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She'd been out there tanning and reading for maybe an hour when two guys walked down a flight of stairs opposite to where her apartment was located. She was surprised to realize she recognized one of them. She didn't know him, had never spoken to him, but she had seen him around campus several times. Why hadn't it occurred to her that the apartment building would house students, since it was located this close to campus?
The guy she had never seen before dove into the deep end, and the other one spoke to her. "Hey."
"Hey," she returned.
"I didn't know you lived here," he said as he dropped a towel and a bottle of sunscreen on the table a few feet away from her.
"I just moved in. I've been living on campus for two years."
He grinned. "Ah, freedom. You're going to like this much better."
"You think?"
"Sure. The place is crawling with upperclassmen. Parties all the time. No worries about alcohol and getting busted by the campus police."
"Sounds fun."
"What's your name?" he asked.
"Jessica."
"I'm Eric. You're Geology, right?"
She was surprised he knew that. "Yeah. You?"
"Pre-med, baby," he returned cockily.
"Impressive."
He laughed. "I try to be." He continued to look her over and his brows drew into a frown that she couldn't interpret. He didn't seem angry, just contemplative. "You live alone?"
"Yes," she answered slowly.
"Just a one-bedroom?"
"Mm-hmm."
"Ever thought about a roommate?"
Okay. That question took her totally by surprise. "No, truthfully, I haven't thought about it one way or the other."
"I might know of someone needing to share."
"Who?"
"My cousin, Lydia. She's been accepted and is enrolled for the fall, but she's on a wait list for the dorms."
Jessica began thinking of rent split in half. "She's an incoming freshman?"
"Yeah."
"She's not on scholarship?" All the students on academic scholarship were at the top of the list for housing.
"Nah. She missed it by a good half mile. She's pretty smart, though. A serious student. She wouldn't cause you any heartache."
"I'm not sure about a roommate, I haven't given it much thought. But I'll keep it in mind."
"Can I get your number, in case?"
"Sure." He pulled out his phone and she rattled off her number. He keyed it in, and almost immediately her phone made the pinging sound indicating that she had a text message.
"Now you have mine, as well."
"Thanks." She smiled and returned her eyes to her book as he began peeling his shirt off. A few seconds later, she felt a shadow come over her. She glanced up, and he hung over her, extending the bottle of sunscreen towards her. "You're burning already."
"Thanks." She took it and squeezed out a nice sized dollop as he stood and waited.
She began rubbing it on her arms. "You need help?"
She laughed nervously. He was looking at her as if he wouldn't at all mind helping her, and she knew she didn't have the luxury of being able to start something up with him. She couldn't even encourage him. "No thanks, I've got it."
He took the tube back from her. "Which unit is yours?"
She pointed at her gated courtyard that was enclosed with a black-wrought iron fence just as all the other lower units were. "You've got a ground floor? Lucky you."
"Yeah."
"Give me a shout if you need anymore sunscreen, pretty."
Startled at the casual endearment, she glanced up at him and found his eyes hot on hers.
She managed to give him a smile of both thanks and dismissal, and he turned and dove into the pool.
It wasn't fair. It just wasn't fair. Any other time in her life, she could have smiled back at him and flirted just like any other college student. But suddenly and decisively, she wasn't just another college student.
Nope, she was a young woman who belonged sexually to another man, and a man who she suddenly realized, would flip a switch if he even knew about the simple conversation she had just had.
****
That night it was tacos; she could smell them from the bedroom when Connor walked in. Jessica was still upset from his disparaging question from the night before, and she'd decided that the best way to handle him was to get rid of him as quickly as possible.
She'd long since washed the new set of sheets and put them on the bed, and when Connor came in that evening, she was already in the bed, naked from the waist down as seemed to be his preference, but
completely covered with the top sheet.
In her hand was the paperback book she was almost finished reading.
As he walked into the bedroom, she schooled her expression to keep all emotion from her features. He stood still and alert in the bedroom doorway and watched her quizzically, and Jessica knew he was puzzled because she was acting out of the ordinary. She'd never before made a move toward the bed until he motioned for her to get there.
As usual for him, he said not a word and so as casually as possible, she set the book down on the bedside table and turned over on her stomach and waited, while she clutched the pillow under her head.
He made no move for long moments, and then when he did, he was very slow and leisurely as he undressed. She could feel his eyes on her the entire time, her heart beating loudly in her eardrums. It was around seven in the evening, his usual time, and night had yet to begin falling. When he moved behind her and pushed the sheet down to the foot of the bed, she felt the slight chill on her naked buttocks at the same time she heard him suck in his breath. "What the hell did you do?"
Unnerved by both the question and his tone, she lifted herself onto her elbows and looked behind her. "What do you mean?"
He was staring at her ass and legs, and although she'd known she'd gotten a lot of sun, she hadn't realized it was quite that much. She had always tanned fairly easily, and the slight pinkness of her skin didn't hurt, at least not yet. At his continued silence, she answered his question. "I sat out by the pool today and read a book. I guess I got too much sun."
He pulled his eyes from her butt and they landed on her face. "You think, maybe?"
She shrugged her shoulders. His brow was pulled into a hardened line, and as he continued to look at her lower half, his mouth flattened into a line of disapproval. As quickly as a snake striking, he flipped her to her back and pulled off the t-shirt that covered her torso. She had nothing on underneath it, and now she leaned back on her elbows in a semi-reclining position, breathing hard, panicked at the ferocious look on his face as he held her shirt in his fist and inspected her brand new tan lines.
