Rachel woke with the foggiest brain and a headache that put all others to shame. She groaned as she rolled over. She wanted to stay sleeping, but her bladder demanded that she got up.

“Oh God,” she muttered. If this was what going to a house party was like, she was never going to go to another.

She snorted at herself. Yeah, right. That wasn’t going to happen. She couldn’t even remember getting home the night before, but she doubted that would stop her when the next party invite rolled around.

She slowly opened her eyes to orientate herself, only to comprehend that she was not in her bed or in her dorm. It took her a second to realize she was in Sean’s room.

Her eyes widened as she went from half-asleep to fully awake. She glanced over to the other side of the bed.

Empty. And, going by the covers pulled to the top, it had been that way all night.

She slowly lifted the comforter.

She was fully clothed; the only things missing were her shoes. She patted herself down just to make sure, and yep, she was still wearing her bra. Ugh, she hated sleeping in her bra.

She slowly sat up so as not to jar her head, and she saw a bottled water and a container of ibuprofen on the nightstand. That was when she remembered how the night had ended.

After leaving Sean’s room, she’d gone and played cards again to wait for him to come out. She hadn’t realized he’d left his room and gone immediately downstairs. Before she had known it, she’d drunk way too much.

Elise had left a little earlier and wanted Rachel to go with, but she had been determined to talk to Sean and apologize for whatever she’d done to upset him. Why she hadn’t just gone back to his bedroom to find him, she didn’t know.

Alcohol had made her bold but not the brightest person in the room.

When she’d finally found Sean, she’d been beyond intoxicated, and she’d totally botched her apology. It’d come out as gibberish, she was sure, and Sean had taken her to his room, laid her down, slipped off her shoes, and covered her up. He’d brought her water and medicine for the morning and left her to sleep.

He hadn’t even kissed her before leaving.

Rachel grabbed the meds, shook three out, and downed them with the entire bottle of water.

She didn’t know when her feelings for Sean had changed, but they had. Two days ago, she hadn’t wanted to be attracted to him. This morning, she was bereft that he hadn’t kissed her good night.

She was such a girl.

Grabbing her shoes off the floor, she went in search of the first free bathroom to empty her bladder and maybe clear her head, too.

The hallway was quiet when she opened the door, and she slipped into the bathroom a door down from Sean’s room. She tried to be as quiet as possible, but she was clumsy after drinking the night before.

She dropped a shoe, knocked over a vial of cologne, and was unable to run the water in the sink on anything other than full blast. And let’s not forget, the tsunami that sounded when she flushed the toilet.

She winced as she exited, but everything was still quiet. Whew.

She tiptoed out into the living room, intending to head straight to the front door, but she glanced over at the semicircle of couches and saw Sean fast asleep.

He was lying on his back with one arm thrown over his head, hanging off the side of the couch, and the other on his bare stomach. His beautiful, bare stomach. Rachel had assumed that Sean was hiding muscles under his T-shirt, especially after touching him last night, but she’d had no idea he was so ripped.

She sucked in a breath. Wow.

He was a smaller, slim guy, but that did not take away from the fact that his pecs were well defined. She wanted to run her fingertips over his eight-pack to see if his muscles moved when she touched him.

He had two tattoos on his left side—one on his rib cage and one on his hip. What really surprised her was, his left nipple was pierced. Somehow, she’d missed that when she caressed his chest the night before. It was sexy on him.

He had one leg sticking out of the blanket that covered his lower half, and she saw he was wearing gray sweatpants. She was bummed. She knew he probably wouldn’t be sleeping naked in his living room, but she’d been hoping he was wearing only his underwear, so she could have gotten to see an outline of his impressive package.

Jeez, what is wrong with me?

She had gone from avoiding him to wanting to see his dick. She was not a nice person. Sean had been nothing but a gentleman to her, minus the hands-up-her-shorts thing, and she was trying to get a peek at his junk while he slept.

Filled with guilt, she cautiously approached him. She’d wake him only to say a short apology, and then she’d go home. She set her shoes on the large square coffee table and placed her hand on his shoulder.

“Sean,” she whispered. “Sean, wake up a sec, please.”

One eye opened just enough to peek at her. “What’s up?” he asked.

Then, he closed his eye and fell back asleep; she could tell by his deep breathing.

She sighed. “Sean,” she said again. She added in a shoulder squeeze.

The same eye opened.

“I need to tell you, I’m sorry.”

“Okay.” Again, his eye closed, and his breathing deepened.

She’d never had to work so hard to apologize to someone. She shook him this time. “Sean, please listen to me.”

Both eyes opened to tiny slits. “Later,” he said. He grabbed her and pulled her down next to him. Her back was to him, and he tucked her to his side, spooning her and wrapping his body around hers. “Go back to sleep. We’ll talk later.”

Rachel’s body hummed at the nearness and warmth of his body. There was no way she was going to go back to sleep, but now, she felt guilty for waking him. And there was no way she’d be able to slip from his arms without fully rousing him from his sleep.

Resigned to hanging out there for a while, she closed her eyes and snuggled back against Sean. It had been a long time since she got to sleep next to a man. She might as well enjoy it for a bit.

He smelled and felt delicious, and before she knew it, she was asleep again too.

When Rachel woke again, she was alone on the couch. She glanced around and didn’t see anyone, but she could hear noises coming from the lower level.

She went downstairs to find Sean but only saw Luke and two other guys. Someone had told her that Sean and Luke had two other roommates, and Rachel assumed these were the guys. The three of them were picking up garbage and cleaning up.

“Rachel,” Luke said when he saw her, a huge grin on his face.

She ignored whatever the smile might mean. “Is Sean around?” she asked.

Luke’s smile faded. “He left,” he said as if he didn’t want to admit it.

“Do you know when he’ll be back?”

Luke glanced at his roommates, who grimaced and shrugged. Luke looked back at her. “Tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Yeah, he went home for the rest of the weekend. Sorry.”

Rachel thought about his comment for a moment. Luke thought she and Sean had had sex, and then Sean had ditched her.

“Oh, it’s okay. He let me sleep in his bedroom while he slept on the couch. I just wanted to thank him.”

Luke looked relieved at this news. “I’ll tell him.”

“Thanks,” Rachel said and headed back upstairs. She grabbed her shoes, slipped them on, and headed for her dorm.

When she unlocked the door to her and Elise’s room, she was disappointed to see Elise was still asleep. She’d been hoping that her friend would be up and available to talk.

Knowing whatever she had to say could wait, Rachel grabbed her shower supplies and headed to the bathroom. Maybe washing away the smell of alcohol and the party would help clear her head.

When she returned to her room, Elise was awake.

“What happened last night? You didn’t come home,” her roommate asked.

“I got too drunk to walk home, and I slept in Sean’s bed.”

“Ooh,” Elise said excitedly.

“Alone. He slept on the couch.”

“Oh.” This time, her friend’s voice was flat with disenchantment.

“Yeah,” Rachel agreed.

“So, nothing else happened?”

Rachel told Elise about finding Sean in his room, them kissing, and him touching her until she exploded. About how she’d slept alone and how Sean was gone when she woke up.

“I think I offended him or something. He changed for a split second when I mentioned the rumors Steph and Claire had told us. But, when I tried to apologize, he kind of brushed me off.”

“I’m sure it’ll be okay. Maybe he doesn’t think you need to apologize, and that’s why he didn’t really respond.”

Rachel wasn’t sure. “I don’t know.”

“You’ll see on Tuesday. Everything will be back to normal.”

Elise was right. Everything went back to normal the next week. Rachel and Elise sat in their normal spots in the middle of the room, and Sean and Luke took their usual seats off to the left toward the front. Sean made no effort to speak to her.

Rachel no longer had the boldness of alcohol to give her the courage to approach Sean on her own, but she found an excuse to stick around outside of the classroom after she and Elise got out before the guys.

Rachel straightened from her kneeling position on the floor where she’d been looking in her bag for her money for coffee. She’d been watching for Sean out of the corner of her eye, and when he was almost out, she stood and threw her backpack over her shoulder.

She pretended to be surprised to see it was him and opened her mouth to ask him about the rest of the weekend, but when Sean saw her and Elise, he simply said, “Ladies,” with a nod and continued on.

Luke said hello, and the two were off.

Rachel wouldn’t speak to Sean again for two months.