Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
Thank You
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright
Prologue
Sunlight teased Diana's eyes open. Blinking, she closed them again, snuggling under the warm covers. Then a curl of panic tightened her stomach, and she bolted upright.
She'd overslept. She'd missed a test. She'd blown every chance of getting into Yale.
She was…outside.
Blue sky spread overhead, edged by maple leaves. She sat halfway in, halfway out of a sleeping bag. Instead of her lacy nightgown, an oversized T-shirt draped her curves, and when she touched her hair — usually a straight dark bob — her fingers met a matted tangle. Her glasses were dropped on a book by her pillow. Her panties lay on the lawn, and her crotch throbbed unmistakably.
Summer was here.
She’d graduated high school two weeks ago. Yale waited at the end of August. In between — freedom.
Her sleeping bag still held the shape of Ian's body. She’d drifted off against his bare chest last night, listening to the lazy music of her record player cross the beat of his heart. He must have gotten her into his T-shirt and taken the needle off the record before he went home.
But, just like Ian, he hadn’t bothered to help her back into her panties.
It all felt like the best dream of her life, but she was wide awake.
Only one person knew Ian jumped the fence between their houses each night, Huskies blanket tucked under his arm, to wrestle her onto the grass and share kisses and whispers and moans.
Only one person knew she’d been seeing Ian for close to a week now.
Only one person knew that their love rose from the ashes of a threesome so hot, it had almost burned her up.
And she trusted that person not to breathe a word.
She was just beginning to see who Brendan really was, but one thing she knew about her boyfriend’s twin: he was very, very good at keeping secrets.
Chapter One
Summer evening sun slanted through broad windows into the diner booth. Music pulsed from the jukebox, boosting the laughter of Diana’s friends, and ceiling fans stirred the humid air.
Diana was laughing too, but she’d already forgotten who’d told the joke. Was it Marissa or Janelle? Batting David’s hand away from her fries, she pulled her foot back when she kicked Shaun’s guitar case under the table.
She was hanging out. Having fun with no plan or purpose. All through high school, this would have been unthinkable. And if guys had been part of the group? She would have kept her legs crossed, her eyes on her iced coffee, and her mind just out of the gutter. All while managing the occasional comment that sounded smart in her head, but plain bitchy out loud.
Now, she was chattering away, like sitting at a table with boys was no big deal. Stuffing her face with fries, leaning across Marissa to smack Shaun’s shoulder. Her sailor dress clung to her curves with sweat, and she wasn’t even self-conscious about it.
But her head was only half there. And her mind was still in the gutter.
It was Friday. The end of her first week interning at a biology lab. She’d applied for the internship months before the boys next door had seduced her in their treehouse. And she’d assured the head of the lab that she’d give it her all, even though she wasn’t in college yet.
I’m very focused, she’d promised. I keep my eye on my goals. It’s pretty much impossible to distract me.
Now, six days into being a couple with Ian O’Brian, she was walking around in a fog. Half the time, she wanted to squeal out loud. The other half of the time, she wanted to race to her room, peel off her clothes, and squeeze a pillow between her legs. And those were the times she wasn’t with Ian.
Times like now.
Red satin track shorts hid in the tote bag between her feet, shorts she’d never worn outside the house.
“I can’t believe people are still hanging out on the lawn at school,” Shaun yawned. “Smoking and playing Frisbee. Time to cut the cord. It’s summer now.”
“They’re the same people who never came to school during the year.” Janelle tugged on the basket of fries. Diana pushed it absently toward her.
“Like that’s not what you do with your ass every day, Shaun.” Marissa blew a straw paper at Shaun’s guitar case. “You sit outside strumming while the rest of us go to work.”
“I’m writing music for my band,” Shaun protested. “Full time. You’re all coming to our next show, right? Bring everyone you know.”
“Yeah, Diana.” Janelle poked her arm. “Bring everyone you know.”
“What?” Diana said distractedly. Somehow, her fries had ended up on the other side of the table. She reached for the basket. “We know the same people.”
Marissa leaned close, speaking slowly in case the message wasn’t clear. “You know your neighbors.”
Diana took off her glasses and toyed with them. “Oh, you mean the DiStefanos? They’re old. They wouldn’t like Shaun’s decibel level.”
“My God, your neighbors, Diana,” Janelle broke in. “The neighbors. The O’Brian twins.” She fluttered her fingers in front of her face. “When they showed up at graduation, all tall and muscular and hot and standing two feet away from me — and fucking identical — I honestly couldn’t breathe.”
“We noticed,” Marissa said drily. Shaun was grumbling and unzipping his guitar case. “Shaun, don’t play right now. We’re in a restaurant.”
“And when they both had their arms around Diana and were posing for pictures… You’ve been holding out on us, babe.” Janelle pointed her fork at Diana. “How did you even stay upright?”
Good question. Her friends would never know how close she’d been to melting under her graduation gown.
“I told you,” Diana said airily, though her heart was pounding, and her dress felt much too hot now. “I don’t see them that way.”
From the corner of the booth, a chord strummed — pissily, if that was possible. David’s eyes darted between Marissa and Janelle like the conversation was moving too fast for him to follow.
“Marissa, we need to see those pictures you took.” Janelle reached for Marissa’s purse on the table.
Marissa shook her head sadly. “They’re all on their phone.”
“Brendan’s phone,” Diana put in. “They don’t share a phone. They’re two people.”
“Oh my God, you touched his phone. And those green eyes—”
“Hazel,” Diana sighed.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Very sure. “They’re just eyes,” she added.
Eyes with their own unnameable color in the moonlight when Ian crouched over her, his muscles tensed. Eyes that went wide and hot as she tugged on his sweats and trailed her fingers down his skin, eyes that narrowed with lust as he peeled off her nightgown. Eyes that explored every curve until her nipples puckered in the cool air, her breath sped up, and her legs opened in an obvious plea…
“Who are these people and why do you care about them?” David looked perplexed.
“Oh, right.” Marissa patted his arm sympatheticall
y. “Transfer student. You never witnessed the glory of the O’Brian twins. They graduated two years before us. Total jocks and cocky as hell, or at least the bad one was, but no one can deny the legend. Diana’s been hanging out with them. She never did in high school.”
“We have a history, that’s all.” Diana pushed up her glasses and smoothed her dress. Sweat gathered between her breasts. “Sometimes it just feels really good to hang out with people you’ve known forever, who know the real you. It’s not a big thing. They’re busy, I’m busy. I do see Brendan every morning.” And Ian every night. “He has some financial internship downtown and he leaves when I go to the lab. We have a nice good morning hug ritual,” she couldn’t resist adding, because it felt safer to talk about Brendan right now. “Brendan gives really good hugs.”
“What’s involved in a really good hug?” David squinted at her, while Janelle motioned to Diana and mouthed, Least huggy person ever. “Can you give us a step-by-step?”
Oh, could she. First, Brendan rested a solid arm on her shoulders and smiled down at her like he’d been waiting for this moment since he’d rolled out of bed. Morning, cutie. Next came his other arm, wrapping easily around her back and pulling her close. Close enough to breathe in a hint of cologne, close enough to feel hard muscle against her soft curves, close enough to hear his deep voice murmur the compliment of the day. I like your dress. You smell amazing. You look so happy, Di. Close enough for her body to throb as she hugged him back and teased him about wearing a tie.
His hand, tousling her hair, told her she was strictly a little sister now. When it dropped to her waist for a brief squeeze, it told her he hadn’t forgotten when she wasn’t.
No one but Brendan could pack that much into a two-second hug, and she doubted anyone but Brendan could pull it off. She wasn’t complaining.
“You know.” She pushed ice down in her coffee with her straw. “A friendly cuddle. Not too soft, not too hard. No expectations, so you can relax, because you know nothing’s ever going to happen.”
Janelle was hanging on to every word. David had his phone out like he was taking notes.
“I give good hugs,” Shaun announced between strums.
“You give great hugs, Shaun.” Taking pity on him, Marissa began playing with his hair. A month ago, Diana would have looked awkwardly in the other direction, the way she always had when her friends got up close and personal. Now, she just smiled.
“Why don’t you want something to happen with Brendan?” Janelle demanded. “Oh, right. They’re like your brothers. Better for the rest of us.”
“Not like anything would,” Marissa chimed in. “No offense, Di. You’re hot. But I don’t think your neighbor twins’ tastes run to scary-smart.”
“We don’t have to talk about them,” Diana said quickly. “We were talking about Shaun and his band.”
“No, we weren’t.” Marissa turned to David. “Janelle used to drag me to their games to drool over them.”
“Me? You were all over that.”
“You went to their games?” Diana asked, startled.
“Yeah, remember? We tried to take you once. You closed us down like that.” Marissa snapped her fingers. “We couldn’t even convince you to bring homework, and let me tell you, they were playing Woodside and there was such a display of man-flesh on that basketball court…”
“Sounds like overkill,” Shaun grumbled.
“It was perfection. And everyone heard about how hard they partied afterward. Ian got totally thrashed and streaked through the neighborhood. Rumor said he was the only guy who was naked, but he got some girls to take their clothes off too,” Janelle giggled.
“Oh, I believe it. Brendan’s the responsible one,” Marissa explained to David. He nodded and reached for a handful of Diana’s fries. “And Ian’s the troublemaker. He is such a party animal and a manwhore…”
“Who’s shaking the table?” Janelle grabbed her milkshake to keep it from spilling. “Diana? Jesus, sit still.”
Diana took a quick sip of her iced coffee. Half an hour from now, she’d be walking into Ian’s territory in her red satin shorts. Had she really thought caffeine was a good idea? Her heart raced, and butterflies were invading her stomach.
“They’re different once you get to know them,” she said out loud. “And I just have a lot of energy. I was sitting on a bench all day.”
“Yeah, how’s that going, Miss Lab Rat?” Marissa dragged a fry through ketchup. “Forget the O’Brians. Do you have to wear a white coat?”
Diana slurped more iced coffee, buying time to calm down.
On her first day at the lab, eager to make a good impression as the youngest person there, she’d volunteered to wash a huge tray of glassware. Two minutes in, she’d knocked it over. Everyone heard the smash, everyone watched as she swept up the pieces, and everyone saw the head of the lab tell her that she’d be paying for that glassware.
That night, still hot with embarrassment, she’d asked Ian to make it better. Seconds later, she’d found herself naked in her dark backyard, grass pressing into her hands and knees, obeying his order to hold still.
In a low voice, Ian told her she was all alone in the lab. So busy, so hard at work, she never heard him sneaking up behind her. And wasn’t she surprised when he started feeling her up under her white coat?
But so was he, because she didn’t have anything on underneath. All he felt was soft skin, an incredible ass, and tits that begged to be squeezed. How dirty. He knew she was a bad girl, but naked at work? She really was a slut, wasn’t she?
When she’d tried to turn around, already dizzy with arousal, he told her not to pay attention to him, to keep doing whatever she was doing with beakers and shit, while he growled the filthiest words imaginable and played with her nipples until she whimpered with need.
I’m not here. Just keep working, baby. Don’t let anything explode.
God, when he’d finally plunged into her with a deep thrust that made her gasp, she’d been dripping wet, beyond ready for him even though he hadn’t touched her pussy yet, and —
“Not too bad,” she chirped. “Everyone else in the lab is more experienced than I am, which means I do all the bitch work, and I spend most of my time pouring things in test tubes and watching them, and I smashed about a thousand flasks the first day because I was nervous. But overall — not too bad.” She took another freezing gulp from her straw. “And yes to the white coat.”
“You were nervous?” Shaun’s head jerked up from his guitar. “Seriously?”
Diana spluttered through a mouthful of iced coffee. Everyone was staring now.
“What?” She grabbed Marissa’s napkin to wipe her face. “I just snorted coffee up my nose. No big deal. It happens.”
“Not to you.” Janelle waved one of Diana’s french fries. “You don’t do the klutzy stuff the rest of us do. You’re always so together and…careful. Really, you were nervous?”
Diana nodded, too shocked to answer right away. Buttoned-up ice princess, Ian had called her that first night in the pool. Stone-cold fox. She’d been shocked then, too.
“Nervous like you wouldn’t believe,” she said firmly.
“Well, I guess it happens to the best of us. Even you.” Marissa gave her a teasing elbow to the ribs. The motion knocked Diana’s purse off the side of her chair.
Shit, she hadn’t zipped it. Keys jangled to the ground while lipstick skittered down the tiles. Her phone landed with a gut-wrenching crack. And in plain view, lying next to her red leather journal— Fuck. Oh, fuck.
The lube.
Not just any lube. The lube Brendan had brought to her bedroom on graduation night, right before she’d taken him and Ian inside her. Together. The first part of the twins’ gift, and just to make things obvious, the tube was clearly marked Anal lubricant: for intimate pleasure.
Marissa had seen it too. No question. She goggled at the floor, then Diana.
“What?” Shaun leaned over the table, craning his neck at the mess
.
No one else had seen. With two sweeps of her arms, Marissa scooped up Diana’s things and dumped them back in her purse.
“Sorry. So sorry. What was Janelle saying about being klutzy? I need to go be a girl now.” She picked up her own purse. “Come with, Di?”
She looped her arm through Diana’s in a way that made it clear she wasn’t asking. Her face on fire, Diana grabbed her purse, along with the tote bag under her chair.
“Sure. Absolutely,” she babbled. “Let me just see if my phone will start. Good, it’s okay. I need to head out soon anyway.”
“Where?” Janelle asked, but Marissa was already rushing her across the diner. Past the kitchen, up to the door — Marissa opened it and pulled her inside. The restroom was mercifully empty.
“Did I just see lube in your purse?” Marissa was clutching her arm, her face working in delighted shock. “Did I see anal lube? Am I having some kind of hallucination? Did Shaun dope my drink? Because I thought the only drug in my system was caffeine.”
“Calm down.” Giggles burst from Diana’s mouth. “Just calm down, okay?”
“Right. ‘Cause you’ve been so calm this whole time. You’re like…lightning, looking for a rod.”
“Hey, that’s poetic. Are you claiming that line? Because otherwise, I’m writing it down.” Diana reached for her journal. Her face was scarlet, she knew.
“What’s going on?” Marissa blocked her hand. “And where the hell are you going after this? I brought a tank top, like you asked. Since you apparently don’t own any.” Fishing in her purse, she pulled out a plain white tank top. “But after the lube, this seems so…boring.”
“No, no, it’s perfect. Thanks.” Diana took the tank top and disappeared into one of the stalls. Her cheeks still flamed. “I’ll go ahead and change.”
“You can’t change in front of me, but you’re carrying around anal lube?”
“God, stop. It sounds so dirrrty.” She couldn’t keep the giggles back.
“It is dirty! It’s incredibly dirty! Have you even had your first kiss yet? Are you trying to be prepared, like the world’s worst boy scout?”
The Girl in Between Page 1