by Sara Hess
EVAN’S ADDICTION
By
Sara Hess
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Evan’s Addiction Copyright @ 2016 by Sara L. Hess
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, local or organization is entirely coincidental.
EVAN’S ADDICTION
PROLOGUE
EVAN
Tuesday, September 28
“So, lunch with your girlfriend, again?” I asked rhetorically.
My two roommates, Nic and Seth, and I were exiting our Principles of Business class. We were all business majors here at the University of Virginia so we ended up having many of our classes together. We were in the fourth week of our senior year and the beginning to final stretch for our Bachelor degrees. However, Graduate school was a noose looming in our future so it wasn’t like we were anywhere near the finish line.
Besides being roommates, we were also teammates on UVA’s lacrosse team; starters, and three of the best on the team, if not the league. We had two other roommates, Noah and Landon, and they were on the team as well.
A grin took over Nic’s face at the mention of his girl. “Yep.”
Nic, the ultimate player, met a girl earlier this year and they were now joined at the allegorical and corporeal hip. I never thought I’d see the day that Nic would settle down with one girl, but it was like he’d taken one look at Carrie and seen his destiny. She was a great girl; sweet, beautiful as all-get-out, smart, and witty with a touch of shyness that was completely enduring. So even though it was bizarre as fuck, it wasn’t utterly incomprehensible.
For me it would be utterly incomprehensible. I adored women, and l loved fucking them, but I could only handle the same one for a short amount of time. They could be sweet as hell, and an awesome lay, but after awhile they made my mind go numb. I would never say it out loud, because it was totally cliché, but it wasn’t them, it was me. My I.Q. was in the genius range so my mind needed significant stimuli to stay engaged.
The girls I hooked-up with knew the score. Like me, they were only looking for some fun and utilizing college as a way to sow their wild oats, and being an attractive lacrosse player I wasn’t hurting for hook-ups. I wasn’t a six-four blonde god like Nic, but at six foot two with light brown hair and a muscular physique I had no trouble drawing them in.
My attention was snagged by Seth tapping away on his cell phone with his large sausage-like fingers as we ambled in the direction of the cafeteria. Nic was tall, but Seth was a giant at six foot six and loaded down with two-hundred and fifty pounds of muscle on muscle. His dark brows were pinched together as he punched at his screen…probably having a difficult time hitting the correct letters with those enormous digits of his. He often misspelled words in texts to me.
“Who are you texting inaccurately there, Pit.” I’d given Seth the nickname Bottomless Pit in our freshman year because he was always eating. After time it had gotten shortened to ‘Pit’. He hated it.
“Don’t call me that.” He growled.
See, I told you.
I jabbed at his bicep repeatedly, annoyingly, because that’s what I did. “Come on, tell me, tellll meee.”
Two attractive girl walked by giving us smiles which I returned since Nic and Seth seemed disinclined.
Eyes glued to his phone Seth shrugged me off. “Nadia.”
Auhh, his latest, and possible next girlfriend. Not that he’d had a lot of girlfriends, but he had acquired one over the summer and broken up with her when fall courses started. The correlation between him meeting Nadia and then breaking off the other relationship revealed a lot. Seth wasn’t a capricious person, so this Nadia must be someone damn special.
I tried looking over his shoulder, but a four inch deficit didn’t make it easy. Six-two wasn’t short but compared to Seth it was.
“Are you sexting her? Please tell me you’re sexting her, and go into extensive details.”
He shrugged me off again and growled. “No, and no.”
Besides being gigantic, Seth was also a chatterbox. It was just so damn difficult to shut the guy up; yap, yap, yap.
Another attractive, smiling girl strolled by, this one a past hook-up. She raised her hand in the universal phone gesture to call her and I gave her a return smile—I wasn’t adverse to a short reacquaintance—while at the same time huffing in faux offense at Seth.
“Fine, keep it a secret. I was only being polite pretending to care about your life anyway. If your texts to her are anything similar to the ones you send us then it’s not like I’m missing out on anything. A couple no’s, a few yes’s. Titillating dialogue.”
I got a succinct side-glare for that before he returned to texting. He chuckled at something and I about stumbled over my feet. It wasn’t unheard of for Seth to laugh, but they were rare. Nic’s brows rose on the other side of Seth as he too marveled at the unexpected chuckle, but then his attention focused ahead of us and his expression brightened in unqualified happiness.
Wow! The dude was so far down the sappy rabbit hole he was approaching China.
Following his gaze I saw Carrie about a hundred feet in front of us, standing near the entrance to the cafeteria. It was difficult not to be awed by her natural beauty. She had some Latin ancestry and it gave her a dark exotic look; nearly black hair, olive skin, two beauty marks by her eyebrow and lip, but what really stood out was her ice blue eyes, they were almost hypnotic.
I was accustomed to her looks after months in her presence, so my focus switched to the female next to her she was in conversation with. My interest was instantly captured.
A red head, but not a run of the mill red head. No, this girl had astonishingly, glorious red hair; different colored dark reds mixed with unsystematic light reds. It was a rainbow of reds. But that wasn’t the only amazing thing about it; it was also a mass of corkscrew curls. The only thing I disliked about the whole ensemble was that it was confined in a huge messy bun on top of her head.
Hair like that was meant to be free and wild.
The girl wasn’t dressed to impress; frayed jeans cut off at the knees, flip flops, a worn t-shirt that hung looser than I liked, and no make-up. But she had that young, wholesome, hot girl next door look that nearly slapped you in the face…in an oh-so awesome way.
“Who’s the ginger hottie that Carrie is talking to?” I asked Nic.
“That’s Shaw. They met right after the news article came out about Carrie.” Nic’s expression darkened.
Yeah, I remembered that. Poor girl had a traumatic past. People should have been overwhelming her with support and compassion, but instead she’d been surrounded by fuckwads.
“Shaw was…is one of Carrie’s strongest supporters; she reamed anyone who dared to say anything negative to Carrie. I actually came upon them one time and Shaw was giving some guy a verbal vasectomy for some shit he’d spouted to Carrie. I let her take a break so I could take over.” Nic sneered and his eyes darkened with murderous remembrance.
I’d been there for several similar interactions last term. Nic had torn anyone a new asshole that said anything bad about Carrie; to her face or behind it.
“They’ve become really good friends since then. Shaw’s her new roommate.” Nic threw me a grin that held some kind of veiled meaning.
If they were roommates then the girl could be the same age as Carrie, nineteen, and a sophomore.
I narrowed my eyes at Nic and then glanced back at the girl. “Why haven’t I heard about her before today? And why hasn’t she popped up at the house yet?”
From previous experience I knew most girls would
use any available reason for a chance to get through our front door, and then our bedroom doors. Yet this girl hadn’t.
Nic’s lip twisted again. “Shaw’s…different.”
I rolled my eyes. “Please, tell me less. I don’t think that was vague enough.”
He snorted. “You’ll find out in ten seconds or less.”
My eyes stayed glued on the red head as we walked up. The two girls were so engrossed in their discussion that neither of them noticed our approach until Nic wrapped his arms around Carrie’s waist.
She jumped slightly in alarm but then realizing it was Nic she beamed enormously. “Hey.”
Nic’s response was to lean down and devour her mouth.
Ignoring them I gave Red my most charming and sexy grin. “Hello, I’m Evan. What’s your name sweet thing?” Yeah, Nic had just told me her name, but this was how you introduced yourself. I also wasn’t going to wait for Nic and Carrie to come up for a breather so they could introduce us.
My charm’exy smile was met with narrowed, vibrant green eyes, and a scornful twist of plump lips. “Justa Leavin.”
Wait…what?
She turned to Carrie, ignoring me. “Carrie, I have to…” She paused to eye Seth and me, disdain palpable. “…Be anywhere but here. I’ll catch you later.” Then she walked away without a backwards glance.
I stared after her with my mouth possibly gaping. After that epic cut, and clever play on words, I should have at least had the consolation view of an incredible ass to look forward to, but no, the t-shirt was long obscuring it. Nice toned naked calves though.
Nic chortled behind me—that definitely wasn’t Seth’s guffaw—drawing my attention away from the malcontent red-head. He had a shit-ass smirk on his face.
“What the hell was that?” I asked with a confused frown, but at the same time I couldn’t help appreciating her smart-ass-ness.
Looking discomfited Carrie answered. “Shaw is just really blunt and short with most people. She doesn’t mean anything by it…usually.”
Nic snorted with humor in his eyes, squeezing Carrie tighter. “Babe, she means everything she says. Don’t expect her to warm up to you any time soon, Evan. It took her months to warm up to me; at least, I think she’s warmed up to me. It’s difficult to tell sometimes.” He snorted again.
Carrie slapped at his arm half-heartedly. “You know she likes you, Nic.”
“In her own feral way.”
“Nic, be nice!” Carrie exclaimed.
“That was nice.” He chuckled.
Carrie frowned at him and he gave her a kiss that I assume was meant to apologize. “Honey, you know Shaw has my undying gratitude just for having your back. That she’s your friend, and she’s important to you; well, that makes her one of us. Even if she wants nothing to do with us.”
Carrie sighed, hugging him. “We’ve talked about that…”
Nic nodded. “I know, she reminds you of you, and that’s another reason why I have her back no matter what.”
Smiling and cupping his face Carrie pulled him down for a kiss. “You’re the best.”
Nic deepened the kiss. “No, you are.”
“Can we walk and eulogize at the same time? I’m hungry.” Seth grumbled, and without waiting for a response he turned and lumbered into the cafeteria.
What could we do but follow.
“So, why doesn’t Shaw want anything to do with us? Does she have something against lacrosse players, or athletes in general?” I inquired as we got in the food line. Since our house consisted entirely of lacrosse players it was the only reason I could fathom on why she wouldn’t want to hang with us.
Carrie shrugged, looking uncomfortable again. “Shaw works a lot, and here on a scholarship, which she takes very seriously, so she doesn’t have much down time.”
Nic offered up another grunt which had Carrie glowering. Wow, two frowns in a row, she must hold this Shaw chick in high esteem because I rarely saw Carrie give Nic the stink eye. Before I could ask anything further about her I was interrupted.
“Hey, Evan.”
I looked behind me and smiled. “Hey, Tiff.”
Tiffany was my current friends-with-benefits; shoulder length blonde hair, brown eyes, curves in all the right places, and wearing the clothes to show them off…unlike others. We’d been hooking up for three weeks and it was getting close to that losing my attention cut-off point. She was a great girl, but the spark only lasted for so long. I’d given her my estimated four weeks heads-up before we started our thing so she wouldn’t be surprised when I called it quits, and she said she was fine with that.
Sidling up next to me Tiff slid her hand up under my shirt to trail her nails along the edge of my waist band, dipping one finger in to tickle the top of my ass. “I’ve got a free hour and a half before my next class…” She raised her brow seductively. “You free?”
I actually was for the rest of the day, and the spark between us wasn’t completely dead yet, so… “Let me grab some food to go and we’ll head out?”
Her smile brightened enhancing her beauty, but for some reason my thoughts rewound to Red. I wasn’t certain if it was my imagination, or the incongruity of the encounter, but her disdainful expression appeared to hold more vitality than Tiff’s enormously pleased smile.
Thursday, October 16
I walked into the cafeteria with Nic and Seth. We were meeting Carrie for lunch, like we did every Tuesday and Thursday, but we were running slightly late today. Actually, we’d been running late for the last two weeks. Our Professor’s time management was off or something because her lectures were extending past the allotted time for that class by at least ten minutes.
The three of us got in line for food while Nic scanned the room for Carrie. I did a search as well since we had a procession of people ahead of us. I found her at a table near the window, and she wasn’t alone…Red was with her.
The girl hadn’t shown her face in two weeks, but it seemed she was blessing us with her company today.
My irritation at being kept longer in class was instantly erased at the sight of her, and adrenaline and serotonin rushed through my body at the prospect of a hunt. I’d replaced Tiff with Stephanie recently, so I was set in the fuck buddy department, but I hadn’t been able to get that brief encounter with Shaw out of my head. Now I could find out if her cleverness last time was just a fluke or if she had more to give.
“It will never happen, dude.”
Nic’s mocking proclamation had me turning to see that the line had moved forward without me. Grabbing a tray I proceeded to transfer food onto my tray.
“No one’s immune to this.” I waved my hand down my body in embellished arrogance.
“I am.” Seth stated dryly while filling his tray with almost every selection he came across.
“That’s just because you’ve been collared by one strawberry blonde, but before she came along you were dying for a chance at this.” I repeated my hand motion.
Seth’s expression both brightened at the mention of Nadia, and twisted in a grimace at my allusion. “My dick actually shriveled at the though of that.”
“Nadia will probably appreciate that since bull cock is probably difficult to take everyday. Poor girl has to be walking bowlegged by now.” I snickered because I totally wasn’t kidding. Seth was literally hung like a bull. If I wasn’t comfortable with my own more than average dick size I would have a real complex after standing next to him.
Seth growled and scowled heavily at me. He was nearly as bad off as Nic concerning sexual comments about his girlfriend. Both of them were completely roped and hog tied, awaiting their de-balling.
Once we had our food we made our way towards Carrie and Shaw. Shaw’s hair was once more confined in a huge, chaotic, curly mass on top of her had. The sphere of it was almost as round as her head. Damn, that was a lot of hair. The outfit she had on was identical to what she’d been wearing last time; t-shirt, cut off jeans, and flip-flops. As I got closer I could see that her shirt had
writing on it: I’ll try to be nicer if you try to be smarter.
I loved it.
Carrie’s face lit up when Nic sat down next to her, kissing her. Shaw rolled her eyes and looked utterly put out at our presence. I took the chair next to her not at all dissuaded.
“Hey, Shaw.” Nic greeted, after detaching from Carrie.
She gave him a short nod. “Nic.” Then she went back to eating her sandwich ignoring Seth and me.
Damn, Nic hadn’t been kidding when he said she had barely warmed up to him. I still wasn’t deterred. “How you been, Justa Leavin?” I smirked and picked up my own loaded sub-sandwich.
Her brow twitched faintly and that was the only response I got in regards to our prior exchange. “I was great about five seconds ago, but now this sudden wave of nausea has hit me.” She continued eating, disputing her nausea claim.
I couldn’t hold back my wide grin. This was going to be fun. “Do you think it’s something you’re eating?”
“No, the cause is of the XY variety.”
Clever, she was referring to the chromosomal pairing for males, but I knew XY also stood for Xylose; a type of sugar isolated from wood. “Too much sugar can do that to you.” I covered my smirk by taking a bite of my sandwich.
Shaw’s brows pinched in confusion. Most likely she didn’t know what I meant. It was a pretty obscure reference. Carrie stared at both of us anxiously, while Nic’s expression was amused. Seth’s features were mildly interested…most of his attention was on his food.
Shaw finally looked up and stared me straight in the eye. She had spectacular eyes; big and light luminescent green with flecks of gold and blue. Freckles dotted the bridge of her small nose and across her rounded cheeks, but it was the few that speckled her lips that really held my interest. They were asking to be licked.
“It’s not Xylose I have a problem with.” She stated categorically, surprising me with her knowledge. But if Shaw received a scholarship to UVA she had to have a higher than average intelligence.
“Well, it can’t be the Xuan-Yuan sword or the Xing-Yue motorcycle, because those are great. I know what it is; you missed me, didn’t you?” I quirked my brow at her because I was so winning this round.
