Hilary woke up feeling horrible. Not hung-over horrible, but ‘been up all night in the loo and possibly slept next to the toilet’ horrible. She pried her eyes open and looked around, trying to find something familiar, but she didn’t recognize any of the furnishings. Not the stereo in the corner, or the pile of clothes heaped over a straight back chair. Or the guy coming into the room with a tray of what seemed to be toast.

She sat up quickly, gathering the blankets around her as her heartbeat quickened. “Where am I? Who are you? Oh, Jesus.” SHe put a hand to her head and squeezed her eyes shut, hoping this was just a nightmare.

He sat on the edge of the bed and passed her the tray. She opened her eyes, but didn’t move to take it, so he set it beside her and ran a hand through his wet hair.

“I’m Luke. We met last night? At the party?”

She vaguely remembered him now that he mentioned it, but that didn’t help her any.

“I’m Kian’s mate,” he continued, grinning at her and going over to turn on the light. The room wasn’t very dark, but the blinds were closed, and very little sunlight was making it into the room.

Hilary glanced around the room, her eyes taking in the telephone (unplugged) and the television sitting on a bookshelf with no books in it.

“Kian thought it would be a good idea for me to take care of you last night.”

Hilary stopped looking around the room and stared at the man in front of her. He was about Kian’s age, and Kian’s height, but his eyes were green, and not at all friendly, even though he was smiling.

She looked down to see she had on her clothes from the night before, but her bag was gone. She slid off the bed, feeling extremely uncomfortable, like something was horribly wrong, but she couldn’t figure out what. Her brain was too muffled.

“Where are you going?” Luke stood up and blocked her way, his face set in a scowl, though he seemed to be trying to keep his cool.

“I have to go home,” Hilary said, attempting to get out the door.

Luke reached over and pushed the door closed, and Hilary shrank back against the opposite wall, as far away from him as possible.

“What the hell is going on here?” Her voice sounded stronger than she felt, and for that she was grateful.

“I told you, Kian asked me to look after you. Now get back in bed and eat your breakfast.”

Hilary crossed her arms across her chest and narrowed her eyes at him. “Kian’s never mentioned you before.”

Luke shrugged and threw the clothes off the chair so he could sit down. “We go waaaay back, me and Kian.”

“If you’re such good mates with him, you’d know that we broke up, and there is no way he asked you to look after me because he’s in Sligo.”

Luke’s eyes flashed angrily. “You’re lying,” he said, laughing.

“Why would I be lying?”

“Look, you little bitch, just sit down and be quiet.” He crossed the room in quick strides and opened the door. “I’ll deal with you later.”

With that, he slammed the door closed, leaving Hilary shaking in his wake, and wishing desperately Kian was there to protect her.