“But that’s—” I glanced at the clock again. “An hour and a half. Sam’s been waiting out there for an hour and a half?”
Charlotte smiled at me. “Yes, he has. Have a safe trip back, sweetie.”
I got up to kiss Beth goodbye, gave Charlotte a quick hug, and went out into the waiting area.
He was there. He was really there, looking so strong and dependable and patient and kind I wanted to throw myself into his arms.
He was sitting on one of the blue plastic chairs, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped between them. After a moment he looked up and saw me.
“Hey,” he said, jumping to his feet. “How are you? How’s Beth?”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, my heart going a million miles a minute. “I mean… I thought you were going back to Hart.”
He crossed to where I was, took my hand, and led me over to a seat. “I thought you might need me. And I know you said you’d figure out a ride, but if I drive you back you won’t have to figure it out.”
“You thought I might need you?”
“I thought you might need someone,” he amended. “I know I’m not your first choice, but—”
“You are my first choice.”
He stared at me. “What?”
I thought it would be hard to say, but it was the easiest thing I’d ever done.
“I love you.”
He stared at me some more.
“Okay,” he said finally. “I think you’re probably upset right now, and—”
“No. I mean yes, I’m upset. But that’s not why—” I shook my head as tears swam in my eyes. “I love you, Sam. I love you. I love you. I—”
He grabbed me by the shoulders and kissed me.
The shock of it started at my lips and ended in my fingers and toes. I ended up in his lap somehow, my arms around his neck and my body pressed up against his. Our mouths fused together and our tongues met and the sounds we made could have provided the soundtrack for a porn movie.
“Ahem.”
I jerked my head back and stared up at Charlotte, who was smiling down at us. “You left this in Beth’s room,” she said, handing me my backpack.
“Um.” I cleared my throat. “Well. Thanks.”
Sam lifted me off his lap and set me carefully on the seat next to him. Then he rose to his feet and held out his hand. “It’s good to see you again, Charlotte. I hope Beth is doing all right.”
Charlotte shook his hand solemnly. “She is, Sam. Thanks for asking. Have a safe drive back to Hart.”
“We will,” he said. Then he held his hand out to me, helped me to my feet, and led me out of the waiting area and down the hall to the elevators.
Once the doors closed behind us Sam closed his eyes. “Your moms are going to think I’m some kind of horn dog.”
“Actually, I think they really like you.”
He opened his eyes again. “Yeah? And what about you?”
I grinned at him. “You know how I feel about you. I just told you. Have you forgotten already?”
He slid an arm around my waist and pulled me against him, his eyes dark as he looked down at me.
“Say it again.”
The elevator doors opened before I could. As the two of us headed for the exit, Sam put his arm around my shoulders. “I’m still waiting for your declaration.”
“I love you,” I said. “I love you, I love you, I—”
But then, suddenly, I stopped.
We pushed through the glass doors and started to walk across the parking lot. “What just happened?” Sam asked.
“I don’t deserve you,” I said, feeling shame and regret coiling inside me. “I punished you for doing one stupid thing. For not being perfect.”
When we got to the car Sam leaned back against it, pulling me into the circle of his arms.
“Hey,” he said. “Don’t you think I want to be perfect for you? That’s what you deserve. You deserve a perfect guy and I’ll never be able to give you that. All I can give you is myself.”
Warmth flooded through me. “That’s all I want. I just wish—”
“What?”
“If I hadn’t been so blind for so long, we could have been each other’s first time. I’m the one who ruined that.”
“You didn’t ruin anything. I did, and I’m still pissed at myself. But if you can forgive me, then I’ll get over it. Because my second time is going to be with you. And once that happens, I’m not going to remember anything else.”
A shiver ran through me as I looked up into Sam’s eyes.
“Are you cold?” he asked me, hugging me tighter.
“No. Just in love.”
“I know the feeling,” he said softly.
Then he kissed me.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Something happens to me when we kiss.”
“Yeah? What?”
“I’m not sure how to describe it. I need to do some more research.”
Sam, ever supportive of research, pulled off the highway at the next rest area.
We kissed in the car for half an hour.
* * *
“You should know that I’m really bad at this,” I said a while later, after we were back on the road.
“At what?”
“Relationship stuff. I’ve been running away from all the things I’m afraid of.” I took a deep breath. “But I don’t want to run any more. I want to stand and fight.”
“You want to fight with me?” he asked with a grin. “It seems like we’ve been doing that for years.”
“No. I want to fight for you.”
He met my eyes for a moment. “As long as you let me fight for you, too.”
“I will. But you do know I suck at this, right? I have no idea what I’m doing.”
“I don’t know what I’m doing either. So we’ll figure it out together.”
I put my hand on his thigh. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “But first we have to make it back to Bracton alive, and if you keep your hand there our chances of doing that will decrease dramatically.”
* * *
“I saw your sculpture in the gallery,” I said as we drove past the art building.
“You did, huh? What did you think?”
“I loved it. But—”
“But what?”
“You made me beautiful. I’m not beautiful in real life.”
“Yes, you are. Do you want to fight about it? Because I’ll win.”
We pulled into the dorm parking lot, and after Sam turned off the engine we sat in silence for a minute. The snow had held off while we were driving back, but now the first few flakes were coming down.
“Do you really see me like that?” I asked.
“See you how?”
“With a tiger.”
“Why not?”
“It’s just… I never thought of wildness as a part of my nature.”
He was holding my hand, and now he threaded our fingers together. “I told you once you were a paradox. Do you remember?”
“Yes.”
“This is why. On the surface you’re so controlled, you know? So logical. And underneath all that there’s this… power. This fierceness.”
I was so overwhelmed I couldn’t speak for a moment.
“Hey,” I finally said.
“Yeah?”
“I forgot to mention that you’re a really amazing artist.”
“I don’t know about that. But I had a really amazing subject.”
“I guess we could go back and forth on that for a while, huh? Get a strange loop going.” I leaned across the gear shift and kissed him on the lips. “Or we could go up to your room and—”
“Rikki?”
“Yes?”
“I want to wait a little while.”
Disappointment cascaded through me. My body was so full of longing and wanting and need and desire it felt like I might die if I couldn’t be with Sam right that second.
“Not long, believe me. But we just got back together again. I don’t want to rush things.”
“Okay,” I said after a moment, not wanting to come off like a sex-crazed succubus.
But a few hours later, sitting on my bed and trying to study, I decided that I was a sex-crazed succubus, damn it, and Sam might as well deal with that fact.
* * *
I think we’ve waited long enough.
That’s what I would say. I knew Sam would understand what I meant, and I really, really hoped he would agree with me.
I think we’ve waited long enough, I repeated to myself as I walked slowly down the hall to Sam’s room.
But when he opened the door to my knock and stood there looking at me, I felt tongue-tied.
“I think—”
I stopped and started again.
“I think—”
Then, for the first time, I noticed the room behind him.
It was lit by candlelight, and there were roses beside the bed.
When I looked back at Sam he was smiling.
“I think so, too,” he said.
Then he pulled me inside and shut the door.
Author’s Note
Thank you so much for reading Rikki. I hope you enjoyed it, and I hope you’ll join me as the series continues.
Get ready for sophomore year at Hart University! Claire is coming on April 26, 2016, so be sure to sign up for my newsletter to receive release day announcements and bonus content.
Other Titles by Abigail Strom
Almost Like Love
Nothing Like Love (coming February 23, 2016)
Winning the Right Brother
The Landry family series (the books are listed here chronologically, but each one stands alone and the series can be read out of order):
The Millionaire’s Wish
Cross My Heart
Waiting for You
Into Your Arms
You can learn more at abigailstrom.com.
And if you’re a fan of steamy paranormal romance, you might enjoy the Blood and Absinthe series I write as Chloe Hart:
Taming the Vampire (free at all retailers!)
Bound by the Vampire
Claiming the Vampire
Drawn to the Vampire
Caught by the Wolf
You can learn more at authorchloehart.com.
Acknowledgements
Thanks as always to Mikel Strom and Tara Gorvine for their help, encouragement, and endless patience, and to my mother for her general awesomeness. Thanks to Sarah Hansen (Okay Creations) for her gorgeous cover, the folks at Victory Editing for their eagle eyes, and Katherine Locke, beta reader and editor extraordinaire, for her insight. And finally, an epic thank-you to my readers, who are the reason I write.
About the Author
Abigail Strom started writing stories at the age of seven and has never been able to stop. On her way to becoming a full-time writer, she earned a BA in English from Cornell University as well as an MFA in dance from the University of Hawaii, and held a wide variety of jobs from dance teacher and choreographer to human resource manager. Now she works in her pajamas and lives in New England with her family, who are incredibly supportive of the hours she spends hunched over her computer.
If you don’t want to miss a new release, you can sign up for my newsletter, follow me on twitter, or like my Facebook page. You can also check out my website for more information, including the playlists I’ve created for each of my books. I love to hear from readers, so drop me an email at [email protected] if you’re so inclined!
Copyright
Rikki: Hart University, Book 1
Copyright © 2015 by Abigail Strom
EBook ISBN 978-1943296002
Cover Art copyright © by Sarah Hansen, Okay Creations
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Author’s Note
Other Titles by Abigail Strom
Acknowledgements
About the Author
Copyright
Rikki Page 22
