Look at that, it's another release day. This is seriously going to be the busiest three weeks ever for me, lol. But I'm really excited to be part of this kickass anthology. FIFTY FIRST TIMES is a New Adult anthology about *drumroll*...first times. How's that for a high concept title? ; )
My story is one of the two male/male stories in the bunch but there is something in this collection for everyone. And we have some awesome, big time authors in it too. So go forth and buy. This is not the normal price and I have no idea how long the promotional price of 1.99 will run so get it now!
And if you want to read a sneak peek of my story "Two In the Morning", scroll down. Happy reading!
Copyrighted Material Roni Loren 2014 - All Rights Reserved Harper Collins Publishing Group
EXCERPT
There were three things I knew for sure as I lay in the dark of my cinder-block cell of a dorm room.
One: I shouldn’t be awake.
Two: I definitely should not be listening to my roommate round second base with Cami/Cassie/Chloe, or whatever her C-name was.
And, three: I should not be sporting the monster of all hard-ons from all those deep, growly sounds Malcolm kept making.
Goddammit.
I needed to turn over. I needed to face the window and my desk and the stack of physics textbooks instead of the wall with the closet and the narrow full length mirror that was giving me just enough view of movement to make me feel like some creeper. But I was afraid if I flipped over, I’d alert them that I was awake. I closed my eyes and tried to block it all out, but the girl’s muffled giggle and then kissing sounds made it hard to ignore.
My gaze flicked over to the mirror again, and there was a flash of Malcolm’s bare shoulders as he shifted what’s-her-name beneath him. It wasn’t an unfamiliar sight. Hell, I’d seen Malcolm in the locker room every damn day during soccer season in high school, but something about seeing him like this was altogether different. It made me want things I shouldn’t. It made me want to tell him.
Who was I kidding? It made me want him.
Screw it. I couldn’t keep watching. I needed to move. I rolled over, wishing I could fall into some portal that would take me anywhere but here in this moment. It wouldn’t hurt if the portal could also transform me into a guy who’d be turned on by C-girl’s sighing girly sounds instead of my best friend’s caveman ones. My pillow shifted with me as I rolled, and the corner caught the wire from my phone charger. Horror streaked through me as my phone launched off the crates I used as a bedside table. I grabbed for it, the scene morphing into slow motion, but my fingers only grazed the wire. The phone clattered onto the ugly linoleum floor, making a noise that sounded like a bomb going off in the muffled quiet of the room.
I froze, my lips clamped together to keep the string of colorful profanities from escaping. Please God, please God, please…
Whispered sounds, then Malcolm’s sleepy, lust-drunk southern accent drifting over from across the room. “You awake, Bates?”
That’s it, God, I’m going atheist.
I debated whether or not to open my mouth. What the hell was I supposed to say? Yeah, man, just hanging out over here listening to you get it on with your girl of the week. Soldier on. Don’t mind the tented sheets. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Fuck.
“Hmm?” I said, a lame attempt to sound like I was coming out of a deep sleep.
The girl let out a whispered ohmigod, and there was a hurried rustling of sheets or clothes. Her voice was urgent and low but I could hear everything. “Malcolm, where’s my bra? Find it. I don’t want him to see anything.”
Malcolm chuckled at her obvious panic. “Bates, if you’re really awake, close your eyes for a minute. Chrissy’s got to get herself together.”
Chrissy. That was it. I knew it was something like that, but Mal went through hook-ups so quickly I’d need a spreadsheet and a flow chart to keep them straight. And dear Chrissy had no need to freak out. As much as I wished it weren’t the case, I had about as much interest in seeing her naked as I did in seeing my seventy-year old astronomy professor do a striptease. I’d tried the boob thing in high school. Saw them. Touched them. Even tasted one. Well, two, I guess. It wasn’t something you could just do one of, apparently, but the whole experience had been clumsy and uncomfortable.
“Um, you don’t have to leave because of me,” I said into the dark. “I can, you know, go hang out in the lounge until y’all are, uh, done or whatever.”
Awkward, aisle one. But what else was I supposed to do? It was a high bullet point on the bro code that one should not cock-block a friend. I’d learned this freshman year from our dorm neighbors Howie and Jun. Apparently, Howie could never remember the sock tied around the doorknob signal and interrupted Jun and his girlfriend regularly.
“Dude, it’s two in the morning,” Malcolm said. “What the hell are you going to do in the lounge?”
Not listen to you. Not think about you in completely non-best friend ways. Not wonder what’s she’s doing to get you to make those sounds. “They have cable out there.”
“No, it’s okay,” Chrissy said. “I need to get out of here anyway. I’m leaving early to drive home for Thanksgiving break, so I better get some sleep.”
“Baby, you don’t have to go so soon,” Malcolm said in that voice that I was convinced channeled the Force because it was so damn effective. Chrissy could probably feel her underwear being tugged down by invisible hands.
“Aww, you’re sweet,” she said and the click of heels hit the linoleum as she apparently slipped on her shoes. “But I really shouldn’t have stayed this late anyway. Call me when you get back into town, okay?”
“Definitely,” Malcolm said, all Alabama charm and promises. But I knew definitely probably meant never. Mal was good at finding girls to make out with but rarely hung out with any of them more than once or twice. This was Chrissy’s second rotation, so her library card was about to expire.
There was a quick smooch sound, more clicking of heels, and then a shaft of light cut across the room as she opened the door to the hall. She gave a little finger wave to us both and then slipped out.
I blew out a breath, thankful that my body was finally calming down and cooperating, but still feeling like a dick for interrupting. “I’m sorry, man. I didn’t meant to—”
“Nah,” Malcolm said, cutting him off and flicking on his desk lamp. “I knew you were awake the whole time.”
“What?” I pushed up on my elbows.
He grinned, a flash of white teeth in the lamplight, as he climbed out of his bed. He grabbed a rubberband off his desk and tied his hair back, somehow making wavy shoulder-length hair look masculine. “Dude, you snore like a fucking lumberjack when you sleep, and you were quiet as a mouse tonight. Perv.”
My face went hot. “Y’all were noisy.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “I have that effect on women.”
I snorted. “If you knew I was up, why didn’t you say something sooner? You know I would’ve made myself scarce.”
He stretched his arms above his head, causing his pants to sink lower on his hips and his abs to flex in their full glory. God, did he have to preen? I was having a hard enough time focusing as it was. The talk I gave myself on a daily basis lately ran through my head on loop. He’s your best friend. He’s straight. He thinks you are, too. Ruin this and you have nothing.
