The #5Star Affair (Love Hashtagged Book 1) Read Free Page A

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