1
Bram Windsor
“Ineedyou guys to help me fuck with Claudia’s date when he gets here,” Owen says.
What. The. Hell. Since when does Claudia care anything about guys and going out with them? “You mean she’s going on a real date? One where a boy comes here to pick her up?”
“Well, yeah, dumbass. That’s what most dates involve. Guess you must have forgotten that since it’s been so long since you took a girl out for dinner and a movie.”
“Dinner and a movie are pointless when you can skip it and go straight for the end goal.” My end goal? Getting laid. I’m always clear and honest about what I want so that no one misunderstands or gets hurt. The girls I hook up with are after the same thing—a good time for the night.
There have been a few who think they have what it takes to change my ways. Make me love them. Make me see that all I really want is a committed girlfriend. I wasted no time showing those few the door.
“I hope the little fuck-stain who’s taking my sister out tonight doesn’t think with his dick the way you do.”
Who does Owen think he’s kidding? This kid’s a boy with a dick. Of course, he thinks like me.Like us—Owen, River, and me.“I can’t believe your parents are letting Claudia date.”
“She’s seventeen, going on twenty-five. A high school senior. All her friends started dating last year or the year before. They couldn’t keep telling her no.”
Bullshit. They’re the parents. They can tell her no for as long as they like. “Have you forgotten the shit we pulled with girls when we were in high school?” Two words specifically come to mind. “Hannah. Beales.”
Owen romanced that girl for weeks. Sent her flowers, wrote her love letters, took her out to dinner and the movies. Even got her a damn puppy for Valentine’s. She served him her virginity on a silver platter and he gave her a prompt goodbye. Hell, even I felt bad for the girl when he was finished with her. “What you did to Hannah…? Those little high school dicks want to do the same thing to Claudia.”
“Fuuuck, you’re right.”
I can’t help the way I see Claud. To me, she’s still that little girl pretending to be a boy and tagging along behind Owen, River, and me everywhere we go. Always struggling to keep up with us while I hang back, not giving my all so she won’t feel so far behind. “No way we can let this kid take Claudia out tonight unless we know he has a clear understanding about what hewon’tbe doing with her.”
“Agreed. Especially with the new look she has going on,” River says.
“I will beat her ass if she’s gone emo or goth.”
I haven’t seen Claud since I left for fall semester five months ago. I’ve rarely gone more than five minutes without her on my heels. It’s been odd not having her around. But what’s odder is how I feel about not seeing her.
I’ve missed my little dove beyond anything considered reasonable. And it’s one of the reasons I’ve stayed away so long.Something is wrong with me for missing that kid so much. It isn’t normal.
I thought separation would help cure me of whatever this thing is.
It didn’t.
River chuckles. “When’s the last time you saw her?”
“End of July, right before I went back to Chattanooga.” I took a lot of extra credits. Worst semester of my life but it paid off. I graduated early with a master’s in accounting, got a new job, and I’m stoked about starting my new life.
River laughs again. “This should be fun.”
“What should be fun?”
“Duke!” I turn when I hear Claudia squeal my special nickname. One look is all it takes. I no longer have to wonder what River meant.
Claudia’s thick, dark hair is longer. She’s always worn it in braids or slicked back into a ponytail through the hole in the back of her ball cap, but tonight it’s hanging in loose curls. Long, lush eyelashes surround aquamarine magnets—the same eyes I’ve seen no less than a million times, but I can’t stop staring at them. It’s as though I’m seeing them for the first time.
The red top she’s wearing is sexy as fuck––one of those where it comes up and around the neck, leaving her shoulders and back completely exposed. Damn, damn,daaamn. Her perky tits and protruding nipples look like nothing less than perfection pressing against the thin fabric.
It’s possible I’m drooling a little as my eyes scan her mile-long legs from her ankles all the way up to the curvy hips she’s showing off in tight skinny jeans.I swear to God those tits and curves weren’t there the last time I saw her. I would have noticed.
Her shoes piss me off. Fuck-me pumps. She has no business wearing anything like those.
Who is this hot, beautiful woman who has replaced Claudia Laine Bliss?