Before Ryan Was Mine (The Remembrance Trilogy - Prequel) by Kahlen Aymes Read Free Book Online Page A

Thanks!”
    Nate left, and I turned back to the flask to check the progress of the experiment. Drip. Drip. Fucking drip.
    *****
    I rolled over in my bed, burying my face in the pillow, and threw an arm over my head. The sun was shining in through the window—the blinds were bent almost to the point of being destroyed. I’ll ask mom to get new ones over Thanksgiving , I thought. The morning sun leaked through into the room and landed right in my face. I groaned in protest. There were noises coming from Aaron’s room. The apartment we shared was in an old house, not far from campus.
    The night before, I’d come home from the lab to an empty apartment, grabbed a beer, turned on the TV, and ordered pizza. Granted, I was under age and shouldn’t have been drinking, but one of Aaron’s older frat brothers left them in our fridge, so whatever. I was bored, feeling agitated, and needed to take the edge off. I hoped one or two beers might make me sleepy.
    I’d gnawed on the pizza at the same time as watching the lame movie that was playing on HBO. Anxious irritation with myself for checking my phone every ten minutes, looking for a text from Julia nagged at me. It never came in, and the hours ticked by at a crawl. Three beers later, my eyes finally started to get heavy. I’d pushed up from the couch and somehow ended up sans clothes and flopped across my bed.
    The sound of a woman giggling nudged me awake. I raised my head so I could glance over my shoulder, my eyes opened to a squint. The giggle wasn’t one I recognized, so who in the hell was it? I tried to focus on the form in the doorway. Her hair was unnaturally red, to the point of being obnoxious, and she was wearing bright pink panties but nothing else.
    “Nice ass, Ryan. Maybe I was in bed with the wrong Matthews.”
    The door to my room was open, so apparently my ass was on display. I didn’t recognize the girl, and I reached down to pull the sheet over me. “What the hell? Do you mind?” My hand held the sheet together around my waist, and I pushed up off the bed to take three steps and yell down the hall at Aaron. “Yo! Dude! Can you keep your toys in your own room, please?”
    I frowned at the nameless girl who was looking me up and down and preening in front of me. She ran her fingers through one side of her long hair and made no move to cover her bare tits from my view. Her skin was ruddy and covered in freckles, and her nipples brownish. Instead of turning me on as she intended, it just pissed me off.
    “If you’ll excuse me,” I said. My free hand grabbed the edge of the door and I flung it shut with a slam. Seriously, it wasn’t like me to be so rude, but I was feeling pensive. If she didn’t have any fucking manners then I didn’t need them either.
    I fell back onto my bed and the springs squeaked. My parents’ idea of roughing it at college went a little far in my estimation. When my phone chimed a few seconds later, I rolled over to retrieve it off of the floor. Finally! A text from Julia.
    I just saw your text, sorry. I didn’t get home until after two. What’s going on tonight? Hot date?
    Damn the party tonight, and damn how shitty I felt having to tell her. I wasn’t sure why I felt like I wanted to lie and say it was some boys’ night out instead of what it really was. I closed my eyes briefly, considering what to say before opening them to type out my response.
    Not sure how hot it is, or even if it’s a date. I was invited to a sorority party.
    I crawled from the bed, buck-naked and walked into the bathroom, carrying my phone with me. The one saving grace of this shitty apartment was that each bedroom had its own bathroom, albeit a small one. I glanced in the mirror. I looked like hell. My hair was standing up all over my head and I had a thick growth of beard on my jaw. I scratched at it absently and glanced down at my silent phone. Shit! I reached in and turned on the shower, not bothering to adjust the temperature of the