“Quite the contrary. I believe he is an undercover agent.”

“Like a cop? Or the feds?” I asked.

Interesting. That would definitely explain why David is acting so uptight all of a sudden. If the feds are here on campus, it won’t be long until his drug operation is discovered and shut down.

“Something like that,” he said as he eyed me suspiciously. “Don’t start getting any ideas about reaching out to him. I still own almost everyone in this town. You squeal about anything and it will be the last sound you ever make.”

“Geez,” I said as I rolled my eyes. “That was dark. Guess you’re not too happy he’s here then, huh?”

“Of course, I’m not happy he’s here. That’s a stupid thing to say, even for you.”

I reached for the door to leave. I’d had enough of David for the day and didn’t want my mouth to get me in any more trouble.

“Lisette,” he called before I made it out the door and into the hall. “I’m putting him on the third floor with you. Mostly because I trust your boyfriends even less than I trust you. Keep an eye on him.”

Great, one more person to have to watch over.

Rob was already back at the dormitory when I got there. I heard him introducing himself to some of the other students and telling them that he was a grad student and an internal transfer from other school. To be honest, it all kind of sounded like a bullshit story. I went up to introduce myself as the resident advisor and my breath got stuck in my throat as he turned around to face me.

He was gorgeous.

Not that needed another guy in my life to fall for, because I definitely DID NOT. But it was hard not to be a little swept-up by this guy. He was built, with chestnut brown hair and deep blue eyes, and when he reached out to shake my hand, even his forearms were defined by muscular lines.

“Hi,” he said. “I’m Rob. Are you the R.A.?”

“Huh?” I asked.

I understood the question, I was just still trying to get over how beautiful his eyes looked against his olive complexion.

“The resident advisor?” he asked, speaking slower this time as if I had trouble hearing him.

“Oh, yeah,” I answered as I quickly snapped myself out of it. “I’m Lisette. Let me know if there’s anything you need.”

“You,” he said.

“Excuse me?”

“I need to speak to you,” he said. “I have a few questions about the campus.”

Damn, I needed to get control of myself here. “Oh, sure.”

Rob asked me a few things about the campus, some which seemed a little odd, like things about when the overhead walkways were built and who constructed them. I didn’t really know the answers to most of the stuff he asked about. But they weren’t the kind of questions a normal, transferring grad student would ask. I was pretty sure David was right and that this guy was some sort of undercover agent.

And when he had finished asking me all the questions that he had, he asked me one more thing.

“Do you have a room on this floor too?” he asked.

“No,” I said, recognizing that it was probably a good thing that I didn’t have a room next to this super-hot new guy. “All the advisors stay on a different floor together.”

“I see,” he said. “Well, I hope I’ll still see you around a lot.”

“I’m sure you will,” I smiled.

And, we did.

It seemed like everywhere I went during the next week, Rob was somewhere nearby too. I think that even the guys noticed it because if I had thought they were pulling tighter around me before, it was nothing compared to this. They acted like a pack of alpha males and formed a literal circle around me every time Rob walked by.

“I don’t get why you guys are so on edge around him,” I said as we were passing Rob on the sidewalk leading back to the dormitory.

We had just walked over to check out the auditorium where the Winter Gala would be held. The boys wanted to get a feel for the layout in case anything strange went down during the party (which it very likely would), and I wanted to see it as well to see if it would help me come up with some sort of plan of escape that night.

“Well for one thing he’s new,” Michael said. “And we all know better now than to trust people who seem to just suddenly appear on the doorstep.”

He was referring to David and how he had us all fooled at the beginning.

“For another thing, he’s super attractive,” Julian added.

Adam rolled his eyes at him. “Way to let the cat out of the bag.”

I laughed. “You guys are jealous? Really?”

“Yeah it’s pretty silly isn’t it?” Adam asked. “I mean here the three of us share you to begin with and yet we’re still jealous of some other guy.”

“That’s because he’s new,” Julian said. “At least we all know each other well enough to know what we’re up against. But this new guy is a wild card, on top of being really good looking.”

“Jesus, man. Haven’t you heard of the concept less is more?” Adam asked Julian.

That made me laugh again. “You know I love you guys. You don’t need to be worrying over some simple shit like that.”

Michael kissed me on the cheek as the three of them still surrounded me while we walked. “We know.”

When we got back inside the dormitory, Rob followed the directions I had given all the students and got into the elevator. We, on the other hand, took the stairs. As hot as Rob was, the other guys really didn’t have anything to worry about anyways, because I was way too preoccupied with trying to figure out how to save them all from David to give Rob any of my time or attention. Any time that wasn’t spent either working or thinking, I spent trying to find some sort of comfort in the arms of Michael, Adam, and Julian.

That is, until David called me into his office again.

“I have another task for you,” David said.

He looks tired. “Wonderful. Hit me with it.”

He paused to look at me from head to toe before he cleared his throat. “I want you to get to know our new student.”

“What, why?” I asked.

I didn’t have time to be the welcoming committee.

“Because he’s a cop,” David answered curtly. “And I have several connections inside the city police force. I was able to find out that Rob is an undercover cop who was sent here to investigate allegations of foul play on the school’s campus.”