Iris’s neck spins around from where she’s sitting at the dresser in some sexy pink lingerie. Her wide diamond blue eyes land on my face.
She springs to her feet fast enough to knock over her wine glass on the dresser. She tears a clunky headset off her head. “What the hell, Jude?!”
25
Iris
Whoa there!” My roommate mumbles as he makes a staggering entrance that would make Kramer from Seinfeld look like a graceful ballerina by comparison. He barely catches himself on the wall.
“Oh my god. Are you okay?” I abandon my headset on the dresser and rush over toward him because he looks pretty unsteady, like he might fall flat on his face. Not that I’d be able to catch a six foot three professional football player without becoming a pancake on the floor myself.
Thankfully, he rights himself and limps into an upright position.
“What on earth are you doing, Jude?!” My voice comes out squeaky and high-pitched because this man just scared the shit out of me.
He throws a disoriented glimpse over my shoulder, then his forehead creases with something that looks a little bit like anger. I follow his stare.
There’s red wine spreading across my dresser, bleeding into the scattered papers, circling the base of my microphone and dripping down onto the hardwood floor.
“Oh, shit!” I quickly grab my computer and headphones out of harm’s way. Tiptoeing through the mess, I deposit my gadgets on my bed. I bend over my mattress and take a few minutes to fuss over the equipment, making sure none of it got wet because lord knows I can’t afford to replace any of it right now.
When I’m satisfied that everything is dry, my attention spins back to my roommate.
Now, he’s standing there, his glassy eyes locked on my ass. His gaze bounces to my face. He swallows, making his Adam’s apple climb and drop. That’s when I remember that I’m virtually naked in this see-through lace teddy I’m wearing. Jeez, Louise.
I grab a bunch of pillows and self-consciously clench them to my lingerie-clad body. “Again, what the hell are you doing?” I demand.
Jude blinks hard and slow. “I wanted to talk to you but never mind,” he says in a cold, flat voice. He gestures resentfully to my make-shift recording studio. “Obviously, you’re in the middle of something. I don’t want to interrupt. You can go back to…whoever it is you’re so busy entertaining all the time.”
What on earth is he talking about? Before I can ask, he limps away, closing the door behind him.
I wrap myself in my bathrobe and plop down on the edge of my bed, fuming. It’s obvious that Jude just heard everything I was saying. That’s a major invasion of my privacy.
My normal response would be to hide away and feel mortified. But I’m tired of being the quiet girl who holds her tongue when really, what I need to do is stand up for myself. Just as I’m working myself up for a confrontation, there’s a knock at my door.
The hinges scream as I angrily tear the door open. Jude stands there with a mop and some towels from the linen closet. “We need to clean that up.” He frowns at me.
I’m frowning too as I step out of the doorway to let him through. Wordlessly, he hands me the towels and starts mopping up the mess on the floor. “Really don’t appreciate you spying on me, Jude.”
He stops and looks up at me. “I wasn’t trying to spy on you, Iris. I promise.” His tone is genuine. “I just wanted to talk…And my drunk ass fell on the door.” He shakes his head in frustration. “Y’see? That’s why I stick to my tea.”
“Yeah, you should probably stick to your tea,” I shoot back bitterly. I ball up the towels to soak up the wine on the dresser. “Not that it’s any of your business but I feel the need to explain myself.”
“You don’t need to,” Jude says, his tone cold. “You can have phone sex with whoever you want to have phone sex with.”
Is he for real? I roll my eyes. “I was not having phone sex. I—I’m auditioning…”
That grabs his attention. He furrows his brows and quits mopping to look at me. “Auditioning?”
“Audiobook narration. For romance novels,” I explain. “To bring in extra money. It’s one of the side businesses I’m trying out.”
I can’t read Jude’s expression as he stands there frozen, processing my words.
Feeling defeated, I drop down on my bed. “All of my business attempts are failing and I just need something to stick. Fast. Because when you leave, I don’t want to be destitute and scrambling to make ends meet again.”
He abandons the mop and sits next to me. “I told you, I changed my mind. I’m not leaving any time soon.”
I shake my head. “But you will leave eventually. And I’ve got to be ready for that when the time comes.” I can’t be financially unprepared again, like I was when Kirk left.
“Shit, Iris…” He drops his head and rubs the back of his neck. Jude is silent for a while, deep in thought, then a smile slowly creeps up his handsome face. “So, audiobooks, huh?”
I nod, feeling a hesitant little smile of my own. “Yeah. Romance.”
“Sounded pretty…” He fumbles like he can’t find the right word.
Steamy…Filthy…Panty-melting…
I’m blushing. “Yeah, some of it is a little out there but for the most part it’s fun…”
His eyes track down to my robe and his expression says he’s visualizing the thin scrap of lace I’m wearing beneath. “So the wine…? The lingerie…?”
“Just to set the mood,” I tell him. “To make me open up and stop feeling so nervous.”
He angles his chin toward the wine-soaked papers on my dresser. “Is that the manuscript?”
I nod.
“Can I?”
I nod again, a hot feeling rising along my spine.
He reaches for
