by Abbi Glines
Dank’s eyes went from angry to slightly surprised as his gaze stayed directed over my shoulder. Curious, I turned my head and saw a tall guy with shaggy light brown hair that curled up around the bottom and an orange UT polo shirt standing beside Jay. They were talking and Jay was smiling at whatever the guy was saying. He must have brought one of his frat brothers. Then the guy turned to look our way and a strange peace came over me. It was an odd thing. Not something I’d ever felt with a stranger before. His gaze met mine and he smiled. Then he turned his attention to Miranda who wasn’t even looking their way. He had an almost reverent expression on his face. I watched them a moment then turned back around in my seat.
“Pagan,” Dank whispered beside me.
“Hmm,” I replied leaning in so I could hear him better.
“Remember when I told you Wyatt’s return would be unique?”
“Yes.”
“Well, he’s back.”
Frowning I lifted my eyes to meet his, “Who’s back?”
Dank’s eyes shifted over my shoulder back to the door where the boys were standing and then back to me. “Wyatt. His soul is back.”
He defied Heaven to keep her, he defeated evil to save her, but if her soul wants another... will he be able to let her go?
Ceaseless (Existence #3) coming 9/18/12
Also by Abbi Glines
Because of Low
Chapter One
Marcus
Moving back home sucked. Everything about this town reminded me of why the hell I’d wanted to get away. I had a life in Tuscaloosa and I needed that life to escape. Here, I was Marcus Hardy. No matter where I went people knew me. They knew my family. And now... they were talking about my family. Which is why I had come home.
Leaving my sister and mother here alone to face this was impossible. The scandal hovering over our heads took away all my choices and my freedom. Right now, few people knew but it was only a matter of time. Soon the entire coastal town of Sea Breeze, Alabama would know what my dad was doing or should I say, who my dad was doing. King of the Mercedes car dealerships along the Gulf Coast had been a high enough title for some little gold digging whore only a few years older than me to jump in bed with my dear ‘ol dad. The one time I’d seen the home wrecker working behind the desk right outside Dad’s office I’d known something wasn’t right. She was young and smoking hot and apparently money hungry.
Dad couldn’t keep it in his pants and now my mom and sister would have to deal with the stigma it would cause. People would feel sorry for Mom. This was already devastating to her and she didn’t even know yet that the other woman was barely a woman. My younger sister Amanda had caught them going at it one evening late when Mom had sent her over to the office to take Dad some dinner. She’d called me that night crying hysterically. I’d withdrawn from school, packed my things and headed home. There was no other option. My family needed me.
A knock on the door snapped me out of my internal tirade and I went to see what chick was here looking for Cage this time. God knew the guy had an endless line of females parading through his life. My new roommate was a player. A major player. He put my best friend, Preston, to shame. I twisted the knob and swung the door open without peeking through the hole.
The surprise was on me. I’d been prepared to tell whatever tall willowy large but obviously fake chested female dressed in almost nothing waiting outside the door that Cage was busy with another one very similar to her. Except a very natural almost curvy red head stood before me. Red rimmed eyes and a tear streaked face gazed up at me. There was no mascara lines running down her face. Her hair wasn’t styled but pulled back in a pony tail. She wore jeans and what appeared to be an authentic Back in Black AC/DC concert t-shirt. No belly button flashing a flat tanned stomach and her clothes weren’t skin tight. Well maybe the jeans were a little snug but they hugged her hips nicely. My appreciation of her legs in the slim fit jeans stopped however when I noticed the small beat up suitcase clutched tightly in her hand.
“Is Cage here?” Her voice sounded broken and musical at the same time. I was having a hard time digesting that this girl was here for Cage. She wasn’t anything like he veered toward. Nothing was enhanced. Everything from her thick dark copper hair to the Chuck Taylors on her feet screamed, “not Cage’s type.” And the fact she was carrying a suitcase, well that couldn’t be good.
“Uh, um, no.”
Her shoulders slumped and another sob escaped her mouth. One small dainty hand flew up in an attempt to mute the sound of her obvious distress. Her nails were even classy. Not too long with a smooth rounded tip and soft pink nail polish.
“I left my cell phone,” she let out a sigh then continued, “at my sister’s. I need to call him. Can I come in?”
Cage was out with a swimsuit model that apparently had a thing for college baseball players. I knew from the way he talked he didn’t intend to come up for air much tonight. He’d never answer her call and I hated to see her get more upset than she already was. A horrible thought crossed my mind, surely he hadn’t gotten this girl pregnant. Couldn’t he see how freaking innocent she was.
“Uh, yeah but I don’t know if he’ll answer. He’s busy... tonight.”
She shot me a sour smile and nodded stepping around me.
“I know the kind of busy he is but he’ll talk to me.”
She sounded rather confident. I wasn’t feeling her confidence myself.
“Do you have a cell I can use?”
I reached into the pocket of my jeans and handed it to her unable to argue with her further. She had stopped crying and I wanted to keep it that way.
“Thanks, I’ll try calling first.”
I watched as she walked over to the sofa and dropped her suitcase to the floor with a thunk before sinking dejectedly down onto the worn cushions as if she’d been here a hundred times. Being as I’d only been moved in for two days, I wouldn’t know if she had been here before or not. Cage was a friend of a friend who had been looking for a roommate. I needed somewhere to live fast and his place was nice. Preston was on the same baseball team as Cage at the local community college. Once Preston heard I needed a place to live he called Cage and hooked me up.
“It’s me. I left my phone when I ran. You’re not here but your new roommate let me in. Call me,” she sniffed then hung up. I watched fascinated as she proceeded to text him. She really believed the male whore I lived with was going to call her right up as soon as he got her message. I was intrigued and growing more concerned by the minute.
She finished and handed the phone back to me. A smile touched her red splotchy face and two dimples appeared in her cheeks. Damn that was cute.
“Thanks, do you mind if I wait a little bit until he calls back?”
I shook my head, “No, not at all. You want a drink?” She nodded and stood up.
“Yes, but I’ll get it. My drinks are in the bottom drawer of the fridge behind the Bud Lights.”
I frowned and followed her into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and bent down to get her hidden drink. With her bent over digging for her so called drink the snug fit of the faded jeans over her ass was hard to miss. It was a perfect heart shape and although she wasn’t very tall her legs seemed to go on for miles.
“Ah, here it is. Cage needs to run to the store and restock. He must be letting his one nighters drink my Jarritos.”
I couldn’t keep guessing. I needed to know who she was exactly. Surely she wasn’t one of his girlfriends. Could she be the sister Preston had mentioned dating? I sure as hell hoped not. I was interested and I hadn’t been interested in anyone in awhile. Not since the last girl broke my heart. I opened my mouth to ask her how she knew Cage when the phone in my pocket started ringing. She walked over to me and held out her hand. The girl really believed it was Cage. I glanced down and sure enough, my roommate had called back.
She took the phone from my hand.
“Hey”
“She’s such a selfish jerk.”
&nb
sp; “I can’t stay there Cage.”
“I didn’t mean to leave my phone. I was just upset.”
“Yes, your new roommate’s a nice guy. He’s been very helpful.”
“No, don’t end your date. Get her out of your system. I’ll wait.”
“I promise not to go back.”
“She is who she is Cage.”
“I just hate her,” I could hear the tears in her voice again.
“No, no, really I’m fine. I just needed to see you.”
“Don’t. I’ll leave.”
“Cage --”
“No”
“Cage”
“Okay fine.”
She held the phone out to me, “He wants to talk to you.”
This conversation was like nothing I’d expected. The girl had to be his sister.
“Hey.”
“Listen, I need you to make sure Low stays there until I can get home. She’s upset and I don’t want her leaving. Get her one of her damn Mexican soda thingys out of the fridge. They’re behind the Bud Lights in the bottom drawer. I have to hide them from other chicks I have over. All females tend to like those nasty drinks. Turn on the television, distract her, whatever. I’m only ten minutes away but I’m putting my jeans on as we speak and headed home. Just help get her mind off things but DON’T touch her.”
“Ah, okay sure. Is she your sister?”
Cage chuckled into the phone. “Hell no she ain’t my sister. I’d never buy my damn sister drinks and call her back when I’m in the middle of a fucking threesome. Low’s the girl I’m gonna marry.”
I had no response for that. My eyes found her standing over by the window with her back to me. The long thick copper locks curled on the ends and brushed against the middle of her back. She was absolutely nothing like the girls Cage regularly hooked up with. What did he mean she was the girl he was going to marry? That made no sense.
“Keep her there man. I’m on my way.”
Then he hung up the phone.
I dropped the phone on the table and stood there staring at her back. She turned around slowly and studied me a moment then a smiled broke across her face.
“He told you he was going to marry me didn’t he,” she said laughing softly before taking a drink of the orange soda with what appeared to have spanish writing on it.
“Crazy boy. I shouldn’t have bothered him but he’s all I’ve got.”
She walked over and sank back down onto the old faded green sofa pulling her legs up underneath her.
“Don’t worry. I’m not leaving. He’d rip apart my sister’s house searching for me and scare the bejesus out of her if I left. I’ve got enough issues where she’s concerned. I don’t intend to unleash Cage on her.”
I slowly made my way over to the only chair in the room and sat down.
“So, you’re engaged?” I asked staring down at her bare ring finger.
With a sad smile she shook her head.
“Not in a million years. Cage has crazy ideas. Just because he says them doesn’t make them true.”
She raised her eyebrows and took another drink of her soda.
“So, you aren’t going to marry Cage,” I really would love for her to clarify this because I was incredibly confused and more than a little interested in her. She bit down on her bottom lip and I noticed for the first time how full it was.
”Cage was my ‘boy next door’ growing up. He’s my best friend. I love him dearly and he really is all I have. The only person I can count on. We’ve never actually been in a relationship before because he knows I won’t have sex with him and he needs sex. He’s also real wrapped up in the whole idea that a relationship between the two of us before we get married will end badly and he’ll lose me. He has this irrational fear of losing me.”
Did she know the guy had bagged over three different girls this week and apparently was having a threesome when she’d called? She was so much better than Cage.
“Wipe that look off your face. I don’t need your pity. I know what Cage is like. I know you have probably seen the kind of girls he’s attracted to and I look absolutely nothing like them. I don’t live in a fantasy world. I’m very aware,” she tilted her head and smiled at me sweetly, “I don’t even know your name.”
“Marcus Hardy”
“Well Marcus Hardy, I’m Willow Montgomery but everyone calls me Low. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise”
“So, you’re a friend of Preston’s.”
I nodded, “Yes but don’t hold it against me.”
She laughed for the first time and the sudden pleasure from such a simple sound startled me. I liked hearing her laugh.
“I won’t. Preston isn’t all that bad. He likes to use those pretty boy looks of his to get his way but I’m safe from his attention. Cage would kill him if he decided to bat his baby blues at me.”
Was it because of Preston’s womanizing or the fact he was a guy that made Cage protective of Willow. Did he really expect her to wait around until he was ready to settle down and marry her?
“LOW,” Cage’s voice rang out as the door to the apartment swung open. His head snapped around and his eyes went straight to Willow.
“God baby I was so afraid you’d leave, come here.” This was a side of Cage I’d never seen. Apparently the sweet little red head got to him in a way no one else could. He pulled her up into his arms, reached down and grabbed the forgotten suitcase then led her back to his bedroom whispering to her the entire way. If she hadn’t informed me that she refused to have sex with him earlier I’d have been eat up with righteous fury at the idea of him touching someone so sweet after having just left the bed of not one but two girls. But instead, I was eaten up with envy because I knew he was going to get to hold her and listen to her musical voice as she spilled out all her problems. He’d be the one to fix them, not me. I’d just met her. Why the hell did that bother me?
The Vincent Boys
Chapter 1
Ashton
Why couldn’t I have just made it home without seeing them? I wasn’t in the mood to play good freaking Samaritan to Beau and his trashy girlfriend. Although he wasn't here, Sawyer would expect me to stop. With a frustrated groan, I slowed down and pulled up beside Beau, who had put some distance between him and his vomiting girlfriend. Apparently throw up wasn’t a mating call for him. “Where’s your truck parked Beau?” I asked in the most annoyed tone I could muster. He flashed me that stupid sexy grin he knew made every female in town melt at his feet. I’d like to believe I was immune, after all these years, but I wasn’t. Being immune to the town’s bad boy was impossible.
“Don’t tell me perfect little Ashton Gray is gonna offer to help me out,” he drawled leaning down to stare at me through my open window.
“Sawyer’s out of town so the privilege falls to me. He wouldn’t let you drive home drunk and neither will I.”
He chuckled sending a shiver of pleasure down my spine. God. He even laughed sexy. “Thanks beautiful but I can handle this. Once Nic stops puking I’ll throw her in my truck. I can drive the three miles to her house. You run on along now. Don’t you have a bible study somewhere you should be at?”
Arguing with him was pointless. He would just start throwing out more snide comments until he had me so mad I couldn’t see straight. I pressed the gas and turned into the parking lot. Like I was going to be able to just leave and let him drive home drunk. He could infuriate me with a wink of his eye and I worked real hard at being nice to everyone. I scanned the parked cars for his old black Chevy truck. Once I spotted it, I walked over to him and held out my hand.
“Either you can give me the keys to your truck or I can go digging for them. What’s it going to be Beau? You want me searching your pockets?”
A crooked grin touched his face. “As a matter of fact, I think I might just enjoy you digging around in my pockets Ash. Why don’t we go with option number two.”
Heat rose up my neck and left splotches of color on
my cheeks. I didn’t need a mirror to know I was blushing like an idiot. Beau never made suggestive comments to me or even flirted with me. I happened to be the only reasonably attractive female at school he completely ignored.
“Don’t you dare touch him, you stupid bitch. His keys are in the ignition of his truck,” Nicole, Beau’s on again off again girlfriend, lifted her head slinging her dark brown hair back over her shoulder and snarled at me. Bloodshot blue eyes filled with hate watched me as if daring me to touch what was hers. I didn’t respond to her nor did I look back up at Beau. Instead, I turned and headed for his truck reminding myself I was doing this for Sawyer.
“Come on then and get in the truck,” I barked at both of them before sliding into the driver’s seat. It was really hard not to focus on the fact this was the first time I’d ever been in Beau’s truck. After countless nights lying on my roof with him talking about the day we got our driver’s license and all the places we would go, I was just now, at seventeen years old, sitting inside his truck. Beau picked Nicole up and dumped her in the back.
“Lay down unless you get sick again then make sure you puke over the side,” he snapped while opening the driver’s side door.
“Hop out princess. She’s about to pass out, she won’t care if I’m driving.”
I gripped the steering wheel tighter.
“I’m not going to let you drive. You’re slurring your words. You don’t need to drive.”
He opened his mouth to argue then mumbled something that sounded like a curse word before slamming the door and walking around the front of the truck to get in on the passenger’s side. He didn’t say anything and I didn’t glance over at him. Without Sawyer around, Beau made me nervous.
“I’m tired of arguing with females tonight. That’s the only reason I’m letting you drive,” he grumbled without a slur this time. It wasn't surprising he could control the slurring. The boy had been getting drunk before most the kids our age had tasted their first beer. When a guy had a face like Beau’s, older girls took notice. He’d been snagging invites to the field parties way before the rest of us.
