The Roommate Equation

He shakes his head, and his hair brushes my forehead. “Go back to bed. We can talk later.”

“You haven’t answered any of my calls or texts. I needed you earlier, Dylan, and you did what you always do.”

“I have a lot of shit going on right now,” he groans. “I need to be alone, okay?”

“The meeting with Dominic Deville didn’t go well. You know what he wanted?”

He closes his eyes and sighs. “Don’t say it, because once you do, it becomes real.”

“He wanted me to dance for him.”

His mouth twists into a painful snarl. “I’ll fucking kill that asshole. Does Sloan know?”

I nod. “I needed you, Dylan. You were the first person I wanted to tell, and you were wherever the fuck you went today.” I shove my palm into his chest once more, and he leans closer. “What are you up to? I thought you and Sloan are good now.”

“We are,” he snaps. “But it’s complicated. You’re complicated. Everything in my fucking life is complicated right now. Because of—”

“Me?”

Dylan stares into my eyes, unblinking, with zero emotion on his handsome face. He doesn’t have to speak for me to know the answer.

“I didn’t make your life harder, Dylan. And let me remind you that I’m not the one who kissed you. I didn’t give you a note seven years ago. I would have spent the rest of my life having a crush on my older brother’s best friend without acting on it. You’re the one who made the first move.”

“Ash,” he whispers. “You don’t get it.”

“Then, tell me. Talk to me about what you’re going through. If you want me to go all-in with you, then I have to know what I’m getting myself into.”

“I thought I heard you come in,” Sloan says from the end of the hallway.

His voice sends chills down my arms. Why is he awake? I thought he went to bed hours ago. In the time I have lived here, Sloan has never come down to visit Dylan this late at night.

“Fuck,” Dylan whispers, using his body to shield me from Sloan.

Sloan will kill both of us when he sees me in my skimpy pajama top and shorts with Dylan practically on top of me. I turn my head, so Sloan can’t see my face, keeping my fingers crossed he won’t come down here.

“Stall him,” I whisper.

“I’m kinda busy right now,” Dylan says. “Can we talk in the morning?”

“Yeah, sure. It was nothing anyway. I was wondering why you changed your mind about the Exact Match deal.”

Why would Dylan give them his algorithm?

Dylan reaches between us to push open his door. “Get in,” he says, shielding me as I stumble into the room.

I do as Dylan instructs, and he closes the bedroom door. From inside the room, I can hear their muffled voices. Sloan sounds like he’s in a good mood, while Dylan seems a little angry with each response he gives. Earlier, my brother said they were backing out of the deal with Exact Match.

From the sounds of their conversation, they are going to be out there for a while. I climb into Dylan’s bed, wrapping myself in his warm, silky sheets and rest my head on a stack of pillows.

After a while, I don’t hear Dylan or my brother talking, but I’m too tired to move. Dylan’s bed is comfortable, like sleeping on a cloud. His sheets mold against my body, and I curl up, taking in the scent of his laundry detergent.

Not long after I close my eyes, the other side of the bed dip from Dylan’s weight. I’m dreaming. He’s too mad at me to wrap his strong arms around me. So, why does it feel so real?

My eyes snap open when his lips graze my earlobe.

“How does Max know about us?”

His hand is on my stomach, dangerously close to the waistband of my shorts. I can’t think straight with him this close.

“What are you talking about?”

“Max is blackmailing me into selling him my algorithm. So, I want to hear it from your mouth that you sold me out.”

I roll onto my back, and his fingers slide lower, right beneath my shorts. “I didn’t tell him anything. You know I wouldn’t. I would never…”

I attempt to sit up, and he pushes my back to the mattress. He strips off my pajama shorts and panties in one fell swoop and then runs his long fingers along my slit.

“Don’t lie to me, Ash.” Dylan shoves his fingers inside me with a loud grunt. “What did you say to Savanna?”

“We had lunch,” I choke out. “Willow might have mentioned that we don’t do much talking when we’re together.”

“And you told her about us?”

“No, I told her that Willow was joking.”

He quickens his pace, adding another finger. “If Sloan were on the call with me, he would have found out about us. And now, Max is forcing me to go through with the deal to keep our secret.”