“Knock it off.” She shoved Rian away, and the four of them headed inside.
“I’ll catch you guys later,” Rian called out behind him as he made his way to a girl leaning against the lockers. She knew enough about her whorish brother to know he didn’t have a girlfriend but had plenty of “company”.
“What a man-whore.” Sasha said it with all the love she had for her brother, and Tanner and Jonas chuckled.
“You know where to go?” Tanner looked down at her, and she nodded and glanced between the two of them
Damn them for being so attractive, but double damn her for wanting not one but two guys who were totally off limits. She was too young to want both of them the way she did, but then again, they’d been a constant presence in her life, and she felt safe and comfortable around them.
She waved as she turned to leave, acting indifferent, but inside, she was scared to death of this new world and frightened by how her emotions for Tanner and Jonas were increasing with each passing year.
* * *
Eighteen years old
The music was soloud Sasha couldn’t even hear herself think. The house was packed with more people than she even knew, mainly because Tanner, Jonas, and Rian had invited everyone in town to her graduation party.
They’d planned it while her parents were out of town, like some kind of secret covert ops, but she couldn’t be upset, not when they’d done it all for her.
“Here.” Dani shoved a plastic cup out to her, and some beer sloshed over the rim. “You need to get drunk and quit walking around like you got a stick up your ass.”
Leave it to Dani to give it to her straight.
“We just graduated, and you just turned eighteen.” Sasha stared at the redhead who’d become her friend on the first day of her freshman year. That seemed so long ago now.
Sasha looked around and took a sip, wrinkling her nose at the bitter flavor. She was about to set the cup aside when Dani lifted it to her mouth.
“Damn, Sasha. Just drink one cup. It’ll help you enjoyyourgraduation party.” Dani scanned the crowd, and even with the music blaring through the house in loud, angry beats, Sasha heard the pleasurable sigh leave her best friend’s lips. “I mean, if three of the hottest guys on the planet threw me a graduation party, you better believe I’d be thanking them. All. Night. Long.”
Sasha scrunched her nose.
“Okay, minus Rian since he’s your brother and all, but Tanner and Jonas...” The names left Dani on another blissful sigh.
Sasha rolled her eyes and drank a couple more swallows of the nasty, bitter liquid. She followed her friend’s gaze and felt her heart start to race when Tanner and Jonas made their way through the crowd and toward them.
It was clear Tanner was already drunk by the way he swerved and was overly jubilant. Jonas said something into his ear and veered off in the other direction.
Tanner and Jonas were now in their third year of college, so Sasha didn’t get to see them as much as she wished she could. But the time passing and with them being in college, one would think her feelings would have changed or at the very least dimmed.
But nope. She wanted them even more.
Washing her mind clean of Rian with a deep swallow of beer, she focused her attention on Tanner.
“I’m gonna get another beer. You want one?” Dani asked, pulling Sasha out of her thoughts.
Sasha was just about to shake her head, but she finished off what was left in her cup, handed it to Dani, and nodded. Thiswasher graduation party, so why the hell shouldn’t she enjoy herself?
Dani smiled widely. “Thatta a girl.” She was gone a second later.
Sasha leaned against the wall and enjoyed the view of Tanner. As if he felt her gaze, his head turned toward her, and his focus trained on her. His smile was lopsided, and then he was pushing his way through the crowd and coming closer to her.
Her reaction was instantaneous: pulse racing, sweaty palms, and a tingling sensation located right between her thighs. He stopped right in front of her, and she nearly groaned with the concentrated aroma of a mixture of his cologne and the natural scent that was everything Tanner. And then there was that spice of whatever hard liquor he’d been drinking.
That last shouldn’t have been attractive, but it was, dammit.
“Hey.” He still wore that goofy smile and leaned closer, placing his forearm on the wall beside her head. He was close enough that his warm breath teased the side of her face. “You enjoying the party?” His voice was clear and smooth despite the fact he was obviously trashed.
“Y-yeah, I am.” Sasha stared at the center of his chest, feeling jittery to look anywhere else.