Waiting to Fall: Book Two of the Waiting Duet Read online

  WAITING TO FALL

  Copyright © 2017 by Alyson Reynolds.

  All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations em- bodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  For information contact :

  www.authoralysonreynolds.com

  Book and Cover design by Alyson Reynolds

  Edited by Cat Parisi

  ISBN: 123456789

  First Edition: May 2017

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Dedication

  To my own brooding Finn

  Thank you for loving me like you do.

  I groaned as I opened my eyes to the bright sunlight filtering into my room. The first thing that caught my eye was the bright red piece of fabric balled up on my floor. One second later the door to my room opened and Cora walked in wearing one of my t-shirts. There definitely wasn’t anything else under the thin white fabric.

  Holy fuck.

  What in the hell happened last night? I tried to remember, but all I could recall was a fuzzy memory of the bottle of tequila that we had been passing back and forth between us and a misbegotten attempt at drinking games.

  Cora stretched and the hem of the t-shirt went to a very interesting height. My cock twitched underneath the sheet. He was definitely interested in whatever she had going on under there. I groaned again as she lifted the shirt over her head and threw it down next to the dress in question. Her perfect breasts would forever be imprinted into my memory.

  She smirked at me as she pulled the tight dress down her amazing body.

  “Glad to see you survived tequila-gate 2016.”

  I rubbed my hand down my face. “What the fuck did we do last night?”

  Her golden brown eyes flashed with humor.

  “Exactly what you think.”

  “I realized that much smart ass. The last thing I remember was playing never have I ever.”

  “Then there was truth or dare. One of your genius frat brothers thought it might be fun to dare you to kiss me. Needless to say, you took him up on it.”

  “Fuck, I’m so sor—“

  “Don’t you dare say sorry, Finn Crawford. The asshole was baiting you and you were drunk enough to fall for it.” She shrugged. “So was I apparently.”

  “I didn’t stop it though. Hell, I started it.” I vaguely remembered lunging for her and pressing my lips against hers, teasing the seam of her lips with my tongue, coaxing her to open her mouth to mine.

  “Neither of us stopped it,” she said, pulling one shoe from under the bed. “It doesn’t bother me, does it you?”

  I didn’t even have to consider. In fact, I hoped she didn’t find out just how little it actually bothered me. For years I wondered what she would feel like pressed against me. Last New Year’s Eve I had finally been able to sample what she had to offer, but I’d wanted so much more.

  “Not at all. I just don’t think it would be a good idea for us to tell Liv, for obvious reasons, but I’m definitely not upset that it happened.”

  I considered helping her look for her other shoe, but I enjoyed watching her in that dress. It rode up her hips, higher and higher with every movement. She crawled across the floor when she spotted it, and I had to hold back another groan. Between the sway of her ass and watching the dress go to scandalizing heights, I was a dead man walking. My cock was rock hard and ready to go again.

  “Sounds like a deal to me. And we probably shouldn’t do this again.”

  “You don’t want a reminder of how great it was?” I asked, grinning wickedly. She rolled her eyes at me as she reached to pick up her black lacy thong off the floor. A memory flashing in my head of peeling that thing off her with my teeth.

  It had been a really good night.

  “You are such a cocky prick.”

  “I’ll show you a cocky prick if you want.” I started to lift the covers and she yelped and covered her eyes.

  “Finn!” I chuckled as she peaked at me through her fingers. “You’re awful.”

  “I know, but you still love me.”

  She grabbed her purse off the floor. I put my hands behind my head and leaned back into my pillow, admiring the view of her ass again as she leaned down. It was too bad I didn’t remember much from last night, only bits and pieces. Hopefully more would come back to me because I wanted to remember. Cora shouldn’t have been a drunken hookup.

  “Quit staring at my ass, Finn.” She sighed. “I’d call you a dick, but then you would just try to show me yours again.”

  “That would be correct, Princess.”

  She leaned down over me and I rested my hands on her hips. A lazy grin covered my face as her gaze caught mine. I put one hand at the back of her neck to pull her down so I could kiss her goodbye and the spark in that kiss shook me to my fucking core. My fingers threaded through her hair as I pressed my mouth to hers. As soon as her lips parted, I slipped my tongue inside, morning breath be damned. A small whimper slipped from her throat, breaking the spell. She pulled back reluctantly. We were both breathless and completely shell shocked at what had just happened.

  “One for the road,” she whispered.

  I nodded and cleared my throat.

  “I’m glad that we will both have that to remember at least.”

  “Yeah,” she said quietly. Her gaze never broke from mine. She pulled back and some insane part of me missed her already. “I’ll see you later, Finn.”

  She was out the door as soon as the words left her mouth. I laughed as she snorted back a laugh at the stupid sign on the bookshelf next to my door that said Save a Horse, Ride a Frat Boy. A few years back my big brother got it for me. I thought it was funny so I kept it. As many times as she had been in my room, today was the day she finally noticed it. The door clicked shut behind her and I closed my eyes, throwing an arm over my face.

  I was completely fucked.

  What. The. Actual. Fuck.

  What had I just done?

  Seriously, I could kick myself. I just slept with one of my best friends in the world. My best friend’s twin brother. The same guy that I’ve known forever. The same guy that is hot enough to be an Abercrombie model, but still smart enough to apply to law school. He wasn’t, but he had the grades to go if he ever decided he wanted to.

  Just. Fuck.

  I did the walk of shame through the frat house, luckily not many of the guys were awake yet, and I was able to avoid them. It wasn’t unheard of for me to stay the night with Finn, but I felt like something in my eyes would give away the fact that we’d had amazing sex. My wrinkled red dress looked a lot better on Finn’s floor than it did on me this morning. Hopefully my judgy roommate would be out getting breakfast or something. She’d said she wasn’t going home for the weekend, so just my luck she would be there waiting to witness my humiliation of walking in looking like a two-bit hooker.

  The walk through campus was quiet. It gave me time to think, which wasn’t necessarily a good thing at this point. I opened the door to my dorm room quietly, hoping if she was here that at least she might be asleep.

  No such luck. Damn. She looked at me with her knowing brown eyes and smirked as I walked into our room. This really wasn’t my morning.

  “I guess I know what you were up to last night,” she joked.

&nbs
p; “Hey Hannah.”

  I managed not to roll my eyes.

  “So did you have fun?”

  I shrugged. I really didn’t want to get into my slightly panic-inducing morning with her.

  “Did you stay over at the frat house?”

  What was with all the damn questions?

  “Yeah, I went and hung out with a few people, mainly Finn and a few of his brothers.”

  To her credit, she didn’t make a snarky comment or make a face telling me she knew exactly what dirty things I’d been doing last night. My scalp still hurt a little from where Finn had pulled my hair at some point last night. It took all my self-control not to rub it.

  “I guess I’ll go to the library so you can sleep,” Hannah said, gathering up her books.

  “Class just started on Thursday. Do you already have homework?” I asked, frowning.

  “No, but I want to get out of here for a while. The walls are starting to close in on me.”

  Hannah was a quiet girl. She didn’t cause waves and so far she had tried to be a considerate roommate. My guilty conscious was getting the best of me. I’m the most self-centered bitch ever. This girl was probably lonely, and I’m not spending any time with her. With this being her first year at SCU, I doubted that she knew many people. I was being hateful and standoffish when she probably just wanted someone to talk to.

  “I’m going to have brunch with my friend Olivia in half an hour. Do you want to come with us?”

  Her face lit up like a freaking Christmas tree. “Are you sure it won’t bug you if I come?”

  If possible, I felt even worse.

  “Not at all. I’m sorry I didn’t invite you sooner. Give me a few minutes to shower and get changed and we’ll go.”

  ____

  Hannah had never been to the Redfern café so Olivia and I were going to show her a piece of SCU history. We’d spent lots of hours hanging out in the cozy space. They also had the best coconut cream pie in the history of the universe, so of course I was a happy camper. Olivia was addicted to their coffee, which made it the perfect place for us to go, especially after a night like last night.

  Liv smiled as we walked up. If she was surprised that I brought Hannah with me, she didn’t let on.

  “If I don’t get coffee soon I might die.”

  I dramatically flopped into the booth and the girls laughed.

  “Okay Susan Lucci, we’ll get you some caffeine,” Olivia said.

  Hannah laughed and I winked at her. She was always so quiet, except when she was asking me all those questions this morning. Maybe she wasn’t judging me; maybe she just wanted to reach out but didn’t know how. I’d definitely been failing at that since becoming her roommate.

  The waitress took our order and lucky for me, I had coffee in front of me within a few minutes. Thank goodness because I needed to get rid of the hangover that was plaguing me. Tequila and I wouldn’t be friends for a long time.

  “So Hannah, you’re new at SCU this year, right?” Olivia asked.

  She nodded. “I just transferred in this semester. I was going to school in Raleigh, but I wanted something…different.”

  “What’s your major?” Olivia asked as she dumped a tub of creamer into her coffee.

  “Business or Education, I haven’t narrowed it down, but I think I might like PR. I’m being indecisive right now, but I’m only a sophomore, so I still have one more semester of prerequisites to figure it out.”

  “You should talk to my brother. He’s an early education major, so he might be able to help you decide,” Olivia offered.

  For some reason I didn’t like that suggestion. What the hell? But why would I object to my roommate talking to Finn? Hell, even I didn’t know the reasoning. I changed the subject quickly, hopefully without making anyone suspicious. I wasn’t ready to deal with anything Finn related this morning.

  The waitress brought our plates and set them down in front of us. I smiled gratefully and stopped myself from inhaling my French toast before it even touched the table.

  “Olivia just moved in with her boyfriend this year, that’s how you ended up with yours truly as your roommate. She abandoned me.”

  Liv grinned. “Don’t expect me to feel guilty. I love living with Nate. Plus you griped about walking in on us.”

  “Believe me, I’m just happy I don’t have to avoid you two doing dirty things in our dorm room anymore. Or on my bed.”

  I shivered dramatically and she threw a sugar packet at me, causing Hannah to laugh.

  “There’s plenty of that going on in our bedroom at home. Plus now we don’t have to try to be quiet.”

  She had a cat that ate the canary look on her face. I pretended to gag.

  “Have you two known each other for a long time?” Hannah asked.

  I looked at my best friend and smiled.

  “Forever. We grew up together.”

  “That’s awesome. I really miss my friends from back home, but I wasn’t even close to them when I lived in Raleigh, so it wasn’t much different than it is now.”

  “It’s pretty awesome that she’s never driven me crazy enough to dump her ass,” Olivia said, smiling. “You’ll just have to hang out with us now. I’m not going to lie, we’re pretty awesome.”

  “I should have dumped both of your asses years ago. I’m the awesome one.” The familiar husky voice had the hair on the back of my neck standing on end. Finn sat down in the booth next to me, pressing his leg against mine as he sat. He stole a piece of fruit off my plate and I smacked at his hand.

  “Don’t eat all my food. If you start that I won’t have anything left for breakfast.”

  He smirked and reached for my fork.

  “Seriously, you two bicker like an old married couple,” Liv snorted. I choked on my own spit and Finn smacked my back.

  “Is it that bad being tied down to me?” he asked, with an infuriating smirk on his sexy as hell face. His crystalline blue eyes sparkled with humor as he stared at me expectantly.

  “Don’t be a dick, Finn.”

  “I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, if you want to see it, all you have to do is ask.”

  I shook my head and tried not to think about what I had seen an hour earlier.

  “Why are you even here?” I asked. “Not that I don’t love you stealing my food and trying to offer sexual favors.”

  “Happy circumstance. Or maybe I’m just stalking you.”

  Olivia cut in before I could make some other sarcastic remark. “He’s meeting Nate and they’re going surfing. Not that I would put it past him to stalk you.”

  Finn’s finger brushed along the seam of my shorts hidden under the table and I tried to subtly brush him away. I kept my eyes from going wide in shock at the touch. He had that fucking smirk curling the edge of his lip up, like he was enjoying the fact that I couldn’t make a face or say anything.

  “Hannah, this is my annoying brother, Finn. He enjoys surfing and pissing off Cora.”

  “You’re Cora’s new roommate, right?”

  Hannah smiled and nodded, a slight pink tinge appearing on her cheeks. Apparently she’s super shy with everyone, not just me. Her eyes trailed the table to where Finn was trying to do incredibly dirty, delicious things to me under the table. I swear she could tell what was going on.

  Nate walked up and placed a kiss on Olivia’s head. Everyone turned towards him, giving me the chance to pinch Finn’s inner thigh. He winced, but pulled his hand back into safer territory.

  “I’m going to kick your ass,” I whispered in his ear as Olivia introduced Hannah to Nate. His grin deepened and I could have smacked him. Infuriating jerk.

  “Ready?” Nate asked Finn.

  “Yep.” He grabbed another grape off my plate and I sighed. “Bye Princess.”

  I stuck my tongue out at him. He laughed as they left. Hannah sighed and I turned back towards her.

  “How long have you and Finn been dating?”

  Olivia cracked up. My eyes m
ust have been the size of saucers.

  “What!?” I screeched.

  “Sorry, I just assumed,” she stammered.

  “It’s fine, but we aren’t dating. Definitely not dating. I’ve known Finn as long as I’ve known Olivia. They don’t look like it, but they’re twins.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep,” she confirmed. “Our eyes are the only thing that is remotely the same about us.”

  “Huh,” Hannah said, as she took in Liv’s long brown hair, blue eyes and slight frame. Finn was a big guy, a bulky six foot two, barrel chest, and he had light brown, almost blonde hair that he liked to keep short on the sides and longer on top. If he let it grow any longer he was going to reach the man bun stage, which of course I would mock him relentlessly for. He was the exact opposite of the wholesome looking girl next to her. Liv and I laughed harder and eventually Hannah joined in.

  “Finn is one of my best friends in the world, but nothing more.”

  I had to fight to keep a straight face on that one. Now wasn’t the time to attempt to recall every detail from last night.

  “Well, if you guys did decide to date, I think you would make an adorable couple, for the record.”

  “That won’t happen. My brother is a manwhore. He’ll always take care of Cora, but he enjoys one night stands and being irresponsible,” Liv said between bites of pancake.

  She didn’t mean anything by it, but it still stung. Olivia was right though, Finn wasn’t the kind of guy to want a relationship. He hadn’t had a serious girlfriend for at least a few years. But I wasn’t the kind of girl to want a serious relationship either. That ship sailed a long time ago. Just the thought gave me chills. I liked the status quo right now, drinking every weekend and finding a guy that knew the deal. I needed to get my head on straight, starting with forgetting anything ever happened between me and Finn.

  After the third time I was dumped off my board for a stupid mistake, I decided I was done surfing for the day. Cursing the entire way up the beach, I threw down my board, flopped down in the sand and stared out at the horizon. Ten minutes later Nate sat down next to me. He dug his hands into the cool damp sand.