Guarded (True Alpha 2) (5 page)

“Floor?” he asked.

“Eleven.”

She looked at him, but he kept his gaze on the slowly climbing numbers. There was an invisible wall between them now, one she wanted to breach by taking his hand or touching his face—she wished she was bold enough to grope him in the elevator like she had threatened, but all her bold demands had been made in the shadows of his kitchen, alone, late at night. Not in a brightly lit elevator that could stop at any moment.

When they reached the 11
^th
floor and stepped into the common room, Lucas’s nose wrinkled. She couldn’t blame him—the post-Friday-night-party stench was second only to Sunday morning’s usual combination of spilt drink mixers, stale body sweat, and at least a couple hasty sexual encounters. Today there was an eau du Cheetos added to the mix. Must have been movie night. At least there weren’t any used condoms in the corner, like she found the last time.

“Sorry about the Smells of Debauchery,” she said.

“I’d kind of forgotten about the college stench.” He threw her a small smile that felt like a lifesaver on her stormy sea of emotion. “Probably blocked it out.”

She smiled in return. “The whole place could use one of those air purifiers you have a SparkTech.”

His smile dimmed. “Well, at least you won’t have to stay here much longer.”

She grimaced, thinking that at least in the dorm she had someone to live with, whereas Lucas was about to stick her in a hotel by herself. Or with a bodyguard. Which would be fine if the bodyguard was Lucas, but that seemed to be off the table.

The hallway was empty, with the dead-quiet of too-early Saturday morning for most college students. The early risers were already gone, and the rest were probably sleeping it off. Mia dug her keycard out of her purse and slid it into the door. The blinds were closed, and the morning sun hadn’t yet been introduced to her room. At first she thought her roommate, Jupiter, wasn’t home—probably spent the night with her crush from last week, Jackson—but then she saw Jupiter’s telltale blue-feathered purse dangling from her wrist. Her roommate was buried under the blankets on her bed, face down, her wild red hair spilling out over the edge along with her floppy arm, but the covers were pulled up over most of her head.

Lucas tiptoed past her sleeping roommate like she was a guard dog, but they would need some light to clear out her stuff. Mia strode over to the blinds on their window and opened them with a loud
zip
sound. Light crashed into the room.

Jupiter groaned like she had been mortally wounded. “Et tu, Brutus Mia?” she croaked, still under the blanket.

“I’m not stabbing you, Jeeter,” Mia said with a smile. “Although I should for what you’ve done to the place.” The open blinds had revealed the wrecked state of their room: overturned red cups, underwear she prayed was Jupiter’s draped over the chair, and it looked like someone had crumpled every piece of paper from the printer and tried to score baskets with it. Only two made it in the trash can.

Lucas took in the disaster scene and just shook his head. She could only imagine what he was thinking.

Jupiter stirred but only to pull the blanket tighter over her head. Her voice was muffled, but Mia could still hear her moaned complaint. “Oh, cruel fate. Why do you mock me?”

“It’s a little early for Shakespeare, don’t you think?” Mia called. She emptied the remaining printer paper from its box and handed the empty to Lucas. They wouldn’t need much more than that to pack up her stuff.

Jupiter’s muffled voice sounded stronger. “That’s not Shakespeare, Miss Business Major.” She shoved the blanket off her head and struggled to sit up. “It’s Homer Simpson.”

Lucas had a small smirk on his face when Jupiter caught sight of him and shrieked. Then she covered her mouth, looking ridiculously embarrassed for that, rather than the bed head hair and Glenda the Good Witch getup: short, pink tutu, sparkles included, black and white striped tights that only went up to her thighs, and a stretchy, pink tank top that clearly revealed her bra had gone MIA during last night’s partying. Or perhaps she took it off for bed. But judging by Jupiter’s pool of goth mascara under her eyes, Mia guessed her roommate had simply fallen into bed last night in a drunken stupor.

Eyes wide, Jupiter dropped her hand, then belatedly pulled her blanket up to cover her chest.

Lucas’s eyes were laughing through the whole shenanigan, but he didn’t say anything.

“Jupiter, meet Lucas,” Mia said with sigh. How was she supposed to introduce him? There wasn’t much she could tell her roommate, but by the way Jupiter’s eyes were dancing all over Lucas and hopping back and forth between them, she was sure her roommate would figure a lot out on her own. And grill the rest out of her. “Lucas is my boss at SparkTech.”

That should light a fire in Jupiter’s brain.

Sure enough, her eyes went even wider.

“Lucas, meet Jupiter,” Mia said before her roommate could say anything embarrassing. “My roommate and clothing supplier.”

“Nice to meet you, Jupiter,” Lucas said. “That’s a great name.”

Man, he had a killer smile, and Mia could see it working its magic on her roommate. Her face was almost as red as her hair. Lucas extended his hand, and Jupiter stumbled out of the bed to shake it. Then a horrified look overcame her. She dashed to the chair, snatched her underwear off, and stuffed it in a drawer.

“We’re normally much neater than this, Mr., uh… Lucas.” She yanked red cups off the desk and dropped them in the trash, then looked back to Mia. “I didn’t know we’d have company.” She clutched the blue-feathered purse awkwardly across her chest, hiding her bra-lessness.

Mia shook her head and picked up a picture of her mom off the shelf. There was a pathetic amount of stuff in her dorm that was actually important to her. She would need her books and her laptop, but beyond that… she tucked her mom’s picture in the box.

“Mia?” Jupiter asked, frowning at the tiny amount of packing. “What’s going on?”

“I’m moving out,” Mia said tightly, really not wanting to explain
any
of it. She checked with Lucas, but he just gave her a small nod. “At least temporarily.”

Jupiter’s eyes had narrowed to slits. “Why?” She was asking Mia, but her suspicious look trained on Lucas like a laser.

Mia took a breath and turned to him, but his lips were pressed tight. He would leave it to her to explain. Only Jupiter knew nothing about shifters and packs and venture capitalist competition. Mia could lie and say she was moving in with Lucas, but that would just make things worse.

“Turns out SparkTech’s paying me really well,” Mia said, which was true, as far as it went. “I just wanted to move out to a bigger place.”

The stormy look on Jupiter’s face jumped to Category Five Hurricane Level. She glared at the paltry amount of belongings Mia owned. Even the slim black skirt and yellow sweater she was wearing belonged to Jupiter. And her roommate knew it.

Suddenly Jupiter’s demeanor shifted to Sunny Day With No Chance of Clouds. “You know what? I’m in desperate need of a shower!” She gave a quick nod to Lucas. “Nice to meet you, Mr. SparkTech Man.” Then she turned and flounced in her tutu to the closet to dig through for some new clothes.

Mia sighed. She would have to explain later. If there was a
later.
She didn’t know when she would be back to her dorm and her roommate again—from what Lucas said, that might be
never.
She put her books and laptop in the box, with a bunch of pens and pencils, careful to keep her mom’s picture on top. Jupiter was still rummaging through the closet. Mia would wait until she was done to pick through and find the stuff that actually belonged to her.

Jupiter re-emerged with a whole rainbow of clothes clutched in her hands. She eyed Mia’s outfit. “Hey, wait a minute, sister! You’re not planning on walking out with my favorite sweater, are you?”

Mia’s gaze dropped to the classy yellow top, much nicer than anything she owned. “No, of course not. I’ll get it back to you, Jeeter, I promise—” She looked up to find Jupiter giving her a skeptical look.

 “Yeah, sure you will. Come on.” Jupiter held up a t-shirt and some jeans that belonged to Mia. “Come to the shower with me. You can change while Mr. SparkTech packs up your stuff.”

Mia frowned. She had always returned Jupiter’s clothes before. And in good condition, too. She was careful that way. But by all rights, she should really dry clean the clothes she was wearing now, or at least wash them…

“Come on!” Jupiter said impatiently. “I’ve got stuff to do, too, you know!”

Mia checked with Lucas, but he just shrugged. So she strode over to her strange, temperamental little roommate, took the clothes from her outstretched hand, and led the way out of their room.

As soon as the door was closed behind them, and they were headed to the bathroom, Mia hoarse-whispered, “Geez, Jeeter! Impatient much?”

Jupiter whirled on her, grabbed her arm, and pulled her to a stop in the middle of the living area.
“Mia!
What in the actual hell is going on here?” The rage-storm look was back.

Mia should have known it was all an act from her drama-major roommate.

“I’m just… moving out…” God, how was she going to explain this?

“With tall, dark, and sexy?” Her voice hiked up. “Mia, you’ve only been working there for a week! Is he forcing you into this? Is he one of those weird controlling types? Because I know some guys who could help with that, Mia.
Big
guys. They could beat the crap out of Mr. Sexy if you need them to! You just say the word.”

“No!” Mia backed up from her, agitation making her voice squeak. “It’s nothing like that! He’s just looking out for me.”

“Looking out for you.” The skepticism was back full force. “By making you move out of your dorm.”

“It’s not like that.” Although it kind of was… but not really. There were dangerous people out to use her against Lucas. She just couldn’t explain it to her roommate.

“Is he making you quit school?” Her focus was intense.

“What?” Mia said, genuinely shocked. “No, of course not.”

Her roommate’s gaze did a quick check over Mia. If she didn’t notice before, it was obvious now that Mia was also seriously bra-less under her sweater. If she was less endowed it might not have been so apparent, but as it stood, it was hard to miss.

Jupiter leaned in. “You’re sleeping with him, aren’t you?”

Mia bit her lip. There wasn’t much point in lying. “It’s complicated.”

“Ye-ah.” Her roommate drew out the word, like that was obvious. “Sleeping with your boss can be that way. I mean, damn, I get it, girl. The boy is hot sex on a stick, but
he’s your boss.”

“Okay, okay!” Mia threw up her hands. “Not necessarily my best choice.”

Jupiter’s look said,
you got that right.
“Is he at least good in bed?”

Mia huffed and gave her a
you’ve got to be kidding
look in return.

“Right. Stupid question.” Jupiter pursed her lips. “The real question is:
is he worth it?”

Finally, a question she could actually answer. “Yeah. I think so, Jeeter.”

“So what’s the deal with this moving out thing?” She still seemed concerned, but it had stepped down several hurricane levels to slow, tropical storm.

“I think… I think I might be in love with him.” She hadn’t thought of it that way
at all,
but it was something that might make sense to her over-the-top drama roommate.

“Damn, girl, I didn’t think you had that in you.” But her voice wasn’t disapproving. “When you fall, you fall hard. And freaking fast.”

“We’re trying to keep it on the down-low in the office, though,” Mia said, making it up as she went now. “I’m moving in with him, but the cover story is that I’m just getting another place. If they even ask. Which I’m hoping they won’t.” She wished it was the reverse, but at least it was a story that should hold up for now.

Jupiter blew out a sigh. “I don’t know, Mia. It’s strange.”

“You’re the Queen of Strange.” Mia pointed a finger to her friend’s streaked mascara and general bed head. “Not to mention Party Queen and Boy of the Week Champion.”

“I’m not judging you,” Jupiter said, looking offended herself. Then the frown returned. “I’m just worried, Mia. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

That made her eyes prick. She threw her arms around her roommate, crazy lump of clothes and all. “You’re a good friend, Jeeter,” she said into her flyaway red hair.

Jupiter squeezed her back. “All right, all right,” she said releasing her. “I’m the emotional one, remember?”

Mia smiled.

“Let’s get you out of those clothes.” She dug through the armful of clothes and peeled away a pair of black slacks and a brilliant blue shirt that looked like silk. “Here. At least you’ll have one outfit to wear. Until you have time to shop.”

Mia held the lightweight clothes in her hands, tears threatening her eyes again. “I can’t take your clothes, Jeeter.”

“Take them?” She looked horrified, but Mia knew it was fake. “You totally have to bring those back! Whenever you come down from your New Boyfriend High and remember to come visit me.”

Mia couldn’t help it—she hugged her roommate again. When they broke apart, Jupiter rummaged in her pants and brought out her phone.

“I look like hell!” she proclaimed. “And you’re not much better, Miss Hot For New Boyfriend.” Her roommate held up the camera and hugged Mia to her. “What better time to take a selfie?”

Mia laughed but before she could even protest, Jupiter had already taken the picture. Checking her phone, she nodded approvingly and tucked it away.

“That’s going straight to Tumble, isn’t it?” Mia asked.

“Tumbler,
you dork.” Jupiter grinned, then tugged her toward the bathroom. “A disastrous selfie is the perfect thing to remember you by.” More quietly, she added, “And those clothes will be a reminder for
you
that you can always come back.”

Mia shook her head. “Jupiter, I’m not—”

She held up her hands. “I’m just saying, in case you change your mind. It’s not like I’m getting a new roommate for the summer. Forget that noise. If you’re not here, I’m keeping this place
all
to myself!”