Claudia wanted to clean me up. I wanted to grunge her down.

I nodded back at him, my cheeks warming at the appreciative gleam in his eye. The guy was smoldering, and I was pretty sure if I licked my finger and pressed it to his skin, steam would rise with a satisfactory hiss. Still, I’d done the whole bad-boy thing in high school and I was definitely over it. I shot Claudia a look that mentally relayed she should go in for the kill.

She smirked and turned to look at the poster. I followed her gaze.

“Um,” Claudia turned to Beck, frowning, “does your friend know he misspelled ‘snacks’?”

Beck snorted. “Babe, it says ‘FREE BOOZE’ on the poster. Do you think anyone else will read the next f**king line?”

“He’s got you there,” I murmured.

She ignored me. “Don’t you care? You’re putting the posters up. If people see that, they’ll think you’re the moron who spelled ‘snacks’ wrong.”

Beck shrugged and stepped around us to head up to our floor. “Not a problem since I don’t give a f**k what people think.”

“Sounds enlightening,” Claudia turned on her heel, following him with a grin that would’ve melted a lesser man. “You want to teach me that kind of enlightenment? I’d make time.”

I watched as Beck faltered a little on the first step, as if surprised by her coquettish question. He quickly covered it by giving her another sexy once-over and then smiled into her eyes. “See you at the party, babe.”

“We’ll be there,” Claudia answered. She grabbed my hand, jerking me down the stairs with her. As soon as we burst out of the concrete stairwell and into the warm courtyard, Claudia leaned against a bike railing. “I think I could orgasm just looking at him,” she moaned, turning to stare longingly back up at the building.

I wrinkled my nose. “Oversharing again.”

“Come on. Dip that boy in a cold lake and he’ll turn it into a hot springs.”

“You are such a cheeseball,” I laughed, pulling on her wrist and dragging her out onto Guthrie Street. We lived just off the Cowgate, the east end of the Grassmarket, which we discovered with all its pubs and a club nearby was kind of a hotspot. Our bedrooms faced over the Cowgate, so both Claud and I had invested in foam earplugs so we could sleep at night.

Our accommodation was only a couple of streets away from the main campus, the landscape sloping up toward the University of Edinburgh. We headed that way, needing to collect our student ID cards from the information center. The ID was kind of important—you needed it to get in and out of the library, as well as the student union venues.

“I agree he’s hot but I don’t do bad boys anymore.” I ignored the familiar ache in my chest and locked my jaw in an effort to appear unaffected. “And I didn’t think you did bad boys ever?”

“I’m seriously making an exception for Beck.” Claudia’s eyes fluttered closed on another moan. “Beck. Even his freaking name is hot.”

“Well, my mother would hate him. He said ‘fuck’ twice within a matter of seconds.”

“I’d f**k him twice in a matter of seconds.”

Shocked laughter escaped my lips.

“I’m not kidding.”

And when I looked at her face, I realized she wasn’t. I instantly sobered. “Please do not do anything you’ll regret.”

She waved off my concern. “I’m not stupid. If he wants in my pants, he has to earn it.” She rubbed her hands together gleefully. “And I am going to have so much fun making him earn it.”

I didn’t particularly enjoy the idea of attending a party where I’d be left to socialize alone as my best friend attempted to wrap Beck around her finger. But … she was Claudia and I loved her and I’d never seen her so instantly excited over a guy before. I’d suck it up for her. “Then I guess we’re really going to that party tonight. Maybe we should invite our roomies?”

“What are their names again?”

I searched my brain, knowing the answers were in there somewhere. “Maggie, Gemma, and Lisa. Right?”

“I thought it was Maggie, Jemima and Lauren.”

“Jemima? I would remember if her name was Jemima.”

“We are awful roommates.”

“We are. I’m going to organize some kind of get-together for us all.”

Her eyes glittered. “Ooh, can we invite Beck?”

Crap. She was definitely a goner.

“Maybe I should’ve worn a dress,” Claudia muttered for the fiftieth time as we walked up stairwell one to apartment three. We could hear the music throbbing from within and we’d already passed a couple of drunken freshman out in the courtyard.

I sighed, squeezing back against the wall to let an annoyed-looking guy hurry down the stairs and outside. “I told you a dress would be too much. This is just like any other student party, Claud, not a formal.”

As soon as we hit floor one, she knew I was right. The door to apartment three was thrown open and there were students milling around outside drinking out of red plastic cups. A couple of girls smiled at us and the guys gave us “the nod” as we passed to wander inside. Everyone was dressed casual and I was glad I’d talked Claud into jeans and a tank top.

“This place is much bigger than ours,” I commented as we gazed around the crowded common room and kitchen.

“There are more rooms,” Claudia explained, pointing down the hall to our left. I noticed at the end it turned a corner. I counted five doors on the one side, and guessed Claud was right and that hidden corridor housed more.

“You came.” Beck appeared like magic in front of us, holding out two beers. “Nice to see you again, ladies.”

Looking much the same as he had that afternoon—except perhaps hotter—Beck’s presence seemed to paralyze us for a second as neither of us said a word.

He grinned cockily as if he knew what kind of reaction he elicited in the opposite sex and shook the beers at us. “You want?”

I reached for one of the bottles. “Thanks. Good showing.” I gestured to the busy party.

“I told you… put ‘free booze’ on a poster and voila.” He smiled at Claudia as she finally came out of her stupor to take the beer. His eyes flickered back to me and my chest. “Nice shirt.”