Starr Fated (3 page)

“So you’re all
number crunchers.” She pulled a face.

“Hey, don't
say that like it’s a bad thing,” I protested at her reaction. It
wasn’t what I was used to - most people were pretty impressed when
they learned where and what I was studying.

“Sorry, I
didn't mean it like that. It’s just I always hated maths at school.
I got by okay in it, but I gave it up as soon as I could.”

“Well, I’ve
never been the slightest bit interested in art, but I’d be willing
to let you educate and enlighten me,” I offered hopefully. Sera
seemed to like the room anyhow, so that was positive.

“Hmm, we’ll
have to see about that. So, what’s the rest of the house like?”

“Come on, I’ll
show you.”

We returned
back downstairs, and Sera looked in the lounge. It was dominated by
our huge, flat screen TV – our pride and joy, which we’d clubbed
together to buy as soon as we all moved in, as it was essential we
had a large screen to watch the rugby on. Sera seemed more
interested in the kitchen for some reason, which was just your
average type, with most things you need in it. I was taken by
surprise when she chose to examine the inside of the oven, of all
places.
Why?

“That’s
surprisingly clean,” she commented.

“That’d be
because we never use it,” I winked at her, nodding my head towards
the bin, which was stacked up with empty pizza boxes and take away
cartons.

“You mean you
never actually cook for yourselves?” she asked incredulously.

“Depends what
you mean by cook. I do a pretty mean ready meal in the microwave,
and Toby’s a dab hand with a pot noodle. Adam lets his girlfriend
Chloe handle catering for him I think.”

“That’s
dreadful! You can't live like that. Apart from being unhealthy,
it’s such a waste of money,” Sera argued, but I just shrugged.

“Perhaps if
you came and lived here, you could show us boys how to cook some
nice, easy, nutritious meals,” I suggested with a poker straight
face.
You cook, we eat.

“Oh no, I’m
not falling for that one. The old ‘you show me’ meaning ‘you do it
for me’ routine.”

“Damn, you
must have shared with boys before,” I laughed.
It was worth a
try.

“Oh, girls can
pull that trick too, believe me,” she informed me wryly.

“So, what do
you think? None of us are convicted murderers or rapists, but
there’s a lock on the bedroom door, if sharing with three blokes
would be an issue for you in any way?”

“Oh, that
wouldn’t be a problem. I told you before; I can take care of
myself, no worries.”

“So, is that a
yes, you’re going to take the room?” I asked hopefully.

“Well, I do
really like the room. All that space under the eaves would be
perfect for storing my art folders, and the light in the room is
great. But two things.”

“What?”

“Obviously you
haven't had time to run this by your housemates, so how would they
feel about a girl moving in, when you’re clearly used to an
all-male environment?”

“They’ll be
totally cool about it, trust me,” I promised. Was she kidding? A
total hot babe like her?

“And we
haven't even discussed the most important issue yet of the deposit
and the rent. I’d be prepared to stretch to the top of my budget,
but if it’s over that, then it’s just not possible. What does your
landlord charge?”

“Parents
keeping you on a tight rein, are they?”

“No, it’s not
that. My parents have both passed away, so I have to manage on my
student loan plus whatever else I can earn to top up my funds. I
already work as a waitress as many hours as I can fit in around my
studies, so there would be no way I could raise any extra
funds.”

“How on earth
do you find time to study if you’re working so much?”

“Efficient use
of my time. That’s why I have to get my accommodation sorted out
today. I’ll be too busy working or studying after this. So, is your
landlord reasonable?”

I did some
quick mental arithmetic, while Sera calmly watched me. When I’d
read the details of the other places she’d been going to see, the
rent had been written on each one, so I had a pretty good idea of
what her budget was. Now I just had to calculate how low I thought
I could get our beloved landlord to go.

“Look, why
don't you let me make you a coffee, then we can sit down and run
through all the figures together. I'm sure we can work something
out,” I suggested, buying myself a bit more time. I had to be able
to work something out, because there was no way I was going to let
gorgeous Seraphina Jones walk away from here until she’d agreed to
move in.

I tried to
keep calm, so I wouldn’t be disappointed if
it turned out I couldn’t afford either the deposit or the rent for
this place. But the truth was, I really wanted it. I could just see
myself settled in that odd little attic room at the top of the
house, especially as it even had an adjoining tiny bathroom with a
loo and a shower. No doubt it would need a deep clean to bring it
up to scratch, but that didn't worry me, I’d shared far worse in
the past. This place would be sheer luxury - if I could afford
it.

Just as Jamie
and I sat down together at the kitchen table with our drinks, we
heard the front door slam, and another guy appeared in the kitchen.
He had thick, straight, dark brown hair that he wore a bit shorter
than Jamie had his, but he had it all swept forward instead of just
hanging down. I couldn’t help noticing that he had the most
gorgeous chocolate brown eyes. He wasn’t as tall as Jamie, but was
a much broader, stockier build. I wondered what the third housemate
was like, because so far these two boys were both seriously
hot.

“Sorry, am I
interrupting?” he asked, as he stared at me.

We females do
have a brain as well, you know.

“No, come and
join us, because hopefully this is our new housemate, Seraphina
Jones,” Jamie breezily replied. I noticed that he studiously
avoided meeting his house mate’s eye.

“What, you
mean she’s moving in with you? Blimey, that was quick work, mate,”
he said admiringly, as he still stared at me.

“No! I mean
Sera is hopefully going to be taking the attic room.”

“Really? But…
what does The Big Guy have to say about this?”

“The Big Guy?”
I queried.

“Liam. Jamie’s
older brother. The control freak who owns this place.”

“He’s away in
New York on business at the moment. But he’ll be cool. He’s been
nagging me for ages to do something about letting that room after
Ollie left, but I couldn’t get any of the other guys interested,
could I? They all thought the room was too small.”

“You mean Liam
doesn’t know yet? This is going to be interesting then. Very
interesting indeed.” Toby raised his eyebrows. “But I’m being very
rude and forgetting my manners. I'm Toby Harris. It’s a pleasure to
meet you, Seraphina,” he smiled charmingly at me.

“Likewise,
Toby, and please, call me Sera. So, do you think Jamie’s brother is
going to object to having me as a tenant for some reason? Why would
that be? And anyway, it’s not certain yet, because we still haven’t
discussed the deposit and rent yet, have we?”

“There’ll be
no trouble with my brother. He just…he likes…he’s very controlled
and organised, so he’ll just be a little surprised that I’ve got
this sorted without him, that’s all.”

“He likes
control, in all matters, full stop,” muttered Toby under his
breath, which earned him a glare from Jamie.

“If it’s going
to cause any problems, maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” I said,
trying to hide my bitter disappointment. I really wanted that room.
It seemed the answer to all my prayers, especially after spending
all summer sleeping on Abbey's lumpy sofa, and then seeing the
other dreadful rooms earlier today.

“No. There
won’t be any problem. Leave Liam to me,” Jamie insisted.

“Gladly,”
muttered Toby. “Cos The Big Guy sure scares the hell out of
me.”

“Look, before
we go any further and worry about this ‘Big Guy’, can you tell me
just how much the deposit is?” I queried, wanting to get the facts
straight before I got too excited.

Jamie looked
over at Toby.

“Can you
remember how much we paid? Did we actually do the whole deposit
thing?”

“How do you
expect me to remember? It was years ago now, and my dad just sorted
all that out for me,” Toby replied, as he shrugged carelessly.

“You see,
Sera, we’ve house shared since we first started at uni. Liam said
financially it made more sense to buy a student house as one of his
investment properties, rather than waste money paying out
exorbitant rent to a landlord for several years. He’s a bit of a
financial genius,” Jamie explained.

“He must be,
if he can afford to buy you a nice house like this, right here in
London,” I murmured. I’d been right. Jamie came from a nice,
comfortable, monied background. No wonder he said he knew the
landlord personally – of course he would if it was his own
brother.

“Yes, and have
you forgotten how he insisted on personally vetting each of us
before he’d agree to anyone moving in?” Toby muttered to Jamie.

“It’ll be
fine. Trust me,” Jamie insisted, although he looked rather
uncomfortable, as if he wasn’t really that confident about the
reaction of this older brother of his. “Now I'm sure we can come to
some flexible arrangement about the deposit, and I think the figure
for the rent is going to be around £500 a month. Is that figure
within your budget, Sera?”

I couldn’t
help noticing the look of surprise on Toby’s face, and I suspected
that Jamie might have kicked him under the table when I saw him
wince. I wasn’t sure what was going on here between these two, but
I was sure I could handle things if they thought me moving in was
going to be a green light for either of them to get an easy
lay.

“Is that with
bills on top?” I asked nervously, as the figure he quoted was
already at the very top of my budget.

“No,
including.” Toby winced again – another kick?

“Well, I might
just about be able to run to that,” I smiled happily in relief,
making a mental note to get a contract signed so there would be no
going back on these figures once I’d moved in. Jamie seemed a nice,
genuine guy, but I preferred it all to be signed and sealed.

This
arrangement seemed as if it was actually going to be possible, I
thought to myself. This year, perhaps I was going to be living
somewhere half decent for a change. All because I’d left my handbag
behind on the train. What a serendipitous piece of luck that had
turned out to be.

I
was not
best pleased when I
discovered that Kimberley had not yet got out of the bed in my
guest room, when I returned from my usual morning workout and
swim.

“Come on. You
know I need you out of here by ten at the latest,” I told her, as I
pulled back the duvet and delivered a nice firm smack on her naked
behind.

“Don’t worry,
Liam, there’s plenty of time. Come here so we can more fun and
games like last night,” Kim purred at me, as she rolled over to
give me a better view of her voluptuous, naked body.

She smiled, as
she slowly opened her legs and raised her knees, then let one hand
wander down between her legs to start stroking herself, while the
other teased the nipple of one of her large breasts.

“No, that’s
not our arrangement, as you well know, Kim. Now come on,” I
insisted as I stood next to the bed. I found it irritating that she
thought she could call the shots and order me around. I knew she
was a highly educated and intelligent woman, but when we’d started
our arrangement she’d agreed she liked to be dominated and let the
man take control.

Not one to
give up easily, Kimberley pouted as she kneeled up, and then
reached over to take hold of the waist band of my jeans to pull me
towards her.

“I’m sure
you’d enjoy one of my special good morning kisses, wouldn’t you?”
she whispered, as she looked up at me through her lashes. The
trouble was, in the harsh light of day, all I could see as I looked
down at her was the smudged mascara, the dark roots of her bleached
blonde hair, and the orange tinge of her fake tan. If I was honest,
I felt slightly repulsed by her.

Last night,
the big, busty, curvaceous blonde had seemed the perfect embodiment
of the type of woman I always select for a fuck buddy, especially
as it had been a while since I’d had a decent lay, having been away
on business in New York. I’d been seeing Kimberley for just over a
month now, and as usual, at first she’d seemed perfect. She
willingly agreed that she was more than happy to have a no strings,
no personal involvement, purely sexual arrangement between us, on
Friday or Saturday nights, sometimes midweek as well if I felt like
it. She said she liked a dominant man, which was perfect for me, as
I like control in all matters. I like my own space, so she agreed
there would be no sleeping together, we’d have separate bedrooms
once we’d finished having whatever type of sex I felt like that
week. Then she’d be long gone before my kid brother came over to my
place for Sunday lunch, as he usually did whenever I wasn’t out of
town on business.

But of course
it hadn’t lasted. Women just can’t help themselves, it seems. They
always want to complicate things, get more involved, however clear
I make it from the outset that it’s not an option as far as I’m
concerned. Even though I was always totally honest about the fact
that all I was interested in was lots of great uncomplicated sex,
women seemed to look on me as a challenge, a man they could tame
and domesticate. I’d known the writing was on the wall for
Kimberley when she’d suggested that my apartment needed something
to make it more homely – some cushions maybe.