Page 24 of Tempt

The first few days of school have flown by in a blur of caffeine, lectures, alarm clock early mornings, and a steady stream of chatter from Andy, a kid who never runs out of energy or things to talk about.

I begged student housing to give me a few weeks to finalize my plans, and whether it was my charm or the lower than usual request for on-campus housing, they agreed.

Now if I can just show Liv and Jules they’re missing out, maybe they’ll change their minds.

Liv leans over her phone, frowning. “Adam wants me to ask you a favor. Some basketball thing to do with your brother.”

“That’s ballsy,” Jules drawls.

“I told him I couldn’t promise,” Liv goes on.

I shift off my stool and grab a dart. “Relationships are a bad idea. Case in point: the pond scum ex.”

“So it didn’t work out with Adam. But I met Sawyer the night we broke up.”

“Your head is messed up by the glow of amazing sex with your filthy professor.” I throw the dart toward the board and it lands smack in the middle. “Doesn’t matter what people do in good times, L. It’s what they do in bad ones that shows you who they are.”

I throw the rest of my darts, landing two right in the red zone at the middle of the board.

“Hell, no,” I say when I return to sit and Jules pushes the pitcher of beer across the high-top table toward me.

“Come on, you’ve only had one. Usually, you’d drink us under the table.”

Math has never been my strong suit, but even I can tell this won’t add up.

I shake my head and push the pitcher back. “Andy gets up early. Which means I get up with him.”

Since the night I painted with Andy, it’s been three nights of watching him. Three nights of sleeping under the same roof as Daniel.

Spending time in the place he lives is intimate. It’s like having a roommate who’s gorgeous and makes you food and is way too considerate.

My room is comfortable except for the fact it’s next to his. Daniel’s room has an en suite, which means I can hear him shower.

It would be wrong to think of how he looks naked in the shower.

Or slip out of my room quietly in the morning in the hopes he might have left his bedroom door ajar while he was searching for a towel.

“I felt bad about leaving you without a roommate, but it sounds like it worked out,” Jules says.

I shrug. “It’s a gig. I have my own bathroom. My boss is a good cook.”

“He cooked for you?” Liv takes a sip of her beer, fascinated.

“Once. He also makes a mean sandwich.”

The night he came home late lingers in my mind.

“It was nothing personal?”

He touched my face, scrubbed paint off my neck.

I was a second away from asking him to check the rest of me.

What 19thcentury bullshit is that?

Sexually Deprived Nanny, 0. Hot Dad, 1.

“Daniel’s a lot more than his looks,” Liv says. “He’s been through hell, and he’s a really good guy. A loyal friend, an amazing dad.”

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