Page 40 of Frat House Fling

I took a calming breath and looked around. Just because someone had left that in here, that didn’t mean they’d taken my robe—except I didn’t see it anywhere.

It wasn’t among the rest of my clothes hanging up. Or in the duffel bag I’d put in the bottom of the little closet. It wasn’t under the bed. I even checked the desk drawers, even though it wouldn’t have fit. I looked under the bed. Lifted up the comforter and blanket.

The robe wasn’t here.

I was out in the hallway before I’d even made a conscious decision to do so. Bennett’s room was my first destination, and though I knocked, waited, and knocked again, there was no answer. There wasn’t one at Grant’s door, either.

Back in the stairwell, I spotted Theo coming up from downstairs. “Have you seen Bennett and Grant?” I asked, interrupting his greeting.

“They’re eating breakfast. Is everything okay?”

Muttering that it was, I hurried on down.

Bennett and Grant were the only ones in the dining room. They both had mugs of coffee and empty plates in front of them. They were discussing something as they bent over some papers.

Grant spotted me first. “Morning, sunshine.” His perpetual smirk was up early today.

Bennett looked me up and down. “That’s what you’re wearing? After we were nice enough to leave you that pretty little dress?”

Rage filled me that he’d joke about that. “Where’s my robe?”

“You have less fashion sense than anyone I’ve ever met,” Bennett continued. “That thing was?—”

“Where is it?” I moved closer, glad that they were seated so that I didn’t have to tilt my head to look them in the eye.

“It was ancient and threadbare. I threw it out.”

I blinked, staring at Bennett. “You what?”

“I threw it out. Rho Kappa Alpha is the most exclusive fraternity on the campus. We can’t have anyone who lives here, even the staff, dress in such a shoddy way.”

Grant had ceased to exist for me. All I could do was to stare at his cousin. The only thing that kept my panic away was my anger, so I went with that. “You had no r-right.” My voice trembled and I took a deep breath. “That was mine.”

“We’ll order you another one. One actually made for a woman,” Bennett said.

He was pure evil, and his audacity made my blood boil. “You’re right. Itwasmade for a man. It was my grandfather’s. The man who raised me. The man who supported me my whole life.” I took a deep breath and managed to hold the tears back. “The man who died less than six months ago.”

Bennett didn’t even pause. “If you’re so fond of wearing senior citizen’s clothes, we can order you a new cheap terry cloth one.”

Grant stood up. “For fuck’s sake,” he muttered and left. Evidently he wasn’t going to waste any more time listening to me. Bennett would probably leave in a moment, too.

“You had no right,” I repeated, my voice strong, but I knew I couldn’t keep it that way much longer.

“I’m the president of the fraternity that owns this house. If I say we have certain standards here, then we do.” He raised his eyebrows, as if asking what I was going to do about that. “If you prefer, I can write out a dress code, but I guarantee you won’t like it.”

His threat shook me. All I wanted was to get out of here, and I knew one way to do it. Two words rose to my lips:I quit.I wanted to say them so badly. Actually, what I really wanted to do was to go back to bed and cry. But I couldn’t do either of those things. If I quit, I wouldn’t have a bed to climb into tonight.

I met Bennett’s cold gaze and tried one more time. Soon, the adrenaline would wear off and I’d collapse in a pile of tears. “This job came with room and board. It’s my room as long as I work here, so you and your cousin need to stay out of it.” There. That wasn’t as bad as saying I quit, but in the back of my mind, I knew I’d practically goaded him into firing me.

Bennett pushed his chair back and rose to his feet. I had to take a step back to maintain eye contact

“Listen, young lady?—”

That was as far as he got, because Grant strode back in, and we both turned to look at him.

“Here.”

My heart skipped a beat and then rushed to catch up as I saw what he held out to me. With shaky hands, I took the robe back. It was like finding an old friend. I looked up at Grant, not sure what to say.

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