Bad Rep (Bad Rep #1)(13)
Author: A. Meredith Walters

“Who can you just be friends with?” Eli asked from the hallway, his voice husky from sleep. I whipped around to see him ambling into the living room, pulling his shirt over his head.

Riley smirked and went back to her room, leaving me with a barely functioning Eli. He sat on the couch and pulled on his Doc Martens, tucking the laces inside. Which for some reason I found really annoying all of the sudden. I mean, how lazy do you have to be to not take the extra two seconds it takes to tie them?

I found myself glaring at his shoes and had to snap myself out of it. “Uh, nothing. No one. Just some guy at work.” I replied in what I hoped was a blase attitude. Eli zipped up his jeans and left the button undone and I could see the dark hair trailing from his belly button and disappearing into his pants. Normally I would have found that hot. This morning I just found that he looked sloppy and unkempt. Nothing like the sexy deliciousness of Jordan Levitt.

Crap. Snap out of it! Eli pulled on my hand and I ended up in his lap on the couch. He wrapped his arms around my waist and started sucking on the skin at my neck. I pulled away. “If you give me a hickey, I’ll kill you,” I warned and Eli chuckled.

“You’ve never minded it before,”he said as he tugged the collar of my shirt down so he could lick the cleft between my br**sts.

I felt the familiar stirring between my legs and then just as suddenly as it came, Jordan’s face flashed in my mind and it was like throwing a bucket of cold water on my libido. I slithered off of Eli’s lap and plopped down beside him. Eli reached over and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “Sorry for my less than stellar performance last night. I was f**king wasted. I didn’t even make you come. That’s unforgivable,” Eli murmured as he worked his fingers under the elastic of my shorts.

Normally, I loved Eli’s sexual candor. But now, with another boy on my mind, it just made me feel uncomfortable. I barked out a fake sounding laugh and wiggled out from underneath his hand. “That’s okay, baby. You needed to sleep.” Eli looked at me strangely but didn’t comment on the way I kept trying to dodge his touch. We both knew it was unusual for me to stop him once he got started. But I just wasn’t in the mood and he’d have to deal with it.

“Yeah, thanks for letting me stay the night. I enjoyed sleeping next to you.” His heavy lidded eyes smoldered at me and I had to blink in surprise. Eli was anything but a romantic. So his sweet sentiment threw me.

Eli leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips. “You’re beautiful first thing in the morning. I think I could get used to that,” he whispered as he attempted to deepen the kiss. This is what I had wanted him to say since we had started hooking up. But now it just left me feeling cold.

But then I got angry. Angry at myself for letting stupid Jordan Levitt interfere with whatever Eli and I had. He and his two-timing ass were definitely not worth it. So I forced myself to give into Eli’s mouth as his tongue swept against mine, his teeth nibbling on my lower lip. He groaned in the back of his throat and pulled me against him as we sank into the couch.

“Sorry to interrupt but Maysie, we’ve got to head into Barton’s and get our schedules,” Riley said, suddenly appearing in the living room. I pulled away from Eli abruptly but he continued to tease the underside of my breast with his fingers, not feeling in the least bit self- conscious about the fact that my roommate was standing less than five feet away.

He looked up and gave Riley a lazy smile, his fingers squeezing my nipple as I squirmed. “Why don’t you join us over here, Riley. It would be hot to have us all together, ya know. What do you say?” Normally I would have laughed at Eli’s efforts to make Riley uncomfortable. He loved to say outlandish crap just to piss her off. He knew she didn’t like him so he used that against her…a lot.

But this time, his words just bugged me. I shoved his hand away from me and pulled my shirt down. “Shut up, Eli. That’s messed up,” I told him sharply. Eli looked at me and for once I didn’t see the stoned, could give a shit demeanor he typically wore. In fact, he looked almost hurt by my tone. Well, that was just ridiculous, considering he had never expressed an interest in how I felt about anything before.

“In your dreams loser. Now, get the hell out of our apartment so we can get ready,” Riley retorted, turning on her heel and heading into the kitchen.

Eli got to his feet and I followed him to the front door. I held it open for him as he walked out into the hallway. He turned around and took my face into his hands. He cradled me as he gave me the sweetest, most gentle kiss he had ever given me. What the heck was going on?

“I’d like to see you tonight. Are you free?” he asked me. I chewed on my lip, unsure as to what had suddenly changed between us. This was not the Eli I was accustomed to.

“Uh, I’m not sure. I’ll have to see if I’m on the schedule at Barton’s for the night,” I told him.

Eli ran his fingers up into my hair and pulled me toward him again, giving me another kiss. This one more hungry than the last. “I’d like to take you out. Just the two of us. I don’t think we’ve done that yet.” I shook my head. Dates hadn’t been high on his priority list. Getting both of us naked had always been number one in both of our minds. So Eli asking me out had me flustered. And for the first time, I was feeling a little guilty about my interactions with Jordan the night before.

“I’ll call you,” Eli said softly, kissing my forehead before making his way down the hallway. I closed the door to the apartment softly and leaned my back against it. I closed my eyes and ran my hand over my face. Eli had left me feeling very confused.

“Lover boy gone?” Riley asked, poking her head around the door to the living room. I nodded as I headed to my room. “I want to leave in fifteen minutes. I’ve got to head to the library today to start my independent study proposals. Will you be ready?” Riley asked.

“Yeah, just let me jump into the shower. I’ll come with you to the library. I have a mountain of work before class on Monday,” I said, grabbing a pair of jeans and a tank top before disappearing into the bathroom.

I took the quickest shower in history and pulled my still dripping hair into a bun at the back of my head. I didn’t bother with makeup, so I was ready in seven minutes flat. “Impressive,” Riley remarked as we headed out.

We chatted about nothing in particular as we headed to Barton’s. Riley parked around back and we made our way in through the employee entrance in the kitchen. The day staff was on. We hadn’t met any of these people, so I had no idea who anyone was.

We stopped at Moore’s office and I wasn’t surprised to see him sitting at his desk, click clacking on his computer. I could tell he was the type to take his job as general manager very seriously. He looked up when we arrived and gave us a smile. “Good morning Maysie, Riley. Nice to see you. The schedule is tacked up on the board by the expediting station. Maysie, I put you on for this evening. Riley, you have the lunch shift tomorrow. I tried to work around the schedules you guys gave me but if there are any conflicts, let me know and I’ll sort it out.”