Chapter1
Clare
His lips traced down the column of my throat as I arched my head back to expose more of my neck to him.
“Clare bear, you taste like honey.” My lips twitched in a small smile when I felt the ghost of his lips on my own. I gasped as they pressed deeply on mine, kissing me…claiming me.My body shivered, but not from the cold. From anticipation. The lips that devoured mine, they belonged to the most popular guy at Port Willow High.
Jett Lovell.
Just as I knew they were his lips, I knew the fingers that traced down my spine, grazing over my exposed skin with calloused hands until they rested on my bare waist. I gasped again as the hands moved up to tease the underside of my aching breasts. I knew those hands, they belonged to Jett’s other half.
Mekhi Edwards.
They moved together as one, teasing my body. Sending me to a high I didn’t think possible… How could they send me into a blissful high with only a slight touch? My chest heaving, I was so close to release. My body strained against their hands, imprinting their touch on my skin, burning me with their love and hunger. Needing and wanting more, more of everything…
I heard a thump, a giggle, a hiccup, and the deep rumbling of a chuckle.
I jerked up, panting like I really had been having a moment with Jett and Mekhi. It felt so real. I touched my lips, remembering the searing kiss we just had. But it wasn't real. It was only a dream. I shuffled my blanket up my chest and looked over to the door like I had just been caught doing something I shouldn't have been.
The room was dark, the light spilling in from the hallway as the door cracked open. They couldn’t see me even if I was doing something I didn't want them to see.
“Shhh, my roommate is sleeping.” I heard the loud whisper of Vicki and rolled my eyes. Was she warning me to be quiet? Or at least wanting me to look like I was sleeping as she snuck inanotherguy? When she let out another hiccup and giggled, I couldn't stop the smile from spreading across my face. She was a terrible roommate. But she was also funny and sweet. She just might have an addiction to late night romps with college guys, though.
I rolled my eyes and laid back down, shifting so my back was to her side of the room and I didn’t have to see her… and him. But ugh… I would have to hear it without my headphones.
I noticed then that my body was covered in a fine sheen of sweat. I held my hand to my chest, my heart racing still as I thought back to my dream. I hadn’t seen Jett and Mekhi since graduation; everyone had moved on from high school. But the thing was, I hadn’t even uttered a word to either of them before coming to college. The most encounters I’d had with them was from elementary school. Jett would pull on my pigtails and Mekhi would tell him off. Yet, every night without fail, my dreams were always of them.
Both together with me, Jett and me, Mekhi and me… and sometimes with each other as I watched them. They were the sexiest dreams and I found myself waking up with my hand between my legs more than once.
They did things I didn’t even think were imaginable in the bedroom. Things I shouldn’t even know were possible. But I guess, in dreams, anything was achievable if you had the imagination. But the only puzzling thing was I was a virgin. In all senses of the matter. How did I even know these sexual moves? How would I know what they looked like when they pleasured each other? I had never watched porn, and I sure as hell had never seen someone have sex before. My mind was the creator behind all of these things.
I had never dated anyone, I still hadn’t had my first kiss, and as Vicki pointed out every time she went out on the weekends, I was always here studying. I never went to the parties here on campus, I didn’t bring guys over… Hell, I didn’t go out unless it was class time or if I needed to eat.
So, what was I doing, dreaming of the hottest guys from my old high school in a three-way every night? Okay, well not every night. Some nights I dreamed of snuggling with them and watching movies in a home movie theater. Those dreams were even more confusing than the sex ones.
I could hear Vicki and the guy of tonight moaning. There was no way I could sleep through that. She knew I didn’t like her bringing guys back here. Not that she cared what I thought,obviously. She did this every weekend, then grumbled the rest of the week that she was behind on her studies and that she was going to fail. Then, just like clockwork, she repeated her weekend with new guys, and Sunday night she would say she needed to study. She was shocking, but she seemed to pass. Which was more than I could say for someone who spent all weekend studying.
She was a “party animal.” That’s what she was here at college for. It was the first thing she’d said when we met. To say we were complete opposites was correct. She’d invited me to go to all these parties when I first arrived and I just… I couldn’t go. There was something about the thought of them that made me anxious, and my stomach tied up in knots that made me sick just thinking about them. I wasn’t big on crowds, and parties were always crowded.
Without looking over to them, I got up, grabbed my phone, and checked the time. Irritation rolled off me when I saw it was after three. It was Sunday morning and I had a lot of work to catch up on.I always had work to catch up on.
I had been here in Colorado, at college, to pursue my dreams of helping injured animals. My parents were so excited when I told them I wanted to be an “animal doctor” when I was just four years old. They told all their friends I was going to be a vet and I never questioned it when I got to senior year at high school.
Yes, I loved animals, who didn’t? But they wouldn’t let me have a pet. Dad told me it was too much work and they didn’t have time for it. So, when they told me I could be a vet and take care of all the sick and injured animals, hug them and make them feel better again, I wanted to be a vet even more. I could be with animals all day, and I could help them get well again.
Like the time I brought home a baby bird that had fallen from its nest, Mom told me to put it back where I found it, but I wouldn’t. It would have died. So, I took care of it. It grew and thrived. Then one day I came home from school and Mom had taken it outside to “let it free.” I wanted to do that. I was waiting for the right time for it to be free. I’d cried, I was so upset that she had taken that part of the healing process away from me. But all she’d said was, “It had been long enough that it wasn’t welcome in the house anymore.”
I knew then that I wanted to help native wildlife, so I volunteered at a wildlife shelter. My parents didn’t like that. They told me that there was no money in helping wildlife, that I needed to focus on my dream.
That I had to go to the college they’d picked out for me, that way it would be guaranteed I’d graduate with the degree they wanted. The only thing was, it wasn't what I wanted. I wasn’t four anymore. I grew up and realized I could buy my own pets and all I wanted was to help injured wildlife. So why the hell did I agree to their plans for my college education and what I was studying by coming here?
I didn’t want to disappoint them. They had talked about it for so long it was as if anything else wouldn't even be considered, so there was no point in arguing it.
When Vicki got louder, I didn’t want to wait around anymore. I got up, wearing only my underwear and an oversized black tee that I had found in my suitcase when I first moved here. I assumed my mom bought it for me and placed it in there. It was soft, and when I first wore it, it smelled amazing. Like earth and the woods back home. I wish I didn’t have to wash it. But the smell had long gone, and I missed it.
I missed Washington. Home, the ocean and trees.
I grabbed my phone and headed out of the room. There was a window at the end of the hallway with a windowsill large enough to sit and look out. During the day I would see the mountains and could sit there while studying for hours. But there was an area below the window that had my interest most days—a small garden. Didn’t grow much, it was mostly shrubs and short grasses, but I could see from the streetlight that my can of tuna I had left earlier was now empty.
