{18+ COLLEGE ROMANCE COMPLETED}
What sucks more than being rejected by the girl of your dreams? Finding out afterward that she's moving in with you.
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The night that Beau Martin spends with Collins Bryant is the best one of his life. He wants to...
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"IT'S PRETTY DAMN LIKELY that we'll run into each other again," I said, sweeping my gaze over Collins. She wore an oversized sweatshirt and leggings, and damn if I wasn't still turned. "Are you going to run away from me every time?"
"We're not going to see each other again," she said flatly.
Ouch, baby girl.
"You work with my best friend."
"In a completely different city."
I dragged a hand over my face. All that eagerness she had displayed last night...completely gone. Not a trace of that was left. The only thing I saw in Collins' expression? Stubbornness.
"You just don't need to act like that around me," I finally said. "If you see me in the future."
"Like what?" There was a straightening of her shoulders. A defensiveness.
"Skittish."
"I—"
"Look, Collins." I swallowed past the dryness in my throat and took a step closer to her, lowering my voice to a husky murmur. "I don't want to forget last night. I don't want to forget how you looked tied up on that bed. How you begged, Collins. How I fit inside you and you took me like we were made for each other."
Her eyes widened. Expanded with the heat.
Yeah, that's what I thought. You don't really want to forget it either, Collins. Do you?
"But I will," I breathed, hating myself. "I'll forget it. It'll get tucked away, and you won't have to worry about what I'll do if you see me. Is that what you want?"
Collins blinked, but beyond that...she was motionless.
—
"Truth or dare."
The prompt sizzled as it hung in the air, somewhere over the beach fire.
"Nessa, not this again," I groaned. "If you dare Bren to kiss Madie, they're going to disappear for the rest of the night. It happens every time."
Next to me, Bren tightened his grip on Madie. She was slouched into him, her head leaning against his chest.
"We could just excuse ourselves right now," he said, his grin saying he wouldn't mind doing just that. "You know, skip a step."
I will never forget the day Nessa and I surprised Bren and Madie here. I walked into this house and met a completely different Bren Hadaway than the guy I'd lived with during my first semester of college. This Bren had confidence. Cheekiness. He knew what he wanted for the very first time in his life.
From the outside looking in, people would say that Bren saved Madie when he brought her here to escape Quinton. But for those of us on the inside...we knew how much life Madie breathed into Bren. They balanced each other's pain. Like a scale. And somehow, it equaled out, and now they couldn't stop smiling.
