Living at the Frat House - A College Romance

Malcolm is crowding my space now, but I don’t move, even though his closeness makes my chest so tight that I can’t breathe. “Maybe I was looking for a little fun and thought this dress might help me get it.” I cock my head to one side, holding his gaze. Holding my own, despite the flutter in my pulse.

“Or maybe I’ll wake up tomorrow to an accusation against one of my boys.” He folds his arms over his chest, gaze narrowed. “I’ve got news for you, I vet everyone who lives in this house and that kind of thing has a zero fucking tolerance, so if you want to get Granite House closed down, you’ll have to think of another way.”

I shake my head to clear it and shake off the shiver from the sudden coldness in his eyes, so different from the way his eyes were undressing me just minutes ago. “What the hell are you talking about? I came here to pledge to the house.”

Malcolm crowds my space again, this time backing me against the wall, so close that we’re almost touching, but not quite. So close that my hair stands on end like it’s trying to get closer to him.

“Oh really?” When he speaks, I catch his scent. Something sharp and smoky, with just a hint of mint underneath. It makes my head swim, my fingertips trembling a little.

I clench them to hide it, and pray he’s not as good at reading my tells as he was at reading his friends’.

“Really,” I breathe.

Slowly, his mouth creeps up into a smile and I find my heart pounding a little faster. “Well then.” There’s that fire and hunger again. And with how close he is, it seems like he wants to touch me and is just barely holding himself back. This isn’t what I came here for, but if he touched me right now I wouldn’t say no. “Hang around the party. We’re going to have a meeting for potential recruits later in the night. Maybe you’ll get in. Maybe you won’t.”

“That’s all I have to do?” I ask. “Hang around? There’s no other requirement to get in?”

His mouth quirks up. “I never said that. What I said was to go enjoy the party…” he lets the end of the sentence hang in the air like a question.

“Juno.”

“Nice to meet you, Juno. Now get out of this room so I can continue to whip my friends’ asses at poker.” The heat drains from his eyes again and I shiver. He’s beautiful. Hot as sin and I can feel the heat radiating off him.

But even as I want him to lean forward and touch my lips, I know that he’s not a good idea.

He’s the leader of Granite House and I know what that makes him. A party boy and a drunk. Someone seeking a high continually because they can barely stand their own life. I don’t have time for drunks and drug users. I just need him to give me what I’m after so that I can get the hell out of this house.

I don’t wait to leave the room this time because I can sense that he’s serious. The guys who left earlier are hovering just outside the door, and they don’t waste time filing back in as I exit.

“She was serious?” I hear one of the guys says before the door is shut. There’s a burst of excited chatter, one sharp laugh, before Malcolm barks something that makes the room quiet again. Finally, the door slams shut, cutting off my opportunity to eavesdrop any further.

Okay…well, at least they didn’t say no. And it’s not like I actually uphold my end of the request and pledge. I just have to hold tight in this house until that meeting. Hopefully their poker game will last until dawn, and I’ll never have to do anything else. Just stay the night and get the hell out of here without doing anything too crazy.

Maybe, if I’m lucky, I won’t even have to face Malcolm again. Won’t have to gaze into those searing, sharp eyes once more, or feel my breath hitch in my chest at the way he watches me, piercing straight through my defenses. Somehow, even though he’s the first guy in his house not to undress me with his eyes, I feel like he read me more deeply than anyone else has in my entire life.

How is that possible?

Moreover, how am I still thinking so much about him after our ten second meeting? I shake my head, trying to dislodge the sensation. It’s a distraction, and one I cannot afford right now.

He told me to go enjoy the party, so I’ll do just that. And in the meantime, I’ll go looking for my proof to Tri Delta that I was here.