Chapter 1
“Hey dude,” I rap my knuckles on the door, “I need to go pee and finish getting ready before we head to class.”
…Silence.
So I wait another minute before I knock again. “Hello.”
“El bano esta ocupado, Jessica,” Trent’s maddeningly sexy Spanish responds.
See, we are in the same Spanish 1 class together at school, so he speaks Spanish as much as possible. Whether it’s to annoy me—because honestly, I’m struggling—or to improve is still to be determined.
“I get that, but this is an emergency.”
“Then use one of the other bathrooms, you should’ve finished before letting me in.”
Our bathroom connects his room and my room. I physically have to unlock the door for him to use it when I’m done and he’s right, in me haste to get ready for the day I forgot a few things. But he’s still missing the point, I can’t use another restroom if the shit I need is in there.
“Asshole,” I scoff.
“I’m sure your mom has whatever you need in theirs,” he casually dismisses me.
Because I desperately need to go, I run across the hall to their master on-suite and find sweet relief. While sitting there for over two minutes—yes, I stay hydrated—I contemplate how I am in this situation.
Not even two years ago, that was my bathroom. My mom and I have lived on our own in this quaint town for sixteen years, my dad left us when he realized raising a child wasn’t for him. So, my mom hustled and opened a successful coffee company. What started as a little drive through expanded, adding two brick and mortar stores. She’s kind of a big deal in our town of less than thirty thousand people.
Everything was great, until Ron moved to town as the new Deputy Police Chief.
I remember sitting in AP Bio my junior year when this hunk walks in—blonde shaggy yet well-groomed hair, bright blue eyes, easily six feet tall and muscles for days. He was the talk of the town for the next 6 months. We don’t get fresh meat often, and the amount of drama surrounding anyone who is halfway decent looking is outrageous because we have all known each other our entire lives. Needless to say, dating a member of the opposite sex can be challenging in high school. Before I knew it, Trent and I found ourselves in similar social circles—limited options make this relatively obviously. We went to several parties together, flirted, things were going well.
Until I went to the coffee shop one day to find my mom kissing Ron at a table with Trent. Color me confused here. I saddled up to the table, and mom introduces me to her new boyfriend, Ron—whom in turn introduces me to his son, Trent. Shocker. From that point on he kept his distance and I tried to play it as nonchalant as possible, which was fine-ish. I mean who doesn’t want the attention of the hot new guy?
We sort of avoided each other for a few months, then my mom and Ron got engaged, yay. Long story—well, long—I now share a bathroom with someone who is painfully swoon-worthy who I might’ve had a thing for like a year and half ago.
I finish in the bathroom and head back to my room, pausing in front of my full-length mirror. I shake my head, the outfit isn’t quite right. Not if I want to continue this little war I’ve been waging. My strategy every morning is to select clothes that make his eyes linger a second too long, his mouth pop open in surprise or make his dick harden in his jeans. Watching him squirm gives me satisfaction most days, other times it backfires, leaving me wound up. I root through my closet until I find it—the perfect deep V-neck that not only complements my skirt but guarantees his eyes will hover exactly where I want them.
I knock on the bathroom door again, “can I get in now please? We have to leave in a half hour.”
Trent and I, by the way, go to the same community college and share three of the same classes. If he thwarts my attempts at getting ready, he can drool over my cleavage all day—and no I don’t care if that’s evil, you know you would do it too. Don’t lie.
I hear the door unlock as it swings open, steam enveloping me. Trent stands there, his blonde locks dripping onto broad shoulders, a white towel barely clings to his hips like it might surrender to gravity any second. His muscles glisten with moisture, begging to be touched.
Meow, puuuuurrrr.
I try to recover from the momentary enrapture, but it is clear he has caught me savoring the view. He tosses me a devilishly handsome smirk, “like what you see Jess?”
Damn him.
I decide to throw him off balance. Raising a brow, I let my eyes deliberately travel down his torso, “just admiring the view, the gym is obviously working for you.”
His lips part slightly as he returns my lingering gaze, a slow sweep from my face down to my toes and back up again. With a click of his tongue and a knowing smirk, he turns and disappears through his bedroom door.
Sweet hell. Get it together Jess, finish getting ready. You can deal with the arousal later.
I select a few products from the cabinet. I layer them on, changing my shirt in between. Arms stretched overhead, I’m trapped in fabric purgatory when the door swings open. The deep V-neck—my carefully chosen weapon of mass distraction—has me momentarily blind and my arms tangled above me like a flag of surrender, my torso exposed.
“Ah! Dude, knock,” I half scream while I try to wiggle the shirt down my body. My red lace push up bra better be doing its job right now dammit.
His deep chuckle responds, “feeling a little stuck?”
He reaches over me from behind and pulls the shirt down my body. I didn’t just get a hot flash, did you?
I stare at him in the mirror behind me, “hmph,” I smile. “Thanks for the assistance.”
I don’t know whether I’m embarrassed or horny, either way I’m feeling warm. He reaches around me for styling product while I keep adding to my face.
“You don’t need all of that makeup Jess, you’re gorgeous without it,” he casually says before returning to his room.
Oh, that’s it. I’m far too turned on to go to school like this.
