Save Me by Laura L. Cline Read Free Book Online Page A

and stare at the dark wall.
    God, what a screwed up night. I completely ended things with Nick, pressed my body against a perfect stranger and he kissed my hand. Three simple things that when put together, meant a big change deep inside of me. In the darkness, I run my fingers over the skin on the back of my hand. His kiss still lingers there, burned in my skin. I've been branded by him with only a kiss.
    I toss and turn, the replay of the dance keeps playing in my head. I wish I would've said something, anything when he told me I'd struck something in him. It had been exactly like that; like a giant gong rang out in the center of me.
    My bed is part of this conspiracy to deprive me of sleep and I just can't get comfortable. My phone lights up on the nightstand.
    Where are you? Are you home?
    I have no desire to talk to Nick, so I ignore it and try to fall asleep, but my phone dings again almost instantly.
    Did you go home with that big fucker?
    I put it back on the nightstand, determined to ignore him. Ding, ding.
    Fucking answer me, Carly.
    I sigh out of frustration and furiously type at him.
    Yes, I came home with him and I'm trying to suck his dick, so leave me alone.
    There. That should shut him the fuck up. He always tried to get me to give him head, but I almost always refused. For some reason, giving Nick that pleasure made me feel more used than anything else we did. I lie there waiting for the phone to light up again, but it doesn't. I finally fall asleep, images of deep, dark eyes and the sensation of strong, capable hands come to me and I sleep fitfully.
    §
    Allie manages a hangover as well as she does the liquor that gets her there, so she's whiney and irritable the next morning.
    "God, my head. I swear I didn't drink that much, Carls." Her blonde hair is smooshed against her head and lines crisscross her face from the pillowcase she slept on. She looks like complete and total hell.
    "Well, you certainly threw up enough," I say, pouring her a big mug of black coffee.
    "I think he slipped me something," Allie says. "I feel like I felt the other time I was roofied."
    Allie got drunk at a frat party last year and ended up being saved by her old roommate before anyone decided to make her their penis pincushion. She was sick for two days afterward.
    "I keep telling you to be more careful. I'm sorry I wasn't watching out for you better than I did." I slide the mug of coffee across the counter to her.
    "You were busy," Allie says, her eyes finally opening for longer than a second. She leans her head on one hand and takes a drink of the coffee.
    "No excuse," I say. "I got the short straw and I should've taken better care of you."
    "Fucking stop," she says. "You did take care of me and you got me home with my ass intact, so I forgive you." She drinks another long drink from the mug and grimaces. “And I feel like shit for cock-blocking you.”
    "Doesn't matter much anyway," I say. "It was all for nothing. Jack didn't ask for my number."
    There, it's out. That’s what really kept me up half the night. If he was as interested in me as it seemed, why didn't he ask me out? He followed me to the club, forced me to become interested in him, but flaked out at the last minute. Even if he did flake out like a gentleman.
    "Maybe he'll come by the bar again," Allie says, her voice is scratchy and heavy. "He was clearly into you, from what I can remember. You can always look him up on Facebook."
    He was into me; that much I know with absolute certainty, but just how deep that interest goes is another matter. "I don’t even know his last name," I say pointedly.
    “ Nick texted me last night,” I say. “He asked if I went home with ‘that big fucker'.”
    “ What’d you say?”
    “ I told him I was giving Jack a blowjob and needed him to leave me alone.”
    Allie’s face perks up and for a second, she’s almost totally alert. “You did not say that.”
    I can help but grin. “Yes, I did.”
    Allie and I snicker over