LOGINChrisHaving a secret crush on Zuri for years is devastating enough. Now I’m standing here like a moron watching her mouth still swollen from my brother’s.“When did you two…?” My voice didn’t sound like mine.“There’s nothing between us.” Ethan cut me off before I even finished the question. “Nothing at all.”“I kissed him because I wanted to,” Zuri said, cutting in before either of us could say anything else. Her chin lifted, daring me to argue. “Why do you look so mad?”Because I’ve wanted to kiss those lips for two years and my brother just did it without even trying.I couldn’t say that. Not to her. Maybe not ever.I knew my brother. I’d watched him charm his way through half the girls on this campus, tell them exactly what they wanted to hear, and forget their names by morning. That was just Ethan. Easy come, easy go, no harm done because nobody expected anything different from him.But Zuri wasn’t supposed to be one of those girls.She was the girl I’d known since we we
ZuriThe pond was still, green, and hidden well enough that you could almost forget the rest of campus existed.The boys found it by accident during their first semester, after wandering down a trail that, according to them, didn’t appear on any campus map. When I got admitted, one of the first places they brought me was here.It was peaceful. Beautiful. Tucked away from the noise and chaos of campus.Out here, it was just us.No girls hovering around them. No one stealing their attention. No interruptions.Out here, I felt like I was their whole world again. The only woman they saw. The only one who mattered.Ever since then, we’d come back every Friday, as if it were a standing appointment none of us ever had to mention.I sat on the flat rock near the bank while the boys talked about their parents anniversary.“Mum already called twice this morning,” Ethan said, pulling his shirt over his head. “She wants to know if we’re bringing anyone.”“Tell her no,” Audric said.“Sh
Zuri‘You’re acting as if you’ve never seen a dick before.’Chris’s words played in my head on a loop.I shook my head, trying to pull myself out of my reverie and focus on the lecture, but it was impossible.Every time I thought I’d finally stopped thinking about him, his voice crept back into my mind.I hated my life right then.Professor Aldain was forty minutes into his lecture and I had written exactly one line of notes.It wasn’t even a good line.My pen was moving but my brain wasn’t in the room. It was back in that locker room, replaying what I walked into, and more specifically that huge cock hanging between his legs, and I needed to stop thinking about it immediately because I was in public.I pressed my thighs together under the desk and stared at the board.The thing is, I had seen Chris without a shirt a hundred times. At the beach, at practice, after games. I knew he was built. I knew all three of them were. You don’t grow up around hockey players and miss tha
ZuriI was halfway to my 9 AM when I noticed the crowd gathered around the bulletin board outside the student union.A poster, fresh and glossy, pinned dead center: STAR QUEEN TRYOUTS — SIGN UP NOW.“Who do you think it’s gonna be this year?” someone in the crowd asked.“Obviously Octavia.” A girl rolled her eyes like the question was an insult. “She’s been Queen two years running. She’s brought the Star title home twice. Nobody’s touching that.”I stopped walking.I don’t know what made me stop. Maybe it was the way everyone said obviously like the outcome had been decided before the tryout sheet even existed. Maybe it was something smaller and stupider — the thought that flickered through my head before I could shut it down. What if it were me? What if I were the one people said obviously about?Maybe this was my chance to finally become popular, to stop being the invisible girl people only noticed when she was standing beside the campus’s hottest three.I’d watched Star Que
BOOK TWO: TITLE: THREE HOCKEY PLAYERS AND THEIR CHUBBY OBSESSION. *** Zuri I woke up to sunlight pouring directly onto my face and a level of dread that took a full three seconds to locate. I grabbed my phone off the nightstand. 7:14 AM. “No. No no no no no.” My alarm sat there, smug and useless, disabled. I had no memory of touching it. I’d gone to bed at midnight after triple checking it was set for 5:30. I’d even said the time out loud to myself like an idiot, like saying it twice would lock it in. Audric was going to kill me. Or worse, he wasn’t going to say anything at all and just look at me with that flat, disappointed expression he saved for people who wasted his time. I threw the covers back and was in the shower in under a minute, barely letting the water warm up before I was out, towel-drying my hair while hopping into the first dress within reach. Something loose. Something with enough fabric to disguise the parts of me I’d spent nineteen years
RheaThe fire was lit by the time the sun went down.Someone had found speakers and the music was exactly right, not too loud, just present enough to move to if you wanted and ignore if you didn’t. The food had come out and the wine was open and the beach had transformed from a ceremony into something looser and warmer and full of people who genuinely liked each other.Owen had appointed himself in charge of the fire and was taking this responsibility very seriously. Felix stood beside him offering advice that was being cheerfully ignored.Nick sat with Elora in two low chairs close to the water, their feet in the sand, talking the way people talked when they had known each other long enough to be comfortable with silence. He caught my eye across the fire and raised his glass slightly and I raised mine back.Elowen had Zuri on her hip, dancing slowly to something, Zuri’s head on her shoulder, her enormous skirt dragging in the sand. The fight to stay awake was clearly being lost but Zu
RHEAI almost died today.A stupid virgin who’d never broadened her horizons. Who’d never tasted anything real or dangerous or worth remembering.The thought had been circling my mind since the hospital, growing teeth with every pass. Life was fragile. Breakable. And I’d been wasting mine playing i
RHEAThe leather seat was cold against my bare thighs. I’d barely managed to pull my clothes back on, fingers fumbling with buttons and zippers that suddenly seemed impossibly complicated. My shirt was inside out. I didn’t have the energy to fix it.Brandon drove in silence, his hands steady on the
Jackson “See?” Camilla leaned back in her chair, triumphant. “No conspiracy. No blackmail. Just a girl who wants to be popular. Nothing wrong with that.”Nick frowned, looking down at Rhea. “You didn’t tell me about a party.”“It’s not a big deal,” Rhea said quickly. “I wasn’t sure I was even goin
RheaElowen’s voice cut through the moment. “So you’re the boyfriend.”Everyone looked at her. She pushed off the island, examining Nick with open curiosity.“I have to say, I’m impressed.” She took another bite of her apple. “Didn’t picture Rhea with someone so… put together. Stylish. Good-looking







