by Sherry Soule
“This a symbol of my love. Of us having a fresh start and being together forever,” he whispered.
“I love it, but you’re first gift to me will always be my favorite.” I stood and went over to my dresser and opened the top drawer. I removed the red plastic ring and slipped it on my finger. Turning, I flashed him the jewelry and retook my seat beside him.
Cole wrapped me in his strong embrace and his hands slid under my shirt. Those firm lips found my neck, then traveled back up to my mouth. He kissed me so deeply with such velvety softness, my insides unfurled and heat spread lower on my body. I parted my lips and let his tongue do an erotic dance with mine. His kisses felt like a heart-stopping plunge from the highest peak of a roller coaster. Everything about Cole was a turn-on, from the way he smelled and felt beneath my hands to the way he kissed me so seductively. I closed my eyes and melted into his embrace.
No past. No future. No Zeta Betas. Only the two of us in this perfect, magical moment.
Nobody had ever touched me so tenderly like this, knowing every trace of my unrestrained desires. I ran my hands through the waves of his hair and he groaned against my lips. Cole sat back and removed his clothes, tossing them aside, then took off mine. He leaned down to kiss each breast and tease the nipple until I softly moaned. He leaned up on one elbow and the soft glow of love in his eyes sent a blast of desire ricocheting from my heart to my core. Then lowering himself over me, his bare chest pressed against my breasts, naked flesh to warm skin, and the feel of his rock-hard body was enough to make me want him even more. Uninhibited, I wrapped my legs around his waist and he slowly entered me.
We made love sweetly and gently, savoring each other’s bodies until we were both satisfied. As I lay in his arms, I had no idea how I was going to survive the whole summer in Paris separated from this amazing man. It was going to be torture.
“Does this mean we go up in flames together now?” he whispered, kissing my cheek.
“Yup. It sure does.”
We were each other’s future now and nothing else mattered. And I wasn’t going to be the ZBs’s puppet anymore where Jade pulled the strings. I would be me. That somewhat crazy, artsy girl from Southern California who dated whomever she wanted. And if that wasn’t good enough for the Zeta Betas, then I would just have to find another way to visit Paris.
BID DAY
Days passed and life seemed to go back to normal. I felt slightly afraid of being too happy, scared this would become some kind of karmic gotcha moment for all the compulsive lies I’d told. Brooklyn got a commercial modeling gig for Gucci and the sexy ad ran on MTV, making her even more infamous at school. A few days later, Vanessa published an article in the Beaumont Review, regarding the high-level of theft on campus. Jade and Kellan were crowned as cutest couple at some big sorority/frat mixer. And Cole and I were back together as a real, official twosome. And yet the world had not fallen off its axis.
Recruitment and all hazing at Zeta Beta had momentarily ceased. Thank the Greek gods. Once Claire and Ethan had been exposed and disaffiliated from their chapters—Greek lingo for getting their respective asses kicked to the curb—the dean had put Zeta Beta on social probation for three months. No mixers or karaoke nights.
On official bid day, party rental trucks slowly progressed along the street of the infamous Greek row where both sorority and fraternity houses were gathered. The residences were garlanded with bright festive banners each proudly boasting a Greek insignia. Except Zeta Beta, they were stuck in the time-out corner, no ice cream or cake for us. Our events were cancelled. Bid day would be about as much fun as a funeral.
This morning the pledges—one hundred nervous girls—anxiously walked to the student center, wearing the required Bid Day uniform of jeans and white tees. Reluctant to go into the building alone, the girls shivered outside, most without jackets despite the cold fifty-degree drabness. Hugging themselves for warmth, they called other pledges on their cellphones or met up with them outside before entering.
The doorway was heavily guarded by sorority Greeks armed with clipboards, so only pledges could enter and the girls could wait inside for their names to be called. When a PNM was summoned, they got up from their seats and were handed a sealed envelope containing a sorority name that many of the girls seemed to believe would either shape or destroy their destinies. Dooming them to four years of social anonymity or branded rock star status.
I sat beside Raven and observed the other pledges squirm. If the Zeta Betas’s rejected me after everything they’d put me through, I swear I was going to march up on the stage and go Carrie on their ass. Minus the pig’s blood.
We’d been instructed to sit on the envelopes while surviving a long speech given by a Greek alumni, with real sonnets to sisterhood and what the members meant to one another. She also droned on about the sorority system, women’s issues, and how to become more involved at UCB—similar to the lecture a cheerleading coach gave a group of tryouts before announcing her final cuts. And me without my pom-poms.
I shifted in my seat beside Raven, knowing all the while that the result of a semester’s worth of schmoozing and hazing was just under our butts. When the speaker finally announced that we could open the envelope, the other pledges practically shot out of their seats.
Sitting up, I slid it from under my butt. I held my envelope in my sweaty hand and—for a fraction of an instant—I was terrified. I’d put an astonishing, self-absorbed, ass-kissing, and self-deprecating amount of effort into this process, and I didn’t want it to be for nothing.
The room was full of girls giggling, shrieking, and hugging each other, or shuffling away to blubber alone. A few Bid Cards were strewn on the floor and boxes of tissues sat on tables. Raven held her envelope like it was a poisonous spider ready to bite.
The girls had been judged and disbanded, then assigned Greek letters, signaling their new affiliations. Indicating that they belonged to a sisterhood, or they were cast into the vast sea of the unwanted.
With a sigh, I looked down at the envelope in my hand. Then I ripped it open with shaky fingers and removed the contents. Instantly tears filled my eyes.
SERENA DUPONT
IS CORDIALLY INVITED TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE ZETA BETA
Raven jumped up in down beside me, waving her card in the air. “I got in! I got in!”
“That’s some awesomesauce with an extra heaping of sauce,” I said. “I did, too.”
Yay! Friends once—sisters now! It was honestly pretty cool to take a female heterosexual relationship to a whole new level.
“I’m sorry if I was bitchy to you before, Serena,” Raven said. “You’ve been through hell and I hope we can become friends.”
“All is forgiven,” I said, biting my lip. “I wasn’t exactly gracious myself, and I shouldn’t have lied to everyone about why I transferred schools.”
All the pledges had survived Pledge Hell and now we were sisters for life. We’d be in each other’s weddings. We’d live together for the next two years. We’d share all our hopes and dreams, and—more importantly—our hookup stories, breakups, and psychology notes. We’d bond over late night meals in the kitchen and share our lives with each other like a real family.
Raven and I congratulated several girls and consoled others as we left the building. With one quick hug, Raven and I parted ways. I couldn’t stop grinning. Swinging my arms while walking across campus, I could barely recognize Beaumont. Frat boys and students lined the sidewalks, cheering and yelling. And hipsters and scholarly types far above the Greek scene jeered at the girls who they claimed were paying for friends.
After my last class later that day, Vanessa and I met up outside the library and walked back to Stevenson Hall together. I was glad that we’d become friends and her constant chatter no longer annoyed me. I’d told her everything that had happened over the last few months, including the truth about why I’d transferred schools, and she’d chewed me out for not telling her sooner.
I pushed open the door
to our dorm room and we both stopped dead. My entire half of the room was stripped. No books, no posters, no bed, no dresser, no paintings. Nothing.
I took a staggering breath, but it stuck in my throat. Tears threatened.
Breathe in, breathe out.
“Where’s all your stuff?” Vanessa asked.
My heart heaved itself against my ribcage. “Please tell me that I’m not being hazed again.”
“Okay, don’t freak out,” Vanessa said, dumping her books and stuff on the only bed. “There has to be a reasonable explanation. I mean you were cleared by the dean for that sex email, so it’s not like you were expelled between then and now, right?”
“Right,” I said.
Vanessa scratched her head. “Your grades have gotten better, haven’t they?”
“Yes.” My nerve endings twanged. “You think the dean would just kick me out? Without a warning?”
“Nah,” Vanessa said quickly. “But where’s all your stuff? Do you think someone stole it? Guess my article on the dang thievery on campus didn’t help.”
“I-I don’t know. I need to go talk to someone.” My teeth worried the soft flesh of my bottom lip. “But who the hell do students go to when all their stuff vanishes from their room? The RA? Campus police?”
“I’m not sure. Do you want me to go with you?” Vanessa asked.
“No. Stay here,” I said, backing out of the doorway. “I’ll...be back.”
On shaky legs, I staggered down the hall toward the elevators. Usually, I took the stairs for exercise, but today I was in a hurry.
Vanessa stuck her head out the door and yelled, “Hey, you paid your dorm fees, right?”
I cringed. “Yes! Could you have said that any louder?”
Once I was outside, I marched toward the campus police building. My cellphone rang and I paused to take it out of my pocket and check the caller ID: Jade Goodwin, top Zeta Beta bitch.
“Hello?”
“What’re you still doing at Stevenson Hall, Serena?” Jade asked.
The breath ripped from my lungs. I stared across campus at the Zeta Beta House.
“If you want to know where your stuff is, Stalky, you’d better get your cute ass over here. Pronto.”
“You took my stuff?” I said. “Why?”
The phone went dead. I rushed across the quad, pushing past other students on their way to class. I clenched my hands, my nails digging into my palms. I was so beyond done with these damn hazing pranks.
The moment I stepped into the mansion, my first instinct was to cuss Jade out. But twenty-four young woman stood in the foyer, forming a semicircle with Jade in the center. My mouth tasted gummy and sour. Jade stepped forward, then took my arm in her iron grip, and led me to the center of the room. The young women closed into a tight circle around us, and I spotted Raven and Brooklyn among them.
“The women of Zeta Beta receive you, Serena DuPont, as an official member,” Jade announced.
Next to her Brooklyn struggled to stifle a grin. My pulse raced ahead so fast I felt dizzy and faint. All the faces in the room blurred together and I sucked in air.
Breathe in, breathe out.
I was a sister of Zeta Beta. It was happening. It was actually happening.
Even though I was glad to be a member, I was still salty over the whole telling me who I could date rule.
“In the interest of full disclosure,” I blurted, struggling to keep my voice calm and steady, “this is probably a good time for me to tell you guys that I am totally Team Cole. Slimeball Ethan? No thanks. So bring it on, haters, because I will defend my overly-coifed boy to the death.”
Everyone stared. Then giggles erupted.
“Serena, relax,” Jade said. “That no dating ATO boys’ policy has been officially rejected by all the sisters. A Zeta Beta can now hook up with any guy on campus she wants.”
My shoulders relaxed and I exhaled loudly.
“Welcome, Serena!” the Zeta Beta women chorused. “Greetings, sister!”
During my first semester at Beaumont, I’d had my ups and downs, secret make-out sessions, rejections, STD rumors, essays on Faulkner, and threatening notes from a jealous psychopath, but that was all over now. And despite my knack for living in the past tense, I was now firmly rooted in the present. The rest of this year was going to be about getting a decent GPA and attending more parties on weeknights, and having as much fun as possible with my sisters. And hello, Paris!
Jade leaned toward me with a grin. “You’re my sister now.”
What I had gained from all this sorority drama during recruitment was a sense of self. I would always be—the outcast daughter, the weird artsy girl, the former compulsive liar—but now I had become a part of something bigger. Some people might consider sororities a silly association where girls paid for friends, but to me it was so much more than that.
A huge smile lifted the corners of my mouth, widening until my cheek muscles hurt. Tears clouded my vision. My throat was thick, but I didn’t care. I just kept smiling.
At that moment, I didn’t think I would ever stop.
SORORITY ROW SERIES
Follow Serena as her epic story continues in the next thrillingly romantic novel coming soon...
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IMMORTAL ECLIPSE
Sizzling Adult Paranormal Romance by Sherry Soule!
Inheriting a haunted California estate is one thing. Getting hot and bothered by its sexy caretaker is another. But Skylar Blackwell draws the line at voodoo and murder....
***
Skylar would rather dive into the latest fashion magazine than a murder mystery. But when her last remaining relative is crudely sliced up with a mosaic of eerie symbols on his chest, she’s on a mission to find answers.
Not only are the inhabitants less than welcoming, but Summerwind’s gorgeous caretaker, Dorian Delacroix—a man broken and tormented by his past—instantly ignites fiery sensations within her. And romance was definitely not on the agenda.
As she begins questioning the staff, they start dying under mysterious circumstances, and although Skylar’s determined to unravel the dark history of the mansion, nothing about this place—or this enigmatic man—is what it seems.
From the moment Skylar steps foot inside Summerwind, she’s plunged into a strange world of doppelgangers, voodoo rituals, haunting nightmares, and a body count that’s piling up faster than her collection of Jimmy Choos. Despite her simmering desire for Dorian, Skylar realizes that she can’t really trust anyone. The only thing she knows for certain is that she needs to gather enough courage to fight the darker forces she never believed existed.
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LOST IN STARLIGHT
Hot YA Paranormal Romance by Sherry Soule!
High school is tough. Romance with a sexy outsider—even tougher.
High school reporter Sloane Masterson knows she has one helluva story when she witnesses hottie Hayden Lancaster bending forks with his mind.
Like any good journalist, Sloane sets out to uncover the truth, even if it includes a little stalking. When the superhuman feats start to pile up and the undeniable heat rises between them, Hayden has no choice but to reveal his darkest secret.
They’re as different as night and day—she’s a curvy, purple-haired, horror junkie and he’s a smoking h
ot, antisocial, brainiac—yet the intense fascination between them refuses to go away. Even at Hayden’s insistence that dating each other is “off limits” and crazy dangerous, their fiery attraction threatens to go supernova.
Now Sloane’s dealing with creepy government agents, über snobby extraterrestrials, and a psycho alien ex-girlfriend out for revenge. After a crash course on the rules of interstellar dating, Sloane must decide if their star-crossed romance is worth risking her own life....
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BEAUTIFULLY BROKEN
Thrilling YA Paranormal Romance by Sherry Soule!
They say every town has its secrets, but that doesn’t even begin to describe Fallen Oaks. The townsfolk are a superstitious lot and the mystical disappearance of a local teen has everyone murmuring about a centuries old witch’s curse.
When Shiloh Trudell takes a summer job at Craven Manor, she discovers a ghost with an agenda. That’s where she meets the new town hottie, Trent Donovan, and immediately becomes enchanted by his charms. Finally, Shiloh’s met someone who is supercute and totally into her, but Trent is immersed in the cunning deception that surrounds the mysterious Craven Manor. And Shiloh can’t decide whether she wants to shake him or kiss him. Yet neither one of them can deny the immediate, passionate connection growing between them.
But underlying everything is the fear that Trent may be the next victim on a supernatural hit list, and Shiloh is the only person with the power to save him…
With cryptic messages from a pesky wraith, Shiloh must decide how much she’s willing to sacrifice to protect the other teenagers in town. Unfortunately, for Shiloh, not all ghosts want help crossing over. Some want vengeance.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sherry Soule lives with her family and one very spoiled black cat in the San Francisco Bay Area. She's always wanted to live in a world where sweatpants are sexy, cupcakes don't make you fat, and she could adopt every homeless animal.