by R. Linda
I slammed my mouth down on hers. Gripping her hips, I lifted her and pressed her into the wall behind us. Her legs tightened around my waist, and she moaned into the kiss, while her fingers found their way into my hair.
“I,” I said against her lips.
“Have.” I skimmed my nose along her jaw.
“Waited.” Kissed below her ear.
“Fifteen.” Traced my tongue down her throat.
“Goddamn.” Grazed my teeth over her collarbone.
“Years.” And crashed my mouth against hers again, sliding between her parted lips. I kissed her until I couldn’t kiss her anymore. I kissed her until we were both breathless and struggling for air.
“Nothing is going to take you away from me. I won’t get bored. I won’t change my mind, and I sure as hell won’t give up on us. I already told you, we’re getting married someday, Ace, so quit worrying and kiss me while we still have the chance.”
“Stupid ass,” she muttered then wiped a tear from her eyes and kissed me.
“Yeah, I love you too, Princess.”
Epilogue
Indie
I couldn’t wait any longer. It had been six very long months. I was packing my bags and heading home to Blackhill, a place where I belonged, and also a place I felt I’d outgrown. So much had changed this year. I was a completely different person, and I wasn’t sure Blackhill was the place for me.
“I can’t believe this is happening. I can’t believe you’re doing this to me. Please don’t do this. Change your mind. Stay here with me. We could be happy together. I know I can make you happy, Ace. Just give me a chance.”
“Will you quit calling me Ace?” I zipped up my suitcase and glanced around my room to make sure I had everything.
“Fine. Baby cakes, please don’t leave me. You’re my best friend.” Jack threw himself on the ground at my feet and hugged my knees.
“Jack, get up.”
He shook his head. “Not until you promise you’ll stay.”
I wiggled my legs and tried to get free of his hold, but I had no luck. He had a good grip.
“We will see each other all the time,” I said. “I promise.”
“You’re lying. You’ll get home with Adonis and forget all about me.”
“Adonis?” Linc asked as he strolled through the door and took a seat on my bed.
“Yeah, handsome. You’re Adonis,” Jack mumbled, pushing my legs apart slightly so he could stick his head through and see Linc.
“Little help, please?” I looked over my shoulder at Linc and wiggled again in an attempt to dislodge Jack.
“Dude, we’ve spoken about this. Hands off my girl.”
I liked when he got all possessive and called me his.
Jack sighed dramatically and let my legs go, before curling in a ball on the floor and rocking himself back and forth.
“What’s wrong with him?” Ryder nodded at Jack as he walked into the room.
“We’re leaving him behind. Where’s Bailey?”
“Just checking the house again to make sure nothing is left behind.” He crouched in front of Jack. “Man up. You’ll graduate in six months, and then you’ll be out of here too.”
“But six months is a long time, and we’re all going to be apart. I don’t think I can do it. I mean, long-distance relationships never work. Someone always gets sick of waiting and cheats or breaks up with the other—” Jack rambled until Ryder slapped him over the back of the head.
“Idiot.”
I stared at Linc.
“Ace, no. Don’t even—” He reached for my hand and pulled me onto his lap. “No.”
I knew he was telling the truth. I knew he’d never cheat. I wasn’t insecure. I trusted him completely.
But it still didn’t stop Jack from planting that tiny seed of doubt.
What if?
I needed to fix this soon. Erase the sliver of fear from my mind, and make sure that we got our happily ever after.
He wove his fingers through my hair and pulled my face to his. “No.”
“I know.” I pressed my forehead to his and breathed him in. It had been a month since I’d seen him last—the bi-annual surfing competition held on our beach in Blackhill did a great job at keeping him away, and I was so busy finalising everything here and preparing to move home while I looked for a job that time slipped away. “I’ve just missed you.”
“Okay, we’ve got everything,” Bailey announced as she came through the door. “Jack, what’s wrong?”
I pulled back, and Linc released me so I could stand.
It was time to go.
Sadness washed over me, and I suddenly understood why Jack was curled on the floor that way. Everything was going to change now. Things were never going to be the same.
“It’s going to be fine. You know you can always come to Blackhill when you finish, right?” Bailey reached out to pull him up. Jack looked at her and sniffed, a hopeful expression on his face. “You can stay with me and Ryder. We should have our own place by then, right, Jones?”
Ryder glared at her, but she smiled sweetly, knowing he wouldn’t argue with her right now for the sake of getting out of here as soon as possible.
“Of course,” he ground out through clenched teeth and a fake smile that lacked his trademark dimples.
“Really? You mean it?” Jack jumped up with enthusiasm. “Hear that, baby cakes? We’ll see each other all the time.” He scooped me into his arms and spun me around until I was giddy. I caught a glimpse of Linc’s face as I twirled, and he didn’t look impressed. I didn’t think he’d forgiven Jack for treating me so badly back in Fiji and for kissing me when we weren’t even dating.
“See, I told you it would all work out.” I laughed, relieved that Jack had a renewed optimism.
He set me down on my feet. “Of course it would. I wasn’t worried,” he said, trying to play it cool.
“Uh-huh,” Linc interrupted and came to stand behind me, sliding his hands around my waist. “We need to get going. It’s getting late, and we’ve got a long drive.” He placed a kiss on the top of my shoulder, causing a shiver to run up my spine.
Jack stood in front of us, eyes downcast and chewing on the corner of his bottom lip. A sad puppy dog had nothing on him. My heart broke. I really was going to miss him. Three years of friendship, all the ups and downs, living together, late night chats, dreaded shopping trips—he was the best person a girl could want as a friend. I lunged for him, pulling myself out of Linc’s hold, and wrapped my arms around his waist.
I didn’t even realise the tears were falling until Jack tipped my face up to look at him and wiped them away. “Aww, baby cakes. Don’t cry. We’ll see each other all the time. I promise.” He tightened his arms around me and kissed the top of my head.
“But long-distance relationships are so hard, Jack. What if you forget about me?” I sniffled.
“Never. Going. To. Happen.”
“Promise.”
“Scout’s honour.”
“You never went to Scouts.”
“I’ll pinkie swear if I need to, baby cakes,” he said, rubbing his hand comfortingly up and down my back, suddenly full of confidence. Two minutes ago, I had been comforting him.
“I believe you.” I gave him a half smile. I couldn’t muster a full one.
“Let’s get you in the car and on your way,” Jack said and grabbed my hand. He shot Linc a look over my shoulder, daring him to challenge him or say something about our hands, but Linc just gestured to the door and let us go out first.
The house was almost empty. Barren. A wasteland with all our stuff packed in boxes and loaded into the two trucks. Linc brought his own truck, and Ryder borrowed Jayden’s, with Jayden driving Ryder’s car back to Blackhill for him. We had left Jack with enough furniture to get by. He was keeping all the big items, but without our personal touches, the place looked empty.
Outside, Jack shook Ryder’s hand before pulling him into the awkward man hug for a little too long, ma
king Ryder look uncomfortable, but I knew he was going to miss having him around. As much as Jack annoyed him, they were great friends. Bailey hugged him goodbye and promised he could stay with them when he came to visit or should he decide to move to Blackhill himself. I didn’t think he would move there, though. He was too big a personality and too outgoing for a small town like ours. He’d do well in a big city where he had more opportunity to advance his acting career. We all knew he’d be a star one day. Acting was as natural as breathing to him.
Jack turned to Linc, and they glared at each other, mouths set in a firm lines and arms crossed as they seemed to be in some sort of standoff. Jack broke first, reaching out and shaking Linc’s hand. “Look after my girl, or I’ll hunt you down.”
Linc smiled and nodded. “She’s right with me. See ya, man.”
And then it was my turn, and I really wasn’t ready to say goodbye. I bit my bottom lip in an attempt to hold back the tears, but it was futile. There was no stopping them.
“I’m going to miss you most of all, baby cakes,” Jack said softly, blinking rapidly to stop his own tears as he swept me into his arms for one last hug.
“Call me every day,” I said into his chest. “And if you can’t call, I want text messages, emails. A letter. Send me a letter.”
“Every day.” He placed one last kiss on my forehead and let me go, pushing me into Linc’s waiting arms. The tears were flowing freely. I couldn’t even see as Linc led me to the car and helped with my seatbelt like I was a child, but I was shaking and too upset to do it myself.
“Love you,” Jack said, blowing me a kiss just as Linc closed the door.
“You’ll see him soon, Ace,” Linc assured me once he was in the driver’s seat beside me.
I couldn’t speak, so I closed my eyes, not wanting to look at Jack as we drove away because I might have thrown myself out of the car to get back to him. I didn’t think saying goodbye to him would be this hard, but it felt like I’d already lost him completely.
We drove in silence for the longest time, Linc’s fingers threaded through mine and our hands resting on the console between us.
“How you doing over there?” he asked after a while, his voice startling me back to reality.
I shrugged. I didn’t know how I was doing. I’d just said goodbye to my best friend and was moving back to my home town, without a job, without any sort of plan but to be with Linc. He was my plan. He was all I knew I wanted. All I had ever dreamed about, and now that dream was going to be a reality.
“Marry me?” I blurted out.
“What?” His head turned to face me, eyebrows raised in shock before he looked back at the road.
“Marry me?”
“That’s not how this is supposed to work, Ace.” He lifted our joined hands and pressed a kiss to my knuckles.
“You don’t want to marry me?” My voice trembled. Had I gotten this all wrong?
Linc swerved to the side of the road and pulled the car to a stop. Ryder’s truck sped past us as Linc turned off the ignition.
Grabbing my face in his hands, he forced me to look into his eyes. “Yes.”
My heart dropped, and tears blurred my vision. Yes. He didn’t want to marry me?
“I want nothing more than to make you my wife,” he said, wiping away the tears on my cheeks with a gentle caress. “I just wanted to propose the right way, with a big gesture, be all romantic and stuff.”
“Romance is overrated.” I smiled through my tears.
He wanted to marry me.
“Say it again.” He leaned his forehead against mine.
“Stupid ass?”
“Not that bit.” His fingers wove into my hair.
“I love you.”
“Ace?” His lips grazed over mine.
“Marry me?” I whispered.
“Yes,” he breathed against my mouth before kissing me, his tongue sliding against mine. Long. Slow. Deep.
“Good answer,” I mumbled and pulled him back for another kiss.
Prologue
Then
Harper
The thing about one-night stands was they were supposed to be just that.
One night.
One night of fun. One night of no strings. No commitment.
But sometimes a one-night stand wouldn’t go away. It kept reoccurring, against your better judgement. Sometimes a one-night stand was exactly what you needed—over and over again. But then it wasn’t really a one-night stand anymore. It became something else entirely, even when you didn’t want it to. It became something you couldn’t walk away from, even though you knew you should. Even though you knew it couldn’t continue without hurting someone else.
But sometimes…
You. Just. Couldn’t. Walk. Away.
Sometimes you found yourself waking up in their bed when you should have been home alone in your own.
Sometimes you found yourself doing the walk of shame at the crack of dawn, attempting to sneak past their roommate’s door before anyone found out you were in the one place you both knew you shouldn’t have been.
With my heels in my hands, I crept down the hallway that had become as familiar to me as my own, silently trying to escape before anyone woke up. The sun had barely risen, so I knew it was early. I should have felt guilty for sneaking out, but I knew even though it might hurt him to find his bed empty again, he’d understand. He didn’t want this getting out of hand any more than I did. He didn’t want anyone finding out about our…extracurricular activities either.
We knew we were asking for trouble. We knew if we didn’t stop this, it would blow up in our faces. Yet we continued. There was something that kept bringing us back together. No matter how hard I tried to resist, all it took was one smile, and I was putty in his hands. But it was getting risky, and we really needed to stop.
“Don’t forget your purse,” Linc called from the kitchen. I froze, one foot on the fluffy grey rug, the other on the cold timber floorboards. Four more steps and I would have been free. Linc walked into the living room where I was contemplating running, and he had my purse in his hands. “Wouldn’t want anyone know you were here again last night, would we?”
Again?
I turned to face him, my fingers fiddling with the straps on my heels. “How long?”
“How long, what?” He raised a questioning eyebrow and threw my purse down on the coffee table beside me.
“How long have you known?”
He laughed and clapped his hands on his legs. “That it was you? About a month. That he’d been sneaking someone in here every couple of weeks? Since we got back from Fiji.” He turned away from me and walked back into the kitchen. “Coffee?” he called over his shoulder.
My eyes widened, and I rushed after him into the small room, stopping on the other side of the counter. “Fiji was three months ago.”
“Walls are thin, sunshine.” He handed me a cup of black coffee and placed the smallest scoop of sugar into his.
My cheeks warmed in embarrassment. Oh, god, he’d heard. I took a gulp of the liquid gold in my hands, scalding my throat, but I barely noticed. He’d heard.
“Don’t worry. I have noise cancelling headphones.”
“You can’t say anything,” I pleaded, clutching the coffee cup to my chest. “To anyone.”
“You’re playing with fire, you know.” He narrowed his gaze on me, bringing his mug to his lips and taking a long, slow sip.
“I know.” I hoisted myself on the barstool at the counter and ran my hands through my hair. “But please don’t say anything. I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”
It was only supposed to be one night. One night of too many drinks and one morning in Fiji, waking up to find myself in his bed with no memory of the night before.
He lifted a shoulder casually and leaned against the counter, facing me. “I’ll be quiet.”
“You will?” I sagged in relief.
“He’s my mate. And I know exactly what it feels like to want the one person
you know you shouldn’t want, remember?” His smile was full of understanding, and in that moment, I knew Linc would keep our secret. At least for now. He’d secretly been in love with his best mate’s younger sister almost their entire lives, so he understood the struggle and the need for silence.
“But I don’t…It’s not like—”
“I don’t care what it’s like. It’s none of my business. But you both need to figure this shit out now, before either of you gets too attached and anyone else becomes collateral damage. If this is only something casual, end it now before you hurt either of them.”
“I don’t want to hurt them.”
“Then you need to figure it out.”
“Do you really think it’ll hurt Brody?” Even asking the question, I knew I sounded like an insensitive ass. Of course, it would hurt him. And that was the last thing I wanted. But there was something about Nate Kellerman that had me coming back for more.
“His cousin sleeping with his ex-girlfriend?” He screwed his face up and nodded. “Yeah, it’ll sting. Just a little.”
Just a little.
It wouldn’t hurt just a little. It would hurt a lot.
I needed to end this now. I didn’t want to be the cause of anyone’s pain.
“I’ll end it.” I sighed and lowered my head to the counter. I didn’t want to hurt Brody or lead Nate on if I didn’t know where this was going. Because, really, I didn’t know what I wanted. I didn’t want a relationship, but I liked the way Nate made me feel. “It’s done. As soon as he wakes up, I’ll tell him no more.”
Linc didn’t speak. He just eyed me sceptically and nodded once before pouring his coffee down the sink. “Good.”
He picked up his surfboard that was leaning against the wall in the corner and left. He left me sitting there alone, waiting for Nate to wake up so I could end what it was between us before things got any more out of control.
Chapter One
Nate