3. Kylie
3
KYLIE
My dream was bizarre, as most of my dreams were. It featured my friend Sierra, an actress. She kept telling me that I’d have to translate her new movie into different languages. I protested that I didn’t know any other languages, but she said I had to anyway.
Then my friend Ronnie appeared. She said she could translate the movie into Spanish, but I’d have to do all the other languages. Even though I knew it was a dream, it was still stressing me out.
I was still protesting that I only knew English when the dream shifted. Suddenly, I was in bed, but I didn’t know where. Then three men appeared. Three very handsome men. The panic about the movie translation faded as I took them in. I grinned, hoping against hope that this was going to be a sex dream. I didn’t have them often, but when I did—wow. They felt amazing.
“Who are you?” I asked the one closest to me. He had closely cropped hair and the most amazing blue eyes. I didn’t think I’d ever seen eyes that blue before. Behind him was a tall, dark, and handsome guy with a sexy little beard. Next to him was another dark-haired guy, and he was definitely a cutie, too.
God, this was shaping up to be the best dream ever.
Mr. Blue Eyes was saying something, but I couldn’t focus. I was too busy looking from one man to the next. Why were they just standing there? It was my dream, and I wanted them next to me on the bed.
Maybe I had to take the initiative? Reaching a finger out, I lightly stroked the forearm of Mr. Blue Eyes. He looked down to where my finger brushed his bare skin and then back at me. My fingers fastened on the edge of his olive-green t-shirt and tugged. He crouched down next to me, and I pushed myself up with my free hand, my gaze focused on his lips.
He stared at me as I reached out and touched his cheek above his sexy stubble. Then I slid my hand along his short hair to cup the back of his neck. I pulled him to me for a kiss.
That’s when the light went on.
Blinking rapidly, I realized where I was—and that I was definitely not dreaming. I was in a bedroom with three strange men, and one of them was inches away, about to kiss me. I shrieked and jumped back, only to get tangled in my comforter. “Who are you?” I asked, trying to separate what was dream versus reality. “And what the hell are you doing in my dorm room?”
The young one was still standing by the light switch, but the brown-haired man with the short beard looked down at me with an amused but gentle smile. “We were just about to ask you the same question.”
“Thanks.” I took the glass of water gratefully from the guy with the beard. I sipped it slowly as I stared at the men seated across from me. I was perched on the edge of a couch. A coffee table was in front of me, and beyond that was another couch. The man with the kind eyes and the short beard sat there next to his blue-eyed buddy, the one I’d almost kissed. The younger, quiet one, who looked to be only a year or two older than my age of twenty three, was in an armchair off to the left.
Though I was trying, it was hard to get my brain to kick into gear. I’d been so damn tired. Then I thought I was dreaming. And not just any dream—a sex dream. Briefly, I wondered if I’d said anything embarrassing. Not that trying to grab the blue-eyed one and kiss the hell out of him wasn’t embarrassing enough. But there were bigger fish to fry.
“How’d you get in here?” Mr. Blue Eyes asked. Now that the lighting was better, I could see that his hair was lighter than the others’. Kind of a dark blond. It was short and stuck up in arrogant-looking spikes. Or maybe it was just his expression that looked arrogant. The blue eyes looked icy at the moment, but the rest of him didn’t provoke a cold feeling in me—quite the opposite, in fact. His t-shirt was sleeveless and showed off some pretty impressive biceps. He was definitely hot enough to feature in a sex dream.
All three of them were, actually.
His bearded buddy reached out and put his hand on Mr. Blue Eyes’ arm. “First things first,” he said, in the same gentle voice he’d used when he’d asked if I wanted some water. “I’m Jude. This is Mason. And that’s Parker.” That last part was directed at the quiet one off to the side. If Mason’s eyes were cold, Parker’s were like melted chocolate. I wasn’t sure where the melted part came in, but his expression was deep and soulful. He was staring off into space as if he were a million miles away, but then he gave me a nod that showed he was paying attention.
“Hi,” I said, my gaze reaching all three of them. “I’m Kylie.”
“ Kylie ,” Jude said, comprehension dawning on his handsome face. Mason swore under his breath. Parker’s vacant expression didn’t change. “That explains it.”
“Explains what?” It didn’t explain a damn thing to me.
Mason pulled a phone out of his pocket. As he swiped at it, I couldn’t help noticing the manspreading thing he was doing. His legs were spread wide enough to fit one of the armchairs between them. And he was wearing baggy shorts that showed a bit more of his strong, tan thighs than tighter ones would have. I could practically see right up the leg of those shorts.
Realizing I was staring, I tore my eyes away—only to catch the look of amusement on Jude’s face. Crap, he’d caught me looking. Luckily, Mason was still occupied with his phone. Something told me it would’ve been worse if Mason had caught me looking. Between that and my almost kissing him, he’d probably think I was some kind of sex-craved coed who’d broken into his dorm to seduce him.
Mason abruptly tossed his phone on the couch next to him. “Are you Kylie Mills?”
“Yes.” How’d he know that?
Jude answered my question. “We were told that our fourth roommate was named Kyle Mills.”
Oh shit. My hand flew to my forehead, almost hard enough to hurt, as I frowned over that one. “How hard is it to double check the box that says F or M on the housing application?”
Jude laughed. “Agreed. It doesn’t seem likely they do it by going through applications and sorting them into piles according to what gender the names sound like. If that were the case, there would be a lot of misplaced Taylors, Jordans, and Shannons. Must have just been a mix up.”
“Son of a bitch.” I should’ve known it was too good to be true that I’d gotten into Henderson. Usually, people on scholarships got assigned to the oldest dorms farthest from campus. Probably that’s where I would be reassigned when I told the housing office about the snafu. Then something occurred to me. “How come you all knew my name? They didn’t tell me anything about the people I’d be rooming with.” If they had, I could’ve sorted this out long before now.
Mason smirked. “We have our ways.”
Yeah, that wasn’t very helpful. Deciding that smacking the smirk off of Mason’s face wouldn’t improve the situation, I looked past him and took in the room. It was enormous—far bigger than any room I’d see in my previous dormitories. Of course, this was a four-person suite, but still. The area we were in was big enough for two full-sized sofas, and beyond that was a table that looked big enough to seat twelve. There was a wall of glass behind that, and the space opened up on the right in an L shape, but I couldn’t see what was back there.
While I’d been looking at the vast room, Mason had been looking intently at me. I saw his expression change, and immediately knew why. It was a look I’d seen many, many times. I let out a sigh. “It’s called heterochromia.”
Mason was still staring at my face. Jude elbowed him. “What?” he said to his friend, then he turned to me. “What’s heterochromia?”
“It means I have different colored eyes. Less than one percent of the population has it.”
Mason’s parents had apparently never taught him it was rude to stare. “Your one eye is almost as blue as mine,” he said. I wished that were true. His eyes were gorgeous, though the rest of him was proving to be less than ideal. “And the other one is… hazel?”
“Green,” Jude said, then looked apologetic. “Sorry, I couldn’t help noticing because they’re both pretty.”
Okay, he was my favorite of my soon-to-be ex-roommates. Though Parker didn’t seem too bad. It was a bit like having an inattentive but benevolent ghost nearby. One who wasn’t participating in the conversation but wasn’t harming anyone, either.
Mason sounded frustrated. “It’s not her eyes that are the issue. It’s other body parts—namely one that she doesn’t have and we do. She can’t stay here.”
“I know that,” I said, irritated at his crassness. Well, that wasn’t actually the problem. I’d worked all summer tending bar, I’d heard a lot worse. But it was the arrogant way he said it, like he had a right to say whatever he wanted.
Then again, it was his dorm room, and not, apparently, mine.
Jude looked at his watch. “I doubt the housing office is still open.”
“It might be,” Mason countered. “It’s move-in week.”
Jude didn’t look convinced. “If it is, there are probably lines out the door.” Somehow, I got the sense that he was concerned about how this mix-up affected me, whereas Mason seemed more interested in how it affected him.
I couldn’t help giving Jude a small smile. “Yeah, all those Taylors and Jordans and Shannons complaining about the wrong-room assignments.”
His return smile made me feel more calm. Well, most of me. The dark eyes and the short beard that lined a strong jaw made part of me sit up and take notice. He had a blue button-down shirt on, and there was a tantalizing glimpse of bare chest where the top buttons were open. “Maybe if we go down to the front desk, they can let us know if there’s an empty room where you can stay tonight. There must be someone on the women’s side who hasn’t checked in yet.”
That might help—for one night. Then, once I spent all day tomorrow in line at the housing office, they’d likely assign me to a room so far away it might actually be in my hometown. Plus the thought of lugging my stuff up to a room for one night and then doing it all again the next day didn’t sound very appealing, but it wasn’t like I had a lot of choice. I definitely didn’t have money to spare for a hotel.
Biting back a sigh, I said, “I doubt I’ll end up in a room as nice as this one.”
“You won’t,” Mason said. All right, he was officially starting to piss me off. But then he actually backtracked. “I just mean, there isn’t any another suite like this one.”
I frowned at that. “I thought there were a dozen or so four-person suites on each floor?”
“There are—but none like this,” Mason said confidently.
“It’s a corner suite on the top floor,” Jude said. “It’s got more space than the other suites.”
It did look freaking huge, so that was hard to argue with. But then I frowned. “But then aren’t there four suites like this—one at each corner?”
Mason shook his head. “Across from us there are two long, narrow dorms for two people each. At the end of the hall is another one split into two also, and a study room across from it.”
“That’s weird.” And very asymmetrical. “Guess you guys lucked out getting it.”
Mason snorted. “Hardly.”
Jude cut in, which was good. He had a low, lyrical voice that was pleasant to listen to. Plus, the things he said didn’t raise my blood pressure like the things Mason said did. “Mason got us this suite. He’s been planning to get it for years.”
“Using very Machiavellian techniques,” the man in question added with an evil grin.
“The competition was pretty steep,” Jude confirmed. “It’s not just the size of the suite. Would you like a tour?”
“Sure.” Why the hell not? I was curious about what would make a man like Mason go gaga over a dorm room. Then again—he looked like he might be the type who thrived on competition.
As we all stood, I realized I was still holding the nearly empty water glass. Then a soft voice said, “I’ll take that.” I’d almost forgotten that Parker was there. I handed him the glass and smiled, but all I got was a brief nod in return. He seemed so unconnected to the other two—or anyone, really—that I wondered if he had been friends with Jude and Parker before or if he, too, had been assigned here randomly.
Jude started the tour right where we stood. “This was set up as a second bedroom yesterday.” He stepped to the wall and grabbed the handle of a folded up accordion partition. He pulled it out a couple of feet. “It can either be closed off as a separate room or left open to make one big room.”
“We moved the beds and the dressers into the other bedroom,” Mason added.
“Why?”
“More space.” He pointed toward a huge box leaning up against a closet door behind the sofa I’d been sitting on. It was a 72-inch flatscreen TV. “We’re going to mount that on the wall tomorrow, so we can watch games in here.”
“But won’t you all be crowded in one bedroom?”
Mason shrugged. “It’s not like we’ll be spending a lot of time in there.”
“Besides, the three of us shared a bedroom last year in another building,” Jude said. “So we’re used to it.”
Ah, that answered that question. I glanced over at Parker, who was as quiet as ever. Evidently he had been their roommate last year. Jude followed my gaze and raised an eyebrow as if he knew what I’d been thinking. Then he gestured to me to follow and headed to the part of the suite that couldn’t be seen from the living room. We passed a bathroom with a shower as we went—that meant there were two full baths. Not too shabby.
But that was an understatement compared to what was around the corner. There was another seating area, but it obviously wouldn’t be used to watch TV. Instead, there was something better as the focal point. “A fireplace? Seriously?”
“One of the benefits of being the best suite in the building, baby,” Mason said. “Here’s another.” He opened a glass door next to the fireplace and revealed a balcony. I hadn’t noticed it before, but I leaned past him to peek out. The balcony was spacious and it looked like it wrapped around the other outer wall of the suite, too.
“Holy shit,” I said, awed by the suite. There were a smaller sofa and some chairs in front of the fireplace, and the little alcove looked as snug and cozy as the other room had been vast and spacious.
But the tour wasn’t over. Jude was now standing in the kitchenette in the corner. It wasn’t big. There was one counter against the wall, a half-sized refrigerator, a sink, a microwave, and some cabinets overhead, but still… a kitchenette in a dormitory that had a cafeteria? It was unheard of. I could see why Jude had said the competition to get this suite was fierce. And why Mason had been so proud of securing it.
I looked back and saw that Parker had drifted to a stop by the large table. I returned to him, running my hand over the smooth surface of the immense table. “It’s the perfect place to study,” Jude said.
Mason nodded. “It gives me enough space to spread out my blueprints.”
“He’s in engineering,” Jude clarified. “I’m music. How about you?”
“Business.”
“Parker is, too,” Jude said with a smile for his expressionless roommate. Except wait, Parker did have an expression. He looked sad. What the hell was wrong with this guy? Had he just read Old Yeller or something? I was really curious—but then I wasn’t, because something had caught my eye.
With an expression that was almost as dazed as Parker’s I moved toward the floor-to-ceiling windows on the far side of the table. The balcony was beyond them, but that wasn’t what I was looking at. I rested my hand on the bar-height counter that bisected the wall of windows.
“Yeah, that’s another place to study,” Jude said, placing his hand on the back of one of the barstools. “Or to have a cup of coffee in the morning. It’s a pretty view.”
A pretty view.
It was the biggest understatement in a century. Pretty. He was insane. It wasn’t a pretty view, it was an amazing view. An incredible view. A view I’d happily stare at for the rest of my life, if I had the chance.
I’d lived in Colorado my whole life, and in my little town, south of here and bordering Utah, there were canyons, buttes, and mesas. But these… these were the Rocky Mountains. As far as the eye could see were towering peaks with snow on top, even though it was only the end of July. They were the most incredible thing I’d ever seen. I imagined seeing that view every single day for the rest of the year.
Imagine studying in front of that view. Talk about inspirational. Mountains like that had always filled me with wonder. And to be able to gaze at them every single day? Incredible. Whatever Mason had done to get this suite had been well worth it, even if he’d taken out half of his classmates.
Jude was saying something, but most of my attention was still on the majestic mountains in front of me. I did catch the tail end of it, however. “We’d better see about finding you a place to stay tonight.”
“I’m staying here,” I said absently, barely loud enough for anyone else to hear.
“What?” Jude said. “Well… I guess we could make the couch up for you and then tomorrow you could go to the housing office.”
“No.” With a great effort, I turned away from the amazing view and faced the three men. “Not just for the night. I was assigned to this suite, and I’m going to live in this suite.”
Three shocked faces stared at me. I’d even broken through Parker’s daze.
“Guess that makes us roommates,” I said.