chapter Seventeen
The brick building stood as an intimidating sight in front of me. I’d walked in and out of the freshman dorms many times, but that night it felt completely different. I stayed close to Colt, trying to avoid making eye contact with anyone as we reached the desk.
“Hey, Colt.” The student working the desk greeted him by name. Great. So much for making this quick and anonymous.
“I need to check her in.” Colt touched my arm, and I handed him my ID. That was one of the annoying parts of the freshman dorms. You could only enter if someone who lived there signed you in. At least they didn’t have any archaic rules about checking in the opposite sex.
I looked down at the floor.
“Mallory. Okay. All checked in. Have a nice night you two.” The guy’s voice was light, and I knew what he was implying. It was almost like you had to do the walk of shame twice. Once in and once out. Oh damn, I hadn’t really thought about the leaving part.
Colt walked over to the elevator. I hesitated. “Uh, let’s take the stairs.”
“I live on the sixth floor.” He pushed the up button.
“So? Exercise won’t kill us.”
He leaned in. “If I thought this was about exercise, I’d do it in a second, but we’re not walking up six flights of steps because you’re embarrassed.”
The door to the elevator opened and a couple of visibly drunk girls hopped out. One smiled at Colt. “Hi!”
“Hey, Veronica.” Colt smiled at her. It was a completely friendly smile, but it still brought out my jealous side.
I resisted the urge to lay a kiss on him.
“We’re going to a party. Want to come?” she cooed. The elevator dinged ready to close. I pulled Colton in.
“Uh, sorry. I have plans,” Colton muttered.
The doors closed before the girls could respond.
“Oh, someone is jealous.” He stepped toward me, leaning me back against the wall of the elevator.
“Jealous? Of that girl?”
He laughed. “I think this jealous side of you is kind of hot.”
“Don’t try to make it happen again.”
He brushed his lips against mine. “No?”
“No.”
The door opened, and he took my hand. “This way, my dear.”
“Do you have to be such a comedian?”
He looked at me seriously. “Yes.”
I pushed his arm. “And I actually want to have sex with you. Maybe I need to get my head checked.”
Faster than I could process it, he had me in his arms. “You want to have sex with me again because you know how good it is.”
“Get a room.” A guy laughed behind us.
Colt turned. “We’re planning on it.”
Without a word, he led me down the hall. I waited with bated breath as he unlocked his door.
The room was exactly what I expected. Two twin beds, two small closets, and two desks. The only problem was that one desk was currently occupied.
“Hey, Joe,” Colt yelled in the direction of a guy who I assumed was his roommate. The guy didn’t move, but then again, he was wearing a set of those huge over the ear headphones.
“Joe!”
Joe startled and took off the headphones. “Oh, hey.” He stared at me like I was an alien or something.
Colt didn’t waste any time beating around the bush. “I kind of need the room.”
“Why? I’m not going to bother you guys.”
I was so embarrassed I wanted to run from the room.
Colt, probably sensing it, took my hand. “Yeah, but we might bother you.”
Understanding crossed Joe’s face. “I have headphones.”
“Yeah. Not going to happen. See ya, Colt.” I went to pull my hand from his.
“No. You’re staying. Come on.”
“I’m not doing that with him in here.”
“Give me a second.”
Colt walked over to Joe and pulled off his headphones. “I don’t want to be an ass, but I need the room.”
“I have a paper due tomorrow.”
“Then go to the library.”
“Fine. Give me twenty minutes to finish this section, and I’ll leave.” He exhaled loudly. “But you’re going to owe me.”
Colt nodded. “I have no problem returning the favor.”
“I’ll remember that the next time I find myself a hot sorority chick willing to come home with me.” He turned back toward the screen.
I stifled a laugh. “So what now?”
Colt didn’t hesitate to share a suggestion. “Let’s watch a movie.”
“A movie?”
“Yeah. We haven’t done the whole cuddle thing yet.”
“Cuddle thing?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I promise I’m good at it.”
“I think I figured that out the first night.”
“Yeah, but you were sleeping.” He walked over to his desk. “What do you want to watch?”
“I don’t know. What do you have?”
“Anything. I run it through my wi-fi.”
“Surprise me.”
“I will.”
“I really don’t care what you guys do. You don’t have to wait.” Joe put on his headphones. Either he was a perv or he really had no clue how girls worked. Maybe both.
Colton set up his computer monitor and lay down on his bed. He patted the space next to him. “Get ready for the ultimate movie watching experience.”
I curled up next to him, resting my head on his chest. “I hope you picked well.”
“I did.”
He pressed play and Pride and Prejudice (the Colin Firth version) started.
“You remembered my favorite movie?” We’d only watched it together once. At a friends house.
“I remember everything about you, pumpkin.” He kissed my forehead.
I snuggled into him, my whole body relaxing. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, Colt was right. What we had went way beyond friendship and sex. The problem was that was just going to make it harder to move on afterward. I pushed away those thoughts and tried to enjoy the moment. There was nowhere else I’d have rather been. Of course, it would have been a whole lot better if Joe would go ahead and leave already.
***
Someone was shaking me. I moaned and snuggled up some more.
“You need to call your friends, pumpkin.”
“What?” I sat up in the dimly lit room. The only illumination came from Colt’s desk lamp.
“Juliet just called. I would have answered, but I figured you wouldn’t have appreciated it.”
“Oh.” My current location came to me. “We’re in your room.” I must have fallen asleep during the movie.
“Yes. That we are. And my roommate finally left… so I’d rather you stayed in my room.”
As my eyes adjusted, I made out Colton. He was shirtless and leaning up against his pillows. The thought of staying the night with him sounded incredibly appealing.
I decided to text Juliet, grateful when she accepted the “I’m fine” excuse and moved on.
“When’s your roommate coming back?”
“Not for a while. He went to play World of Warcraft with some friends. That’s usually an all-night thing.”
“Didn’t he say he had a paper due?”
Colt laughed dryly. “That was just an excuse to annoy me. I had another talk with him while you slept.”
I ran a finger down Colt’s bare chest, making him shiver. “How sure are you that he won’t come back?”
“Very.”
“Okay, good.” I moved on top of him, straddling him while I looked down at his face. I hiked my dress up in the process. “You really shouldn’t look this tempting.”
He grinned. “Quit trying to make good things sound bad.”
“It’s true.”
“How is it possible for me to be too tempting? I’m already lying here half-naked for your complete enjoyment.”
“My complete enjoyment, huh?”
“Uh huh.”
I played with his belt buckle, watching as his eyes widened in anticipation. I took what for him was probably an agonizingly long time to release the buckle and move on to his button and zipper.
He put his hands on my hips. “Just know that if I’m available for your enjoyment, you’re available for mine.”
“I don’t know if I agreed to that.” I bit my lip.
“You unofficially did.” He shifted so he could pull my dress over my head. “You say I’m too tempting, what about you?”
I closed my eyes. “Didn’t you just say I’m available to you?”
“Yes, and you started to deny it.”
“How’s this for denying it.” I reached behind me and unclasped my bra, letting it fall off on the bed beside us.
He reached up and cupped each of my breasts with his hands. “If this is how you’re going to argue with me, please do it all the time.”
I leaned forward, offsetting his hand as I lay down on top of him. Our naked chests against each other felt perfect. The only problem was his shorts were still in the way. He noticed the same problem, and lifted me just enough to start pulling them down.
Just as he had them nearly to his ankles, there was a knock on the door.
I rolled off him.
Colt ignored the knock and finished removing his shorts.
“Colt! Open up, man,” a male voice yelled from the hallway.
I put on my bra and reached for my dress.
Colt stilled my hands and didn’t answer.
“I know you’re in there. We have to go to the house. Don’t you check your phone?”
The house? It was another pledge. I pulled away from Colt and finished getting dressed.
“Give me five minutes.”
Whoever was outside laughed. “What are you doing, or rather who?”
I closed my eyes. Even though no one could see me, I was mortified.
“I’ll meet you at the house in five minutes.” Colt smiled at me.
“Sure. Uh, sorry to whoever just had their night interrupted.”
I groaned.
Colt laughed. “Want to stay here and wait for me to get back?”
“Yeah, no, thanks.”
“You know he’s probably waiting in the lobby, right?” Colt buttoned his shorts. “I’m sure he wants to find out who I have in here. I have no problem with him seeing us, but my guess is you do.”
“This is why we shouldn’t be here.”
“Hey. Come on. Just stay. It’s too late for you to walk home alone.”
“I can’t stay here. What if your roommate comes back?”
“He won’t. And even if he does, just wear clothes. I won’t be long.”
“I hope you’re right.”
“I am.” He kissed my forehead. “I’ll get back as soon as I can.”
It wasn’t until the door clicked closed behind him that I discovered a slight problem. I was eventually going to need to use the bathroom. Once the thought got into my head, of course, I needed to go. I also had no interest in using the restroom on his all boy floor. I paced his room a few minutes and then made a decision. I was walking back to my house. I’d text Colt and tell him I changed my mind. I still couldn’t believe I was in his dorm room. Had I lost my mind? Hooking up in a Freshman dorm?
With my mind made up, I grabbed my purse and walked out into the hall.
With purpose, I continued down the hall and into the stairwell. Colt wasn’t around to give me a hard time for walking down the stairs, but six flights takes a long time. I reached the lobby and realized another problem. The front desk still had my ID. I debated just walking out, but I needed it back.
“Hey, can I check out?” I smiled at the guy at the desk. It was the same one.
“Didn’t Colt check you in?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, he needs to be here to check you out.”
“Oh, come on. Please just give me my ID.”
“Sorry. You’ll have to wait for Colt.”
“Forget it.” I stormed out of the dorm and headed toward my house. The lighting by the dorms was great, but I was reminded of how late it was when I turned toward the Greek houses. I hurried, ready to get home. A light drizzle of rain started right before I reached the front porch. Perfect timing. I punched in the code and very happily walked upstairs. I used the bathroom and got changed for bed. At the last minute, I remembered to text Colt.
I went home. Please get my ID for me.
He didn’t reply right away which meant he was in his meeting still. That was an even better reason for having gone home.
I got into bed and turned out the light. Exhaustion had caught up with me.
I woke up with a start twenty minutes later when my phone rang. “Yes?” I answered when I saw Colt’s name.
“What part of stay here didn’t you understand?”
“I changed my mind.”
“And walked home alone. Lovely.”
“There were tons of people around.”
He sighed. “Listen, I can’t tell you what to do, and I don’t want to unless it comes to your safety, but don’t do that again. Please? Just promise me that?”
“All right. I won’t walk home alone again at night.” I knew he was right. You could never be too careful.
“I guess we’ll have to take a rain check on the complete access, huh?”
“I guess so considering I’m already in bed.”
“What are you wearing?”
“Pajamas.”
He laughed. “Because that’s descriptive.”
“I guess you’ll have to find out another time.”
“You’re mean.”
“Maybe a little. Good night.”
“Good night, pumpkin.”