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“Yeah, sure you did,” sneered Colin, just as I glanced to him for help. The look he returned me was nothing but malice. “We know how you operate!”

I pushed… hard. Hunter went sprawling away from me, just as I took a step back to put some distance between us. Fraternity brothers or not, I was all through being nice. In fact—

All of a sudden Colin’s face cracked into a smile. He burst out laughing.

“Holy shit,” Hunter swore at him, totally incredulous. “Why the fuck did you do that? We had him!”

I stepped back again, wholly confused. They were both laughing now. Neither one of them realizing how close they’d come to getting swung at.

“We’re messing with you bro,” Hunter finally admitted. “Claudia told us everything about last night. Including her sleeping in your bed… alone.”

Relief crashed through me. My heart rate was still way up there though. My first workout of the morning.

“Next time wait until I’ve had some coffee,” I said grumpily, reaching for the pot with the dark stuff in it. I poured myself a big tall mug. “You could get yourself killed otherwise.”

“Yeah right,” Colin said, cracking his knuckles. His fading smile wasn’t convincing though. He knew the truth.

I glanced out the window, and saw that Claudia’s car was gone. “So where is she?”

“She ran home,” Hunter said. “To grab some clothes.”

“And you let her go by herself?”

“Relax big guy. Her ex works a double shift today. He’ll be gone by the time she gets there. We made her promise she’d turn around if he wasn’t.”

It might be true, but I still didn’t like it. I wished someone could’ve gone with her, especially after the condition she’d arrived in last night. Still, Colin had swim practice. I had endurance training. And Hunter had—

“She’s coming back tonight,” Colin said. “We invited her to stay another evening.”

That part made me happy. I liked Claudia a lot, and I absolutely loved the idea of having her in my bed. Even if I wasn’t in it.

“Sounds like she’s going to need more than just another evening,” I said.

Colin and Hunter looked at each other. Something passed between them, wordlessly.

“We were thinking the same thing,” said Colin. “In fact…”

“We were talking about asking her to stay here,” Hunter finished. “At least until she gets a place of her own.”

If they were trying to sell me on the idea, they sure didn’t have to. I was already more than sold.

“Of course,” I nodded. “Makes sense.”

“After all,” said Colin, “we do owe her.”

“She can stay in my room,” I volunteered. “I could—”

“No need,” Hunter smirked. “We cleared out the master, remember?”

Oh yeah…

My heart, which was soaring only a minute ago, took a little bit of a dive.

“Besides, why should you get her?” Colin quipped. “Why should she—”

“No one gets her,” Hunter jumped in. His eyes had gone dark now, his face deadly. “Seriously, no kidding. We need to be absolutely sure on this, before we do it.”

I wasn’t crazy about his tone, but the sentiment seemed genuine. It was a shame though. A damned shame.