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  I blinked at the totally wayward thought.

  “You think I’m just a kid, huh?” His deep voice rippled over me like warm wind.

  I nodded once.

  He stepped down from the porch, coming at me, stalking like some kind of predator. I backed up.

  He was just a kid. Just a . . . kid . . .

  Aw, hell. My gaze skimmed up and down six feet plus of sexy man. Who was I kidding? He was so totally not a kid.

  I tried to look down my nose at him the way I had seen my mother do countless times when squaring off with some mouthy delinquent. My sister and I called it her “principal look.” If she ever used it on us, we knew we were in trouble. But the effect was lost on him.

  Yeah, he stood taller than six feet, but it wasn’t that. Logan had an air about him. A confidence rare for anyone, much less an eighteen-year-old guy. He held himself like someone who knew who he was and his place in the world. And that annoyed me. Why was he so damn self-assured?

  “How old are you?” he asked, still smiling. A deceptive smile. Cunning almost.

  “Twenty. And you’re eighteen. Still in high school.” I flung that at him almost like an accusation.

  “For another couple weeks, yeah.” He nodded, absorbing this. “What month is your birthday?”

  “November.”

  “Okaaay,” he dragged the word out. “I’ll be nineteen in August. My mom held me back . . . didn’t want me to be the smallest kid in kindergarten.” It was hard to imagine him ever being the smallest kid, comparatively, at any point in his life. “So we’re twenty, twenty-one months apart, Georgia.” He arched an eyebrow at me, waiting for this to sink in. For me to realize we’re actually closer in age than I was willing to admit. That my calling him a kid was just . . . dumb.

  I shrugged one shoulder, for some reason unwilling to give him that. “Maybe this place isn’t for you. Don’t you have a curfew or something?”

  Pure contrariness had me tossing that out at him. I knew enough about his and Reece’s family life to know that he probably never had a curfew. Not since his mom died when he was a kid. His father was disabled and not exactly a check-the-homework-and tuck-’em-into-bed kind of parent.

  He laughed deeply then, tossing his head back. It was a deliberate dig, and instead of getting offended, he laughed. It was a hypnotizing sight, the way his throat worked, tendons moving beneath that golden skin. The flash of his straight teeth. My belly dipped and I knew this was why girls my age and older forgot about his age and dropped their panties for him. He oozed sex and confidence. I blinked hard, disgusted with myself.

  The sound of his laughter sent goose bumps over my flesh and settled in the pit of my stomach.

  He stopped laughing to say, “I’ve never had a curfew.”

  Never? I shook my head, telling myself now was not the time to marvel at his lack of supervision. My mom firmly believed no good could come of staying out past midnight. When I went home on break my parents still imposed a curfew on me. As if I wasn’t in my second year of college. As if I hadn’t been staying out all hours of the night doing all manner of naughty things. Yeah, okay, so I wasn’t. But I could be.

  This reminder of my sheltered existence just made me more determined to live my life on my own terms. To do tonight what I set out to do. To stop living such a boring existence. I was twenty and I’d been living the last four years like a married woman. School. Studying. Sex once a week. Shit. Liar. I couldn’t even be honest with myself. The last year with Harris we maybe had sex every month.

  Standing there looking at this incredibly hot guy who had a hell of a lot more experience than I did and was younger only flustered me. I flipped the hair back over my right shoulder, noting that his eyes followed the move, skimming over the long trail of blond hair before moving back to my face. Suddenly, I was glad that I had styled it so carefully for my date and worn it down in soft waves tonight.

  “I’ll leave. Fine. For tonight.” I started to walk past him, but he blocked me.

  “Meaning you might come back?”

  I edged back from the wall of his chest, careful not to touch him. I think Reece mentioned his brother played sports. It explained the breadth of his shoulders, which tapered down to a lean waist. The flat stomach. I’d glimpsed Reece without a shirt when he stayed the night with Pepper. It was criminal. Logan was in good shape. My gaze flicked over him. Okay. Great shape. He was probably ripped under the black shirt he wore. Just like his brother. Ridiculous six-pack, defined biceps and all. I swallowed against the sudden thickness of my throat. Shoot me. Was I actually drooling over a guy still in high school?

  I shrugged. “Maybe.”

  He rubbed a hand over his scalp, dragging his hand over the close-cropped dark blond hair. “That guy you were talking to? The one you were about to get busy with on the pool table? Georgia,” he expelled my name on an exasperated breath.

  “You don’t have a clue about the things he’s into . . . the things he’ll do to you.”

  I shivered a little beneath the weight of his blue eyes. “I can handle myself.”

  “Does Pepper and Em—”

  “Pepper and Emerson aren’t my parents,” I snapped. “I’m a big girl, thank you very much. I don’t need permission to be here.”

  He looked me up and down, his gaze lingering at my throat. “Sure you do, Pearls. You fit in here about as much as a bull in a china shop.”

  My hand flew to my necklace. The pearl necklace had been a graduation present. For some insane reason the hot sting of tears pricked the backs of my eyes. I would not cry. He would not make me cry.

  “I’m tired of people telling me who I am.” First Harris. Always my mother. I lived halfway across the country and she was still trying to tell me how to live my life. Even Pepper and Em.

  And now him. This guy who didn’t even know me.

  I nodded toward the door. “Maybe I want to hook up with that guy and have him do those things to me. Ever consider that?” I deliberately let it sound like I knew what those things were.

  “You don’t even know what those things are,” he retorted, seeing right through me. And how did he do that, anyway? Did I have a sign around my neck that said TOO BORING TO FUCK? Harris’s face flashed across my mind. I need more, Georgia.

  I fumed. I could be more. I was more.

  “Yes, I do. He told me,” I lied. “When he whispered in my ear.”

  His eyebrow winged. “Really? I heard he likes it when the girl dresses up as a dude and puts on a strap-on. You into that, Pearls? I would have pegged you for the type of girl who’s only ever done it missionary-style.”

  I sucked in a breath. Insulted, yes. Shocked, too. Shocked that he had guessed that about me.

  He laughed, nodding. “Yeah. Thought so.”

  “Asshole,” I spit out. Another first. I had never called anyone a bad word before. It wasn’t something ladies did.

  “Why don’t you go home to your safe dorm room and forget about this place?” His look then was part pity and part smirk. I could have handled the smirk. It was the faint pity that got to me. I wasn’t pitiable. No way.

  How dare he talk to me like I was the child? I was an adult. I came out tonight to have a good time. To put an end to my drought and prove to myself that I wasn’t boring. I could be spontaneous. I could be unpredictable.

  I could be wild.

  Before I could stop and think about what I was doing, I stood on my tiptoes, circled his neck with my hands, and pulled his head down to mine.

  Chapter 4

  THERE WAS THE BAREST minuscule of a second when my mouth touched his that I wondered what the hell I was doing. Then that thought died.

  I mean, you don’t take a leap off a bridge and then change your mind. It didn’t work that way. If I was going to kiss a guy as hot as this, then I was going to give it my all and enjoy the hell o
ut of it.

  I still had a hand around the back of his neck and my fingers flexed in his cropped-short hair. My hand slid upward, my fingers enjoying the feeling of hair that was both sharp and soft against my skin.

  His lips were softer than I expected. I didn’t get an immediate response so I stood on tiptoes and angled my mouth over his.

  The idea that I was somehow forcing a kiss on him panicked me. That would be too mortifying. Please. Please, kiss me back.

  My free hand grabbed a fistful of his shirt and tugged him down, willing him to kiss me. To not let me walk away from this feeling like a complete loser. I pulled back slightly, my lips moving against his. “What’s the matter, Logan? Not up for it? I thought you were good at this.”

  An exhale passed from him into my mouth. “Brat.”

  His mouth opened over mine then. Whether he thought I was a brat or not, my words had done the trick.

  He released the kraken. All of the sexual promise Logan Mulvaney radiated spilled into me.

  He crouched in one quick motion, wrapping an arm around my waist and lifting me off my feet so that our fused mouths were level.

  No me standing on tiptoes or him bending down. He kissed me back. No. More than that. He took over. Kissing me with lips and tongue and faintly scraping teeth.

  I released my death grip on his shirt and wrapped an arm around his shoulders, hanging on for dear life.

  We were moving. I was faintly conscious of this. I didn’t open my eyes to look. I was lost, reveling in his tongue in my mouth, his fingers diving into my hair.

  I gave the barest grunt when he backed us against the wall of the building, but that didn’t stop the kiss. No. He didn’t slow down.

  His mouth was hot and aggressive, punishing on my stinging lips. I’d never been kissed so hard. So thoroughly. I felt him everywhere and this was just a kiss. Oh. God. What would the rest of it be like with him? It would wreck me.

  “Is this what you wanted?” he growled against my lips.

  I mewled against his mouth. He pushed his hips against me and I moaned, shifting slightly so that the juncture of my thighs was lined up more accurately to take the hard thrust of him that made my insides melt to warm pudding.

  He increased the pressure of his mouth on mine, his body rocking and grinding into me until I wanted to tear our clothes off and just have at it. It was that or I die from this exquisite torture.

  “Talk to me, Pearls,” he commanded between kisses. “Let me hear that sweet accent telling me how much you want this.”

  I kissed him desperately. I was out of breath and drowning and couldn’t think to form coherent words. I could only gasp his name as he sucked on my bottom lip. “Logan.”

  Laughter intruded. I blinked dimly, clearing the haze from my vision and unattaching my face from Logan’s. My gaze landed on a couple stumbling up the porch.

  “Couldn’t even make it into the building before going at it, Mulvaney?” a guy called out amid laughter.

  Just like that the spell was broken. I shoved at Logan’s chest and stumbled out from between him and the wall, smoothing a hand over my wayward hair.

  The couple disappeared inside the building.

  “Georgia.” Logan stepped toward me, looking a little shell-shocked. But not nearly as much as I was.

  My lips had just attacked Reece’s little brother. I’d gone beyond wild tonight and descended into things you should never ever do.

  “Stop.” I held a hand out like a shield.

  He stopped, looking from my hand to my face.

  “Let’s just forget this happened.” And never tell a soul.

  He looked like he was on the verge of saying something but I never gave him the chance. I did the mature thing.

  I ran.

  I SLEPT LATE INTO Saturday morning, waking to the stillness of my room. Sunlight poured in through the slats of the blinds, tiny motes dancing on the sunbeams. I lifted my long hair so that it wasn’t trapped under me and stared up at the ceiling. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I dropped my arms from above my head with a gust of breath.

  A door opened and shut somewhere outside my room, echoing down the hallway. A full ten seconds passed before the memory of last night hit.

  A sharp inhalation escaped me. My fingers flew to my mouth, tracing lips that still felt swollen. Impossible, of course. You couldn’t feel a kiss into the next day.

  Except I did.

  Logan Mulvaney’s mouth had branded mine. I’d been kissed by a total of four guys in my life. I had dated two guys, briefly, before Harris. I couldn’t even remember those kisses. I could barely remember their faces. That’s how much of an impression they had left. Then there was Joshua. No need to elaborate there. I only remembered him because he was so recent—and slobbery.

  I had been with Harris since I was sixteen, and he wasn’t much for kissing. Maybe in the beginning there had been some heavy kisses, but once we started having sex, he didn’t waste a lot of time on foreplay.

  But that kiss . . . Logan . . .

  A full-body shudder swept through me. I had felt it down to my toes. Deep in my very bones. It had gone on forever and yet it hadn’t been long enough because I still longed for a repeat. I scrubbed both hands over my face as if I could rid myself of these thoughts. Even if I was open to a physical-only relationship with a guy—a fling—I couldn’t go there with Reece’s little brother. That was wrong on so many levels.

  A glance to my left revealed Emerson’s bed exactly as it had been the night before. Same clothes strewn about. Clearly she hadn’t come home. She’d spent the night with Shaw. Again. A sigh escaped me.

  Most nights she spent at Shaw’s these days. I tried not to let this bother me. Not only were they a couple, but they were working together now. She had started airbrushing the bikes he built. He’d turned half his work shed into a studio for her so she could even work on her paintings there, too. Still. It didn’t stop me from feeling lonely. Shaking my head, I reminded myself that I’d be home in a few weeks. Back in my old hometown. In my old room with my mom and dad and Amber. I wouldn’t be lonely then. It would be impossible to feel lonely with my parents breathing down my neck. With my sister barging into my room to invade my closet and wax on and on about her boyfriend, Jeremy, and whether she should follow him to Vanderbilt where he was hoping to get in the year after next. In short: misery.

  Pepper and Emerson were staying at Dartford for the summer and I felt a stab of envy. Pepper was taking classes and Emerson was going to work with Shaw and help him get his garage up and running. As little as I saw of them lately, I wish I could stay here, safe from my prying family. I could see my summer in Muskogee unfolding so clearly before me. It would be worse since the breakup with Harris. Mom would want to talk about Harris all the time and what went wrong. Every time I bumped into someone in town, they would ask about him. Groaning, I forced myself from bed. No use dreading it. This was the plan. Even if I wanted to stay here, I couldn’t. I’d have to suck it up and put my big girl panties on and start packing to go home soon.

  Still groaning, I grabbed a bottle of juice from the small fridge and tore into a breakfast bar. Deciding the endorphins from a run might make me feel better, I changed into my running shorts and top. It was still a little chilly in the mornings, but my muscles soon heated up as I ran across campus to the nearby cross country trail that cut through some wooded acreage.

  After my run, I showered and grabbed a quick lunch before settling in to study for my Statistics final. Anything math related wasn’t really my thing, but I was a business major so I couldn’t escape the requisite courses. I tried to focus on my notes in front of me but the formulas swam and blurred after a while. Sighing, I leaned back in my swivel chair and pressed the heels of my palms to my eyes. For once, studying wasn’t working to distract me. When the door to the suite neighboring mine opened and shut and Pepper
’s and Reece’s voices floated through the wall, I was more than ready to take a break.

  I knocked once on the partially cracked door, pushing it open as Pepper’s chirped, “Come in!”

  She bounded over to me and gave me a hug.

  Reece waved at me from where he lounged in the bed before tucking his arms behind his head. My chest flipped a little at his resemblance to Logan. After last night, the memory of Logan’s face was fresher than ever. They had the same piercing blue eyes. The same square jaw. My gaze drifted to Reece’s lips and then jerked away. I would not check out my best friend’s boyfriend’s lips to see if they resembled his brother’s lips. Just. So. Wrong.

  “Hey! How’s your weekend?” Pepper asked. “Didn’t you have a date last night?”

  I wrinkled my nose and made a face.“The last.”

  “Oh, that bad?”

  “Just no . . . sparks.” I slid a glance to Reece’s polite stare. Polite yet intense. Like his brother. These guys didn’t just look at you. They looked at you. Like they were seeing directly into you. Maybe it was embedded in their DNA or something.

  “Oh, well. Then better not waste your time there anymore.”

  I nodded, noticing then that there was a buzzing energy that seemed to cling to Pepper. Like she was a kid who had just been told she was going to Disneyland, but was trying to keep her act together and not totally explode from excitement.

  I looked back and forth between her and Reece. An elusive smile clung to his lips. “What’s going on?”

  She and Reece shared a look before she blurted out with: “I’m moving in with Reece.”

  I stared for a moment, equal parts happiness and something else filling me. “Wow.” I pulled her in for a hug and then moved to hug Reece. “Congratulations. You’re moving into the apartment above Mulvaney’s?”

  “No.” She shook her head, her beautiful auburn waves tossing around her shoulders. “Reece offered on a house last week and he got it! It’s so cute! It’s this little bungalow over on Smithson Avenue. I can’t wait to show you.” Reece reached for her waist and she moved in closer, sinking down on his lap so easily. So naturally. It had never been that way with Harris and me, I realized. It never felt easy or natural, and a pang struck me in the chest for the four years I’d wasted on something that had been so far from right.