Page 44 of Fifty First Times (Sharing You 0.40)
“Tanner, I—”
“And when they do come together again, even if years have gone by, does it feel like not a single second has passed? Because that’s how it feels to me, Avery. Every second I spend away from you is pure agony. And now that I’m with you, for the first time in four years, I finally feel at peace. If you want me to leave, just say the word. I deserve it. But I don’t think if I could survive losing you a second time. Let me stay, Cricket. I know this is where I’m supposed to be.”
His fingers slid past my ears and curled into my hair, pulling me closer until the only thing separating us was the fabric of our clothing. His heart thumped softy against my chest, asking to come in. Like I could refuse him or his heart. The agony of his absence had been almost too much to bear. Even so, with him here, holding me in his arms, I could barely remember the pain. When he was with me, somehow I knew everything would be okay.
I laughed and shook my head. “This is crazy. You know that, right?”
He kissed me then, burning a path of flames from my mouth, to my chin, and down my neck. I shivered as a wave after wave of heat washed over me. Each time his lips met my skin the pain between us burned away, leaving only desire in its wake. When he finally released me, I staggered backward and clutched the side of my desk in an attempt to keep my wobbling legs from giving out.
He grinned. “It is crazy. But it will work.”
“How can you be so sure?” I asked, my words breathless.
He walked toward me. The need in his eyes, I was sure, mirrored my own. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes.” With a smile, I closed my eyes—even though I’d already fallen.
About the Author
COLE GIBSEN spent half her senior year of high school homeless, with only a beat-up Volkswagen Jetta and a bag of Goodwill clothing to her name. The only things that got her through the nights spent parked in truck stops and cornfields were the stacks of books she checked out from the library, and her trusty flashlight. It was because of the escape these books gave her that Cole vowed to become a writer so she could provide the same break from reality to readers who needed an escape from the hardships of their own lives.
Cole is represented by Nicole Resciniti of the Seymour Agency.
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Crash
SOPHIE JORDAN
Hunter
“THE KITTY CAVE?” I repeated, frowning. “Isn’t that a strip club? I don’t do strip clubs.”
“I know,” Cody replied. “That’s why we didn’t tell you.”
I dragged a hand through my hair and glared out the window, watching the snow-draped city. I was being forced into a strip club. Un-fucking-believable.
“You don’t do anything, man. You’ve always been tied down to a girl. Paige. And then Pepper—” Cody slanted me a look. I read his hesitation and knew it stemmed more from confusion than any sensitivity on his part. The guy was kind of a douche. An oversexed rugby player. I’m pretty certain he hit the juice, but he’d been my roommate since freshman year. When he had asked me if I wanted to room with him again, I figured the devil you knew . . . And there was the not so minor fact that he picked up after himself. He never ate my food and never walked around naked. Lines never to be crossed. The last thing I wanted to see was Cody bare-assed.
Now he was giving me a speculative look. He didn’t know what Pepper and I had been exactly. And hell, that made two of us. Whatever we were, it had been short-lived. In some ways I felt more in a couple weeks with Pepper than anything I felt in two years with Paige. It was an eye-opener. Spending two years with someone . . . well, there should have been some grief over splitting up, right? But all I felt was relief.
Either way, here I was. Single and not looking to change that. I had a couple months left at Dartford, and then my internship over the summer. I was moving on. No sense getting tangled up with another girl before then.
“I mean, did you even bang Pepper?” Cody’s mind lived in the gutter pretty much all the time and he didn’t hide the fact.
I blinked long and hard, an image of Pepper suddenly flashing before my eyes. All fiery hair and expressive eyes. The last time I’d seen her she’d been in the arms of her new boyfriend. A tatted-up bartender. Not the kind of guy I would have imagined for her, but hey, she loved him. And he loved her. Which I guess was the most important thing . . . that he treated her right. Pepper deserved that.
I cleared my head with a shake and answered Cody, “Because if we were sleeping together that made the relationship somehow real?”
Cody shrugged and turned down a street lined with dark buildings; several were boarded up. We passed a couple seedy-looking bars, a shop that advertised twenty-four-hour massages. And smack in the middle of the street, there it was. A line of guys stretched out in front of its doors.
The Kitty Cave.
In the backseat, Barrett leaned forward and clapped a bone-jarring hand on my shoulder. I tried not to wince. I wasn’t a wuss, but it was like Cody and his rugby buddies could only show that they liked another dude by inflicting pain. That was especially the case with Barrett. I liked him a hell of a lot less than Cody, but they’d gone to high school together. If you got one, you got the other. I learned to accept it. “Maybe we’ll get you laid, too.”
I shrugged. I didn’t need anyone to help me get laid. The girl sitting next to me in Anatomy had been offering it up to me in no uncertain terms the entire semester. If I wanted a piece of ass, I could get it any day of the week.
Cody parked the car in the lot across the street and we all climbed out into the cold February night. I stared at the Kitty Cave. “Paradise City” spilled out onto the street and shook the air. Going inside the Kitty Cave appealed to me about as much as getting my teeth drilled.
