LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter 1

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Chapter 4

      Chapter 5

      Chapter 6

      Chapter 7

      Chapter 8

       Chapter 9

       Chapter 10

       Chapter 11

       Chapter 12

       Chapter 13

       Chapter 14

       Chapter 15

       Chapter 16

       Chapter 17

       Chapter 18

       Chapter 19

       Chapter 20

       Chapter 21

       Chapter 22

       Chapter 23

       Chapter 24

       Chapter 25

       Chapter 26

       Chapter 27

       Chapter 28

       Chapter 29

       Chapter 30

       Chapter 31

       Chapter 32

       Chapter 33

      Chapter 34

       About the Author

       Also by

       Pre-order Trust in Me

       Pre-order Be With Me

       Buy Scorching Summer Reads

       Copyright

       About the Publisher

       Chapter 1

      There were two things in life that scared the ever-loving crap out of me. Waking up in the middle of the night and discovering a ghost with its transparent face shoved in mine was one of them. Not likely to occur, but still pretty damn freaky to think about. The second thing was walking into a crowded classroom late.

      I absolutely loathed being late.

      I hated for people to turn and stare, which they always did when you entered a classroom a minute after class started.

      That was why I had obsessively plotted the distance between my apartment in University Heights and the designated parking lot for commuter students over the weekend on Google. And I actually drove it twice on Sunday to make sure Google wasn’t leading me astray.

      One point two miles to be exact.

      Five minutes in the car.

      I even left my apartment fifteen minutes early so I would arrive ten minutes before my 9:10 class began.

      What I didn’t plan for was the mile-long traffic backup at the stop sign, because God forbid there be an actual light in the historical town, or the fact there was absolutely no parking left on campus. I had to park at the train station adjacent to the campus, wasting precious time digging up quarters for the meter.

      ‘If you insist on moving halfway across the country, at least stay in one of the dorms. They do have dorms there, don’t they?’ My mom’s voice filtered through my thoughts as I stopped in front of the Robert Byrd Science Building, out of breath from racing up the steepest, most inconvenient hill in history.

      Of course I hadn’t chosen to stay in a dorm, because I knew at some point, my parents would randomly show up and they would start judging and start talking, and I’d rather punt-kick myself in the face than subject an innocent bystander to that. Instead, I tapped into my well-earned blood money and leased a two-bedroom apartment next to campus.

      Mr. and Mrs. Morgansten had hated that.

      And that had made me extremely happy.

      But now I was sort of regretting my little act of rebellion, because as I hurried out of the humid heat of a late August morning and into the air-conditioned brick building, it was already eleven minutes past nine and my astronomy class was on the second floor. And why in the hell did I choose astronomy?

      Maybe because the idea of sitting through another biology class made me want to hurl? Yep. That was it.

      Racing up the wide staircase, I barreled through the double doors and smacked right into a brick wall.

      Stumbling backward, I flailed my arms like a cracked-out crossing guard. My overpacked messenger bag slipped, pulling me to one side. My hair flew in front of my face, a sheet of auburn that obscured everything as I teetered dangerously.

      Oh dear God, I was going down. There was no stopping it. Visions of broken necks danced in my head. This was going to suck so—

      Something strong and hard went around my waist, stopping my free fall. My bag hit the floor, spilling overpriced books and pens across the shiny floor. My pens! My glorious pens rolled everywhere. A second later I was pressed against the wall.

      The wall was strangely warm.

      The wall chuckled.

      ‘Whoa,’ a deep voice said. ‘You okay, sweetheart?’

      The wall was so not a wall. It was a guy. My heart stopped, and for a frightening second, pressure clamped down on my chest and I couldn’t move or think. I was thrown back five years. Stuck. Couldn’t move. Air punched from my lungs in a painful rush as tingles spread up the back of my neck. Every muscle locked up.

      ‘Hey …’ The voice softened, edged with concern. ‘Are you okay?’

      I forced myself to take a deep breath—to just breathe. I needed to breathe. Air in. Air out. I had practiced this over and over for five years. I wasn’t fourteen anymore. I wasn’t there. I was here, halfway across the country.

      Two fingers pressed under my chin, forcing my head up. Startling, brilliant blue eyes framed with thick black lashes fixed on mine. A blue so vibrant and electric, and such a stark contrast against the black pupils, I wondered if the color was real.

      And then it hit me.

      A guy was holding me. A guy had never held me. I didn’t count that one time, because that time didn’t count for shit, and I was pressed against him, thigh to thigh, my chest to his. Like we were dancing. My senses fried as I inhaled the light scent of cologne. Wow. It smelled good and expensive, like his …

      Anger suddenly rushed through me, a sweet and familiar thing,

Скачать книгу