Chapter 208

Beau walks in through the door. He stops when he sees me standing there, facing him. I have no idea what kind of expression I’m wearing it, but the moment Beau sees it, his usual lazy smile hardens into the no nonsense kind of look I’d expect Neil or Archer to wear.

“Did you get what you needed?” he asks me. He must already know the answer.

I shake my head.

Beau then walks around me, heading for the receptionist at her desk.

“Can I help you, sir?” she asks in a much more pleasant tone than she used with me.

Beau crosses his arms. He’s usually friendly with people, the type to win every argument with a flirt and a cheeky grin. Right now, however, he’s glowering.

“My friend here…” Beau nods to me. “She needed help, and it seems that help was not given to her. Am I to understand she wasn’t even able to see one of the advisors here?”

The receptionist’s face drops at once. “She’s… your friend?”

Beau tilts his head. “Did I mumble?”

“No. Of course, sir. I deeply apologize, sir.” Suddenly, as if the receptionist came back alive, she flicked on her computer and began typing away. “We can get you both into see someone as soon as possible.”

So… wait. This woman told me there are no available rooms, and she’s not even the one in the position to make that call? I really was getting stonewalled!

Beau glances back at me and winks. I roll my eyes.

How ridiculous is this? I’m a student here, too! But I show up alone and I get the cold shoulder. Beau walks in and suddenly everyone bends over backwards.

I hate to admit how much Beau showing up really saved my bacon here. If he didn’t come, I would have left without any progress.

Beau and I are only left waiting a couple minutes before an advisor rushes out to escort us back to his office. We don’t stay there long. The advisor already has keys ready for us.

“Chloe, was it? I saw your email just now,” the advisor said. “I apologize so much. It must have been swallowed by our junk mail filter and put straight into the trash can.”

Bullshit. It was trashed because this guy trashed it. But he was giving me what I wanted, so I kept that particular opinion to myself.

“We have one of the best rooms on campus ready and available for you. I think you will be most pleased.” Presumably, he is speaking to me, since it’s me who needs the room. Yet it’s Beau he keeps looking out. It’s Beau he holds the keys out for.

Beau accepts the keys. “I expect my friend Chloe to not have any more trouble.”

“Of course,” the advisor says, dipping his head.

“Anything she needs, you will assist her with,” Beau says. It’s not even a question.

“Yes. My door is always open to you, Chloe,” he says, while still looking at Beau.

How annoying this all is. If the man would have just done his job from the start…

Still, I can’t argue with results.

Beau grins like the cat that caught the canary as we leave the administrative building. With the key ring around his finger, he’s flipping the keys back and forth, like he doesn’t have a care in the world.

Those are my keys. I should be the one holding them. I should be the one checking out the room all on my own.

But, after what Beau just did for me, I can’t bring myself to make demands. Besides, if we get to the room, and it’s not what we expect, I’ll probably need Beau again to settle the issue. I don’t believe the advisor’s ‘my door is always open’ for one second.

We find the dorm where the room is located easily enough. It’s one of the taller buildings, so we hop on the elevator.

“What floor did he say again?” I ask, inspecting the many rows of buttons. This building has nine floors.

“Floor Nine,” Beau responds.

Oh. So I’ll have a view. That’s more than I need, but that’s nice. I press the button for 9.

We ride the elevator in silence. When we get to the top floor, the doors open up, and I see a short hallway with only one door at the end of it.

Is this roof access or something? Did Beau get the floor wrong?

No. Wait. That door has a number on it. 901.

Is this… my room?

Beau walks forward, so I follow him. He inserts the key into the lock and miraculously the door opens.

What I see inside takes my breath away.

This is not the simple dorm room I expected. Most dorm rooms, I knew, comprised of bunkbeds and a pair of desks. A mini-fridge with a microwave fixed on top of it. Room for a television, if you were lucky.

This is… so much more.

This is a multi-room penthouse apartment. There’s a living room, a dining room, and a separate kitchen complete with stove, oven, and even a dishwasher! I count three separate bedrooms and two full baths. And the view… You can see all of campus from up here! In the distance, I can even see the Pyramid!

It’s so beautiful.

It’s so… ridiculous.

I turn to Beau. “We have to go back. He gave us the wrong room.”

Beau’s self-satisfied smirk droops a little. “What are you talking about? This is the best room on campus.”

“That’s what I’m talking about! No way this room was meant for me. And I don’t need anything like this.”

“You can’t possibly want to turn this down,” Beau says. “Stop being so stubborn.”

“It’s more than I need,” I say.

“So what?” Beau walks closer to me so that we’re standing side by side at the floor to ceiling windows in the living room. “Why would you want less luxury? Less comfort?”

“I don’t want special treatment,” I snap.

“Oh, no?”

Beau reaches up. He traces his thumb along the length of my jaw, coaxing my face closer to his.

“No special treatment? Guess you don’t want this then,” he says, and kisses me.

Gods damn it all, he’s such a good kisser. His tongue immediately slips expertly into my mouth, teasing my own. Before long, I’m clinging to his shoulders for dear life, totally lost to the warmth of his body and the insistence of his tongue.

Whatever argument I was forming, he literally swallows from my mouth.

Beau could like end wars this way, kissing all others into submission. And he knows how could he is too. The confidence radiates off of every lick, every tilt of his head, each hand gripping the small of my back and tugging me closer against him.

I’m lost, and I know it. All I can do is surrender.

He backs me up until my calves hit the couch. I’m suddenly down on top of it, and Beau is crawling over me.

He looks so devilish with the mischievous glint in his eye. That look promises pleasures unbounded.

I swallow my pride and open my legs, welcoming him between them.

I guess it wouldn’t hurt to keep the penthouse.