Page 7 of Frat House Fling

In order to keep from staring at his flat abs, I bent down and collected my duffel bag. But that gave me a closeup ofallof him as I straightened back up. Finally, I met his eyes. They were green.

“It’s a big place.” His voice was deep, but quiet. It was like he knew he didn’t have to project his voice to be heard. To command attention. And judging from the way my pulse sped up in reaction to his body, attention came his way quite often. “I’m Ian.”

“Hailey,” I said, managing not to stammer.

“Ah, the new girl,” he said. His eyes swept down my body once, but it wasn’t in a lingering way like Grant and Bennett yesterday. “Let’s hope you last longer than the last one.”

What? The summer semester had barely begun. Someone had already taken this job and quit it? Or been fired. I didn’t know which option was worse.

“Uh, do you know what room I’m supposed to stay in? They said it was on this floor.”

He nodded. “Edward’s old room. It’s just up there on the right.”

“Thanks.”

He nodded and turned away. His back was every bit as muscular as his chest and arms. But then he stopped, peering back at me over his shoulder. “Do you need help with that?” The way he’d asked made it seem like an afterthought, but at least he’d offered.

“I’m fine, thanks.” As I watched, he shoved his short brown hair away from his eyes. “Besides, you’ve already done your workout.”

A grin crossed his face and then disappeared as quickly as it had come. “I did indeed. Now, I have to take a shower and study. Nice to meet you.”

That last part was curt, but I echoed it as I headed back to the stairs to get the rest of my things. I was curious about what Ian’s major was. He seemed like a no-nonsense kind of guy. But that wasn’t all I wondered about. Try as I might, I couldn’t get the vision of him stepping into a hot shower, his tan skin bare, out of my mind.

Living with these guys probably wasn’t a wise choice, but I had a feeling it wasn’t going to be a boring one, either.

4

HAILEY

I stood backand surveyed the results. Not bad. Not bad at all. And now I could say I’d cleaned at least one room in this gigantic place.

The room that they’d assigned me wasn’t huge, but now that it was clean, it was a big step-up for me. I’d spent over a month sleeping on the couch at Tori’s apartment. Before that, I’d spent a lot of my nights in the armchair in my grandfather’s room at the nursing home.

This room had a bed, a desk, a dresser, and a bookcase. My stuff, which I’d carried over in two loads, fit easily. The room hadn’t been filthy, but it had taken me a couple of hours to dust, clean the windows, and vacuum. I’d managed to find all the necessary cleaning supplies in a small closet at the end of the hallway. Hopefully there was one like that on each floor—I didn’t relish the idea of lugging cleaning supplies and vacuum cleaners up and down the stairs.

The windows had taken the longest for the simple reason that I kept pausing to admire the views. Being on the second floor was an advantage in a town surrounded by mountains. My hometown, Janson Falls, was only thirty miles away, but it wascloser to the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, not nestled in the middle of it like here.

The only thing the room didn’t have was a bathroom. There were two on this level, so I didn’t have to go far, but I didn’t relish sharing a bathroom with strange men. Then again, there weren’t supposed to be many of them living here this summer. The only guy I’d seen so far today was Ian.

I pulled a water bottle out of my bag and drank deeply as I leaned against the desk, looking around. I had my back to the spectacular view, but a clean room with a door I could close was more exciting to me right now. Sure, the nameplate on the door said Edward, but that was okay. It was mine for the summer, and I thought it looked pretty damn good.

The only thing that didn’t look better after my cleaning spree was the bed. It was a double bed, and my sheets and comforter were for a twin bed. I’d made them look as nice as I could, but part of the mattress was bare. It didn’t look so great, but it had to be more comfortable than the sofa at Tori’s place.

A knock on the door startled me.

Pushing away from the desk, I ran a hand through my hair and then remembered that I’d put it in a ponytail while I cleaned. I pulled out the elastic, smoothed dust off of my t-shirt, and opened the door.

It was Bennett, the fraternity president. I had to take a step back and crane my neck to see him. He had to be well over six feet.

He peered over my head—which wasn’t hard for him to do—and looked around. “I guess you can actually clean.”

I nodded, a bit nervously. He was a big guy, a stranger, and my boss, more or less. Those were all good reasons to be wary.

And then he stepped into the room, making it instantly feel crowded. His eyes fell to the bed, and he shook his head, obviously disapproving. But he didn’t say anything about it.

“If you’re done making your own space look better, maybe you can start on the rest of the house.”

It clearly wasn’t a request.

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