Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 405(@200wpm)___ 324(@250wpm)___ 270(@300wpm)
I paused at his door, grinning at that ridiculous music he listened to. Then I pounded my fist against his door. “Police,” I shouted in a deep voice.
After a long pause, the music stopped, and Ian appeared, looking tired and grumpy.
“If you’re here to arrest me, good. I could use a break.”
“I figured you could use a snack instead.”
“That works, too.” He took the plate from me and spun his desk chair around, so he could talk to me while eating.
As he wolfed down half a sandwich in a few bites, I wondered when he had last taken a break to eat. I sat down on the bed, which was the only other place to sit, and looked around. “This room hurts my soul.”
Ian rolled his eyes. He’d heard this before.
“I like it like this,” he said. “It’s clean. Clear. Open. And sterile, like an operating room.”
I’d heard that before, too. I sighed. My friend was not personality free, but this room sure as hell made him look like he was. “One of these days I’m going to tie you to your bed and force you to watch while I hang paintings, drape some blankets over the bed, and find a matching rug.”
“Keep your perverted sex games to yourself.”
I laughed, but I was only half kidding. “You don’t have a single thing on top of your dresser. Who lives like that? I mean, besides serial killers.”
“Everyone needs a fallback career.”
It was good that his sense of humor was still intact. Sometimes I worried that he would study so hard that he would become as vacant and lifeless as this room. But he seemed a little different since the party, and I wasn’t sure why.
“Speaking of career changes, you and Hailey made quite the team behind the bar. Maybe you can try bartending before you go straight to serial killing.”
He shrugged, not dignifying that with an answer. I suspected he knew what I was here to talk about, and was going to make me work for it. After I asked, I really wanted to know. “So how did it go for Hailey at the party?”
“How do you think?”
“Not well,” I said. “If I was a woman who looked like her, I wouldn’t set foot in this place.”
Ian finished his chips and set the empty plate on his desk. I took it as a good sign that he didn’t instantly take it out of his room. “I get the feeling she doesn’t have much choice.” He drank from the water I had brought him. A health nut like him didn’t drink soda, and it was a little early for beer. Those were pretty much the only options in our house.
Finally, he spoke again. “She’s different than I thought.”
“Which you would have known earlier, if you would occasionally take your nose out of a book and actually talk to women.”
“I talk to women when I want to,” Ian snapped. “Or they talk to me.” His smirk looked a little like Grant’s.
“Yeah, yeah. You’re a god among men, and we could all learn from your womanizing ways.” But then I stopped joking around. “She’s different than I thought, too.”
You could say my opinion of her had changed after I found out she was a student, but it was more like I started noticing more details about her. Like how she spent so much time taking care of us and the house we lived in that she likely couldn’t start studying until nearly midnight. And how important it seemed to her to keep this job.
“She’s playing it smart with Bennett,” Ian said. “That waiter get-up she had on when she served dinner the other day was exactly the right thing to massage his ego.”
I snorted. “He probably got a hard-on the second she walked out of the kitchen.”
“She looked hot like that.”
“She always looks hot. But Bennett gets off on her following his orders and bending to his will. You know that. If she keeps that kind of thing up, she should make it through this summer here.” I hated that she had to do that for someone like him.
“That’s a fine line to walk, though. Like that sexy little dress she had on at the party. She appeased Bennett, but she also opened herself up to a lot of unwelcome attention.”
“Are you sure it was unwelcome?” It was something I’d been wondering about since our kiss.
“I think so. She seems very inexperienced.”
“A virgin, you mean.”
He nodded. “Possibly the most virginal woman on campus.”
I chuckled at that. “Thanks for keeping an eye on her at the party.”
Ian leaned back in his chair. “Thanks for telling me to get my head out of my ass and actually pay attention to what’s going on around here.”
“You’re busy. We all know that.” Ian studied more than anyone I’d ever met. “In fact, I’m surprised you haven’t kicked me out yet.”