Desired, Alisa Woods [ebook offline txt] 📗

Her roommate, Jupiter, was flirting in the doorway to their room with some guy—probably her crush-of-the-week, a Southern guy named Jackson from her drama club. Jupiter was from Kansas with all that country-girl wide-eyed innocence on tap plus a heavy helping of roll-in-the-hay eagerness when it came to boys. When she saw Mia, she grinned and waved with far too much exuberance. Mia trudged over, debating whether she could throw everyone out without explanation. It was past one in the morning after all.

Her roommate had the world’s coolest name and the world’s most ridiculous wardrobe. Jupiter’s outfit tonight was par for the course: purple leggings, an orange tulle skirt, and a bunched up UDub sweatshirt that was far too big. Probably belonged to Jackson.

“You know,” Mia shouted to be heard over the low-thumping music, “being a drama major is really no excuse for that outfit.”

“You’re just jealous.” Jupiter’s smile was too wide, the kind Mia was used to seeing on her customers at The Deviation.

“Yeah.” Mia smirked. “Jealous of the color blind.”

Jupiter made a snort of disgust then frowned. “You’ve missed half the party!”

“Only half?” Mia threw a questioning look to Jackson, who was watching them with high amusement.

He just shrugged.

“Where have you been?” Jupiter asked with the outrage of the half-drunk for slights real and imagined.

 “I had to work tonight, remember?”

“Oh yeah.” Jupiter’s freckled face scrunched up. “Wait, weren’t you supposed to be at The Deviation until two?”

“Yeah, I, um… got off early.”

Mia was saved from explaining by a guy barreling out of her room. All three of them made way for him as he headed for the bathroom and took a quick turn into the girls’. Their floor was coed—either he was confused or he didn’t think he would make it to the boys’ bathroom.

Jupiter threw an unmistakable ew look after the bathroom perpetrator, then propped one hand on her hip. The other held a small blue-feathered purse that looked like a boa constrictor had thrown up a peacock. She took that thing everywhere, like a pet.

Then she focused on Mia again. “I thought you had gotten that awesome internship at… at…” She snapped her fingers, fast.

“SparkTech Partners,” Mia supplied. “I’m starting on Monday.”

Jupiter flailed her hand without the blue-feathered thing. “Which is why you need to celebrate!”

“It’s been a long night.” Mia gave a sad look to her bed inside their room. It currently held three senior boys each with a red cup balanced precariously on their knee. “What I really need is some sleep.”

“But you just got here!” Jupiter exclaimed. Then something over Mia’s shoulder caught her eye, and her roommate bit her lip, looking guilty. “I might have told a certain hot senior from drama club that you would be here by the end of the party.”

“Jeeter.” Neither Mia’s warning tone, nor the nickname Jupiter hated, slowed her down one bit.

“Oh, come on!” Her roommate gave her a disgusted look, but dropped her voice. “Cade is perfect for you. Tall, dark, and overly serious. He’s just your type.”

“I don’t have a type.” Which was a lie. She very much had a type. It was tall, muscular, and naked in the moonlight. My name is Lucas. Even the memory of him leaning close to her made the room feel warm. Mia closed her eyes and shook that thought from her head. There were so many ways that wasn’t even close to happening again.

Jupiter bunched up the feathered purse and made begging hands and eyes. She mouthed, Forgive me. Then her roommate dropped the drama like a change in costume and beamed over Mia’s shoulder. “Hi, Cade!”

Mia rolled her eyes before putting on a tight smile and turning to greet Jupiter’s drama club friend. Cade arrived just as she turned, a red plastic cup in each hand. His white t-shirt hung on his broad shoulders like it enjoyed the ride, and his smooth, muscular grace made her think of a tiger: all restrained power and limber movement. Mia was tall, but she still had to look up into those crystalline blue eyes.

“Hey, Jeeter.” He smirked at her roommate, then gave Mia a softer look. “Hey, Mia. Didn’t expect you until later.” His tone, plus a smile he was working to restrain, made it clear he was happy to see her.

Truth was, if she had a type before tonight, Cade would have been exactly it. Commanding presence, killer grin, and gorgeous blue eyes that didn’t hurt to look at but sliced right into her heart… and that was exactly the problem. She couldn’t afford the distraction of boys. And her previous attempts at boyfriends had been near disasters. Whenever they got too close, too intimate, her control slipped. That’s when her wolf came out to play, and that had never ended well. Which pretty well explained why she had only slept with two guys before, both of whom had been so freaked by their first time that it was also their last.

Sex was problematic for her, to say the least.

Only with human boys, her wolf whined.

Don’t even go there, she thought in return.

As much as any human could be, Cade was definitely her type.

He smiled and handed her a cup. “It’s tremendously sweet,” he warned. There was a small lift on one side of his smile.

 “Thanks for the heads up.” She inhaled a small whiff of the vapors coming off the cup. Vodka, one of the cheap brands, plus whiskey sour mix and a leftover dash from a cherry that must still be swimming in the tub. She held the cup close, warding off the stench of the room with her own personal alcohol vaporizer—which she appreciated much more than the drink.

She pretended to take a sip, just to be polite. “So are you guys ready for your show?” She didn’t keep track of Jupiter’s stage plays, but the spring quarter was coming to a close, so they must have something going.

His smile brightened. “Yeah. You should come. It’s called Silent Death, and it’s a period piece set around Paris in World War II. We’ll be in the Penthouse Theatre tomorrow night.”

“Sounds like a barrel of laughs.”

He frowned. “It’s really not that bad.”

She bit her lip. Damn, she was tired. Losing her manners, as well as her patience. “I’m sure it is. I’m sorry, I’m just…” She waved her drink. “It’s the vapors talking.” She inhaled another whiff and shrunk away from some passing partiers swinging their cups as they talked. Another glance at her room must have given away her desire to be anywhere else.

Cade leaned forward, then he edged even closer, dipping his head to bring his lips near her ear. “You want to get out of here?” His hand touched her hair, brushing it back. He was so close that his cologne and whiskey-sour breath suddenly overpowered the rest of the dorm scents. “My roommate’s gone for the weekend.” His voice was low, husky. He probably thought it was sexy, but Mia thought he was mostly just drunk.

Her wolf growled. The last thing she needed was to be propositioned by a half-drunk college boy. Suddenly, it was all too much, too close, and she needed out. In fact, she needed everyone out. Now.

She nudged Cade back, hand flat on his chest. “Look, I’m done for the night.”

Disappointment shadowed his face, but she had no time for that.

She turned to her room, pushing past Jupiter and Jackson. “Okay, everyone, party’s over. Time to go! Find your own beds.”

A round of grumbles, a pause as all eyes turned to see if she was serious, then another set of mumbling and complaints as they slowly rose from the bed, the floor, even her desk. As the crowd filed out, a couple spilled out of the closet, still tangled in each other, and bringing half of Jupiter’s crazy wardrobe with them, including a long, green scarf that wound around their feet and made them go down.

Mia just shook her head. Jupiter waved goodbye from the door and disappeared with the partiers, Jackson’s arm around her waist. Mia was just as glad to see them go, too, and as soon as the last of them was gone, she locked the door.

First thing, she tore off the top cover of the twin bed that belonged to her, vowing to run it through the laundry before she used it again. Even with that bunched up and stuffed under her bed, only ten percent of her dorm room felt like it belonged to her. The other ninety percent was taken up by her frenetic roommate’s endless leggings, half-used doodle pads, and extensive shoe collection. Mia had a picture of her mom on the shelf, about a backpack’s worth of clothes in the closet, a stack of books, and her laptop on the desk… and that was it.

It was almost like she had never really moved in. The room belonged to the partiers as much as her—they were all temporary occupants until they moved on to the next thing. Mia eased down into the bed, lying on top of the sheets, not bothering to remove her clothes. A complete and utter weariness sunk her into the mattress, and she looped her arm over her eyes, blocking out the overhead lights.

Her room was a cage—a tiny concrete and glass cage, with a bed too short for her long legs, and nothing of value to lose in a fire. She didn’t belong here, not in any real way. It was a way station on the path to the things she actually needed, that was all. The emptiness made itself known again, a deep hollow in her chest, and her wolf whined, curling its tail down in defeat.

The lights still blared overhead, but Mia turned on her side and dropped off to sleep like she was falling off a cliff.