Prologue
It was no fucking secret that I didn’t handle my liquor well. Get me wasted and I would do shit like strip naked and start whipping my dick around like it’s those tassels strippers wear on their titties. No joke, man, it happened, for real. I was buck-ass naked, swinging my hips, my meat and potatoes on full display for a house full of college kids, both guys and girls, to see.
I even decorated myself with streamers. Who does that fucking shit? Me, drunk ass me, that’s who.
Now that shit fucking haunts me daily. A hashtag, #dicksaswinging is on every damn picture I’m in throughout every social media account. We did charitable events and they used that shit to bring in extra attention. I found dildos, tiny fake penises, and printed out pictures of cocks stuffed all over the place on most days. For my birthday, my brothers bought me a bag of dicks. Tiny ass dick candies that is, so what did I do? I sat down on the couch, turned on the ballgame, and ate every one of those little dicks by myself. I did not share.
These last few months had been a rough one on all of us. We lost a brother this year, hell, we almost lost two. Brent was killed unexpectedly in a motorcycle accident and in the aftermath, Corbin hit an ultimate low from the grief of not only being there when it happened but surviving when Brent didn’t. It ate him alive until Palmer refused to let him fade away. She was by far the best fucking thing that had ever happened to him.
I sat in the corner of the room, observing my brothers, each dancing and laughing with their girls and those single hoping to hook up. As I continued around the room, looking at each and every one of them, I took in those who didn’t belong to the fraternity.
We all needed this party, we needed a night to just let loose. It was the first since we lost Brent and his absence was felt. As I continued I saw a glimpse of red, then it was gone. Backtracking, I found it again and the gorgeous legs peeking out from beneath it too. Thin, tan, and fit, like those of a runner maybe. Continuing upward I took in the trim waist, the perfect tits, not too big but the perfect handful. The red dress hugged her perfect body and made my blood pump a little faster. Upward I went, my gaze connecting with a curious set of eyes.
She stared at me, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her either. Short brown hair, the perfect smile, though she was doing everything she could to fight it. She was losing fast.
Fuck. Why did I feel like taking in a breath was a struggle?
Pushing off the wall she was leaning on, she began walking toward me and my heart beat harder and faster.
“You’re Jay, right?” the brown-haired beauty asked when she’d finally reached me. Those fuck-me eyes she was giving me made me momentarily lose my mind. So I just nodded. Like a damn adolescent virgin boy, I nodded.
She smiled, leaned in a little closer, and shocked me to my fucking core. “My name is Ruby, and call me curious, but I was hoping you’d give me a private showing of your performance last year. Maybe without the streamers of course, I don’t really want anything to obstruct my view.”
She said this as she looked down at my cock, then to top it off she bit her lip and tilted her head just slightly. And again I was fucking speechless.
Maybe getting drunk on tequila and swinging my dick around at a party that over a hundred people were at wasn’t such a bad thing. Or was it?
Chapter One
Ruby
I hated being considered the good girl, it just meant when I did mess up, even in the smallest of ways, it was truly the end of the world. Or so my father would make it out to be. Straight A’s, high honors, when others were out with friends I was preparing for my next round of exams. There was never time to be a kid, never time to let go and just have fun.
Which also meant meeting guys was difficult. After all, who wanted to date the daughter of the Dean? I might as well have walked around with a bag over my head because no one ever looked my way. When they did it was only to whisper about how I was daddy’s little girl.
I hated it, truly I did.
I wanted to do something unexpected. Something that would make my father’s head spin. I wanted to feel alive, I wanted to break things and break rules. Kiss a random guy, steal something from a gas station. I wanted to feel the excitement and rush of the unacceptable.
“Daydreaming again?” I looked up from my laptop just as Darcy sat down across from me.
“What is it this time? A party you’ll never go to, a guy you’ll never talk to?”
She knew me too well. She was also the complete opposite of me.
Darcy was fearless. She never let the opinions of others keep her from doing something she wanted to. In fact it only managed to drive her further. She wanted to live. The difference is she did it, and not just thought about it.
It was always the same, the worry of what the consequences were after I’d decided to stop talking so much and start doing. The look I knew my father would give me, the disappointment in his eyes. After my mother passed more than twelve years ago, I was all he had left of her. He did his best, I know he did, but he overdid it. There was never any room left to breathe.
I needed to breathe.
“You don’t get it,” I mumbled, covering my face with my hand and trying to clear the urges from my mind.
“Believe me, I do get it.”
Lowering my hand, my stare landed on hers and a few silent seconds passed. I noticed the way she scanned the area around us. I assumed it was to ensure we were alone before she pressed on. “You’re twenty, almost twenty-one. You’re still innocent.” When she said the word innocent she widened her eyes as if it’s a terrible word. “’Your father is overbearing, and you deserve to have a life outside of him and his expectations. Living does not make you a bad person.”
“So I should sleep around and what?”
“You should get out and meet people. You are a ticking time bomb, and if you don’t spread your wings and soar you’re going to explode when you least expect it. You’re too sheltered, Ruby.” Crossing her arms over her chest, she leaned back in the chair. “Tell me I’m wrong.”
That was one thing I could not do, because she was exactly right.
“I think we need to make a bucket list.”
“A bucket list?”
“Yes.” Leaning forward, she rested her elbows on the table and lined me up perfectly in her sight. “All the things you want to do but have been too afraid to do them.”
“This is ridiculous.” I rolled my eyes, but truth be told I was a little curious.
“Ridiculous but effective.” Pulling my bag down, she reached inside and gathered a notebook and pen. “Let’s write them down. If at the end you still feel like it’s ridiculous, then I will let it be. You can continue living your perfect little life watching everyone else around you do the things you wish you had the balls to do.”
One more thing, Darcy had also perfected the snarky bitch role.
We’d both grown up right here in Gainesville, Florida, so there was no one who knew me better. I was surprised, to be honest, that she was still such a close friend. She had her own group of friends, her own life, yet she had never pushed me aside. No, I didn’t go to the same parties, hell, I didn’t go to any parties, but we hung out. We studied together, had coffee together, and talked almost daily. I lived vicariously through her wild times only wishing that one day I would have the guts to let go and be half as adventurous as she was.