Secret: My Roommate is a billionaire!!!

Iva prepared a steaming cup of orange blossom tea and took it upstairs with her, securing the doors and turning out the

lights on her way up.

Once upstairs, she kicked off her shoes and started the bath, squirting a stream of bubble soap under the pounding faucet.

Cool air wafted through one of the side windows of the master suite, making her skin prickle, but the freshness revived her after such a long day. She closed the bathroom door, stripped off her sweat-stained greasy clothes, and stepped into the water, muscles immediately relaxing as she leaned back against the porcelain.

Once she finished drinking the tea, Iva's eyes closed. Her thoughts grew heavy. Images of the past several days insisted on rolling across her mind; the wedding guests' shocked faces, whispering behind their hands. Sobbing into her pillow that night.

Then the phone calls to her boss, hiring a moving van to put her things into storage, driving back home with her packed car. Arguments, recriminations, and swollen eyes while her mother hovered, dying to pick her brain.

Even if it was only temporary, this house was a sudden respite. A blessing. A refuge. A place to heal, alone.

Iva was almost asleep, the water cooling, one arm dangling off the edge of the tub. She told herself she needed to go to bed but was too lazy to actually reach for her robe lying in a heap on the floor be-

side the bath.

Her mind drifted, spinning with a hundred thoughts about how to get her revenge on Noah when the door to the bathroom swung open, banging against the wall.

A man burst inside and Iva's eyes flew open. His presence filled the tiny room, his body tall and muscular and looming. A shriek rose from her throat and then she began to scream. "Who the hell are you? Get out! Get out!"

Her arm flung outward as she reached for her robe. The towel was too far away and when she half rose to retrieve the towel she remembered that, of course, she was naked, bubbles clinging to her breasts and thighs. Iva grabbed at the shower curtain to wrap around herself, legs shaking, at the same time the curtain smacked against the

teacup which flew off the edge of the tub and smashed against the wall in a dozen pieces.

"Get out!" she screamed. "Get out of my house or I'll call the police! You pervert! If you come any closer, I swear I will kill you!"

The man reared back, as if shocked by her words. Then he said, "Who the hell are you?"

"How dare you barge into my house---into my bathroom---" her voice broke off while she gulped air, wondering how she was going to get past him to call the police. "Are you sone kind of freaking felon? Are you going to attack me?"

The strange man gazed about the bathing area, taking in the smashed teacup as well as the piles of makeup and hair products strewn across the countertop like he'd accidentally stumbled into a beauty shop.

He lifted his dark green eyes and held up his hands as if to ward off a flying curling iron. "Attack you? Are you nuts?"

Recognition suddenly dawned, and Iva's knees almost gave out as she realized who he was.

She sputtered, You!"

The man sucked in a sudden breath, leaning forward to stare into her face. "You!" he flung back at her.

"You're that---that" Iva couldn't even finish a coherent sentence.

This man---this intruder---was the guy from the fry shack. The last customer from yesterday. The guy who'd flirted with her over a bag of stupid fries.