She was going to be trouble; I could just feel it in the air. The goosebumps that spread like wildfire all over my body weren’t from the thought of her as trouble, but from the images of her sweet little body sweating for me.
CHAPTER3
Liv
There was stilla week left before school started, so I spent most of my time hanging out and catching up with my best girl, Josie; shopping, watching movies and exchanging romance novels that got our attention. Since we were in high school, sharing books was not only economical, but also quite fun. We hadn’t gone ebooks yet, so we spent most of our afternoons sipping coffee in Barnes & Noble, hunting for the perfect book. She, too, was a major Mr. Darcy fan.
“So, let’s get down to business,” Josie muttered as we sat across each other on the carpeted floor, with her leaning against the historical romance book, while I had contemporary romance as my cushion for the next couple of hours. We did this a lot; hunt down for our next ultimate read. Sometimes, we got so consumed that we would end up reading most of the novels we picked, purchase it and then discuss it for the next week. If I had a book soul mate, her name was Josie Stephens.
Placing my thumb in-between pages, I eyed her with impatience, sighing. Interrupting mid-reading was just plainly rude. This was a rule for most bookwhores. She knew better than to get between me and my current paper romance. “What business would this be, hmm?”
Josie rolled her golden eyes at me. “Duh. It’s been two days since you arrived from down under, Liv, and still you haven’t said anything about what it’s like having a hunky prime specimen, with the name of Greyson Edwards, living in the same house.”
I sighed. Josie, though she wouldn’t admit to it, had a serious fixation for Greyson. Her loyalty was admirable, not like Edith, who killed my trust by dating Grey—no scratch that—they were “friends with benefits”, so she exchanged a quick roll in the sheets occasionally with a guy for our friendship since kindergarten. I supposed our friendship wasn’t all that important to her since she easily threw it away when she got her first night with Greyson Edwards.
Carefully placing the book on the floor, I folded my arms underneath my breasts, ready to be interrogated, petulantly. “Grey is a douche to the highest order. This morning, I caught him staring at my ass. How’s that for a start? Really, it’s gross. I felt like his eyes were molesting me.”
Josie, instead of being disgusted like I hoped she’d be, looked even more intrigued. “I tell ya, Liv. That guy is still holding out hope.”
“I’m with Liam, thank you very much. Besides, Grey and his bad boy appeal don’t really get my engine going.”
She smirked. “Um, which planet are you from? You’re such a liar. This one-time during lunch, I saw you stare at him all afternoon without his shirt on.”
One-time. That incident only happened once and she was holding it against me! I was going through such a rough time, and Grey was there, throwing a football nonchalantly—sans shirt and all—and I sort of slipped out of my hate-campaign towards him.
“That was two years ago and you knew how messed up I was after that surprise algebra quiz.” One thing I hated more than anything was Mathematics. Those darn numbers all looked muddled to me. Throw in the letters and I’m a hot mess.
Her dark knowing eyes glittered with amusement. “Do you ever wonder—?”
I had to cut her off. “No, Josie, I fucking don’t. Not when he’s the subject. So drop it.”
She sighed, still grinning from ear to ear. “If you say so… but just remember this, I’ll be the first person to sayI told you so, Olivia.”
Ignoring her, I tried to read again, hoping I could get absorbed in the plot that got me interested before Josie interrupted me. But alas, my mind had been dominated by soft brown hair and deep blue eyes.Damn her!
When I got home, I was surprised to find out that Grey wasn’t going to be home for the next few days. Apparently, he was going somewhere. Something like a last hurrah before school started again. Brett seemed to be okay with it. It made me wonder if his “easy” parenting only made Grey more of a notorious player—well, notorious at everything.
Greyson was known for not following rules. Period. Now looking at the easy going Brett, it made me wonder if he was okay with his son prancing about town with no care in the world, racing like a maniac around the canyons.
I even heard rumors last year that they went racing around that particular canyon where a massacre happened about a decade ago. It was a dead town, with no lights, with no service and nothing around you but darkness. Why the heck would you risk your life for that kind of sport anyway? It was dumb and, not to mention the obvious, stupid.
So when I went to bed that night, I wondered what it would be like to live in Grey’s world. Josie, for one, was fascinated by it. I was more curious than fascinated, but would never want to be in it.
Men like Grey were not taken seriously. Liam, on the other hand, was more my type. Funny, hot, had fantastic manners, a man with an accent and, not to mention, smart. He was all I could ever want in a man.
Even though we were separated by continents and we weren’t opposed to try to see if there were other fishes in the sea during our time apart, I knew he was the one for me.
One year was all I had before I went back to Sydney, study there and hopefully, permanently, make it my home. I had it all planned out. We loved each other. That was all that mattered.
CHAPTER4
Grey
“Doyou need me to give you a ride?” I asked the fresh looking Olivia, who just came downstairs, all made up for her first day of senior year. The question could be taken in all the ways she wanted. It wasn’t hard to figure out that I wanted—had wanted for years—what everybody else got a taste of. She knew this, though no one was going to admit it out loud.
Laura, my father’s girlfriend, who was the only woman around here that I got on with, served me a plate with pancakes before spinning around and greeting her only daughter. “Good morning, sweetkins. Pancakes, eggs and bacon?” she directed to Liv, who was trying her damnedest to avoid my gaze as she situated herself across me, nodding her reply.
Since dad was on his man throne, she didn’t have that much choice when it came to seating without being so obvious.