Chapter 32
32
R oyce basically handed me the job at Prosper Country Club. Apparently he knew the general manager and just introduced me to him as the newest massage therapist. As embarrassed and flustered as that made me, I wasn’t going to look the gift horse in the mouth. As he pointed out, I was more than qualified and experienced, and the general manager had seemed happy to hand over the contract.
I justified it to myself that it was just good timing. The manager mentioned they’d been short-staffed for a while, so there were more than enough hours available.
With that done—I wouldn’t start work for another two weeks to be sure my injuries were healed—Royce and I swung past the electronics store to grab my new laptop then headed for the campus library.
“What are we studying?” he asked as I got settled in and powered up my new computer.
I raised a brow. “I don’t know about you, but I’m reading notes from all the lectures I missed this past week. What are you studying, anyway?”
“You don’t already know everything there is to know about me?” Royce pressed a hand to his chest in mock hurt. “Wounded, truly.”
“Uh-huh, sure you are.”
“I’m a doctoral candidate in social psychology. Wanna know what the other guys are studying?” He asked it as a loaded question, and I tried to pretend I didn’t notice his tone.
“I already know Heath is studying for his master’s of fine arts, and Nate’s doing a PhD for…something. Doctorate of being a giant pain in my ass at the moment.” I muttered it under my breath, but Royce chuckled anyway.
He was across the table from me, in Heath’s usual spot, and rocking on his chair in a way that was begging for him to fall over. “No interest in Carter’s studies? Interesting…or was that discussed during your weekend in Berlin?”
I huffed a frustrated sigh. “Paris. Hey, what does Paige think about you sleeping in my room? I already have enough drama from Jade, I really don’t need Paige sending feral animals into my room too.”
Royce’s teasing humor evaporated and his eyes narrowed. “I don’t know what you think is going on there, but Paige is Nate’s girlfriend.”
“ Right . Of course. Silly me. Nate’s girlfriend that you happen to be fucking…like at the gala.” I met his eyes, unflinching.
He stared back at me for a moment, like he was weighing my level of threat. Then he gave a small shrug. “It was a momentary lapse of judgment, never to be repeated. Nate doesn’t need to know.”
I snorted a laugh, shaking my head. “I already told him.”
The legs on Royce’s chair slammed back down with a bang. “When?”
I glanced up from the setup screen on my laptop. “Like…the morning after the gala when he broke into my room.”
“He…what? Why would he do that?” Royce was genuinely confused and more than a little panicked. Good. He deserved to sweat for fucking his friend’s girlfriend.
“Because he overheard Carter and I talking during the duck challenge, about Paige being a cheater. Carter obviously wasn’t man enough to tell him the truth so I did.” I peered at him critically. “You weren’t exactly subtle. But if it makes you feel better, he didn’t believe me.”
The relief gusting out of Royce was visible in the sag of his tense shoulders. “He didn’t? Okay. Good. That’s…hmm.”
I tapped my fingernails on the table, waiting for my computer to complete its system update. “Doesn’t seem like a great friend move, if you ask me.” Not that I was one to talk, given my Carter-Heath situation, but I wasn’t claiming to be innocent.
“Good thing I wasn’t asking,” he snapped back, then sighed and ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Like I said, it was a stupid spur-of-the-moment thing. Happened once and won’t happen again.”
That seemed contradictory to what Carter had said…but maybe he was just reading too much into whatever flirtation had happened prior to the gala. “None of my business,” I muttered.
Royce didn’t say anything more on the matter and I let it drop as my laptop finished its set up and I went to work installing the programs I needed and linking my cloud drives with all my study notes saved.
We worked in silence for a while until a cupcake and iced coffee appeared beside me.
“Do you want this? They gave me the wrong order again,” Heath said, standing beside the table with an endearing smile.
Royce gave a dramatic groan. “That was so cheesy . Are you for real? Does that shit work on you, Squirrel?”
I huffed a frustrated sound. “Royce…can you fuck off for five minutes? Please?” It was high time Heath and I had a chat and I didn’t need entitled gallery commentary.
Royce smirked, glancing between the two of us. “Five minutes, huh? That’s sad, Squirrel, he can do better than that. Make him work for it.”
“Royce!” Heath exclaimed, “Seriously, bro. Fuck off.”
The blond smartass raised his hands defensively, rising from his seat. “Okay, chill. No need to get all snippy. I’ll go for a walk, but Heath?—”
“I know,” he cut his friend off. “I’m not an idiot.”
“Debatable,” Royce replied with a grin, but then did thankfully wander off into the stacks to leave us alone.
Heath sighed and slid into his usual seat, the one Royce had just vacated. For a moment, he just sat and held eye contact with me, seemingly comfortable in silence.
“I heard you and Carter had an altercation,” I said softly, breaking the silence reluctantly.
He nodded thoughtfully. “Yes…Royce is a hopeless gossiper. Any embarrassing stories you might want about us, he’ll be happy to share.”
I smiled and slid my laptop aside so I could give him my full attention. “Thank you for my coffee and cupcake, Heathcliff.”
His answering smile was warm. “Any time, Ash. How are you feeling?” His gaze shifted to my cheek and his eyes pinched. “You did a good try covering the bruises up.”
I sighed, propping my chin on my hand, one of the few places on my face that didn’t hurt. “Thanks. I had to make myself presentable to get a job.”
“You got a job? Where?”
A grin creased my face and my cheeks warmed with fond memories. “At the Prosper Country Club…as a masseuse.”
His whole face lit up at that. “Can I book an appointment? My shoulder is killing me and you know exactly how to loosen it up.”
I rolled my eyes, trying really hard not to think about what’d happened after I loosened up his shoulder. Or how good he’d looked naked and covered in oil. Fucking hell.
“You don’t need an appointment, Heath, you could just ask. I didn’t know it was hurting you.” I got out of my seat and circled around behind where he sat. “This one?” I laid my hand on his left shoulder, squeezing gently.
His answer with a small groan and I smiled to myself, starting to massage his neck and shoulder on that side. Sitting up, clothed, no oils…it wasn’t ideal but I could offer some small measure of relief.
“How’d you hurt this?” I asked, unsure if he’d already told me and I’d forgotten.
“Tennis,” he replied with a grunt as I got my thumb into the deep knot.
I hummed a sound in response and dug deeper into his rock-hard muscles. It’d be hurting him now, but he’d feel the relief when I was done. Besides, Heath was a big tough guy, he could take it.
“So…” I prompted, feeling like he had things to say and not wanting Royce to come back and ruin the moment.
Heath sighed. “So I wanted to explain the Jade thing. Why I asked her to the gala is the easy part. She’s devious and wanted to win, and I thought you wanted nothing to do with the society. After the incident with initiation, the elders council told us it was your choice whether you were in or out…I thought you’d made your preference crystal clear.”
I processed that as I massaged his shoulder. “That’s fair…I guess. Carter didn’t really give me much choice, though.”
“That’s sort of his style,” Heath muttered with an underscore of anger. “Taking things he wants without asking.”
I bit my lip, thinking of all the things Carter wanted—and took—while we were in Paris. Not that I’d been saying no.
“Anyway, the other Jade thing was what Royce alluded to that day at our apartment. That one is just…look, it doesn’t sound good but I assure you that absolutely nothing happened. After you and Carter left for Paris, we’d all gone out drinking at one of the bars in town and everyone overindulged. When I woke up Sunday morning, Jade was in my bed.”
That stopped me cold. Of all the things I could have imagined…I wasn’t sure I’d been expecting that. “She was in your bed?”
“Yeah,” he confirmed. “Naked.”
“Oh. I see.”
“Ouch…Um…” He tried to shift out of my grip, and I startled at how I was digging my nails into his shoulder a whole lot harder than needed.
I quickly released my violent grip, scolding myself mentally. “I’m assuming there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation?”
“Yeah, she’s insane,” he replied with a huff. “I know nothing happened, I went to sleep alone and no amount of alcohol would make me fuck her, but she was trying her luck.”
I wet my lips, thinking of an appropriate response. Did I believe him that nothing had happened, and that he hadn’t encouraged her? Yes. Because I also knew Jade, and as far as she was concerned Heath and I had been dating.
“And that’s all?” I asked after a few moments of silence.
Heath twisted in his seat, looking up at me. “That’s all, Ashley. Total transparency.” His arm snaked around my waist and he pulled me around the chair to sit in his lap. “I really, really didn’t want you to think?—”
“I don’t. I just…you guys don’t have the most trustworthy track records.” I pursed my lips, holding his gaze as I rested my arms around his neck. “I’m also not really in a position to judge after Paris.”
Heath shrugged slightly. “Well, that was my fault for not doing this again sooner.”
“Doing what?”
“This.” He cupped a hand to the base of my skull, pulling me in to kiss my mouth deeply. I gasped, my lips parting as he kissed me harder and all the noise faded into the distance. Why was I mad at him again?
A fake cough interrupted us some moments later, and I would have fallen out of Heath’s lap if he hadn’t been holding me so tight.
“Well, well, well,” Royce crooned, leaning against the bookshelves beside our table. “I am shocked at you, Ashley Layne. This is a library. A place of learning and here you are?—”
“Fuck off, Royce,” Heath growled, leaning back in to kiss my neck.
Royce was clearly enjoying himself, though, mischief written all over his face. “No can do. Hey Ash, weren’t you asking me earlier if I’d swap sleepover duty with Carter?”
Dick. “No, I wasn’t. You’re lucky I respect books so much, or I’d throw one at your head right now.”
He just chuckled and took my seat at the table. Then the shit took my cupcake. Oh…now we were at war.
“Did you tell her about your weird dream, bro?” he asked Heath, who stiffened somewhat under my hands.
Heath shook his head. “Not yet.” He shifted his attention to me. “I’ve been having weird dreams about being in the forest.”
I cocked my head, not understanding. “Like I was?”
He nodded. “Since you told us what happened…I dunno, like my subconscious wanted me to insert myself into your shoes.”
“Ah,” I said, smiling. “Because I told you to imagine the roles were reversed. Your subconscious must have grabbed onto that and played it out literally within your dream.”
He sighed, giving a weak smile. “That’s what dickhead over there said too. You know he’s studying to be a psychologist, right? Fancies himself our personal shrink.”
“Or maybe it’s just that I’m smarter than you,” Royce added. “Speaking of psychology, though, don’t you have Human Development now?”
Heath checked his watch, then cursed. “Yeah. I better go. Can we meet up tonight?”
“No, I’m busy hanging out with Squirrel,” Royce answered, despite the question having been directed at me. “But I think Carter will be home. Maybe you two should hit the gym and burn off some testosterone while me and Ash paint each other’s nails.”
Heath gave a frustrated sigh, then kissed me quickly before lifting me off his lap. “I better go. I’ll call you.”
He grabbed his bag and took off at a jog out of the library and I turned my attention to Royce, who stared at me expectantly.
“What?” I snapped.
He grinned. “Nothing.”
Yep, I was definitely going to smother him in his sleep, smug fuck.