ChapterOne
Sydney
Asqueal slips past my lips when hands grip my waist and I’m yanked back into a tall warm body. “Where d’ya think you’re going?” Jared asks in that newly deep voice that does funny things to my insides. His warm breath ghosts over my neck before he nuzzles my skin, and I melt against him.
“Art class,” I rasp, not protesting when he spins me around in his arms.
Noise levels elevate as students crowd against lockers in the busy hallway, eager to grab their shit and escape West Lorian High for the weekend. I’m equally excited to leave our private school behind for a few days. Not just because I get to spend uninterrupted time with my love.
Stretching my neck to look up at my best-friend-slash-new-boyfriend, I smile at his sexy-as-fuck face. Jared had a massive growth spurt over the summer, and he’s well over six feet tall now. Add that to his gorgeous face, charismatic personality, musical talent, and all-round good guy persona, and he’s the full package.
To say I’m the envy of girls at school is an understatement.
Some days, I still have to pinch myself to believe he’s finally mine. Years of unrequited love ended four months ago when he kissed me and confessed his feelings.
I’ve been walking on a cloud ever since.
“Boo.” He fake pouts, and his piercing sky-blue eyes sparkle with unspoken promise.
I grin as I clutch his arms. “You know I go to Miss Elliott’s every Friday after school.” She used to teach Mom back in the day, and somehow, I managed to convince her to take me on as a student a couple of years ago. Jade Elliott is well known in artistic circles for her talent, her beauty, her free-spirited eccentric ways, and her reclusiveness. I don’t care. As long as she helps me get a place at the illustrious art program at NYU, she can be whoever she wants to be.
“I miss you.” Jared leans down and brushes his lips against mine. “I need you.” Grabbing my ass through my uniform skirt, he pulls me in flush with his muscular body.
“You only saw me two hours ago in world history,” I remind him though I’m secretly pleased at how much he seems to crave me. Heat crawls up my neck and onto my cheeks as I rest my hands on his chest and beam at him. Lately, things have been getting more intense between us, and I know it’s only a matter of time before we go all the way. I squeeze my thighs together, like I’ve been doing a lot recently. It never alleviates the almost constant ache down below. “Can you come over later?” I ask, purposely feeling him up.
Jared has been working out a lot, and it shows. He goes to the gym every morning before school with Anvil, the lead singer of their band. His body is insane. Jared is all curved dips and solid muscle with a six-pack that is the envy of every jock in this place.
“Try stopping me.” Grinning, he tosses waves of jet-black hair out of his smoldering eyes before bending down to kiss me. Reaching up on tiptoe, I meet him halfway, angling my head and sighing contentedly. Strong arms wrap around me from behind as we kiss, and I always feel so protected when I’m with him. Jared’s mouth glides effortlessly against mine, and my pulse races as my core throbs with potent need. My lips automatically part when his tongue demands entry, and I moan into his mouth. The outside world ceases to exist as I get lost in the only boy who has ever mattered.
My boyfriend is the best kisser in the world.
I don’t care I’ve only kissed one other boy before Jared, and I’m not exactly an expert on kissing technique.
A girl just knows these things.
“Ahem.” A familiar throat clearing pulls us apart, and I just know my cheeks are on fire as I turn to face my best friend. I’m still a little shy when it comes to PDAs.
“I think I got pregnant from that kiss,” Cayenne jokes, fanning her pretty face with both hands.
“That’s a physical impossibility.” I snuggle into my boyfriend’s side as his arm wraps around my waist, and he presses a kiss to my hair.
“Where’s Vil?” Jared asks, glancing over my bestie’s shoulder for any sign of his bandmate and her on-again, off-again boyfriend.
“Don’t know. I’m not his keeper,” Cay huffs, grabbing fistfuls of her long pink hair and wrangling it into a messy topknot as her good mood instantly evaporates.
I’m not a fan of Anvil. Period. Neither Jared nor Cayenne know he’s hit on me. On several occasions over the past year. There was this one time at a freshman party last year, where I considered making out with him purely to get back at Jared because he’d disappeared with some cheerleader and I was jealous. The thought lasted for about three seconds before I discarded it. It’s one thing for Jared to make out with a random stranger he’ll never see again and quite another for me to make out with one of his closest friends.
Even though we were firmly in the friend zone then, I knew Jared wouldn’t like it. So, I have avoided Anvil’s advances. That and he’s always creeped me out a little. I thought it would stop after he started dating my best friend and after Jared and I got together, but it hasn’t.
I wish Cayenne would break up with him for good, even if it would be awkward. She deserves way better than that cheating asshole.
“He called practice off,” Jared confirms, running his hand up and down my side. “I thought it was to hang out with you.”
Cay’s eyes narrow to slits, and I can almost see steam billowing from her ears. “That lying piece of shit! I asked him to walk me home so we could talk, and he said he had band practice.”
Jared cringes even though I know he said that on purpose. Anvil may be his bandmate and one of his closest friends, but he doesn’t approve of how he treats his girlfriend. He thinks Cayenne should break up with him too, and that speaks volumes. “Maybe he got things mixed up.”
“Don’t cover for him, J. Don’t do that.”
