Page 103 of If Our Hearts Collide

My eyes narrow at his unabashed boldness. “I signed up for a female roommate.”

“Well, aren’t you lucky. You got me instead. And I’m one hundred percent, all-beef dick, baby.” Grabbing the zipper crotch of his jeans, he gives himself a squeeze. “No artificial meat and enhancement free. I’m organic.”

What the actual hell? Who does that? “But”—I reach for my phone on the top of some cardboard boxes and open up my email app—“see, it says my roommate’s name is Lucy.” I just got notice about the name a couple of days ago, wondering when she would show her face.

“Oh, that was a typo.”

“A typo?” My voice comes out louder than I expect. Who spells their name wrong and doesn’t notice? “You didn’t think it was worth going back and fixing the error?”

“And miss out on this momentous greeting? Oh, hell no. This is too much fun.” Luke grabs my glass of lemonade I have situated on top of an end table and takes a sip. “Look how much fun we are having.”

I can feel the muscles in my jaw releasing as my chin drops. “What?—”

“Delicious. Tastes like sunshine.”

“I—” My brow furrows. “What exactly do you do for a living?”

“Women.”

I scoff. “Seriously.”

Luke shrugs. “I mean, they want to when they see me perform. I work at the Boom Boom Club as a male stripper during the evening. I am VIP room material, granted. But there’s no such place in the Boom Boom room. The boss claims the entire venue is the VIP room. Sounds gimmicky if you ask me and a waste of perfectly good sanitization products, as the entirecustomer space needs to be cleaned of all bodily fluids after closing, and not just the obvious places.”

“Sounds like I need the VIP treatment in my life.”

“Wow.” He takes several steps back until his ass is leaning against the edge of some stacked boxes. “Let me savor this moment.”

“What’s the moment?” I ask stupidly.

“The moment where we just connected for the first time.”

I sigh. “Shut up.”

“You should come to the club, and I can show you around my lair.”

“Hard pass.”

Luke clutches his heart. “Ouch. You’re a tease. No worries, though. My real talent lies in my”—he swivels his hips in a seductive way, gyrating his crotch when he comes full circle—“dancing.”

“What the hell is going on?”

My eyes move behind Luke to find Collins standing in my open door, carrying a large bouquet of flowers and a silver wrapped gift box. The huge bow on top nearly takes up the entire surface area of the lid, dwarfing its size.

“Collins?”

I haven’t seen him in days, so it’s extra surprising to find him in my entranceway, looking so angry.

He stares down at Luke’s luggage and then over to him.

Why can’t my new roommate stop looking so smug?

He won’t when Collins bashes his face in like a soda can.

“Oh no, is this your daddy? Dads usually love me—well, sort of. Until…”

I spare a glance at Collins to know that he’s about to lose it. Dammit. “No, not my dad,” I say softly.

Luke’s eyes travel between me and my bodyguard. “Oh, so he’s the boyfriend?”

---