On His Knees by Tabatha Kiss
Chapter 7
Jenna
This is not cool.
I slowly sit up on my bed. Keyword: slowly.
That second bottle of wine was a bad idea. Or was it the third?
Ugh.
My mouth is dry and sticky. My head pounds. Each dull throb makes my vision blur for a split second. Man, this is not a healthy way to live my life. I should really get my shit together...
I throw my feet on the floor, pausing as the sudden shift in momentum turns my stomach.
Or not.
“Oof,”I mutter as I rise off the bed.
I stumble out of the bedroom into the eerily quiet hallway. Oh, that’s right. Drew and Heidi left. I’m alone while my best friend gallivants around Europe with her rich boyfriend’s family for a week. Not gonna lie. Super jealous. But she’s worked hard. She’s earned it. And Heidi always gets the best souvenirs, so that’s something to look forward to.
I need coffee.
I auto-pilot into the kitchen toward the coffeepot. Hazelnut sounds about right this morning, so I toss all that together and stumble to the table to sit down. What time is it, anyway?
I glance around the kitchen once before I remember we don’t even have a clock. The one on the stove has been blinking for years.
“Phone,” I say to myself as I hoist myself out of the chair. “Phone, phone, phone…”
I find it next to my nightstand on the bedroom floor. Must have knocked it off in my sleep.
I pick it up and swipe it on to find... three missed calls? And five text messages. All from Heidi. She left a voicemail, too.
Hm.
I tap into my voicemail box as I drift back to the kitchen, my nose eagerly following the delightful scent of coffee down the hallway.
“Hey, Jenna! It’s me. I’m in New York—”
I pull it away from my ear with a groan and switch to speakerphone instead.
“—everything’s fine! I guess you’re still passed out or else you’d have answered my texts by now...”
“You guessed correctly, my friend.”
“So, listen, I think I found the solution to your problem...”
I set the phone on the table. “What problem?”
“You said you were nervous about being home alone and everything—”
“Oh, right...” I respond as I grab a mug from the cabinet.
“—and, as luck would have it, Seth needs a place to stay for the next week, so I figured...”
The contents of my stomach shift as I spin to face the phone. “You figured what, Heidi?”
“... that he could crash in my room until Drew and I got back.”
“No,” I whisper. I step forward. “No, no, no—”
“Now, don’t be mad, okay? Their apartment caught on fire last night and he has nowhere else to go.”
I stomp my heel. “That’s why hotels exist!”
“He couldn’t afford a hotel—”
I roll my eyes.
“—and he promised to behave.”
I scoff. “Yeah, right.”
“Please be nice, Jenna. He’s my brother.”
“And my nemesis.”
“I know you think he’s your nemesis and everything—”
I glare at the phone.
Okay, we officially spend way too much time together.
“—but he’s changed, all right? And…”She sighs. “After last night, I just want this to be over.”
My chest sinks.
“I love you guys, but seeing you fight like that all the time is just… I can’t do it anymore. So, please, for me, just try. Okay?”
I deflate even more. I’d take a bullet for this girl. I should be able to handle this, right?
“Well, when is he coming?” I ask the phone as if Heidi’s in the room. Might as well be. Prophetic little twit.
The doorbell rings. I stiffen.
Oh, of fucking course.
“Please text me back as soon as you get this.”She chuckles. “We’ll be in the air again soon. It’d be pretty awkward if he just showed up and you had no idea why.”
“You don’t say?”
I snatch the phone off the table as I head into the living room. As I reach the front door, I sneak a peek through the curtains at the porch. Seth Newbury stands there in a white T-shirt and jeans with a duffel bag over one shoulder and a backpack on the other.
“This is only a temporary situation and, hey...” Heidi pauses with amusement. “What’s the worst that can happen, right?”
“Murder,” I answer her. “Cold-blooded murder.”
I throw open the door. Seth raises his head, looking tired and haggard as all hell with black marks on his cheeks. His bloodshot eyes draw a wandering line down my body, teeming with judgment at my just-woke-up appearance, but I couldn’t give two fucks about that right now.
“Oh! Before I forget!”Heidi continues on speakerphone. “Would you grab the box of sex toys beneath my bed and hide them somewhere before Seth gets there? I don’t want him to know about those…”
Seth grimaces.
I bite my cheek.
Sure thing, friend.
“Anyway, call me back! Love you! I’m going to Europe!”
She cackles with excitement again before the message ends.
I lower the phone to my side. “Hello, Seth,” I say.
“Hey,” he greets, his voice dry and gritty.
“A fire, huh?”
“Yeah. A fire.”
“Did you start it?”
“I—” He exhales hard through his nose. “No. I didn’t.”
“Okay,” I say, defensively. “Okay…”
Seth Newbury. My roommate for the next week.
Just try, she asked.
Okay.
“Ground rules,”I say as I dig my heels into the carpet. “One, I am not your mother. I will not cook for you. I will not clean up after you. You will do your own laundry. If you need to know where something is, I will gladly oblige, but then you will put it back where it came from. Okay?”
Seth nods once. “Okay.”
“Two, don’t talk to me. The aforementioned scenario is fine, but other than that, I don’t care how you are or how your day has been. No talk, big or small, will occur between us. Got it?”
He opens his mouth to answer, but promptly closes it again.
“Third...” I straighten up, “you and I will never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, have sex.”
His brow arches.
“There will be no touching of any kind,” I caution, deadly serious. “In fact, don’t even look me in the eye. Understand?”
His golden eyes flick away.
“Good. Now…” I take a step back from the door. “You may enter.”
Seth doesn’t move. “May I say something first?” he asks.
I exhale, annoyed, but I wave a hand, allowing it.
Seth smiles. “First, I’m a full-grown man. I don’t need a mommy to pick up after me. I can feed myself, too, but if I need someone to whip up a batch of blue box mac and cheese, I’ll be sure to give you a call.”
I furrow my brow. “Excuse me?”
“Second, I care even less about your life than you do about mine, so don’t kid yourself into thinking you’re interesting enough to talk to in the first place.”
My mouth sags.
“And third...” He steps into the house, purposefully looking me up and down in disgust. “Not in a million years.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“I wouldn’t touch you in a hazmat suit.”
“That’s not what you said last night.”
“You thought I was serious?” He snorts. “Do you actually think men sit around just aching to give it to you? That I’ll spend the next week pining over you with a half-chub because you’re just oh-so-hot and tempting?” His smirk digs deeper. “That’s pathetic, Jenna.”
Seth takes a wide step around me into the house. I freeze in place, far too pissed off to say anything.
“Bathroom towels?” he asks as he enters the hall. “Never mind. I’ll find ‘em.”
Yup. Murder.
Cold. Blooded. Murder.