LEANNE:the kind where people read books.I’m not taking you to an orgy, i promise.It’s a literature club.you’ll love it.
Finally, a way out.I reply:
ME:sure.what time?
LEANNE:I’m on my way to your apartment right now.So get your ass out of bed.
ME:you don’t even know where i live.
LEANNE:true.Text me your address and ill pick you up, asap.I’m on my way now.Get your ass out of bed.Ps, i don’t own a car, so we are walking.
I chuckle and get dressed quickly—a blue sweatshirt and dark jeans.I fix my hair and adjust my glasses before grabbing my backpack and heading out of my room.Time to face Fox and his jock friends.
The living room is a wreck—an explosion of empty beer bottles, half-eaten snacks, and cigarette smoke clinging to the air like a curse.The bass from the speaker vibrates through the walls, and the air feels thick, heavy with sweat, expensive cologne, and chaos.
Then he appears.
Fox Wilder strides out of the kitchen, shirtless, a cigarette hanging lazily from the corner of his mouth and a bottle of water clutched in one hand.His sweatpants—light gray and hangingwaytoo low—hug his hips in a way that feels almost illegal.The defined V of his lower abs leads right into the waistband, drawing my gaze before I can stop myself.
He looks like sin dipped in sunlight—like he was carved from marble by artists who got a little too obsessed.Every inch of him is lean, sculpted, and infuriatingly perfect.Not a trace of fat, just taut, milky skin stretched over hard muscle.His abs flex subtly as he moves, like he knows he’s being watched—and maybe he does.
I’m staring again.
God,whydo I keep doing that?
I tear my gaze away, heat crawling up the back of my neck.My pulse is racing, and not from the secondhand smoke or the chaos around me.I mutter a curse under my breath and head straight for the door.
As I reach the door, I hear Carter’s voice behind me.
“That your roommate?”
I don’t stick around for Fox’s answer.
I don’t want to know what he’ll say about me in front of his friends.
Or worse—how accurate it might be.
Down the curb, I spot Leanne waving, her usual bright smile lighting up her face.I exhale, feeling an unexpected wave of relief at the sight of her.Something about Leanne makes everything feel a little less overwhelming.
“Fancy place you’ve got, Cam,” she says as we fall into step toward campus.“What are you, a politician’s son or something?”
“Scholarship,” I say with a small smile, adjusting the strap on my backpack.
She raises a brow.“Damn.Impressive.How’d you land a place like that?I heard Fox Wilder lives somewhere around there too.”
I hesitate.Right.I never told her.
“He’s my roommate,” I say, almost reluctantly.
Leanne stops dead in her tracks, her boots scraping against the pavement.“You’rejoking.Fox Wilder—thatguy—is your roommate?”
“Yep.”
She blinks at me, then breaks into a wide grin.“Okay, plot twist.Maybe the universe is shipping you two.”
I roll my eyes.“Fox is straight.”
She nudges me with her elbow.“So if hewasn’tstraight, you’d be into him?”
