Taming Eastyn (Stampton College Boys Series Book 1)

by Dawn Doyle

  He’s not here.

  I sighed and gave up hope that I was going to get a repeat of our somewhat cordial conversation, and resigned myself to spending the day on campus, my company being my mind and my books.

  Well, I have paid to stay behind, I might as well stick around.

  I found a spot on the green, which was an easy task as it was pretty much deserted, and sat down, resting my satchel on the warm grass. I turned my face up to the sun, closing my eyes and soaking up some of the rays, feeling the heat tingle over my skin.

  I reached back and released my hair from the clamp that had held it from my neck, and let it loose, the strands falling down my back. I pulled it over my shoulder, then rolled to my stomach.

  It wasn’t long before I was taking notes, snippets of a plot coming to me, character descriptions, personality traits… the males always came down to the guy inside my head, the one that had been clearer since I’d pressed my lips to his and felt his tongue in my mouth.

  Warmth heated my back the longer I lay there, the sun beating down on me. I would have to get up to move, to cool down, to even grab some lunch, but the longer I held the thoughts in my head, the more words flowed on the paper.

  It was too bad that when it came to writing everything out and piecing it together, my notes turned into scenes that resembled real life. So, I had to concentrate, work harder to write the kind of stories I loved to read about. Romance, happy endings, love at first sight… Delusions of a dreamer.

  I’d started on my fifth page when a large shadow blocked the sun, the outline bulky, tall, and the hair blowing in the light breeze. I swallowed hard, keeping my eyes on the dark form instead of looking up.

  “Hey.”

  There was no mistaking that voice. It was smooth and deep with a rough edge to it.

  “Hey,” I replied, still not raising my gaze.

  The shadow lowered, and Eastyn came into view as he sat down next to me. God, he smelled great, like fresh laundry, a soapy fragrance, and the unmistakable scent of his aftershave. My mouth filled, and I had to swallow down my pool of saliva or risk having it pour out of my mouth like Homer Simpson with a donut.

  Eastyn remained silent, and I wondered how long it would be before either one of us spoke. I clutched onto my pen, no longer writing anything I could decipher, my notes becoming doodles.

  Out of my peripheral vision, I could see him sitting with his arms wrapped around his crossed legs, his face turned to me. It was as though I was being studied, a subject he was inspecting for signs of life.

  I caved, no longer able to stand the silence between us while he just stared at me. “Can I help you?” I looked right ahead, lifting my free hand a little as if to say, ‘what the hell?’

  A light snort came from his direction, and my eyes snapped to him.

  Oh, huge mistake, Shay.

  His mouth, God, his mouth was lifted in one corner, that lopsided smirk making my stomach swirl inside. His eyes sparkled so mischievously in the sunlight, the crystal-like light flickering in his jade irises.

  His mouth opened, and I wished to the cosmos that he didn’t say something that would make me flush any more than I could already feel was happening. The heat had risen to my neck and was slowly traveling up into my cheeks. Eastyn’s eyes danced as it reached my ears.

  “No,” he replied. Typical Eastyn with the one-word answer.

  I stared at him, trying not to focus on his eyes, instead training my gaze on a scar above his left eyebrow that ran outward to the end. My eyes lowered, following the shape of his face until I came to another faint scar on the same side but near his chin.

  “Um,” I finally managed, then swallowed. “Then, why are you here?”

  He chose that moment to stretch out his long, denim covered legs and crossed his ankles as though he was there to stay. I couldn’t help but notice how his bicep bunched as he leaned on his elbow, the other fully inked arm over his body as he toyed with the blades of grass.

  “I’m bored,” he said, his eyes dropping from mine to the grass he was now twirling in his fingers.

  The way he controlled it between his middle finger and thumb had me wondering what else he could do with those hands. They were large, easily one and a half the size of mine, and from lifting those weights in the gym, I imagined them to be strong, too.

  A wave in front of my face, breaking the trance I was in had my skin blazing more than ever.

  I blinked. “Then, uh, don’t you think you should find something to do?”

  Now Eastyn wasn’t smiling. His features had fallen back into the hard expression I knew so well, but there was a darkness in his eyes, and hell if I didn’t get flutters in my core as he looked me right in the eye, my heart thudding in my chest.

  “I could, and I am.”

  My head tilted to the side and my brows dipped. “Huh?” When his lips twitched and curled again, my pulse soared even higher. “I don’t…”

  “I’m sitting here, so I’m no longer bored.” His gaze dropped to my notebook. “What are you writing?”

  “Nothing.” I snapped it shut, placing my pen on the top as though it were Thor’s hammer, saving it from Eastyn penetrating the inner depths of my unfulfilled mind.

  Penetrating would be good right now.

  “Doesn’t look like nothing,” he said, gesturing with a flick of his finger. “It looked like plans for something.”

  “Nope,” I fired out. “No plans, just scribbles. I guess I was bored too.” God, I was rambling. I was also embarrassed that I’d written a few sexy ideas, and Eastyn almost saw them.

  His lids narrowed as he regarded me yet again. The current situation was surreal in the fact that we had never interacted this much, and with nobody around, apart from a random couple passing by, we were pretty much alone.

  Alone. With Eastyn Woodman.

  That was all I needed to bring the dorm incident rushing back, his promise, or was it a threat?

  “You think a lot, don’t you?” he asked, catching me off guard.

  “Um, doesn’t everybody?” I tried to play it down, but the walls around me had decided they were too interested in seeing how much I could suffer.

  “Of course, but you…” His words drifted off as he moved toward me, his body leaning closer to mine. I inched back, our gazes holding. “You go somewhere else.”

  With that, my stomach dropped, along with the ice thrown over me. “You could say that,” I mumbled, finally breaking away and staring down at my clasped hands.

  “I envy that,” Eastyn replied in the same tone, but there was also something else there—a hint of sadness. It was light, but I heard it.

  “Why? Why would you need to disappear for a while?”

  Eastyn turned onto his stomach, mirroring my position, lying even closer to me. Our shoulders were barely an inch apart, and with his close proximity, my throat dried and my skin prickled. Other parts of me perked up, especially the two currently poking the front of my bra. Luckily, my yellow and white floral gypsy top was loose enough to hide them.

  “Well, Shay,” he said, his minty breath blowing lightly over my face. “Disappearing is the safest option for some, and more dangerous for others.”

  “Which is it for you?”

  His tongue ran over his bottom lip and I followed the movement, jerking up when I caught was I was doing. Eastyn was staring at my mouth, his focus never leaving. “Depends on the day.”

  He pulled away, then practically jumped to his feet, the sudden absence of his body heat leaving an icy patch down my left side. I watched his white sneakers turn and take a couple of steps. “Oh, and Shay?” he asked, pausing. “Hair pulling? I never thought that would be a turn on for you.”

  I spun around, almost falling on my back, my mouth dropping open and my eyes wide. “What?”

  Eastyn licked his lips again, his tongue pausing on his top lip as he scoured the length of my body, his eyes lingering a little too long on my legs. “When we kiss again, and we will, I’ll see
how that goes.”

  I gasped, horror gripping me as I watched Eastyn’s wide retreating back, his muscles bunching under his white and blue striped T-shirt as he moved. He’d seen my words, he’d read my ideas, he’d seen…

  Oh no! The sex scenes!

  If there was a time the ground could open up and swallow me whole, that time was right then as I burned with embarrassment.

  “I don’t… It’s not…” I spluttered.

  “Still happening,” he said over his shoulder. “I promised you, Shay, and I meant it.”

  And like that, with a rare and core clenching wink aimed my way, I was speechless for the first time in my life.

  Eastyn Woodman had caused my software to malfunction, and I knew it was going to take some time to reboot.

  Eastyn

  I looked down at my phone, reading through the message Casey had sent to me.

  ‘How’s things? Is your alone time paying off?’

  Oh, it was paying off, all right. Since I’d seen what Shay had written in her note book, all kinds of things had been running through my head, and they were totally different to things usually there.

  ‘Yeah. It’s quiet, so I’m happy. Just sitting at the beach. How’s things at your end?’

  As I waited for Casey’s reply, my mind went back to the scribbled notes. He stood behind her and grabbed her hair, yanking it back and kissing up her smooth neck until she moaned. Fuck, that was something I’d never expected to see written down in Shay’s book. It looked like a story, and even though I’d made my promises of making shit happen, I wanted to know what else was scrawled on those pages.

  My phone buzzed in my hand.

  ‘It’s going great. Mom’s fussing over me as usual. You’d think she didn’t see me every day. I’ve been searching for houses for senior year, too. I know we’ve got a while to go, but it doesn’t hurt to lock one down now, right?’

  He chose to live on campus, even though his home was twenty minutes away.

  Images popped up on the screen, some colonial style ones, and some that looked like fraternity houses in some of the bigger colleges. I didn’t care as long as we got to live off campus. I’d had my own dorm for a while, and even though the idea of sharing a house was a big move for me, it was something my friends wanted for senior year.

  ‘Not at all. If we wait too long, we’ll end up with shit. I’m going to head back. Talk soon.’

  After pressing send, I stood up from the sand and pushed my phone into my back pocket. The beach was quiet since most of its visitors were students, and just a few families were playing with their kids and pets.

  I looked to the right, in the direction of the parking lot, and paused. A slow smile tugged at my mouth when I saw Shay carrying a large cream-colored bag over her shoulder, walking across the sand with her shoes swinging from her other hand. I couldn’t tell if her gaze was fixed ahead as she walked because of the shades covering her eyes.

  I wiped the sand from my long white shorts, turned my baseball cap back-to-front, and headed toward her. Eyes followed me as I went, which usually did as my T-shirt left my arm tattoos uncovered. I didn’t care that they looked, my ink was for me and I didn’t give a shit what anybody thought of me for covering my body in art.

  I got closer to Shay, a twinge of excitement flaring in my gut.

  Time to ruffle some feathers. Whoa, what the fuck?

  This wasn’t me. I never went over to anyone, not even if I was remotely interested, but I was doing it again—following Shay, my feet taking me in her direction as though I had no control over them.

  My steps faltered as thoughts ran through my mind about why I was going over to her. “Christ,” I whispered, running my hand across the back of my neck. “Get a fucking grip.” Since being that close to her on the green, her perfume surrounding me, the color of her cheeks darkening as I lay down next to her, and the sounds of her quick breaths making me want to grip her hair just like she’d written…

  I raked my hand over my mouth, trying to get those thoughts out of my head.

  Shay stopped in an open space, just far enough away from the kids playing, and took a red blanket out of her bag. I watched as she smoothed it out on the sand and sat down before taking out her book and pen.

  Hell, yes.

  Yeah, I was fucked up in a different way now, and didn’t notice when I’d begun to move my feet until I was so close to her my shadow covered the back of her blanket.

  “Writing anything interesting?” I asked, and Shay jumped, her head whipping round and tilting back.

  “Eastyn?” she gasped, her hand on her chest, covering the opening of her pink tank top. Black strings came from underneath and tied around her neck, the bow visible under the hairs at the back. “You scared me!”

  “Sorry,” I replied, one side of my mouth turning up. “I didn’t mean to.”

  “Well, you did,” she snapped, a flush tinging her skin. “What are you doing here?”

  I looked around, pointedly. “The last time I checked, this is a public place.”

  She deadpanned, or I think she did because I couldn’t tell behind her shades, the lenses reflective like mine. “That’s not what I meant. I meant here… By me.”

  I let my eyes fall from the messy knot on top of her head, followed the loose strands down, over her arms, and to her smooth legs. Pale pink polish covered her toe nails, the color matching her tank.

  “Am I not allowed to walk by you?” I asked, knowing I was about to either get a snarky response, or complete silence. I smiled when it was the latter. “Shay?” Her lips parted and her tongue slowly came out over her lower lip, gently pulling it between her teeth, and fuck if I didn’t want to taste them right then. My smile dropped, and a familiar rolling in my stomach came back when she never said a word. But, when her lips slowly came out from her teeth, I tipped my head to the side, guessing if what was going through my mind was the same as hers. “What are you thinking?”

  Shay’s mouth snapped shut and she turned away, facing the water and staying there while the tips of her ears turned pink. “Um,” she said after a minute. “Of course you can, it’s just…” She blew out a long breath and while she did, I took in the way she held her arms across herself, her fingers lightly stroking back and forth. “I never expected to see you here.”

  Completely uninvited, I toed off my sneakers and sat next to her, crossing my ankles and wrapping my arms around my open knees, interlocking my hands. “I come here a lot.” I turned the peak of my cap back to the front, pulling it low over my eyes, adding extra shade over my face.

  “Oh.” Her voice was low, almost disappointed after what I’d said.

  “Jesus, Shay, just fucking spit it out,” I said, shaking my head.

  “What? I wasn’t going to say anything!” she rushed out.

  “You didn’t have to,” I replied. “Your tone said everything I needed to hear.” I made a move to stand and froze when a small hand gripped my forearm, and for the first time, anger didn’t hit me at the contact. Instead, the warmth of her palm fucking burned where it touched, but I welcomed the heat, and as though she heard my thoughts, she snatched it away.

  “I’m…sorry,” Shay said, then swallowed. “I didn’t mean for it to come out like that.”

  “Then how did you mean it?” I studied her face, wanting to rip the shades away so I could see her. One look into those hazel eyes and I would know what the hell she was trying to say.

  “I was caught off guard by your presence. After the scene on campus the other day, I assumed I would be safe here from prying eyes, therefore, any further embarrassment.” Shay’s shoulders dropped and I saw her mouth the word ‘fuck.’

  As I watched her head drop down to her chest, I had to fight the urge to tip her chin toward me, take off those fucking shades and try to see why the hell she put up that fucking wall like that. I knew that if I touched her, even like that, I wouldn’t stop there.

  “Am I bothering you by being here?” I asked, grippi
ng my hands tighter.

  She shook her head. “You don’t bother me,” she whispered. “You can stay, if that’s what you want.”

  It wasn’t a question, but the way she said it sounded like it was, as if she was wondering just that.

  “Yeah.”

  Her face turned slowly to me, and all I saw was my own reflection. “Then stay.”

  I stared at her, her mouth, her collar bones, the way that fucking black string came out of her tank, my fingers itching to reach around her neck and pull the tie free. A movement had my eyes tearing away from her skin and down to the sand, an automatic reaction from having to take care of myself around others who wanted to hurt me any chance they got. I saw Shay discreetly pushing her notebook under her bag.

  “What were you writing?”

  Her mouth dropped open and then closed just as quick. “Just notes,” she replied, her tone breathy.

  “Notes?” I nodded slowly. “What I saw last time looked more than just notes.” When Shay didn’t add anything, I continued. “You write?” Her cheeks flushed again.

  She turned back to the ocean. “I try to, yeah.”

  “Try to?”

  Shay blew out a long breath, then extended her long legs out, my eyes dropping to that area, immediately wondering how they would feel around my waist. “It’s what I like to do,” she said finally, pulling me out of my thoughts. “It makes me happy.”

  But, she didn’t look happy. The downturn at the corners of her mouth, and the way they pursed every couple of seconds, showed that to be the opposite of what she was feeling.

  “So, you don’t want to be a lawyer like your parents?” I asked, remembering Lara’s words.

  Shay shook her head. “No. I never…” she let her voice trail off for a second, then spoke again. “It doesn’t matter.”

  I shrugged. “Why? It matters to you.”

  Shay shook her head. “It really doesn’t.” She placed her hands behind her, leaning back and tilting her head to the sky, and from the sides of her shades, I could see her eyes were closed, giving me an opportunity to take in her profile, her sloped nose, the natural pout to her lips… God, she was fucking stunning. “Can I ask you a question?” she asked suddenly.