Crossing the Line

by Nicola Marsh

  "Nothing happened between Dani and me. She came onto me, I shoved her away. That's it." He sucked in a breath and blew it out. "I don't give a flying fuck about any other woman because you're the one I want."

  No declaration of love. Good. It would make this easier.

  "Dani told me what happened, how she wrote us both notes, then deliberately came onto you to pay me back for abandoning her in favor of you."

  He made loopy circles at his head. "Your friend's seriously whacko."

  "She's been through a lot. Stuff I didn't know about." I shrugged. "But we've cleared the air and we'll be okay."

  "Can you say the same about us?" He stood so abruptly the chair slammed into the desk. "I thought we had something, Mia. Something good. So how could you believe I'd be screwing around on you and then run before giving me a chance to explain?"

  I needed to tell him a semi-truth before I said the rest.

  "I was hurt. Devastated. Because I thought we'd been good together too." I pressed a hand to my chest where even now, the pain spiked at the memory of how shattered I'd been when I saw him and Dani together. "I needed to get away. Back to reality."

  His eyes narrowed. "You're saying what we had wasn't real?"

  I hadn't expected him to read between the lines so quickly. That was my man, smart and gorgeous. Though he wasn't my man any more. Not after tonight.

  Hoping I could do this without breaking down in a blubbering mess, I nodded. "People hook up on vacations all the time. Incredibly intense flings that suck you in at the time, but when it inevitably ends, as it has to, you realize it was nothing more than a romantic fantasy." I was so proud when my voice didn't wobble.

  "Bullshit," he said, starting to pace, stopping every few seconds to glare at me. "We had more than that."

  I sat on my hands to stop them from shaking and giving away how nervous I was. "It was fun, Kye. And the sex was phenomenal. But it was always going to end."

  Damn, the pain was back again, slicing my heart and making me breathless.

  "What if it didn't have to end?" He stopped in front of me and knelt at my feet, placing his hands either side of me on the bed, effectively trapping me. "Would that shitty little speech you just gave change?"

  My mouth gaped for a second before I closed it, hating how my heart gave a betraying leap of hope. "It has to end. We both knew that going into this."

  "Things change." He leaned forward and laid his cheek on my knee. "I've changed."

  He said it so softly I had to lean down a little to hear him.

  "What do you mean?" I held my breath, knowing there was nothing he could say that would alter the outcome but too weak to push him away when I'd never seen him this vulnerable.

  He lifted his head and looked me straight in the eye. "I want to be with you. Here. At DU."

  The blood must’ve drained from my face because a sudden chill made me shiver. This couldn't be real.

  Had Kye just said what I thought he'd said?

  "Hey, don't faint on me." He straightened from a squat position to sit next to me. "Not quite the reaction I'd expected."

  "But you can't stay here." I shook my head, trying to clear the fog. "You're going to be a Grand Slam champion one day."

  "I'd rather be your champion." He slid an arm around my waist and held me tight. "The thing is, I've gone and fallen in love with you. And it turns out I don't need tennis as badly as I need you."

  I turned to face him, slowly, not daring to hope. "You love me?"

  "Yeah, go figure." He kissed me to prove it, a hard, fast kiss filled with desperation. Like he couldn't get enough. Like he was petrified he wouldn't get another.

  I pushed him away before we ended up how we usually ended up after a kiss: naked and entangled and incredibly satisfied.

  "I can't let you give up tennis for me." When he opened his mouth to speak, I pressed my fingers against it. "You'd end up resenting me. And I'd end up hating myself for it."

  I lowered my hand, leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss across his lips. "You're an amazing guy and I'll miss you a lot, but you can't do this."

  He captured my face in his hands. "Do you love me?"

  I glanced away and compressed my lips.

  "Answer the question, Mia." His thumbs caressed my cheeks and I bit back a moan. "Look at me and tell me the truth."

  Damn.

  I dragged my gaze back to meet his, ready to lie to the man I loved. But what I saw made me crumple.

  Kye had tears in his eyes.

  He'd put his heart on the line, was risking it all, for me.

  The least I owed him before he walked away was the truth.

  "Of course I frikking love you," I said, tension gripping my chest like a vice. "But I'm not going to let you throw away your future because of me."

  To my surprise, he grinned. "You are my future, you crazy girl." He swooped in for another kiss, softer this time, and I savored the taste of mint on my tongue, the scent of his citrus aftershave filling my senses. "You know tennis was my go-to place, my emotional crutch."

  He squared his shoulders, the sheen of tears gone. "But I don't need it anymore."

  He winked. "I'm all grown up. And I got there because of you."

  He stood, snagged my hands and tugged me to my feet. "I spoke to my dad. He's going to pull strings to get me in here. English major. And I'll play college tennis." He lifted my hand to his mouth and kissed the back of it. "So you're not getting rid of me that easily, babe."

  I couldn't believe this. Any of it.

  Kye was staying and we had a future?

  My knees wobbled and I sunk onto the bed.

  "Why are you on the verge of passing out every time I mention we have a future together?" He sat next to me again. "A long, happy future, in case you were wondering."

  Emotion clogged my throat and I swallowed, several times, before I could speak. "This is for real? You and me?"

  "Always."

  As Kye's strong arms slid around me and we hugged like we'd never let go, I finally believed him.

  TOWING THE LINE, Dani’s story, releases June 2nd 2014.

  I need a new start. Anonymity. In a country where no one will know me, and the havoc I create. Not all the rumors about me are true. But I made one mistake too many in LA and attending an Australian college for a few semesters is the perfect solution.

  I plan on avoiding guys. But the part-time tutor and sexy Aussie artist Ashton? Has me re-evaluating the wisdom of being a reformed bad girl. Ash is aloof, dedicated, serious, and I must corrupt him. So I seduce him. Not expecting to fall in love for the first time. And the last.

  Because Ash has high standards and when he learns the truth about me, he’ll join the long list of people in my life pretending I don’t exist.

  If you enjoyed this book, check out my other New Adult contemporary romance BEFORE, available at all retailers.

  Good girls finish last? Screw that.

  Being a small town girl isn't so bad. Unless Mom's the town joke and I've spent my entire life shying away from her flamboyance. College in Las Vegas should be so much cooler. But it's not. Bad things happen. Real bad.

  So when my brother Reid offers me an all-expenses paid vacation to Australia for a month, I am so there. Discounting the deadly snakes on the outback cattle station, I should be safe.

  Until I meet Jack.

  Jack defines bad boy and then some. He's big, buffed, bronzed, and hotter than any guy I've ever met. His sexy Aussie accent makes me melt. And the guy can cook.

  But he's my brother's new bestie and he lives on the other side of the world. There's no future for us.

  Is there?

  Chapter One

  JESS

  College was overrated. Seriously.

  The dorm-hopping, frat-partying, alcohol-imbibing rumors were true. The part where I became a party animal, made a zillion BFFs and took UNLV by storm? Hadn’t kicked in yet. I sucked as badly as a freshman at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, as I had as a
student at Hell High, my nickname for my old high school in Craye Canyon. Apparently once a geek, always a geek.

  In two semesters I’d attended three frat parties, had drunk two vodkas, one rum and a watered down Long Island Iced Tea. And the only other bed I’d graced besides my own belonged to my roommate’s dog, illegally smuggled in whenever she could. Yeah, chalk up permanent virginity status alongside geek. Embarrassing.

  On the upside, I didn’t live at home any more. One of the major incentives for busting my ass at high school to enroll at UNLV was the distance. UNVL was over an hour away from my hometown so I’d have to live on campus. Craye Canyon wasn’t big enough for Mom and me.

  Pity my foray into freedom hadn’t lived up to expectations. I’d hoped to shed my good-girl image at college. Yet here I was, last day before summer break, still hanging out in the library. Worse? Still a virgin.

  “Hey Jess, you’re coming tonight, yeah?”

  I glanced across at Dave, my study partner, and bit back my first response of ‘I wish.’ Somehow, I didn’t think the serious bookworm would appreciate the innuendo.

  “Think I’ll give it a miss,” I said, packing my satchel for the last time this semester.

  I was free for the summer. Without plans. I couldn’t head home, not with Mom in wedding planner frenzy mode. Summer was the busiest month for Nevada weddings and it seemed like every bridezilla in the state wanted Pam Harper to organize their wedding. Poor suckers.

  “School’s out, Geekette.” Dave tweaked my nose. “Time to par-tay.”

  “That settles it.” I elbowed him away. “No way am I going anywhere with a dork who says par-tay.”

  “Now you’re just playing hard to get.” Dave slung an arm across my shoulder, a friendly gesture I’d tolerated during our many study sessions together.

  “Yeah, that’s me, a regular babe juggling guys along with assignments.” I rolled my eyes. “Besides, I’ve got plans tonight.”

  “What plans?” He snapped his fingers. “Quick, the truth, before you make up some crap.”

  “I haven’t seen my cousin in a while, thought I’d hang out with her.”

  Truth was, my cousin Chantal worked nights as a dancer at the coolest burlesque venue on the Strip. But she had a great apartment I could hide out in to avoid the inevitable end of semester parties.

  I didn’t feel like getting drunk, stoned or laid. Not that I’d ever done any of those things before. That Geekette nickname Dave had bestowed on me last August when we both started our undergrad English major? Pathetically true.

  “Come to the party with me for a while, then go hang with your cousin later.”

  When I opened my mouth to protest again, Dave pressed his finger against my lips. “Not talking no for an answer, got it?”

  I didn’t mind Dave’s arm around my shoulder but having his finger against my mouth made me uncomfortable. We were friends. We hung out. Two loners who studied and grabbed the occasional meal. I wasn’t remotely attracted to the six foot, reed-thin Mr. Average and I’d never picked up any vibes off him.

  But there was something about the way he was looking at me, the way he was muscling in on my personal space, that had me edging away.

  “I might see you there,” I said, slinging my bag over my shoulder and accidentally on purpose bumping him out of the way in the process.

  For a second I thought I glimpsed anger in his pale grey eyes before he blinked and I attributed it to the sunlight filtering through the library windows.

  “Okay, catch you later.”

  I waited until Dave left, watching him lope between the tables and out the main library doors. I liked his easy-going nature, how he joked around without crossing the line. He’d never put the moves on me so the whole touchy-feely finger on the lips? Probably harmless and just me over-reacting to having a long, hot summer stretching ahead of me with not one freaking thing to do.

  I needed to get a life.

  Fast.

  Chapter Two

  JACK

  I was a man on a mission.

  I needed a bourbon in one hand and a blonde in the other, not necessarily in that order. And the annual Onakie B&S Ball happily provided both.

  I’d traveled a long, dusty three hundred miles to attend the black tie Bachelor and Spinster ball in outback Queensland, along with ten thousand other revelers currently jammed into the arena.

  Festivities—translated: consuming as much alcohol as humanly possible—had kicked off in the afternoon, gates to the ball opened at seven, which meant there were a lot of B&S’s paired off already. Nothing like beer goggles for making a member of the opposite sex appear overly attractive.

  I hadn’t run into anyone I knew, which suited me just fine. No one from the Cooweer Homestead cattle station where I worked had made the long trek. Then again, considering I was the only twenty-year-old on the property, with the next youngest employee being forty-five, it didn’t surprise me. Besides, I preferred it this way. A few hours out of my mundane life to cut free. Go wild. Get pissed. Shag some willing and able chick.

  It may not be much, but after spending the last four months working my arse off at the cattle station as a cook, I needed to burn off a little steam.

  “Hey handsome. Gotta light?” A thirty-something blonde with sun-wrinkles ringing her big blue eyes touched my forearm, waving a cigarette in her other hand at me.

  I shook my head. “Sorry. Don’t smoke.”

  “Too bad.” She flung the cigarette away and stepped in closer. “Fancy a drink instead?”

  “Got one, thanks.” I raised my bourbon. “But don’t let me stop you.”

  Not deterred by my offhand responses, she threaded her fingers through mine. “Let’s go dance.” She paused and sent me a loaded glance from beneath her lash extensions. “Down by the river.”

  Code for ‘my Ute is parked at the farthest corner of the compound so we can fuck our brains out and no one will hear.’

  This is exactly what I’d wanted. A no-strings-attached quickie to alleviate the boredom. So why did the thought of having meaningless sex with a stranger suddenly sound so unappealing?

  She stood on her tiptoes and whispered in my ear. “I give great head.”

  I wasn’t too keen, but my cock wasn’t so discerning. It stood to attention, straining to get at the brazen blonde.

  Sensing my indecision, she tugged on my hand. “Come on.”

  Like any weak-minded guy who allowed the wrong head to dictate his actions, I fell into step beside her. We dodged a crammed dance floor where an international rock band blasted hard core. We pushed our way through wall-to-wall revelers drunk on booze and each other. We wound our way through Utes and 4WDs parked helter-skelter. We sidestepped couples writhing against each other in the dark.

  It was nothing I hadn’t seen before. In fact, in the four years since I’d run from the last foster home in Sydney and worked my away across the outback to far north Queensland, I’d attended several B&S balls like this. Lonely people from all walks of life hooking up for a night of raucous fun, endless drinking and faceless sex.

  I was over it.

  “Here we are.” She paused at the last Ute in a haphazard row. I couldn’t see its color in the dark but it had an impressive chrome bull bar that shimmered in the moonlight. “You up for it?”

  Before I could respond, she had her hand on my cock and her mouth on mine.

  I wanted sex. Looked like I was about to get it.

  Her tongue dueled with mine, demanding and taunting, as she unzipped me.

  I groaned when her hand wrapped around my cock and pulled me free. She squeezed and pulled, teasing me, before dropping to her knees.

  The moment her mouth closed around my cock, I closed my eyes, savoring the suction. Just the right amount. No teeth. A skillful gliding action of her mouth that milked me in wet velvet.

  She was right. She gave frigging great head.

  My balls tightened in anticipation but she was good at this, because she knew
the right moment to stop sucking, fish a foil packet out of her bra and roll a condom on me in the time it took for my lust-hazed brain to clear.

  “Very nice.” She licked her lips with a slow, deliberate sweep of her tongue, before pushing me backward so I was lying flat on my back on the tray of her Ute. “Bet you feel as good as you taste.”

  She hoisted up her black satin gown and straddled me, giving me a nice eyeful of Brazilian, which she proceeded to play with. Her finger circled her clit as she sank down on me with a moan that raised the hairs on my arms.

  There was something incredibly sexy about an uninhibited older woman bouncing up and down on the end of my cock, so into it that I was nothing but an adjunct to her pleasure.

  It didn’t take long for either of us. She brought herself to orgasm as she slammed down on me at a frantic pace, impaling herself so hard I saw stars when I came. Though that could’ve literally been the stars clustered in the clear outback sky framed behind her.

  “How old are you?” she said as she clambered off and headed around the side of the Ute to the cabin, giving me time to take care of the condom and zip up.

  “Twenty.”

  She glanced up from the side mirror where she was busy reapplying a vivid red lip-gloss. “That’s great. I’ve always wanted to fuck a guy half my age.”

  She beamed like I’d just presented her with the best gift ever, while my gut twisted. Guess I was as good at judging women’s ages as I was at making decisions about where my life was headed. Absolutely shithouse.

  Was this really what I wanted? Working my arse off cooking for a bunch of non-appreciative pricks for months on end, then spending my down time screwing old chicks?

  My life was officially down the crapper.

  “Thanks,” she said, patting my cheek. “I’m heading back to the ball. See you round.”