Page 1 of Kissed By My Roommate

CHAPTER 1

ZOEY

If he doesn’t stop, I’m going to kill him. I’m going to rip the covers off me, stomp down the stairs and then out to his little shed of noise pollution. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I get down there considering Juniper is so much bigger than me, but I’ll figure out a way to get him to stop.

The racket.

It’s constant. It’s discordant. It makes me want to crawl out of my skin. Maybe it would give me some sort of relief.

Because there is no way for me to sleep like this.

It’s the third day in a row.

I need to be able to stay up all night for work, but I can’t sleep during the day. Not with the music of Juniper creating art. I wish it wasn’t amazing. I wish it didn’t speak to part of my soul. It would be so much easier to go down there and yell at him if his art was complete shit.

It’s not though. He’s so fucking talented. It makes it much harder to hate him for the noise he makes, even if I do need to get some sleep.

Silence reverberates from his workshop shed, but the remnants of the banging and the sound of the welder are always there, an impression on the very air around us. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly, trying to get control of my heartrate and my anger.

It’s quiet. I should take this opportunity and fall asleep. Is that clanging real or is it all in my head? I leap out of bed and tiptoe to the window to see Juniper standing outside the shed while drinking down a bottle of water without taking a breath. His Adam’s apple bobs, sweat pouring off his body.

Holy shit.

It’s sexy as hell.

It reminds me of the day I first came here to see about the room Juniper advertised. My old roommate was moving out to live with her boyfriend and there was no way I was going to be able to afford the apartment alone. To top it off, I couldn’t even get the lease signed over into my name since I couldn’t afford the deposit.

I had no time at all to find a place to live since she sprang the news on me last minute and had already broken the lease for the end of the month. The situation gave me days to find a place to live. I don’t know why I looked through the local ads in the newspaper first, but I did. I figured there wouldn’t be any options there and most people would be putting rentals online.

When I came across the one for a room in a house, I had a feeling it was the right place. It was like something wormed its way inside my head and no matter how many times I looked away from it, my eyes kept going right back. I couldn’t ignore the pull, the need to find out more. I stopped hesitating and set up an appointment to see the place.

When I arrived and knocked on the door there wasn’t an answer at first. I knocked again. I told myself I would wait five minutes and then try again. Who hasn’t been caught going to the bathroom at just the wrong fucking time, making your heart sink and leaving you stuck in awhat the hellkind of moment?

When I knocked again, it took only a few seconds for the door to be pulled open with enough force that I was a little concerned about the hinges. I was not prepared for the sight which greeted me on the other side of the door. I was eye level with some big as hell pecs covered in well-defined muscles and glistening with sweat. Not only sweat, but there was also a good layer of grit and grime there.

Oh, and no shirt.

It was…well, let’s just say I was a little concerned about drooling. I may have even tried to wipe the corner of my mouth to double check. I was damn glad I didn’t find any there. How embarrassed I would have been if there had been.

I’m not sure what I expected to find, honestly. I knew Juniper was a man the moment he answered the phone and we set up a time for me to see the house. He sounded gruff on the phone, but you can’t always judge a book by its voice. Or whatever.

When I’m working as an overnight emergency dispatcher, I don’t exactly sound like myself. I sound way more soothing and upbeat than I normally am, but I realize I’m talking to people, for the most part, as they’re experiencing something traumatic. They need me to stay in control and keep it together. They don’t need whatever is going on in my life to touch them, so I leave it at the door.

The longer I’ve lived with Juniper, the harder it’s been to do. It’s a problem.

I didn’t think of any of that when I met the man, and he gave me a tour of the house. I think I was in some sort of arousal fog for most of the tour, watching his muscles bunch and pull with every movement. When he walked in front of me, my eyes immediately went to his ass every time. I’m still not sure how I didn’t reach out and give it a squeeze.

He has one of those asses you could bounce a quarter off. Squeeze worthy. Delectable. It’s the first male ass I’ve thought such things about.

I groan and roll onto my side, trying to get comfortable because thinking about Juniper’s ass is not going to help me fall asleep. Then there are his thighs which are like tree trunks. He must not miss a leg day.

The day I met him, there wasn’t a smirk on his face, which you would expect, when he looked over his shoulder and found me ogling him. There was a demand and a finality in his tone, “I’m not included in the rent, Sweetheart.”

I blinked up at him, embarrassment filling me and heating my cheeks. I would have been more than happy for a hole to open and swallow me whole, but sinkholes never seem to pop up when I need them. So unfortunate.

I should have fled right then, but I found my feet following him. My sass chose that moment to come back full force instead of leaving me gaping and befuddled. I snarked at him, “Are you sure? You could probably charge a lot more if you were.”

Juniper’s eyes widened and then he laughed. I swear, it was his laugh which did me in and is the only thing I can point to as the reason I didn’t heed the warning signs and decided to move in with him. He’s the first man I’ve ever lived with. While our bedrooms are far enough away from each other to make me feel comfortable, I can’t deny I wish we were closer.

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