Prologue
Eleven Years Ago
The house was quiet as I lay in my bed. My first night as a legal adult, although I didn’t feel any different from the way I did yesterday. I still felt like a child. The little girl who lost her mom, even though that was over five years ago.
Dad had been doing his best. For my eighteenth birthday, he got me an emergency kit for my car and a boatload of makeup in my favorite brands and shades. I only felt mildly annoyed that he, or one of my three brothers, had rummaged through my things to make sure he got all the right stuff.
We had a little celebration earlier, just my family and my brother Wyatt’s friend Wes—cake, ice cream, pizza—before my two older brothers took off for the night.Theydidn’t have to be home by 10:00 p.m. because it was a school night.
There was supposed to be a bonfire down the beach tonight, and I thought about asking my dad for an exception to the curfew for my birthday, but that was for the hot girls who had guys fawning all over them. Not girls like me, with my jet-black hair and leather choker necklace. Hence the reason I wasn’t actually invited to it in the first place.
Tap.Tap. Tap.
My ears perked up at the noise as I strained to listen for itagain.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
Someone was tapping at my window from outside. I got up, not bothering to cover myself any more than the sleep tank and underwear were currently covering, and threw the curtains wide open, ready to confront whoever thought they could attack me in the middle of the night.
Or at 10:30 p.m., as the alarm clock on my dresser showed.
Sebastian Devereux’s eyes rounded, and he pulled back a step at my abrupt arrival. I opened the window, letting in the salty, warm May air.
“What are you doing?” I hissed.
“Can I come in?” His honey-brown eyes pleaded with me.
“Through the window? Who does that?” I whisper-hissed as I pried open the insect screen and stepped back to let him in. “Where’s Luke?”
Sebastian was my brother Luke’s best friend. They had been inseparable for years, and I always liked Seb. He let me hang out with them, even when Luke would complain or roll his eyes at his dumb little sister tagging along. But lately, it’d been different. My palms would sweat when he came around. My pulse would quicken, tripping over itself, just from hearing his voice.
“He’s with Nina,” Seb grunted lowly, hauling himself over the windowsill. Luke and his girlfriends. Nina was the latest, and that might sound like Luke went through women, but it was typically the other way around. Luke fell hard and fast, every time. One day, maybe he would learn not to trust so easily, but that day hadn’t come yet. But who knew, maybe Nina Ashen was “the one.”
“If Luke’s not here, why are you here?” I went back tomy bed, sitting cross-legged on the mattress while Seb closed the screen on the window and lowered the pane, keeping it open an inch or two to let in the air.
“Maybe I’m here for you.”
My heart galloped out of my chest at his words. Internally, I berated myself for taking off my makeup before bed as I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to get it to not look like a rat’s nest.
Sebastian turned from the window and eyed my panties, my legs splayed open in the cross-legged position. He immediately looked away—eyes up, to the side, down at his shoes… anywhere and everywhere but at me. I hurried to fix my legs, deciding to fold them under me so I could sit on them instead.
“Har har,” I deadpanned. Seb’s disinterest was clear, and a sense of embarrassment washed over me. Usually, I was the one doing the rejecting. And I did alotof rejecting to the stupid, hormonal teenagers of Calla Bay. I had no problem putting each and every one of those horny kids in their place.
Maybe that was why I was still a virgin at eighteen. Probably the only high school senior who would be graduating from school before graduating into real adulthood. But it was better than giving it all away to someone I didn’t even like. I wasn’t picky. I had standards. And so far, no one had made the cut. Not even close.
“A couple of us had a bonfire down the beach. There may have been alcohol involved. You should have come,” he said, making his way around my room, looking at the pictures and products on my vanity.
“I wasn’t invited,” I shot back.
He cringed his adorable nose and looked awayguiltily. “Anyway… if I go home with booze on my breath again, my mom will kill me. She was pretty pissed after last time. Although, in my defense, I didn’t know my keys were in my hand when I pounded on the door for them to let me in the house in the middle of the night.”
I shook my head, a smile trying to break free. “What made you leave the bonfire if you aren’t ready to go home?”
He shrugged noncommittally, still looking through my things like he was cataloging everything. He was giving off a weird energy, but that was probably the alcohol.
“So, you needed to kill time, and you decided to come here? To my room?” A skeptical brow rose as I waited for his response. He finally moved away from my vanity and came to sit on the bed beside me.
“Maybe you’re just better company,” he smirked.
