Seduction's Kiss (The Allure Chronicles) (2 page)

She knocked on the
door, and I was surprised it didn’t fall off the hinges.

A guy with brown hair
opened the door and pulled Reyna into his arms. “Hey, Baby!”

My stomach dropped.
Baby? They were on pet name terms?

“Hey, Chad!” Reyna
kissed him on the lips playfully. “We made it.”

He rubbed her back in a
very familiar way. “I’m glad you decided to make the trip. I
promise to make it worth your while.”

I just stood there in
the doorway holding my bag. I wished I had the nerve to clear my
throat, but I didn’t want Chad to hate me already.

I settled on a light
sigh that came out sounding like more of a grunt.

“Oh, sorry.” Reyna
stumbled back from him. “Chad, this is Daisy, my amazing sorority
sister and roommate.”

“Hey, Daisy. Thanks for
going along for the ride with my girl, Reyna.”

Yeah, I was on my own
for the weekend. “Of course. Anything for Reyna.” Door Mat. Door
Mat. I repeated to myself.

Chad and Reyna
exchanged a look, and I knew it had something to do with me. I
assumed it couldn’t be good so I showed myself into the cramped
apartment.

I eyed one worn out
leather couch. I assumed I’d be sleeping there. I walked over to
drop off my stuff and noticed a few suspicious stains. Gross.
Completely and utterly gross. I was so glad I’d brought a sleeping
bag with me. At least I wouldn’t have to sleep right on the
thing.

“Hey.”

I turned and nearly
collided with a guy with spiky black hair. “Hi.”

“I’m Shaun.”

I looked around Shaun
to see Reyna flirting with Chad. Might as well make friends with
the roommate. At least Reyna had been right about one thing, he was
cute. “Hi Shaun, I’m Daisy.”

“Really? Like from
The Great Gatsby
?”

“Uh, yeah.” Wow, a guy
my age who knew something about literature.

“Cool. Listen, just to
put it out there, you can sleep in my bed if you want. I wouldn’t
want to subject you to the couch.”

I shook my head. “Oh,
that’s okay.” First he appreciates literature and now he’s a
gentleman? Double points.

“Come on, I saw you
eyeing it’s, uh, worn in condition.” He smiled, immediately putting
me at ease.

“I was just glad I
brought a sleeping bag.” I felt like a weight had been taken off
me. Things might not be quite as awkward as I anticipated.

Shaun laughed. “Really,
I’d only offer my bed if I wanted to. Save the sleeping bag.
Besides, I wouldn’t want to leave you out here with our other
roommate around.”

“Other roommate?”

“Yeah. Duncan. He’s a
weird one.”

“Oh.” Reyna hadn’t
mentioned a third roommate in the apartment. Interesting omission.
In order to avoid any unnecessary drama I decided not to ask more
about Duncan. If he was really that weird hopefully I wouldn’t even
meet him.

“Here, I’ll help you
with your stuff.” Shaun grabbed my duffel before I could stop
him.

“Really—”

“I’m telling you it’s
not a problem,” He interrupted.

Reyna caught my eye and
winked. I shook my head in return. If she thought she was playing
matchmaker she had another thing coming. Nice or not, I wasn’t
interested in hooking up with some random guy. If that’s all I
wanted I might as well have just continued trying my luck with the
dating pool at East Madison.

“Reyna? You coming?”
Chad called from the doorway of his room. Wow, he was moving fast.
I hoped Reyna knew what she was doing. Hopefully they were on the
same page.

“Looks like you have
someone to keep you company.” Reyna grinned. “I’m going to take a
quick nap with Chad.”

“Oh, a nap?” I rolled
my eyes. “Enjoy that.”

With a sigh I walked
into Shaun’s room. The room was sparsely furnished with just a bed
and a desk in the corner. His walls were bare which surprised me. I
guess most guys I knew at school had posters and stuff up. His
looked like he’d just moved in. A window AC unit sat precariously
on the sill appearing like it could fall at any moment.

“I just changed my
sheets today.” He gestured to his bed.

“Really?”

“Yeah. I always do
laundry on Fridays.”

“And you change your
sheets?”

He laughed. “You don’t
wash yours?”

“I do, but most of my
guy friends don’t with any regularity.”

“Oh, that’s kind of
gross.”

I laughed. “Are you as
much of a neat freak as me?”

“I prefer to think of
myself as orderly.”

“Orderly. That works
too.”

I took a seat on the
edge of his bed. My guess was that Reyna’s ‘nap’ was going to last
awhile.

“The Boot isn’t
anything special, but it’s where we always start.” Chad was all
smiles as we walked toward the unofficial campus bar of Tulane.

“Cool, we’re up for
anything.” Reyna appeared equally happy, ever so often stealing
glances of her hand held by his. If I didn’t know any better I’d
say this guy really meant something to her.

“Great.” It was already
Friday night. All I had to do was make it until Sunday morning and
we’d be on our way back to campus.

“What’s the scene like
at EMC?” Shaun asked.

“It’s a big Greek
scene.” Which was why joining a sorority was a no-brainer. Social
life pretty much revolved around it. “There’s obviously tons to do
in Atlanta, but we’re just outside the city.”

“So you’re in a
sorority?”

“Yeah. Delta Mu.”

“Nice.”

“I’m guessing you’re
not Greek?”

“No, it’s not really my
scene.”

“Cool.” I didn’t care
whether he was or not, but there went a potential conversation. “So
this is an eighteen and up place?” I didn’t particularly feel like
broaching the whole fake ID subject.

“Yeah. You’re
good.”

“Ok, great.” Our
conversation was getting stilted so I really hoped we got there
soon.

We turned a corner and
suddenly we were surrounded by crowds of college students.
Evidently this was where everyone hung out on Friday night. The
door to the bar was wide open, but a large guy who couldn’t have
been more than twenty-two or so sat at the door. I showed him my
license and he grunted something. I assumed that meant I was fine
so I trailed the others inside.

The bar was smoky and
crowded as I followed the others. One long bar spanned the back of
the space, and loud music blared from speakers somewhere.

“I’ll get us a
pitcher.” Chad dropped Reyna’s hand, and we searched around for a
place to sit.

“Shaun, hey.” A guy
called him over. Reyna and I followed him.

“Hey, man. Mind if we
join you?”

The guy looked Reyna
and I over. “No feel free.”

Sometimes being a girl
did come in handy. I took a seat next to Shaun, knowing Reyna would
want the two seats on the other side of the table so she could sit
with Chad.

I made some more
awkward conversation. That seemed to be the theme of the evening.
When Chad arrived with the pitcher of beer I gulped down my cup in
record time. I needed something to take the edge off. After about
an hour we left the Boot and piled into Chad’s car to drive over to
a place called the Bull Dog. This one had a different crowd. It
seemed a little bit older, but definitely still college.

As I stood sipping my
Abita beer, it was a local beer I was told I had to try, I largely
tuned out the conversation of the group we were with. They’d
stopped even pretending to include me, and it wasn’t worth the
effort to push myself in. Instead I people watched.

That’s when I saw him.
Tall, broad, and blond, he stood out in the sea of students. Even
flanked by two equally tall and attractive guys, he commanded all
of my attention.

He was too far away to
see the color of his eyes, but whatever they were they probably fit
perfectly with his chiseled features. The guy could have been a
model. As hard as I tried, I couldn’t pull my eyes away from
him.

“What are you staring
at?” Reyna asked. She’d separated herself from Chad for the
moment.

“Nothing.”

She followed my line of
vision. “Oh. Which one?”

“Blond.”

“Of course.” She
laughed.

“Hey, I’ve dated guys
with dark hair.”

“Yes, but when given
the choice you want a blond.” She brought her beer to her lips.

“So? We all have our
preferences.” Reyna always went for the brooding types, although
Chad didn’t fit that description.

“Go talk to him.” She
nodded toward him.

“Yeah… right.”

“Why not? If he isn’t
interested you never have to see him again.”

She had a point. That
was the upside of being hundreds of miles from home.

“Come on. Live a
little. He’s gorgeous. You can’t give up this kind of chance.” She
placed her empty beer bottle down on the table.

“Only you can make
talking to a guy sound like a monumental life event.”

“Not a monumental
event, but a fun one. Go ahead.”

“Fine.” Normally I
would have just stood there staring at the guy, but she was right.
What’s the worst thing that could happen? I wouldn’t have to worry
about running into him again or anything.

I finished my beer and
set it down before forcing myself to walk toward the three
inhumanly attractive guys.

I stopped right next to
him. “Hi.”

He didn’t say
anything.

I tried again. “Hi
there.”

He gave me a funny
look. “Hi? Can I help you?”

“Can I help you?” His
friend with the black hair elbowed him. “Ignore his manners, he’s
rusty.”

“Oh.” Humiliation had
taken on new meaning.

“Shut up.” He glared at
his friend before turning back to me. “Is there something I can do
for you? Do we have a class together or something?”

I wanted to run, but I
forced myself to hold my place. “No. I was just saying hello.”

“Ok, hello.” He just
stared at me, and I was ready to be swallowed into the floor.

His friend with brown
hair shook his head before turning to me. “Sorry about him.”

I couldn’t take a
second more. I spun around and headed back to Reyna.

“How’d it go?” she
asked. She’d already returned to Chad’s side so I didn’t want to
talk about it.

“I’m not feeling great.
Any chance you guys want to go home?”

Chad put his hand
around Reyna’s waist. “We can definitely head back.”

I probably earned
points from the guy, my request meant he’d get laid sooner.
“Thanks.”

“Should we wait for
Shaun and the others?” Reyna asked. Shaun disappeared within twenty
minutes of us arriving at the second bar. He’d run into some of his
other friends.

“Nah, he’ll probably
stay out late, and I’m sure he can find another ride.” Chad started
heading toward the entrance.

I stared at the floor
as we passed by those guys again, but I allowed myself one glance
as we reached the stairs. They were still in the same place
completely oblivious to my exit. Wow, talk about a strike out.

Reyna noticed the
direction of my glance and she leaned in to whisper, “Don’t worry
about it. We all have those nights.”

I smiled to make her
drop the subject, but I was pretty sure Reyna had never been shot
down by a guy like that before. At least I was able to leave.

We made the quick drive
back to their house, and I kept a smile plastered on my face when I
said goodnight to both of them.

I could already hear
Reyna’s giggles as I got ready for bed in the bathroom. I was ready
to go to sleep and forget the embarrassment. Most people would have
just moved on from it, but I was analyzing every detail. Was I
really that unappealing? He hadn’t even smiled.

Oh well, at least I
wasn’t sleeping on the couch. I pulled down Shaun’s blanket and
checked the sheets. They looked fresh and clean.

Satisfied I wasn’t
sleeping in anything gross, I turned off Shaun’s desk lamp and slid
into his bed. The mattress was surprisingly comfortable. He must
have had one of those ultra-padded mattress covers. I made a mental
note to pick one up for myself. Thinking about shopping for bedding
accessories was better than thinking about the earlier
rejection.

Going to sleep in a
strange bed is always a weird feeling, but add in the fact that I
knew the bed belonged to a guy I’d just met, and it was even
weirder. I wondered why he was so willing to give it up since, as a
neat freak like me, he couldn’t be thrilled at the thought of
sleeping on the couch. Maybe he had somewhere else to crash.

Eventually after my
mind had run a few dozen laps around the evening’s events, I
finally drifted off to sleep.

***

Someone’s hand was on
my breast. Not just on my breast, but cupping it. My eyes flew
open. Where was I? As I felt something hard poking my back I
remembered. I screamed and jumped out of bed. “What the hell?”

“Hey, Daisy. Didn’t
want to wait up for me?” Shaun’s voice was level like we were
talking casually, but he’d said my name which meant he’d known it
was me. That ruled out any possibility of him being drunk and
forgetting who I was.

I stumbled around
looking for the light. I didn’t bother with the lamp. Instead I
went for the overhead light.

“Fuck.” Shaun cursed as
the light blinded us both.

“What were you
doing?”

“I was enjoying the
beautiful girl in my bed, what did you think I was doing?”

“You told me I could
sleep here.” I wrapped my arms around my chest. Even though my
t-shirt provided good coverage, I wasn’t wearing a bra.

“Yes, I did.” He
grinned.

“And that offer implied
you weren’t sleeping here.”

“No, it didn’t. I’d
never agree to sleep on that couch.” His face wrinkled up in
disgust.

“I thought of that. I
assumed you had somewhere else to sleep.”