This Strange Addiction by Julie Steimle (e book free reading .txt) 📕

His face seemed to fall even more, going white. “Is the engagement off?”

Audry looked back to him, shaken. Shivers went through her. “No. But… Hogan, when we marry we are giving our lives to each other. I can’t have any doubt about you.”

He leaned in and kissed her. It took her breath away.

“I have no doubts about you,” he whispered.

Audry kissed him back. She really did want him. He was whom she was looking for. But she still felt she had to be sure—because these days she was so close to just climbing into the backseat with him and sealing the deal. But she pulled away once more and opened the passenger side door. It was too soon. She had to be sure.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” And Audry turned, going back to the apartment. Looking up, Audry noticed Silvia peering down from the window. Her eyes shined with a smug smirk.

When she got up to her floor and went back in, Audry said to her, “Don’t get excited. The wedding is still on.”

Rolling her eyes, Silvia stalked back to her bedroom.

*

With the full moon over, Rick had come to the party with the intent to be a normal person for once. The frat house had opened it to friends, and to be honest, Rick felt compelled to get out of his dorm after returning from Glen State Park for his monthly hunt. The dorm room was full of strong smells, which collectively floated up from the stacks of condolence cards and random gifts from his secret admirer, permeating the room with an aroma that was driving him uncomfortably hormonal. They reminded him of Daisy.

Because of that scent, his dreams at night were getting intense again—Daisy-passion dreams, reliving that summer in Alabama. Daisy had started to creep back into his dreams since Audry got engaged. Before then, they had nearly been gone since the convention where Daisy and Audry had met and he had realized that Audry was the better person, though unattainable. Honestly, he had thought the banishment of Daisy-dreams was a sign of his recovery from his addiction to her. Audry had been the cure. But now, it was like Daisy was clawing her way back into his psyche, refusing to leave since Audry was no longer a faint option—as if that vegan had ever been one.

He was glad. He was glad for her. He kept telling himself he was glad for Audry. He should be. He could finally accept it and move on, he told himself. Her guy had given her the ring. They were setting a date. She had even gone back with him to his tent at the camp. Undoubtedly they had made love. He could hear it from the campground. The deal was sealed. And they had been seen walking together afterward, unashamed. It was legit. And once she married the guy, Audry would be freed from his crazy world.

The music at the party thumped like his heart beat. He tried to get into it. Rick let his eyes rest on all the beautiful, scantily dressed women around him, trying to act like he was part of the world. They were happy to see him there and greeted him with open arms and cheers. “Rick Deacon is here!” they said.

He tried to enjoy the drinks—though honestly getting drunk was never that enjoyable for him. He could not afford to lose control like most other people could. Would he stay human, or accidentally go wolf? Or would it inhibit his ability to change altogether? He hoped for the last one as he drank one drink after another. He got drunk enough to kiss a few girls, laugh at really dumb jokes, and jump to the beat of the songs.

And as the songs changed and couples paired off in the melee of the night beat, a lovely blonde approached him in the dark through the crowd and under the spinning lights, her dress hanging loosely about her by thin spaghetti straps, swaying her sumptuous curves as she moved to the song. She leaned up against him, rocking with him while smelling deliciously sweet even through his alcohol breath. Her long wavy hair obscured half her face until she brushed it aside.

His eyes lifted to her familiar face.

“Daisy?”

She smiled at him, pressing up against him as the music played. He could feel her heartbeat. She rubbed her hands through his hair and down his back, holding him close as if they had never been apart.

“Are you really here?” He murmured as her soft lips kissed him. She tasted divine. Exactly as he remembered.

But she said nothing, dancing against him, kissing him deeply with her soft lips and tongue. As he tasted her back, he put his hands on her, feeling to see if she was real. Every soft caress of her skin against him, the suppleness of her shoulders and breasts, she felt real. It couldn’t be a dream.

His head was swimming. He forgot why it was that he was avoiding Daisy MacTire. He knew he was. He knew he was supposed to. But with every kiss between them, with every touch and how his heart pulsed, he just could not recall why.

And as they danced across the floor, her leading him to the side of the room, they were soon making out against the wall.

Then the music changed.

She rocked into him with her hips, whispering. “I missed you.”

She was real. She was really there.

He stared at her, blinking, too drunk to really think. Something was telling him he should run. And something else clicked in his head. All those mysterious gifts—they had been from her. They had to have been. No wonder the room permeated with her odor. No wonder he was dreaming of her.

“Do you want to play?” she whispered, leaning her full body against his. Her cleavage pressed under his chin, reminding him of the past and all she had to offer.

Something in him wanted to pull back, but her scent drew him in. It always had. He was addicted to her aroma. She was his drug. One whiff of Daisy and all he wanted to do was make love to her, right there on the floor if he could. It was wrong, but the drive was nearly impossible to control.

“What are you doing here?” he asked between kisses. He couldn’t stop.

 Chuckling, she engaged each kiss with pleasure. She whispered with a breath, “To see you.”

Entranced, entrapped, Rick breathed hard, struggling to regain self-control. He knew where this led.

“I want you,” she whispered, her hot breath against his ear and down his neck, letting her scent encroach on all his senses. “Don’t you want me?”

He whimpered. “No…. Yes. Yes.” He desperately wanted her. But he also finally remembered why he shouldn’t. “No…” He had gotten her pregnant once. A repeat would be a bad idea. And the last time they had been together a year ago, he almost had—but his friends had been there to save him.

However, they stumbled together from the main room into the hallway. Then to a vacant room. She shut the door. Then she pulled him to the floor, and he obeyed.

“Come on, man, you can’t sleep here.” A guy nudged Rick with his foot.

 Groggily, Rick opened his eyes. He was lying on the bedroom floor on his back, feeling wiped out.

“I gotta go to bed. You’re in my room,” the frat boy said.

Sitting up, rubbing his head, Rick looked around.

No Daisy.

Had it been a dream?

His clothes were all mangled up. His shirt was all pulled out. His pants were loose, zipper open. His briefs felt uncomfortable.

“Dude, she bailed,” the guy said, snickering. “She got what she wanted and left.”

“She?” Rick rubbed his mussed up hair and pulled his loose pants up, hastily fastening it closed.

“Hot blonde,” the guy said. “Don’t you remember? You were all over her.”

Rick gripped his hair. Had Daisy really been there? Or was it just some other girl he had screwed up with? Mortified, quickly leaving the frat house to go home in the dark, Rick decided he was not going to come to any more of these parties. They were too dangerous.

When he got back to his dorm, he found a note tucked under the door. Crouching down, he picked it up and sniffed it, detecting a scent. He recognized it immediately. It smelled like Daisy. On the card was an address.

Chapter Twelve

Roses came flooding in through deliveries almost the moment Audry woke up. There were all kinds, mixed batches and long-stemmed bouquets. Sterling roses and white roses. Audry loved them all, and blushed as she realized Hogan was trying to recreate the scene from that old Christian Slater movie, Bed of Roses—only he wisely knew she did not prefer sterling roses over all the others.

After her sent her a hand-delivered love letter via courier, he also sent her a text, apologizing for not realizing that Charlene had never given up on trying to ruin life for everyone connected to him. He then suggested that perhaps they should hire Bobo to be her bodyguard, just in case. However, he did not come over.

Silvia smirked over that, though she was still wishing him long gone. “I should hunt this Charlene down and find out which story is true,” she said.

“You can’t even leave this apartment,” Audry retorted while peering over her wedding catalogue, circling the dress patterns she liked. After the delivery of all those flowers, she had finally chosen her wedding colors—peach and powder blue. “And I am not going to hunt her down. Charlene is scary. I’ve met her already.”

Huffing, Silvia folded her arms in a frown.

Two days later, Audry met Hogan for lunch. They talked, held hands, and reconciled. Hogan was sheepish and brokenhearted that he had inadvertently hurt her. He hadn’t wanted Audry to worry about Charlene stalking him—his reason for not mentioning Isis’s tweets or her doxing him. As for the rest, he stood by his story about how crazy Isis was. And it was easy to believe. Charlene was a nasty piece of work.

That afternoon they went apartment shopping together.

It would be temporary, he said, as a house was a huge expense and neither of them really could afford one yet. But he figured they could both afford a small one bedroom condo, maybe not as nice as the one she and Silvia were in, but one that was near a decent park and one which they could use as a home base between trips.

As they were looking at their fifth apartment, Audry got a call on her cell phone. It was Silvia.

<< Jessica is having her baby in the hospital right now! >>

“It’s early…” Audry murmured, stepping away from Hogan and the realtor.

“Who is it?” Hogan asked, leaned in to hear.

Audry held up a finger. “Silvia? What do you want me to do?”

<< I need you to drive us there. >>

Groaning, Audry said, “But I don’t have my car!”

<< Have Hogan drop you off at the police station. It will be there in the parking lot. Your cop friend Matthew just called after Daniel did. >>

“Daniel’s there?” Audry wondered why so many were calling Silvia about Jessica’s baby. Sure it was important to know,