Page 21 of Tapped By My Roommate
She tugged me into a hug. “You’re a liar, but I miss you too.”
I chuckled as I returned the embrace. My family wasn’t perfect, but there was no shortage of love in it.
“Don’t be a stranger,” Mom said as she set me loose. “And don’t let your brother and sister take advantage of you. They’re teenagers, always thinking they need something. You have to take care of yourself.”
On the drive back to the apartment, I thought about her words. I wasn’t sure when I’d last done something for myself.
Except kiss Ethan. That’d been the most selfish, indulgent thing I’d ever done.
7
ETHAN
Iwas hiding in my room. Again.
My trash overflowed with snack food wrappers, paper plates, and empty Mountain Dew cans, and I had to watch my movies on my laptop instead of the larger-screen TV when Rhett was home. But it wasn’t so bad. When I’d been in the college dorms, I’d lived in a bedroom and shared a building with more than one person I’d wanted to avoid. Really, nothing had changed since then.
Living with Rhett was awkward right now—but I was a geek. Awkward was kind of my thing. Although, kissing my roommate had taken even my awkwardness to new heights.
For the past two weeks, we’d danced around one another. I’d perfected the art of ducking out of a room just as Rhett entered. With our busy schedules, we didn’t have a lot of time that we were both in the apartment, and right now that was a blessing.
Rhett had tried to talk to me, of course. Despite his vanishing act that first morning, avoidance wasn’t really his way. But I didn’t want to hear his apologies. Didn’t want to know, without a doubt, that he regretted what happened between us. That kiss had been a lot of things to me. Surprising, amazing, sweet, sexy, confusing. The one thing it was not? Regrettable.
Something had happened that I didn’t understand. My sexuality wasn’t as concretely settled as I’d believed. I couldn’t forget it and move on, not when it’d rattled the very foundation of who I thought I was.
For Rhett, it might have been just another kiss. But for me? It was an epiphany.
Which is why I’d been parked in front of my computer recently, reading academic journal articles, magazine features about LGBT couples, and even blogs in my attempt to understand my reaction to him. Research was my comfort zone. It was my go-to when I didn’t understand something. But the more I read about sexual orientations and identities, the less certain I felt.
Could I be bisexual or pansexual? And if so, then why had it taken me so long to figure it out?
Between all the research and my frustrated attempts to talk Tess into changing her mind about Zilla via text message, I’d hit my screen limit hours ago and my eyes burned.
My bladder ached, too, finally nudging me into taking a break. I stood, stretching out kinked muscles from sitting hunched on my bed, and ducked into the hall.
Just as I stepped out of my bedroom, Rhett emerged from the bathroom. Damn. So much for avoiding another awkward encounter.
Steam billowed into the hallway after him, and he wore nothing but a towel.
My pulse sped up, a weird reaction I’d been having around him ever since the kiss. It was worse now, when confronted with his bare chest and taut stomach, the grooves on either side of his hips, leading down to the towel edge and what lay beneath.
Oh, God. I couldn’t think of my roommate this way.
“You’re so wet.”Don’t say that, you idiot!“Water is dripping down your—down to the floor.”
I swallowed nervously, my eyes locked on a droplet that trickled from his hair and slowly made its way over his pec, tracing the edge of his nipple, as if to lead my eyes to that very inappropriate view, before tracking over his ribs.
“Oops, sorry.” Rhett swiped his hands over his chest and abs, absorbing the water—which didn’t really help my situation. It only made my fingers twitch with the urge to touch him.
I jerked my gaze up to his face, but that was no better. Meeting his eyes held a totally different problem. It made me feel more exposed than Rhett was right now. What if he could see that I’d actually liked that kiss? What if he could see that I was starting to wonder how well I knew myself and my sexuality?
It was frustrating to feel this way—something woken inside of me—when I knew how much Rhett wished he’d never put his lips to mine. Never brushed our mouths together, then traced my lip with his tongue before—
“You should get dressed,” I blurted, horrified by the direction of my thoughts. Bad enough that I replayed the kiss in my mind daily. Bad enough that I touched myself in the dark at night while wondering what it would feel like if it were Rhett’s hand on me instead of my own. That was my own private hell. Keyword being private. I didn’t want Rhett to see what he did to me.
Rhett glanced down at his chest as if surprised to find himself half-naked. “Right. Good idea,” he said with a little chuckle.
As he stepped aside, I rushed into the bathroom. My elbow brushed against his damp stomach, tingling. I’d never thought of my elbow as particularly erogenous, but apparently when it came to Rhett, my whole body was a traitor. It was unusual for me to react this way—to anyone.
