6. Kylie
6
KYLIE
I woke up feeling refreshed, well rested, and completely clueless as to where the hell I was. The room was dark and the lower bunk across from me was empty. Then I raised my gaze and spotted Mason’s large form on the top bunk. Then it all came back to me. The long drive. The wrong room assignment. The guys.
While I took a minute to process, my gaze traveled over the only one of my three roommates I could see. Mason was a side sleeper, and had he been awake, he’d have been staring right at me. His head and muscular arm were all that were uncovered. He must work out or play some kind of sport to keep in shape like that. He was kind of hunched forward, and his knee jutted out from under the white sheet that draped over him.
Then the blue eyes opened, and I gave an involuntary squeal.
Mason blinked a few times, yawned, and then said, “Morning to you, too.” His voice was hoarse and gruff, as if sleep hadn’t fully deserted it yet.
Part of me was embarrassed to be caught staring, but hello, it wasn’t like there was anything else to look at in this small room. Especially since Parker’s bed was empty. The covers were rumpled, though. I couldn’t remember if they’d been that way last night.
“Do you know if Parker slept at all?” I whispered to Mason, in case Jude was still asleep. Then again, for all I knew, he’d already gotten up.
“Don’t know,” Mason said, sounding unconcerned.
Didn’t he care? He was supposed to be Parker's friend.
Mason yawned again and then sat up, pushing the sheet aside. He swung his legs over the edge of the bed and paused. He seemed like the kind of person who woke up in stages. I couldn’t help looking at him as he sat there with his feet swinging underneath him. He was wearing black boxers and nothing else, and wow—it was a pretty awesome view. Not as amazing as the mountains, but still…
His chest was incredibly chiseled, and he just had to play a sport. I couldn’t quite guess which one, though. Baseball? Swimming? But he didn’t strike me as a team player. Mason’s legs were well-muscled, too, and covered with light brown hair. All in all, he was super hot. Why couldn’t a guy who looked like him have come into the bar over the summer?
“If you keep staring, you’re about to get even more of an eyeful,” Mason said.
“What?” With effort, I dragged my gaze back to his face and caught his smirk.
“But then again, you’re perfectly comfortable living with men, so therefore, you know all about morning wood, right?”
It took me a second to figure out what he was talking about—and then a bit longer to try to keep my cheeks from flushing. Not that it worked.
“So keep watching if you?—”
Mason stopped when a pillow flew across the space between the bunk beds and smacked him in the face. Yep, Jude was up there unless I was also rooming with a poltergeist. And if that was the case, at least it seemed to be on my side.
“All right, all right,” Mason said grumpily, though neither Jude nor the possible ghost had said anything. Ignoring the ladder, he jumped down and somehow landed lightly on his feet. Then he headed toward the bathroom before I could check out the morning wood thing for myself. Too bad.
“Jude?”
“Yeah?”
“Did Parker come to bed at all last night?”
“Yes. He was there when I woke up around three.”
“That’s good.” But I was still worried about him.
Jude seemed to sense that. “He’ll come around, eventually.” The bunk shifted, and I wondered if Jude had rolled over. “Are you getting up?”
“Yes, Dad.” The answer slipped out before I could stop it. I’d never been the type to be above sarcasm.
Jude just chuckled. “I only asked because I’m going to hop down and I don’t want to land on your head.”
“Good thinking.” That aspect of bunk beds had never occurred to me. Of course, it seemed like a normal, unathletic person would use the ladder. Clearly, that didn’t apply to either Mason or Jude. “The coast is clear.”
A second later, Jude was in front of me, making it look as easy as Mason had. It was a bit like living in a comic book where superheroes might drop out of the sky and land in front of you at any moment.
Jude left me alone in the bedroom, the last one up, but I just grinned as I pushed off the covers. At least I wouldn’t have to wait in line for the bathroom.
The shower felt amazing, and I stayed in there longer than I should have. But it was just so pleasant. Travel—even just driving across the state—always made me feel kind of grimy, so it was nice to be clean from tip to toe. Afterwards I dressed casually in a tank top with a sweater over it and shorts. Rather short shorts, but that was pretty much the only kind I had. My legs were my favorite part of me, and I didn’t mind showing them off.
Before I left the bathroom, I carefully did my eye makeup. Not for the guys’ sake—two out of the three of them had seen what I looked like bare-faced this morning—but just out of habit. People spent a great deal of time staring at my eyes anyway, so I always figured that I might as well be confident in my eye makeup.
When I exited the bathroom, I heard soft music that I initially mistook for a radio or music player. But when I made a beeline for the main room—and the mountain view behind it—Jude was sitting on one of the barstools in front of the wall of windows. He had one foot on the floor, and the other on a lower rung of the stool, a guitar resting on his knee.
I skidded to a halt to watch—and listen.
He played a simple melody, using his fingers, not a guitar pick. His head was bent over the instrument, and he looked too intent on what he was doing to notice me.
Wow. It wasn’t often that I could see gorgeous, awe-inspiring mountains in the same gaze as a gorgeous, drool-worthy man. It was yet another reason to appreciate this amazing suite.
Jude switched to a different tune, adjusting his fingers on the strings. I didn’t recognize it, but the music was gentle and mellow. Kind of like him. He had such kind eyes. And it was already clear he was the voice of reason among the three of them. Yet his outward appearance didn’t seem to match his calm demeanor.
On the outside, he was tall, dark, and handsome to a tee. He had to have at least an inch or two on Mason, and he was just as handsome, only in a different way. His short, dark beard was hot as hell, and from what I could tell, he had a lean but sculpted body under his black jeans and dark green t-shirt.
As I watched, he stopped and tightened one of the strings on his guitar. Then he glanced up and noticed me. “Morning. You look different.”
“I do?” I glanced down. As far as I could see, I looked pretty much the same as yesterday, though a bit cleaner.
He smiled. “I meant from last night. When I went to bed, you were rolled up so tightly in your blankets that I wasn’t entirely sure you were really in there.”
Hmm… it was kind of weird that men I barely knew could watch me while I slept. But it was also rather interesting that they might want to. “Snuggling under the covers is one of life’s greatest pleasures.”
“Can’t argue with that—except in summer.”
I nodded in agreement. Then I took another glance at the outfit I was wearing. “I must’ve taken a really long time in the bathroom since you’re already ready and you have to share it with two other guys.”
“I took a shower last night.”
Ah, that made sense. I couldn’t figure out how to keep the conversation going, though. My body felt refreshed, but my brain was in need of some caffeine. I’d been a total night-owl over the summer—that was pretty standard when you tended bar. But if I had early classes, I’d need to start getting up earlier. I supposed I’d find out today at the MBA orientation. The actual classes didn’t start until Wednesday, two days from now.
Jude had started strumming the guitar softly again, though his attention was still on me. I wondered if he even knew that he was doing it. And I finally figured out something to ask. “What other instruments do you play?”
He grinned. “Most of them, with varying degrees of proficiency. But piano and guitar are my main ones.”
I thought of something he’d said yesterday. “You give lessons, right?”
“Yes, to undergrads.”
A quick grin rose to my lips. I could just picture a line of female students all clamoring for lessons with him. I wouldn’t mind being seated side by side with him on a piano bench myself.
“Do you play anything?” he asked.
“Video games,” I said, and he chuckled.
“Do you want to go to breakfast?”
My breath caught in my throat before I remembered myself. It wasn’t an invitation for a date or anything like that… it was just a friendly offer from one roommate to another. “Breakfast?”
“Yes, downstairs in the cafeteria. You haven’t seen it yet, have you? I think you’ll be impressed. Plus, once we start classes, our schedules will be all over the place. May as well share a meal as roommates while we can.”
Oh. Roommates. That was a good idea. I needed to get to know everyone better. But I couldn’t help noting that my heart had skipped a beat when I thought he was just asking me. “Sure. Are the others ready?”
“I think so,” Jude said, nodding at Parker, who’d just emerged from the other bathroom as if on cue. “And Mason had to get something from his Jeep so he should be back in a moment. If he hasn’t stopped to flirt.” That last part was muttered under his breath.
Either Mason didn’t stop to flirt or he wasn’t very good at it, because he appeared a minute later. He had on tennis shoes, jeans shorts, and a t-shirt with some kind of engineering joke on it that went right over my head. Only Parker wasn’t wearing shorts. He had on khaki pants and a blue button-down shirt.
“Everybody ready?” Mason asked.
We all headed to the door, but when Mason pulled it open, I hesitated. “Wait a sec.”
“What’s up?” Jude asked as Mason let the door swing shut.
“Well… won’t it look kind of bad if we all leave at once?”
Jude looked amused. “Unless you plan on rappelling down the side of the building, you have to leave at some point.”
“Yeah, but all of us together when I’m not even supposed to be here?”
“Relax,” Mason said. “They’ll just think we had an orgy last night.”
Jude elbowed his buddy hard in the gut. Mason winced, which pleased me. “We talked about this last night. There’s no rule against having guests stay over. If anyone sees you leave with us, they’ll just assume that you’re one of our girlfriends and you stayed the night—not that you’re living here.”
“If it would help sell the girlfriend thing,” Mason chimed in, “I could grab your ass on the way out the door.”
Jude looked like he was going to respond, but I beat him to it. “Good point,” I said, as if considering the idea. “But won’t it ruin the pretense when I turn around and knee you in the balls?”
Mason chuckled. “It might.”
Jude smiled, too. “No one who knows you would blame her, though. Now, are we going to breakfast or what?”