The #5Star Affair (Love Hashtagged Book 1) Read online

  “One more?” He winked. “I already promised to keep your secret. But sure.”

  “I do this for a living, and it pays the bills…sort of. I don’t do it because I’m mean or spiteful, or have a chip on my shoulder, or wish I could write games as well as the masters. I don’t do it because I hate game creators—you guys are so incredibly talented and make my life more fun, and I adore that. I do it because I like to play, and I like to share my opinion of what I play. So any review I’ve already written has nothing to do with you personally, or any of your colleagues. And if we do decide to do this roommate thing, I won’t touch anything else from Digital Media after today.” That was going to hurt. They were such a huge chunk of the market. But there was no other way. “Someone else at one of the magazines I sell to might, but I won’t have any part of it.”

  His gaze never left her face, but he didn’t say anything. He drummed his fingers on the counter. Took a sip of his drink. “Is there more?” There was no irritation in his question, just amusement.

  She laughed. “Smart ass.” She had gone on for a little bit. “That’s all.”

  “Okay. I agree. Does that mean you want to see the place?”

  “You’re making a lot of assumptions.” Not that she minded. She was enjoying the back and forth.

  “You’re still here. I’m having fun, you don’t seem to be miserable, and it’s not like we’re getting married. Just sharing an apartment. Are you in?”

  She made sure to maintain her tone teasing when she said, “I’m in. Just remember, if Gwen doesn’t see me on FaceTime in thirty minutes, and back here tonight, she’s calling the cops.”

  He pulled a black nylon tri-fold from his back pocket, and plucked out two business cards. He set one on the counter, and handed the other to her. “I think that’s fair. She can send them to this address. Meet me there? ”

  She glanced at the address long enough to commit it to memory, then stuffed the card in the purse dangling from her wrist. She fell into step next to him. “These don’t say Digital Media on them.”

  For the first time since he’d walked in, he hesitated. “I’m working on a side project. Something that’ll be hush-hush until I get things rolling faster.” He pushed out the front door and held it for her.

  When she brushed past, the clean scent of body wash filled her head. He smelled incredible, too. Spicy and clean. That hardly seemed fair. Her gaze met his, and more fantasy tripped through her thoughts. Letting the door swing shut. Being pressed between him and the wall. Finding out how his lips tasted.

  Her skin tingled, as she failed to push the idea aside. She finally dragged her attention back to the parking lot, but even that didn’t successfully snap the thread of desire running through her. She needed to stuff those thoughts aside until she was alone. Especially if she was going to agree to anything like moving in.

  ****

  Even though Ethan gave Jaycie his address, he waited for her when they left Gwen’s diner, and made sure she was behind him on the short drive to his apartment. Trees lined the walkways from the parking lot to the buildings, green peeking out from the sleepy winter. Each structure was red brick with blue trim, giant letters distinguishing one from the next. Jaycie followed Ethan up the path.

  Her phone vibrated through the strap dangling from her wrist, and she jumped. Irritation and nausea crawled through her when she saw the number, and she pressed ignore. Seconds later, a new text message from Nick buzzed through. Plz talk to me?

  Get the hint already. She deleted the note without hesitation, and pushed all the negativity his name summoned to the back of her mind. He wasn’t going to ruin her evening.

  Ethan glanced at her. “Everything all right?”

  She pasted a neutral expression in place. “Depends on what the place looks like.”

  No reason to go in to intense detail about her past. As long as Nick didn’t know where she lived, he wouldn’t be an issue. It wasn’t that her ex was a threat. If he’d been anything but nice to her, she would have ended the relationship ages ago. It was his best friend, Kent, who terrified her.

  When Kent had cornered her, during one of Nick’s gaming parties, and threatened her life a few days later, she’d decided walking away from the situation was in her best interest. Especially when Nick told her she was overreacting—Kent was just being a guy.

  The clang of her and Ethan’s sneakers on the suspended steel stairs echoed off concrete, as they climbed to the second floor. He only fiddled with the deadbolt for a second, before pushing the door open and gesturing inside. “My castle.”

  It wasn’t at all what she expected, especially from someone who needed help with rent. Instead of having walls lined with mostly-nude anime figurines, stacks of video games, and piles of DVD’s, the room was clean and open.

  On their left, a blue sofa was boxed in by two matching chairs, all overstuffed and threadbare, but clean. A glass coffee table sat in the middle of it all, a large flat-screen TV mounted on the wall with a speaker on either side. No wires ran from them.

  The kitchen was just as clean, and barren. A high counter surrounded by stools separated the table-less dining room from the linoleum. “I’m not real big on labeling food or not sharing,” he explained. “I hope that’s okay. Let me know if you use the last of anything, and I’ll do the same.”

  What were the odds he had anything in the fridge besides beer and hot pockets? “Sounds fair to me.”

  She followed him down a short hallway, as he continued his short tour narration. “There’s only one bathroom. I hope that’s not a problem. I don’t spend a lot of time primping though.”

  “Your good looks are natural?” Her teasing came naturally with him. The last half hour or so had been too much fun to stop now.

  “Damn straight.”

  The empty counter in the bathroom and single blue towel on the rack backed up his claim. A stronger version of the clean musk he radiated drifted toward her as they moved toward the bedrooms, and she breathed deeply. She wasn’t going to mind that.

  Two doors waited for them. One open enough for her to see a bed, a dresser, a desk, and all the other things she expected from someone who hadn’t just walked out of his life, leaving his past behind. With any luck, in a few months, her room would look almost lived in as well.

  Once she’d decided to put some distance between herself and Nick, it was easier to leave it all behind than deal with the questions and being told how unreasonable she was. She’d even stopped visiting her old hang-outs. Switched out her routine to keep off Kent’s radar. A couple dressers she didn’t care about, and the bed she and Nick had shared were small losses, compared to hanging on to her sanity.

  Jaycie shook the memories aside before they could wrap her in paranoia.

  Ethan nodded toward the open room. “This is the spare. It’s wired for fiber. Connections are in the walls.” He pointed at a socket under the window across from them. “If you want to set up your desk somewhere else, I’ll run lines.”

  She noted the casual way he shared the information. If he’d told her that before they met up, she might have taken the place sight unseen. “I didn’t think any apartment in the valley that cost less than a grand a month had fiber connections. Is the entire complex that way?”

  He smirked. “I did the work. They let me because it makes the place easier to rent when I move out. Everyone wins. I needed it for my office, when it was in here.”

  She stepped through the doorway, depressing past temporarily forgotten. “It’s amazing.” She turned his last comment over in her head. “Office? I thought you lived with someone else.” Unless he’d been lying. Not that she was dumping her entire history on him at once, but her holding back was as much a matter of personal safety as anything.

  His spine stiffened before he forced an easy smile back into place. “So what do you think?”

  She didn’t like having her question shrugged off, but his hesitation wasn’t setting off any warning bells, so she’d let it
pass. “I work from home, being freelance and all. Is that a problem?” She didn’t know why it would be, but some people had weird hang-ups.

  His posture relaxed. “Not an issue.”

  The ease in which she fell into conversation with him was a bit scary. She wasn’t worried about looking weak in front of him; she was really having fun, joking with Ethan. It had been a long time since she felt like she could drop some of her mask. She had to know, though, was this all a front on his part, or was he really this laid back. “When I have my girlfriends over for slumber parties, can we have pillow fights in our underwear?”

  “As long as I’m invited—”

  Her heart sank. Why was she disappointed? He was just continuing the tangent she started.

  “—and you don’t mind if I wear my pink teddy. I don’t do hair, but I’m decent with makeup. We can all swap beauty tips.”

  She laughed. Nothing for her to get hung up on after all. She wasn’t sure if she’d been trying to make things awkward he’d tell her to forget it, or just worried he was too good to be true. Either way, it didn’t seem like it would be an issue. “I bet you look amazing in eyeliner.”

  “It doesn’t matter. If you’re in the room, no one’s looking at anyone’s eyes but yours.”

  Her thoughts stalled at his scrutiny, and her heart skipped. “Are you like this with everyone?”

  “Polite and friendly?”

  This was just friendly? He definitely wasn’t worth getting her panties in a bind over, in that case. Too bad her racing pulse didn’t agree. “Full of shameless flattery.”

  “Only when someone deserves it. And I don’t run into people who do very often.”

  So much for casually brushing off his words this time. Her skin tingled at the implication this was only for her. Experience reminded her she could enjoy on the compliments all she wanted, as long as she remembered they were the same kind of candy as looking at him. All sugar, no substance. “You’ve already sold me on the place, you know.”

  He pulled his keys from his pocket, and twisted one off the ring. He wrapped his fingers around her wrist, raised her hand, and pressed the key into her palm. “You can move in whenever you want.” He didn’t let go.

  She should pull away. Do anything but linger on the warmth flowing between them. Stop focusing on how good it felt to have his hand wrapped around her wrist. She couldn’t find the compulsion to move, though. “Tomorrow’s Saturday. Is that too soon?” It would be nice to stop paying for the motel room she called her temporary home. Her eagerness wasn’t related to getting closer to Ethan as soon as possible. He was just some gamer guy she was going to live with.

  His grin was back. “I’ll be here.”

  Chapter Three

  Ethan stepped into his apartment, and voices floated from one of the back rooms to greet him. Concern whispered inside, until he remembered he wasn’t living alone anymore. After coming home to an empty place for almost a year, that was going to take a little getting used to. Mystery at least partially solved, his good mood rushed back.

  He followed the sound, and paused in Jaycie’s doorway. She hadn’t moved much in on Saturday. A mattress, a desk, a handful of clothes, and her computer. He liked the idea of living minimalist, but something told him that hadn’t been her first choice. Maybe it was the way she’d looked anywhere but at him when she came up with the excuse for not owning much.

  Now she sat at her computer, clicking through something he couldn’t see, another woman he didn’t recognize standing behind her pointing things out on screen.

  “Anything interesting?” he asked, to draw attention to himself.

  Two heads swiveled in his direction. “Hey.” Jaycie treated him with one of the bright smiles he was already conditioned to look forward to, even though she’d only been living there a few days. “Thinking about new menu designs for the diner. This is Gwen, by the way.”

  “Thanks for letting us invade your diner the other day.” Ethan shook Gwen’s hand.

  “For her, anything.” Gwen’s expression was flat, making her mood difficult to read.

  “What has you grinning?” Jaycie asked.

  “News at work. I was thinking about celebrating. Do you want to join me? Both of you?” It wasn’t a big thing to celebrate, just the possibility of a promotion, but it was a good possibility, and a great opportunity.

  “If you can wait for us to finish up,” Jaycie said. “We might be a little longer.”

  “Actually, I need to run. I have to talk to my accountant about taxes tonight.” Gwen gave Jaycie’s arm a squeeze, and then headed toward Ethan and the door. She paused next to him, voice loud enough to carry. “You know she’s not on the menu, right?”

  He chuckled, and made sure to keep the teasing in his response. “It’s still early.”

  Gwen rolled her eyes, and dark pink spots appeared on Jaycie’s cheeks. “Fortunately”—Gwen brushed past him—“I trust her sensibilities a lot more than yours.”

  “Enough,” Jaycie called at her retreating back. “Don’t take it out on him, because quarterly taxes make you grumpy.”

  “Bye.” Gwen’s farewell carried through the apartment, and seconds later the front door opened and closed.

  “Sorry about her.” Jaycie wouldn’t meet his gaze.

  It was tempting to push the teasing, and ask what it would take to get her on the menu, just to see how she reacted. He still had to live with her. Remembering that didn’t remove the urge. “Nothing to apologize for. As long as we’re still on for dinner.”

  She caught her bottom lip between her teeth and furrowed her brow for a moment, before the look of concentration vanished again. “Sure. Just say when.”

  ****

  Jaycie dropped into the booth across from Ethan, and he set their number on the edge of the table, so their food could find them. She was still struggling to get a handle on him in so many ways. It seemed he always had a complimentary quip at the ready, and she didn’t know if she read too much into it, and he was like that with everyone, or if there was more than teasing to his words. Except it didn’t matter. The last thing she needed was to fall hard and fast for another guy, just because he was cute and she was single.

  He nodded at an old arcade game at the far end of the burger place. It was nestled between a claw machine and a zombie shooter. “Street Fighter Two. You play?”

  She suppressed some of her enthusiasm and the desire to boast. Mostly. “I do okay. I’ve topped the scoreboard a couple of times.”

  “Want to go a round or two, while we wait?” Challenge shone in his eyes.

  She twitched her fingers against her leg. She really really did want to. Like with most things gaming related, she knew which limits to push with her male counterparts, to prove she could keep up, and which situations to walk away from before they even started. “Nah. I don’t do versus matches.”

  Regret at having to turn him down tickled her thoughts. Once upon a time, she’d loved playing one-on-one. An ache spread in her chest that she couldn’t be that person anymore. Time had taught her, regardless of who won, the outcome was never pretty. Best to avoid it, before it even became an issue. “You’re welcome to play. I’ll keep an eye out for our food.”

  He gave her a puzzled look, almost as if she were speaking a foreign language. “The point isn’t the game. I mean I’m not interested in playing a sucky one, but the point is doing something fun. I’m here with you, not Street Fighter.”

  Longing pushed a response to her lips, and she swallowed it before it forced its way out. Maybe it would actually be fun. “Okay, I’m in.”

  He stood, held out his hand, and grasped her fingers between his, to pull her to her feet. The brief contact send a shock of desire through her, and when he let go, her hand itched to be intertwined in his again. She shoved her hands in her pockets as quickly as was polite. It didn’t stop the want from pulsing under her skin. Or keep her from enjoying how good he looked in his jeans, as she followed him across the dining hal
l.

  Ethan slid a dollar into the machine, and gestured for her to pick a side. She fell onto the left out of habit, and clicked through the character screen. She raised her brows when she saw his selection. “Chun Li?” Amusement tickled her. “Is that for the fan service?”

  He gave a short laugh. “No more than you choosing Ryu. Her spinny-kick combo is easy to pull off.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the technical term for the move.” Jaycie’s hovered her fingers over the buttons, as the timer ticked toward ‘Start’ Her focus tunneled into the game. She executed a perfect block on his special attack, and pride mingled with anxiety about the inevitable protest.

  “Nice shot.” He bumped her with his shoulder, his character never pausing.

  She bit the inside of her cheek, to hide a grin. “You almost had me.”

  “Not even close.”

  Her mood floated toward incredible, as they played a few more rounds. It was a close to even split of wins versus losses, but he was a good sport the entire time. She was laughing as they made their way back to the table, and their waiting food.

  “That wasn’t too bad, was it?” He brushed his hand over hers, and hooked his index finger around hers.

  The subtle gesture short-circuited her thoughts, and she resisted the desire to lean into him completely. She couldn’t bring herself to pull away, though. “It was a blast. Thank you.”

  They dropped into their seats, and her hand protested the loss of contact. She needed to get past that. She could see them being good friends, but she needed to remember that was all she was looking for—if she had to repeat the words over and over again until they stuck. Silence settled in between them, as they started on their dinner. She fiddled with the paper sleeve from her straw, folding and unfolding it, while her mind whirred over what to say. Oh, duh. “I can’t believe I didn’t ask. Beyond it being a work thing, what exactly are we celebrating?”