But he sent a picture anyway. Katya was too curious to look away and when she realized what she was looking at, she burst out laughing again. It was a close up picture of a thermostat, the mercury kind that hangs on a wall. The little red line was creeping up past ninety-five degrees.
Try to contain yourself.
Har dee har har.
Seriously, my air conditioning broke today and something is going on with the radiator. Let me come over to your place.
No, my roommate is here and she already wants to meet the guy who dragged me to a sex club. I'll probably look away and you two will start screwing on my kitchen table.
Ooohhh, jealousy, I like it.
Not jealous. Just protective of my table.
Then come hang out on the roof with me.
I just put on pajamas, I'm not changing to walk all the way over to your place.
Don't bother – I'll walk over to yours.
My building doesn't allow roof access.
Does now. I talked to management after you left. I'm coming over.
Katya was a little blown away. She'd mentioned wishing she had roof privileges. Just a comment in passing while he'd dished out the tacos. That he'd remembered was surprising, but that he'd actually called and done something about it?
What a sweetheart.
She grabbed a bottle of water and was pulling on a pair of sneakers when she heard someone walking in the hallway. Tori hadn't made an appearance yet, so Katya assumed she'd fallen asleep early. She didn't want to wake her up, so she cracked open the front door. When she saw that it was Liam heading towards her, she slipped into the hall.
“What, not gonna invite me in?” he asked as they headed back to the elevator.
“No, you'd probably never leave, and I can't afford to feed you tacos every day.”
“I think you just want to keep me from your sexy roommate.”
“Never said she was sexy.”
“It's okay, angel cake. I'll always have a soft spot for you,” he assured her as they rode up to the top floor. “Tell you what, we can make it a threesome. Sharing is caring.”
“I swear, if you bring up having a threesome with my roommate again, I will go back downstairs,” she threatened him. He leaned down close, wrapping his arm around her waist.
“Such a scaredy cat. You never know, you may like it,” he whispered, causing her to shiver.
The elevator deposited them on the last floor, then they had to walk up one fight to get to the roof top door. There, Liam shocked her again by pulling a key out of his pocket and unlocking the heavy door. She walked out ahead of him and started shivering as the night air hit her still-damp hair.
“They gave you a key? Isn't that a little strange?” she asked, turning to face him.
“It's actually for you,” he said, tossing the key to her. She scrambled to catch it while he pushed past her. She dropped her water bottle in the process and had to chase it around for a second.
“Me? Why me?” she turned as she spoke, watching as he unfolded some beach chairs.
“Because you're the only one allowed up here. Well, and me, of course,” he said, then he sat down. She gaped until he patted the chair next to him. She finally sat down, as well.
“What did you say to them to get me exclusive access?” she asked. Liam sighed and rubbed his hands over his face. She hadn't known him long, but she already knew it was a gesture of annoyance or nervousness.
“I have to tell you something, but I don't want you to get weirded out,” he said.
“Okay, then I'm definitely weirded out,” she replied, taking a sip of her water.
“I sort of own these buildings.”
She spit out the water.
“What!?” she exclaimed, mopping at her chin. He winced and nodded.
“Yeah. About five years ago, my aunt passed away. She didn't have any kids, so she left the property to me and my brother. A building each. I was already living in my apartment, and a management company was handling everything else, so I didn't change anything,” he said.
“Why didn't you tell me?”
“I don't know, sometimes it makes it weird. I've had girls fuck me to try to get free rent, weird shit like that, and I also didn't want you thinking like 'oh no, I'm banging my landlord', or anything like that. I honestly never thought we'd hook up, so it never occurred to me to mention it,” he told her.
She was still a little shocked. He was so young, yet he owned a thriving business and some very expensive real estate in San Francisco – her rent was not cheap, hence the need for a roommate.
“How old are you?” she blurted out.
“How old are you?” he asked back.
“Twenty-three,” she said. He let his eyes fall shut.
“God bless you,” he breathed.
“Liam.”
“Thirty-two,” he answered. Her jaw dropped.
“You lie.”
“Nope. Wanna see my driver's license?”
“Jesus, I was guessing twenty-eight, max,” she mumbled, her eyes wandering over his face. Over his clothes.
“I'll choose to take that as a compliment.”
Nine years. He was nine years older than her. He didn't look it, and he certainly didn't act like it. She couldn't believe she'd slept with someone that much older than her. Though if she was honest with herself, she found it kinda hot. Sexy older man, willing younger woman. Yeah, she'd read those books, she'd watched those movies. Besides, Wulf was twenty-nine, not exactly close to her age, either.
“Okay. I guess none of that really matters, right? I mean, unless I can fuck my way to free rent,” she joked.
“You definitely can.”
“Can we get some sofas up here, like your place?”
“Sure, I'll see what maintenance can scrounge up. But you're the only one allowed up here – no parties, no friends, no Mr. New Guy. Nobody.”
“Not even Tori?”
“Nope.”
“Why?”
“Because,” he sighed as he lounged back in the chair. “This place is special, angel cake. It's our place. Just for you and me. No one else. Just us.”
It was so sweet, Katya couldn't argue about it, so she smiled and sat back in her chair, too. They sat in companionable silence for a while, both looking up at the sky. She wasn't sure how long they were like that before he opened his mouth.
“I've never seen your hair down before.”
“Excuse me?” she asked, caught off guard.
“Your hair. In all the times I've seen you, I've never seen it down. It looks nice,” he told her. She ran her fingers through the wet tresses.
“Oh. Thank you.”
“So tell me about the crazy sex,” he said, sitting up straight. She shook her head.
“There was nothing crazy about it. Just normal, missionary position sex, and that's all I'm sharing with you,” she said.
“God, and here I thought I'd seen the last of Miss Boring Beige Pants,” he grumbled. She went to snap at him, but he held up his hand. “But no worries! I had a plan in place, just for this incident. I signed you up for something.”
“Oh god, what is it?” she groaned.
“Strip-aerobics,” he said with a big smile.