Wild Forces: A Friends to Lovers Romance (O-Town Book 2) by Karen Renee (summer reads .TXT) 📕

I moved to my room but stopped at the doorway. “Only for tonight, Gabe. I mean it.”

Gabe

THE BRIGHT SUNLIGHT woke me. My neck ached. I shifted on the couch and saw Cecilia reading a piece of paper.

“What are you doin’?”

“I’m reading the note Cassandra left.”

“Note?”

She nodded. “Says, ‘Thank you for letting me stay here last night. It was very nice of you, but I’ll stay somewhere else tonight. Don’t fight me on it.’”

Dammit. I hadn’t expected her to sneak out. I flung the blanket off my body and stalked to Cecilia.

“What the hell? Why would she do that?”

My brother came out of his room. “Don’t be a dumbass. She’s into you.”

“Nah. We’re friends.”

Cecilia’s chin dipped as though she agreed with me, but her tone said otherwise. “Just because you’re friends doesn’t mean she isn’t attracted to you. I mean, if Brock and I weren’t serious and I had to sleep in his bed while he slept on the couch... That would be cruel punishment.”

My gut began to burn because it made sense. She opened up to me about everything when I asked about her attack, but when I insisted she stay here she argued. Vehemently.

“Especially since he slept with her roommate night before last,” Brock said.

She gasped staring at Brock. “What?” Then she looked to me. “No wonder she looked like she’d rather walk into I-4 traffic than go to your bedroom. And do not bring her to the dinner with your mother! It’s a damn good thing you didn’t go into the military like your brothers. You’d have been recruited by the NSA as a leader in torture or something.”

“Brock hasn’t even decided if the dinner with our mother is happening. And seriously, the NSA? Quit being so dramatic.”

I grabbed my pillow and went to my bedroom.

Throwing the sheet over my shoulder, I caught a whiff of Cassandra’s perfume. My eyes opened as I thought about her, but then I shoved those thoughts aside.

I had no problem falling asleep. But when I woke up, my morning wood was the hardest I’d ever had. My dreams of Cassandra had nothing to do with that, not at all. That’s what I told myself, anyway.

“YOU NEED TO GET YOUR shit together. Pronto,” Dad said in my ear.

It wasn’t the first time I’d heard that, and it likely wouldn’t be the last because I still didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life.

“I know, Dad. Believe it or not, I’m gettin’ sick of this school shit.”

“I’d say that’s good, but only if it means you get the lead out and finish.”

“I hear you,” I muttered.

“Well, since you’re hearing me, maybe you’ll also give your mother a fair shake. You haven’t been referring to her as your egg-donor of late, so I’m hoping that’s progress.”

I rolled my eyes. He was right, I had stopped calling her that in front of him or Brock, but I still thought of her that way.

“I’ll keep that in mind, Pop.”

“Good. And not to rub it in, but if you’d been more decisive about your major, you’d be graduating alongside your brother.”

“Yeah, well I don’t wanna make a bad decision now and have to come back in my thirties. Besides, then you’d be on the hook for double the graduation expenses.”

He chuckled. “Nice try, but I’m on the hook for caps and gowns regardless of when you two get those degrees.”

“Fair enough. Speaking of that, I better hit the books, Dad.”

“Figure it out, my boy. I love you.”

“Love you, Dad.”

TWO HOURS LATER, I had notes for an upcoming paper put together when my phone chimed with a text. The screen showed Cassandra’s name.

Hope you got my note. Staying with a friend tonight. Filing a restraining order, tomorrow. Have a good night.

My teeth clenched and I cracked my neck. I knew not to read into the brevity of the text, but I couldn’t help it. It felt like a pit in my belly because I could swear she was distancing herself from me. After my conversation with Dad, I wanted to call her. It might have been wishful thinking on my part, but I just knew she could get my head straight about what I really wanted to do in life.

Shit.

I caught sight of the time, and decided to break for dinner. Cooking gave me a release I couldn’t find anywhere else. Brock claimed it was because one of Dad’s serious girlfriends who loved to cook had taken me under her wing, but I barely remembered her. Seeing as she, too, ran off without saying goodbye, it wasn’t surprising I forgot about her. I didn’t forget about the pain though.

In the fridge, we had some chicken filet cutlets, and I decided to make mock-Thai peanut chicken. It was an off-the-wall recipe I came across on the Internet, but hell if it didn’t taste just like Thai peanut chicken. I pulled out an unopened jar of salsa and the jumbo-sized jar of peanut butter from the pantry. With oil in the pan, I set the chicken in to sauté, and got a pot of water boiling for the noodles.

Someone knocked at the door and my brows furrowed. Then I tamped down my hope it would be Cassie. That was not a good sign.

Through the peephole, I saw my brother’s buddy Clint Ramsey, and I opened the door.

“Yo. Come on in. I’m putting dinner together.”

“Where’s your brother? And is his woman here? I didn’t see her vehicle in the lot, but that doesn’t mean much in a complex this large.”

I shook my head. “Nope. I’m alone.”

“Shocking,” he deadpanned, closing the door.

“Fuck off, Ramsey.”

“Way your brother tells it, that’s your forte.”

I sighed and turned the chicken. “Not anymore,” I muttered.

Clint opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of Bud. “I heard you wrong.”

I shook my head. “No. Seems Brock and Vamp were right, but you tell them I said that I’ll deny it. You stickin’ around for grub?”

“Sure, why