Common Areas Read online

  Common Areas

  A Reverse Harem Roommates Romance

  By Alyssa Clark

  Published by Scarlet Lantern Publishing

  Copyright © 2019 by

  Alyssa Clark & Scarlet Lantern Publishing

  All rights reserved.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  This book contains sexually explicit scenes and adult language.

  All characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Epilogue

  More Steamy Romance by Alyssa Clark

  1

  I wasn’t thinking straight; I was just acting. My eye had started to swell and I couldn’t remember much past the first rise of his fist and the dull thwack of flesh pounding on flesh.

  I hadn’t looked in the mirror; I didn’t want to see the damage. I was betting the only thing that was keeping me from feeling the pain was the adrenaline, but it wasn’t keeping the taste of blood from my mouth.

  I couldn’t open my left eye anymore.

  How much time had passed since Jeff had gone to work? Had closing time hit already at the club? How long had I been unconscious? How much time did I have to get out?

  I didn’t know, and my escape depended on if I could get someone to answer the phone. So far, with this particular ad, I was on the third attempt. It was 3am; I knew that much, and the chance of anyone answering me was slim. That was a fact I was going to face no matter what ad I tried. The likelihood that Jeff would stay late was just as slim. Bouncers didn’t help clean up, did they?

  With each unanswered ring, I felt a throb start in my face. My breath hitched and my chest ached. But I couldn’t give up, I had to get out. I couldn’t be here when he got home. Time was ticking by so fast.

  The ringing stopped and there was a click before a voice rumbled over the line, “Hello?”

  My heart immediately jumped into my throat, and I choked before I answered. It didn’t matter the voice was male, “H-hi there! I’m calling to inquire about the listing you had on Craigslist.”

  There was a grunt and then a rumble that turned into a growl, “It’s fucking three sixteen in the Goddamn morning.”

  I couldn’t let go of this opportunity, especially since he answered the phone. I laughed nervously, a habit of mine that I made no attempt to curb before Jeff. I tried during Jeff, but it seemed like one good hit from him had it coming back full force.

  “I’m sorry, sir. Really, I am. But if you knew how desperate I am, you’d understand. So…” I let another laugh that quivered. “You do still have a room available, don’t you?” I didn’t even know exactly where it was located, I had just been going down the list trying to get someone to answer.

  He was quiet for too many thunderous heartbeats in my ears, I didn’t know if my words got to him or just my tone of voice. I tried to sound peppy, but it may not have come off that way.

  “I gotta room,” he said finally. “If I let you have it, you’re not gonna bring trouble with you, are you?”

  “I’ll be the model roommate, I assure you,” I agreed shakily.

  There was a rumble of words that I couldn’t understand before I picked up on, “I’ll text you the address.”

  “No, no,” I broke in before he could hang up to do that. “H-how about you just tell it to me so I can write it down? I’d rather not have a text. Is that okay?”

  He was quiet again, and I found myself worrying that he wouldn’t give me this chance. I didn’t know how much longer I’d have to go through this list. I didn’t know if I could handle going through more numbers, praying someone would answer. I didn’t know if he felt the growing panic, but finally, he relented and told me the address.

  It was on the complete opposite side of town. Perfect. It’d take me forty-five minutes to get there, an hour if it was daytime and there was traffic. But, at 3am, the roads should be empty, and it shouldn’t take me long.

  “I’ll be there within an hour,” I promised without really knowing if I could make it.

  Everything blurred after that. I frantically packed a bag full of clothing that I considered essential. Jeans, shirts, shorts, and something to wear to an interview. I’d need a job to live on my own again. I wasn’t Jeff’s property anymore.

  I am only going to depend on me from here on out.

  That excitement had me grabbing my makeup bag too. Because, while I ignored the mirror, I had an idea of what my face looked like.

  I called for a cab to pick me up a block away from the apartment. I hit an ATM on the way to meet the taxi in order to clean out my emergency account. I knew it wasn’t smart to walk around with that amount of cash anywhere, especially at night, but desperate times called for desperate measures. I spotted the taxi with a brown-skinned turbaned man who was standing by the curb. He gave me a glance at first, then did a double take. His mouth fell open, and he began to stutter, it made his thick accent harder to understand.

  “Y-you called for cab?”

  I tried to not let his reaction get to me, and I tried to eke out a smile, but it hurt. “Yes, sir.” I tried to be cheery about it, but from the way he just stared at me, I knew it was a massive fail.

  “What hospital can I take you to?” He seemed to shake himself into action, because he quickly went to open the back passenger door. “Come, come we hurry.”

  “No, no,” I hurried to him, dragging my bags behind me. “I don’t need a hospital. I need you to take me to this address.” I offered him the paper. “I know it’s late, but will you still take me?”

  “You should go to hospital,” he said with a heavy accent. “You are hurt.”

  “Please.” I couldn’t hold myself together in the face of his compassion. Cab drivers were supposed to be hardened people. They’d seen it all, and nothing was supposed to affect them. But here was this beautiful man, looking at me with concern and the want to help. “I have someone that’s going to help me, but he’s on the other side of town, and I don't have a car. I have to go there, and I can’t go to the hospital.” I felt myself cracking. I couldn’t afford to break, yet. I tugged two twenties from the stack of bills I had shoved into my purse and offered them to him. “Please I just need to get to that address.”

  He didn’t take my money, instead, he moved to help me into the back of the cab. I was so relieved when he got in the driver’s seat, that I didn’t bother holding in the tears. The movement of the vehicle made my chest hurt, and I felt every ache in my face. But in that car, I was on cloud nine.

  I was out, I was free. I was never going to live under the thumb of another man ever again.

  I might have dozed off during the ride, or I might have had a concussion. One moment I was floating on the throbbing cloud of freedom, and the next I was rudely awakened by the overhead light in the cab.

&n
bsp; “Miss please…” I shook my head and looked into his concerned brown eyes. “Let me take you to hospital. You do not look well.”

  “Where are we?” My speech sounded slurred, even to my own ears.

  “I have you at the address you gave me.” He didn’t look pleased. “But you need a doctor. I will take you there, no charge.”

  “No, no.” I opened the door before I looked at the meter in the front of the cab. I still had forty crumbled in my hand, and that was more than enough to cover the fare plus a tip. I pulled out another twenty and slid the money into the slot of the plastic partition that separated the front from the back. “This is fine. Just…” I could see him starting to protest so I decided to throw it out there, “Just if anyone asks about a person that looks like me, a guy… a big guy,” I raised a hand far above my hand as if to pantomime someone that was tall, then flexed to indicate someone muscular, “please don’t tell them where you dropped me off.”

  I could see now he knew what was going on. He nodded gravely. “You pay with cash. There is no record.”

  I relaxed and offered a “Thank you”.

  It was a little bit of a struggle to get out of the car. Nausea and dizziness hit me hard, but I managed some dignity by not throwing up on my shoes.

  The cab idled behind me, and I took in the brownstone townhouse. This is it? The stone front was as dark beige that blended seamlessly with the other homes it was attached to. The door had finely carved columns on either side of the frosted glass. I could see the lights in the foyer were on but not much else.

  I knocked hesitantly, at first, before I thought better of it. My grasp on time was off, and I had no idea how long it took for us to get here. There was a very good chance that the guy I had been talking to had gone back to bed. So I knocked harder, putting just a touch of the growing hysteria I was starting to feel rise up behind it.

  The vision of the light in the foyer became blocked, and I heard the latches being pulled. The door opened, and my savior took one sleepy look at me before he let out a disgruntled snort. His brown hair was a disheveled mess that stuck up at odd angles, and I could barely see the color of his green eyes past the tired squint he was giving me. I was going to ignore the fact that he was shirtless, I was in no shape to take in the muscles, tattoos, or tan skin. Luckily, he didn’t ask me any questions as he stepped aside and opened the door a little wider to let me in.

  “I didn’t get your name,” he said like he was still groggy.

  “Emily Farwell.” I still stood out on the stoop, but I offered him my hand like an idiot.

  He didn’t take it, instead, he tilted his head back towards the inside of the brownstone. “Chase Stewart.” He turned, leaving me there on the stoop.

  That was enough to get me in the door, which I closed behind me and twisted the little bolt just to make sure no one tried to come in behind us. Jeff was at work, and he thought I was still in a heap on the bathroom floor. I had depended on him for so much for so long, it was likely he didn’t think I would have it in me to go anywhere.

  I didn’t want to leave any bit of a clue as to where I was. I wanted to be just… disappear.

  2

  Chase was in the kitchen, standing behind a large island that had three bar stools in front of it. I wished the adrenaline was still pumping through me. Unfortunately, it seemed like I left it behind at Jeff's apartment.

  “Room is small, asking three hundred a month. The guy that was in there before was able to fit a queen size bed in there, but there wasn’t a lot of room besides the bed,” he sounded tired as he spoke. He trailed off after that, taking me in. Whether it was my bags or my battered appearance, I couldn’t tell. But his expression twisted. “What the fuck?”

  “Look…” I put my bags down and immediately pulled out the money from my purse. I took the time to count out three hundred. “I have the money. I’ll get furniture tomorrow. I have no problem sleeping on the floor--”

  His expression twisted and now he was looking at me incredulously. “You’re not sleeping on the fucking floor.” He scrubbed a hand over his face, scratching at the stubble that was on his cheeks. “Take my fucking bed, I gotta be up in a few hours to go to work. Tomorrow,” he waved a hand when I started to protest, “we’ll talk about the details after I’ve come home from work.”

  “I’m not kicking you out of your bed.” I took several steps back, looking into what was probably meant to be a formal living room. But it was decorated by an obvious bachelor, so a leather sofa took up one wall and a massive television took up the other. There were beer cans littering a small table in front of it. “I can take the couch as long as that’s cool with you,” I said, making it sound like it was no big deal.

  “You’re not sleeping on the fucking couch after you just had the hell beat out of you,” he barked back at me.

  “I’m not asking for a handout,” I snapped back. “This wasn’t planned, and I don’t want you to give up your bed after I got you up in the middle of the night. Let me take the couch, this one night. After this, I will be the best roommate you’ve ever had.”

  His face darkened a little, it was an expression I’d seen before on Jeff when I refused to bend when he wanted me to. But Chase’s face didn’t flush red with his irritation, and there wasn’t a vein throbbing at his temple.

  “Look, if you’re just here to crash after a bad night,” he shrugged finally, “that’s cool. Next time call the cops instead of waking people like me up so Goddamn late.” He left me standing in the hallway and trudged into a doorway to the left of the kitchen. The door didn’t quite slam, but it was loud enough to echo in the empty kitchen.

  I turned and went into the living room to find that while the table was a mess, the couch wasn’t. I collapsed, then cringed with the effort to keep from whimpering in pain. It took a little while to get comfortable, but eventually, I did.

  It didn’t matter that I was in a stranger’s house. I felt a whole lot safer here than I ever did at home.

  3

  I slept hard and dreamlessly. Sleeping hard in a strange place probably wasn’t the best of ideas, but I didn’t realize the folly until unfamiliar voices had pulled me up from the hard hold slumber had on me.

  “Pretty sure he said not to wake her,” one voice said from further in the house. It had a higher pitch than Jeff’s but was still masculine.

  “I had to check,” was whispered by another man. “Chase said she looked pretty beat up.” His voice was deeper than the other and so very close to me. “Just wanna make sure she’s okay.” The blanket that I didn’t remember snuggling into was tugged down just a little.

  “It’d be pretty fuckin’ tragic to have her keel over here.” The other voice came closer, though he didn’t bother lowering the volume.

  The guy closest to me hushed him and carefully pulled the blanket so my face was uncovered. I tried to keep my eyes closed, feigning sleep and trying not to panic.

  “Shit man,” he winced. “Go get the first aid kit.” I felt a warm hand brushed lightly against my cheek. “Get an ice pack for me, too, Ty. There’s a lot of swelling.” Even the gentle touch made me wince. I peeked an eye open to meet the gaze of the man touching me. He echoed the noise I made, “Sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

  I swallowed. My mouth was dry, and it took an effort to form words. There was nothing threatening about the guy that took up the majority of my vision. His brown eyes looked surprised, like he hadn’t expected me to wake up. Or maybe it was the deer in headlights look I was giving him that had him startled.

  “Don’t worry.” He sat back a little bit so that his face with its bright red stubble and his mess of auburn hair, that he didn’t seem to have any control over, didn’t take up the majority of my limited vision. He raised both hands in the air. “I’m a nurse at Mercy. I can get my badge if you like. I just want to make sure there’s nothing major here. Do you mind if I check you out?”

  “I told you.” The other man walked into t
he living room with a smirk on his face. His blond hair hung around his shoulders, and he looked nonchalant in the face of my battered appearance. He handed a white plastic case to the man in front of me. “Patty couldn’t wait to play doctor. Sorry, Puddin’.”

  I sat up carefully, wincing as muscles protested. The man in front of me leaned forward, as if to help, then thought better of it. His hands immediately went back into the air, like he was under arrest.

  “Who are you?” I looked from the redhead to the blond.

  “Tyler.” The blond grinned at me, showing his perfect white teeth. “And that’s Patty. Or Patton. Whatever.” He shrugged and leaned against the door frame. “If we’re getting comfortable enough for nicknames, I’m not opposed to Ty.”

  Patton snorted a little before directing his full attention on me. “What’s your name?”