Jake Undone (3 page)

a bottom lip ring, and his incisors were very pointed and sharp. His eyes were green with gold speckles,

brought out even further by his contrasting short dark hair.

Come to think of it, Jake was like a black cat – gorgeous, but very likely bad luck if it crossed your

path.

“Nice to meet you, Jake.”

He leaned against the kitchen counter, crossing his arms and gave me a once-over that sent a shiver

down my spine. “So, who is Stuart, why is he making you origami bird poems, and who cut off his balls?”

I laughed. “Stuart was my boyfriend freshman year of high school. Ryan decided to bring him up now

for no good reason.”

“What brings you to Brooklyn?”

“I start nursing school on Monday. Long Island University.”

Jake scratched his chin, sarcastically pensive. “Isn’t that in Long Island?”

“No, there’s a Brooklyn campus. It’s actually not far from the apartment.”

Ryan interjected. “With your fear of subways, that’s a good thing.”

I shot Ryan a death glare.

Great. He was going to embarrass me in front of Jake.

“What’s this, now?” Jake asked, lifting his brow.

“Thanks, a lot, Ryan,” I said, seriously pissed.

He gave me an apologetic look. “Sorry. It just came out.”

“It’s nothing,” I said looking at Jake, waving my hand, hoping he’d drop the subject.

Jake continued to stare at me quizzically. “Are you seriously afraid of the subway or something?”

“She’s afraid of everything: planes, elevators, heights...” Ryan let out a frustrated sigh.

I widened my eyes at him again, then looked at Jake and shrugged my shoulders trying to downplay it.

“I just get a little nervous in crowded, contained places. That’s all.”

Jake nodded slowly in understanding. “It’s like a phobia. So, places that make you feel trapped?”

“Yeah, basically,” I said.

Jake squinted at me and seemed to be examining my face for the truth. His expression darkened like he

somehow saw through my trying to pass my phobias off as nothing. Our eyes locked, and I felt an

inexplicable connection to him in that moment that went beyond just physical attraction.

He scratched his chin. “Hmn.”

Suddenly uncomfortable, I changed the subject immediately. “So where do you work?”

“I’m an electrical engineer for a company in the city. We design stadium lighting. And at night, I

dance…at a male strip club.”

I couldn’t tell, but I was pretty sure the color must have drained from my face.

“Seriously?”

“Yup.”

“Wow,” I said.

He looked over at Ryan. “You didn’t tell her she was living with Magic Fuckin’ Mike?”

Ryan just laughed, gauging my reaction.

Jake looked amused and bit his bottom lip, his teeth clicking against his lip ring. Then, he let out a

guttural laugh. “I’m just fucking with you again.”

“You’re
not
a stripper?”

He laughed and shook his head. “I like you. You’re an easy target. It’s gonna be fun to have you around.

By the way, I really am an engineer. My cubicle mate Raj gets pretty pissed when I try to take off my clothes

and give him a lap dance, so I stopped stripping a long time ago,” he joked.

That’s a damn shame.

Jeez, where was this coming from?

I couldn’t believe how gullible I was sometimes, but then again, why wouldn’t I have believed him?

With his overall stature and the way his black hoodie hugged his clearly defined chest, his body could

certainly pass for that of a stripper. Plus, I didn’t know him from Adam. What I did know was that Jake

was a ball-buster and did not appear to be the type of guy I
should
be attracted to. Or at least, that was my first impression of him.

I looked down again at the various colored tattoos on his right forearm. On his left, there was just a

lone dragon. I wondered what else was underneath his clothing.

He walked over to the other side of the kitchen, picked up a banana out of a pile of about twenty, peeled

it and ate the entire first half in one bite whilst looking right at me, grinning.

Ryan laughed. “I forgot to mention, that’s Jake’s bushel of bananas over there. We think he is part

human, part monkey.”

I looked at Jake. “You like bananas, huh?”

Still chewing, Jake said, “Damn straight, I do. I fuckin’ love ‘em. Mmm.” He took the other half of the

banana and stuffed the whole thing into his mouth, gesturing to me with the peel, his mouth full. “Wa-

wan?”

“Huh?”

“Want one?” he said more clearly.

I held my hand out. “No, thanks. I’m good.”

Still chewing, he continued looking at me, and my heart fluttered.

Ryan broke the uncomfortable silence. “I told you Jake was interesting.”

I watched as Jake slowly licked his lips after finishing the banana.
He is interesting alright.

The front door then opened, and in walked a cute girl with short black hair in a pixie cut.

Reality Show Scene Four, enter stage right: instant best friend
.

She was wearing an adorable blue shift dress and immediately dropped her purse that was practically

larger than she was, walked over to Ryan and planted a kiss on his lips.

“Hey, babe,” Ryan said and then turned to me. “This is Nina. Nina meet Tarah.”

She startled me when she immediately pulled me into a hug. “I have heard so much about you, Nina. I

have been waiting for you! I am outnumbered here. You didn’t tell me how pretty she was, Ryan.”

“Aw, thanks…likewise,” I said. “It’s really nice to know I won’t be the only female in the house.”

Tarah had almond-shaped light brown eyes, defined, thick eyebrows and full lips. She was petite with

smooth olive skin, and I could totally see what Ryan saw in her. I was curious about her nationality, so I

asked her.

“Can I ask…are you Italian…Spanish?”

“No, actually, I’m Persian. My family is from Iran.”

“Ah, I knew it was something like that. You have a very exotic look.”

Tarah smiled and Ryan said. “Yeah, where Nina and I come from, there are two ethnicities: white and

pasty white.”

We all laughed, and then I noticed Jake walking back down the hall to his room. I was oddly

disappointed by his sudden retreat.

Tarah immediately started playing with my hair.

“Who does your highlights?”

“No one. This is my natural color.”

“Seriously? You are so lucky, girl. Do you know how much money people have to pay me to get

highlights that look like this?”

“Well, it’s a good thing I don’t have to pay for it. I’m gonna be pretty broke this year since I am going to

try to not work and just focus on school full-time.”

“Nursing, right? That’s probably a pretty tough curriculum.”

“It is. So, the more focus on school the better. I have enough money saved to just about pay my rent

and food for the year.”

“Well, if you ever need anything, you let me know, okay?” Tarah said.

“That’s really sweet of you. Thanks.”

She had kind eyes, and I could tell we were going to be good friends.

Ryan nudged Tarah, kissed her forehead and looked at me. “I told you she was awesome.”

It was obvious that Ryan had it bad. Feeling like a third wheel all of a sudden, I excused myself to go

finish unpacking, even though I had already put most of my stuff away earlier.

“I’ll come say goodnight later,” Tarah said as I waved to her.

When I got to my room, I turned on the only light, a small lamp, and lay down on the bed, staring at the

ceiling. It had been a long day, and even though I should have been resting, my mind kept racing.

I decided to take a shower. Gathering all of my toiletries and placing them in a caddy, I grabbed my robe

and walked down the hall to the bathroom.

The sound of some kind of alternative music was coming from Jake’s room, but the door was closed. It

occurred to me that from now on, every time I used the bathroom or showered, I’d have to do it next door

to Jake, since his room was right outside of the bathroom.

As the hot water poured down on me, I tried to relax. I had a lot on my mind, from anxiety about

classes starting Monday to my unwanted attraction to my tattooed, pierced, smoking hot roommate, who

based on first impressions, was quite likely a man-whore.

I wrapped my wet hair in a towel, securely tightened my robe and grabbed my dirty clothes off the

floor. Cautiously peeking out into the hallway before I escaped the safety of the steamy bathroom, I tiptoed

back to my room and closed the door.

After I brushed the tangles out of my wet hair, I slipped into a pink camisole and shorts and grabbed my

Kindle to do some light reading before bed.

About twenty minutes into the book, there was a knock at the door. Assuming it was Tarah, I didn’t

think twice before opening it with no bra.

The sight of Jake standing there completely shirtless and fresh out of the shower with his hair wet

nearly knocked the wind out of me. He smelled like the men’s body wash that I had sniffed in the

bathroom.
The one I would be bathing in from now on.

Trickles of water dripped down his defined chest onto his six-pack. His chest had no tattoos, but I now

saw that he had tribal ink on his side torso and upper arms. I knew he was attractive, but it truly stunned me

how beautiful he was bare.

I swallowed, hardly getting the words out. “Ha…hi…what’s up?”

Jake’s heated stare burned through me as he quickly glanced down to my braless chest and back up to

my eyes. He licked his lips, and I swear, I felt it. I could describe it as electric, but it was more like a dragon breathing fire down my throat, igniting a wet explosion at the site of my vagina.

Then, he reached into his pocket and handed me…a pair of underwear. “I found these on the bathroom

floor…thought you might want them.”

I reached for them, mortified. They were the dirty underwear I had been wearing all day and must have

fallen out of the clothes pile I carried out of the bathroom.

Covering my chest with my arms, I clutched the panties and was pretty much speechless as he stood

there in my doorway. “Thanks.”

He stared at me for a few seconds, grinned impishly but said nothing else as he turned around. I

watched him walk away and noticed that his back was just as defined as the front as he sauntered down the

hall, his black pants hanging low on his waist, almost but not quite low enough to display the top of his

tight, round ass.

Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and slowly closed my door.

This wasn’t the type of guy you lived with every day. This was the type of guy who came out to play

only at night in your deepest, darkest fantasies.

Stay. Away. Nina.

I was sweating, even though I had just showered. After a few minutes, when my hormones finally

stopped doing the Macarena, I went back to bed and tried to focus on something other than my new

roommate. Just when I had finally gotten my mind off of him, I looked over to my right and noticed

something on my nightstand that I must have missed earlier.

Oh my God.

Someone must have put it there when I was in the shower.

Someone. I knew exactly who it was.

It was an origami bird made out of black construction paper, just like the ones Stuart used to make. But

wait…it wasn’t a bird.

It was a bat.

I held it in my hand and covered my mouth to contain the stupefied laughter. I looked around as if

someone was in the room watching me, but of course, I was alone.

I unfolded the bat and noticed a message written underneath the left wing in silver gel ink.

Welcome to the “House.” --Jake

How’s Uncle Jesse?

CHAPTER 3

It was Saturday morning and Jake was already gone before I could thank him for my little gift. Like

Ryan explained, he took off for Boston every weekend and generally came back on Sunday nights in time

to work on Monday.

The first thing on my mind when I woke up was the bat, how intricate it was and how Jake had now

joined the bandwagon of people teasing me about my resemblance to the Olsen twins. At least I thought

they were pretty and took it as a compliment.

Ryan and Tarah were in the kitchen eating pancakes when I walked in.

“Sit down and join us, Troll,” Ryan said.

Tarah looked at me excitedly. “Nina, you and I should go shopping today. I took the day off.”

“Really? Cool…I need to dress up my room badly.”

She clapped giddily. “Perfect. We’ll have so much fun.” She handed me the syrup. “So, are you nervous

about starting school?”

“I am…mostly about the math requirement. I have never done well in math. I failed it in high school,

actually.”

Ryan pointed his fork at me. “You should get Jake to help you. He is a whiz when it comes to stuff like

math and science.

“I’ll pass. Jake seems a little busy for tutoring.”

Tarah placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of me and said, “Seriously. You should ask him if you’re

stuck.”

“Okay,” I said, mostly to shut them up. I knew full well I would never ask Jake for help.

***

That afternoon, Tarah and I went shopping at King’s Plaza. She helped me pick out a pink and gray

comforter, a couple of canvas floral wall prints, a gray shag rug, and a pink accent lamp. My father had

given me permission to use his credit card for some apartment items, but I knew this spending spree would

be the last hurrah for a while.

We stopped for frozen yogurt on the way home, and Tarah insisted on paying for me. We sat down at