A beautiful, but clearly dangerous, man.
The look in his eyes told me that he knew exactly what I was thinking. I pulled my gaze away from him and lifted a hand to tug nervously on my lower lip. In my lifetime, I’d felt a lot of ways about Huck Snyder. However, the slippery, slithering heat that worked through my blood after seeing him half-naked was entirely new. Our relationship was already ridiculously complicated and tangled with the ghosts from before. The last thing it needed was another layer to define and navigate.
“Come on, kid. Let her get settled in and leave her alone. As long as she keeps to herself, we should all be fine. Like the old man keeps telling me, it’s only for a year. We’ve survived worse.” There was a warning in Huck’s tone and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on. I felt the weight of his stare, but I refused to look in his direction while he was dressed—or rather, undressed—the way he was. It was too much to process.
Vernon made a distressed noise and went to move past me.
Before I could think better of it, I reached out a hand and let my fingers skim his forearm. He paused and looked at me with curious eyes.
“Thank you.” I let the hand near my face drop and tried to force a smile. “Thanks for keeping an eye on my stuff while it was stashed here, and thank you for helping me move it all up the stairs.” He didn’t have to offer the slightest hint of kindness, but he had.
He was a good kid, and I was glad to know that Huck had seen something worth saving in him. It gave me a slight sliver of hope that Huck might eventually see that same thing in me.
Vernon tilted his head like a puppy and gave me a genuine grin. “No problem. I’m the only one around here willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt, so don’t make me look dumb.” Did he ever look dumb? He was a genius, after all. “I have a couple of extra blankets stashed somewhere. I’ll dig them up, and you can use them until you get your room setup.”
He waved me off when I was going to protest, and used the back of his hand to smack Huck’s sharply defined abs when he walked by his friend. He haughtily told him, “A year can go by in the blink of an eye or feel like it’s going to last forever depending on the circumstances. Let’s all keep that in mind since we’re stuck with each other.” Vernon wrinkled his nose as Huck turned to follow him out of my room. “You stink. Go take a shower. Also, how did you make it up those noisy stairs without making a sound?”
Huck’s answer was lost as Vernon pulled the door closed behind them and they left me alone with my whirling thoughts.
I walked to the bare bed and flopped down face first. It squeaked under my weight but settled quickly. I closed my eyes and told myself to breathe.
I would get through this. This wasn’t the end of the road, regardless of how hostile and difficult Huck decided to be. I told myself I was prepared for whatever he would throw at me to get me to leave, because even though it’d been a while since we were together, I still believed I knew Huck better than anyone else. He wasn’t going to let me slide into the safe space under his roof without a fight. He wasn’t going to simply let me have my way when he wanted something completely different. I needed to be ready for anything because the boy didn’t play fair back in the day, and I doubted that had changed.
Huck
I was rubbing a fluffy towel vigorously over my head and had a face full of wet hair in my eyes, so I couldn’t see Vernon and Harlen, but I knew they were in my room regardless. And since they weren’t waiting for me out in the living room or the kitchen, I knew they wanted to talk to me about our new roommate, or rather, the way I behaved toward our new roommate.
I tossed the wet towel in the direction of my bed and heard Vernon make a disgusted sound as it inadvertently hit one of the unwelcome targets. Chuckling under my breath, I shoved my wet hair out of my face and looked at my two best friends, both of whom were staring at me like we’d never met before.
I put my hands on my hips, shifting the other towel I had wrapped around my waist precariously low. Not that I was worried about these two getting an eyeful. Honestly, one of the best parts of the ‘no-girls-allowed’ rule was the option to wander around in as little clothing as possible and not worry about offending anyone. That was also why we tended to keep overnight visitors to a minimum. When Fisher still lived with us, he was notorious for walking around in the buff at all hours. More than one unsuspecting girl had gotten more than she asked for after spending the night.
“Stop stalling. Just spit out whatever it is you wanna say.” I shook my head like a wet dog and sprayed both of them with castoff. Vernon squealed and put up his hands, and Harlen swore and told me to watch it or get my ass beat. “I have to get ready for work, so I don’t have time for you to circle around the subject.”
I wasn’t using the excuse to rush them. I really did have to get ready and leave shortly.
Vernon rolled over onto his stomach and kicked his feet up behind him. He propped his chin on one of his hands and gave me a hard look.
“What are you playing at with Ollie? You were the one who said Mr. Peters will kick us all out if we mess with her or make her life miserable while she lives here. You’re plotting something, and don’t try and tell me otherwise. That little striptease outside her room yesterday was very deliberate.”
I snorted and moved to pick through my closet for a black t-shirt. Sometimes living with a genius was a real pain in the ass. There was very little Vernon missed. It would be nice if he applied that insight to himself and wasn’t blind to the little hints relating to his own situation right in front of him.
“I’m not going to make her miserable.” I pulled the shirt on over my head, which sent my hair standing up in every imaginable direction. “In fact, I’m going to make her feel better than she ever has before.”
I dropped the towel and rummaged around for a clean pair of black jeans. I needed to do laundry. It looked like it was going to be a no underwear kind of night. Once I was covered up, I turned back to face my friends. Vernon looked confused. Harlen looked slightly pissed.
The athlete growled and narrowed his eyes at me. “You’re going to sleep with her, aren’t you?”
“What?” Vernon’s head snapped up, and his unusual eyes widened to almost comical proportions. “No. You can’t do that, Huck. You’re a jerk, but sleeping with her and then ignoring her pushes you to another level of asshole you might not be able to come back from. Don’t turn into that kind of irredeemable guy just because you can’t get your way this one time.”
Harlen made another irritated sound and dragged a hand down his face. “Seriously. That’s crossing a dangerous moral line, Snyder.”
I walked over to the bed and reached out to mess up Vernon’s frosty white hair. “You guys are worrying too much. I’ve known Ollie a long time. There’s only a fifty-fifty chance she’ll let me seduce her anyway. I always treated her like a kid sister, which is probably the same relationship she’s searching for now. If she does choose to sleep with me, then she knows there will be consequences for her actions better than anyone. Why not let nature take its course and see if things work out in my favor?” I shrugged. “I honestly know her better than most of the women I currently sleep with. She doesn’t have any delusions about the kind of guy I really am.”