Page 24 of No Place Like Home

“What?” She smiled at me, then pointed to her ear. “I can’t hear you.”

Funny, I heard her just fine. Still, I gave her what she wanted.

Leaning down, I swiped the hair off her shoulder so my lips could graze the shell of her ear. “You wanna get out of here?”

She bit her lip, looked me up and down, and nodded.

It was always that fucking easy.

On the way back to my place, I found out her name was Lauren. She ran a fitness fashion blog. It didn’t take an expert to know she’d had work done on her beautiful body. I didn’t care – a woman’s choice was her own – but when you didn’t disclose that information to your followers, it conveyed the wrong idea.

She was a football fan, or at least my fan, since she only seemed to have memorized my stats straight out of Wikipedia.

“We’re here,” I announced once I parked my car.

I watched the way Lauren greedily took in my house. The best money could buy.

I got out and waited for her to do the same, but before she climbed out, she bent to pick up the package I had thrown by her feet.

“You forgot this.”

“Thanks.” I held my hand out to grab it.

“What is it?” Lauren asked.

I took the package with one hand while I put in my pin code to unlock the door with the other. As soon as we walked in, my motion detector lights turned on.

“It’s just some merch from my line.”

Lauren followed me back to the kitchen counter, where I removed all the paper stuffing the company had put in the package. The piece was tiny. I thought it would fit her fine.

“That’s gorgeous. Is that for the next release? I would love one of these.”

Lauren went to touch the clothes, but I pulled them away. It somehow felt wrong for her to have her hands all over it.

She seemed to get the memo and gave me a tense smile. “The dandelions are pretty.”

“Yeah,” I agreed.

Jess was right; the holographic black was badass.

“What can I do to get my hands on one of these?” Lauren eyed the sweatshirt greedily.

“Sorry, babe. This is one of a kind…but If you want, I have a sweater that isn’t supposed to come out ‘til next fall.”

Lauren smiled at me before she let me do other things to her delectable body.

The prototype was forgotten on the kitchen floor.

CHAPTERSEVEN

25 years old

My nap endedwhen I heard the door slamming shut. Ugh, it was game day today. Usually, I didn’t mind game day since I never watched, but Emma had asked me if I could cover the coffee shop so she, Freya, Juliet, and Jana could all watch the game at Freya’s house. It was hard to say no.

I was glad to get out of the house, since Blake had invited people over to watch. Sunny Pines was small, so most of Blake’s friends were people who went to school with us. I grabbed a pair of skinny black jeans, a black t-shirt, and my Converse. Nothing fancy.

The weather wasn’t too cold, but a little chilly. My eyes found that black package in the back. When the box arrived with my name, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The first thing I did was Google the price of the hoodie. There was no way I wasn’t paying Q back. Imagine my surprise when I couldn’t find my design.

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