698. Chapter 698

They text about soy milk and cereal and toilet paper and toothpaste and yeah go ahead, have my leftover Chinese food, I wasn’t gonna eat it anyway, but they’ve never actually met.

Hank has Alex training twelve hours a day, and on top of that, she’s finally finishing that degree, and she’s too exhausted to do much but collapse on top of the covers of her twin-sized bed on the rare occasion that she ever gets back to her dorm.

Well, their dorm. Hers and Maggie’s.

This girl she’s never met.

Until, one morning, she does.

Because one morning, she’s more hungry than she is tired, and she’s pretty sure that if she doesn’t get waffles in her mouth right this minute, she’ll spin out completely.

She’s so hungry, and she’s been so on for so many hours, that doesn’t notice that the bed next to hers doesn’t just have a lump of blankets on it – that it’s not just her roommate’s typically manageable mess – but that the lump is, in fact, her roommate.

So she doesn’t expect anyone to slip up behind her, clear her throat, and say “morning” while she’s impatiently waiting for the toaster to make toast out of her frozen waffles, caught up in wondering vaguely why there’s a word for raw toast – bread – but there’s not a word for raw waffle, because, toasted or not, it’s still… a waffle.

She doesn’t get to follow up on her line of disconnected, sleepy breakfast thoughts, though, because suddenly the soldier overtakes the college student; suddenly, she has the unexpected presence behind her on the floor, pinned underneath her, knee on her chest and hands holding down her wrists.

“Hey, whoa, it’s your roommate, Danvers,” Maggie chokes out, but there’s not fear in her eyes. More like concern and something like deep, deep respect.

Swirling around with something that looks a lot like raw want.

Alex immediately lessens the pressure she’s exerting on Maggie’s body, but she doesn’t let up completely. Her training is too strong.

“Maggie?” she confirms, and her roommate nods, not struggling against her grasp. Just staring up at her, calm and waiting.

“Alex? I mean, you better be Alex. Otherwise, breaking into my room, making my roommate’s waffles, and pinning me to the ground would just be rude.”

She doesn’t normally ramble, but this woman… this woman is absolutely gorgeous.

And Alex, staring down at the woman beneath her, now lets her go completely, turning bright red as she hops up to her knees and offers Maggie a hand to help her up.

“Yeah, I… I’m sorry. I didn’t mean – did I hurt you? You just… you startled me.”

“Clearly,” Maggie murmurs as she rubs at her own behind and wrists, but it’s good natured.

Like she understands something about fear. Something about survival instincts.

And something about deep, intense attraction.

“Not that I minded. Being pinned down like that. By you. I mean – “

“What?”

“What.”

“Maggie?”

“Danvers?”

“Do you have a thing against first names?”

“Do you have a thing against taking a woman to dinner before you hold her wrists above her head like that?”

“Do you want me to take you to dinner?”

“Do you want to take me to dinner?”

“Maggie?”

“Danvers?”

“Can I kiss you?”

“Please do,” Maggie whispers, and kissing the roommate she’s never met is fast, and it’s rash, and Alex has never done anything fast and rash that feels so utterly… right.

And she immediately decides that she wants to do it again, and again, and again.