but this wasn’t about looks. No, it was a power play. He wanted me to feel uncomfortable, and I did.

Bennett gave me a rundown of what he wanted me to clean in his suite, acting as if it were perfectly normal to order a woman around while he lounged naked in bed. I listened and nodded, but all the while I couldn’t help sneaking nervous peeks at his bare skin above the sheet. Even after living here five days, I still wasn’t used to seeing men’s bodies. Especially partially clothed ones.

It was hard to concentrate on anything else, which Bennett no doubt knew because he kept talking. Why was he doing this to me? He hired a broke, down-on-her luck girl to be his maid for the summer. That alone should have appeased him and made him feel superior, but he seemed intent on reminding me of my place every chance he got.

It was a relief when he dismissed me. I made a beeline for the living room and started vacuuming. That way I wouldn’t have to see him in bed any longer. No way was I going to clean in there with him lounging around like royalty, watching my every move. But I didn’t know exactly how I could get out of going back in. Luckily, there were still plenty of things to do out here. I dusted after I vacuumed, which was the wrong order, but he had made me flustered.

It was almost a relief to reach his bathroom. Yes, it was my least favorite room to clean, but anything that kept me out of his bedroom was good in my book. I took my time, cleaning the double sink, the toilet, and the huge shower. I even dusted the light fixtures. I had half a mind to scrub the tiles on the floor with his fancy electric toothbrush, but then there was a knock at the front door.

Bennett ordered me to get it, so I went and found Theo there. I was so glad to see him that I almost gave him a hug, but he wouldn’t have understood that, and he probably wouldn’t have appreciated someone wearing rubber cleaning gloves wrapping their arms around him.

“Good morning, Hailey.”

“Hi, Theo.”

He scanned an eye over me. I was sure I looked disheveled from all the hard work I’d done.

“You sure know how to have a fun time on a Sunday.”

I smiled. After being sequestered here with Bennett, I would’ve welcomed a visit from any member of the frat, but I was glad it was him.

“Bennett’s still in bed,” I told him. I was sure the fraternity president wouldn’t like me sharing that with Theo, but hey, it was the truth.

Theo’s eyebrow rose at this news, but then a voice came from behind me.

“I’m here, actually.”

Bennett strolled through the living room, and it turned out hewascapable of wearing pants. Sure, he wore them when Theo stopped by, but when the apprehensive maid was in the room, he was fine with being nude.

“You can go, Hailey,” Bennett said, and I couldn’t believe my ears. I gathered my things and got out of there in record time. I felt like a kid who had been let out of school early.

I was about to turn right to get to the far stairwell by walking past Grant’s room, but I didn’t want to take the chance of running into any more Forsythe cousins. So I went the other way, heading down the hallway. There was a heavy double door, and then I entered an area that looked very much like the hallway on the second floor, only it wasn’t as long. There were three doors on each side and then an exit to the stairwell at the end.

This was interesting. I guessed during the school year, when all the fraternity members were here, some of them lived up here too. But right now, it was completely silent, and I was sure I was alone. I tapped lightly on a door to the right and opened it when there was no response. Someone definitely lived there—there was bedding on the mattress and personal items on the dresser—but it was dusty, and it seemed like no one had been there for a while. I checked another room, and it was the same.

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