In Ruins Read Online Free PDF Page B

advantage of you while you’re fucked up.” He shifts uncomfortably on the bed. “As much as my dick might disagree with me.”
    I gasp a surprised laugh and he smiles at my amusement.
    “If you want me, Princess, you’re gonna have to admit it when you’re good and sober.” It’s a challenge, and I wonder if it’s one I’ll have the nerve to accept.
    But it’s clear tonight’s cause is a lost one. I’m drunk, and Tucker is my friend, and a good one, too. It seems my virginity is safe for at least one more night, and I pout my disappointment.
    Tucker brushes a soft kiss to my forehead, and it does something to my heart. These tender touches are new for us, and I’m afraid they’re turning my crush into something more. Something decidedly dangerous.
    “I don’t want to go home,” I say meaningfully, and he knows me well enough to understand. He knows my house is almost always empty, especially on the weekends, when my mom likes to stay in Manhattan and my kid brother, at his best friend’s.
    “You can stay here, okay? But we can’t do anything.”
    It means the world to me that he’ll let me stay over now that he isn’t getting anything in return. Idly I wonder why it would even surprise me, but then I suppose that’s just what I’ve come to expect from guys.
    Thank you, Daddy, for the low expectations and abandonment issues.
    But, of course, Tucker isn’t just some guy who was hoping to get lucky tonight either. He’s one of my oldest friends, and my closest guy friend, and I feel a little guilty for momentarily forgetting that just because we almost hooked up.
    I avert my gaze in remorse, nodding my agreement to his terms. The kind of sleepover that does involve bunk beds after all.
    Tucker gets up and retrieves a Port Woodmere Varsity Lacrosse T-shirt and a pair of boxers from his dresser and tosses them to me. “Get changed, okay? I’m gonna grab a quick shower. I’ll be right back.”
    But his shower isn’t all that quick, and I suspect I may be the only one going to sleep frustrated.
    I’m already in his T-shirt and underwear, curled under his duvet, when he emerges from his en suite bathroom, shirtless and in a pair of flannel pajama pants. He pauses at the foot of the bed and looks between me and the top bunk.
    Friends can cuddle, right?
    I flip open the duvet in invitation. Tucker only hesitates a fraction of a second before climbing in behind me, and I snuggle back against him. I sigh with contentment as his arms fold around me, feeling unfathomably comforted and protected as I let my eyes fall closed.
    “’Night, Princess,” he murmurs hoarsely, pressing a chaste kiss to my hair. But I’m already half in another world, the alcohol and my exhaustion, and Tucker’s intoxicating proximity, guiding me into the most peaceful sleep I can remember.

Chapter Three
Carleigh
    Eleventh Grade
    I wake with a start, my erotic dream so real that for a second I still think I’m in Tucker’s bedroom. And then my eyes focus, and I realize that I am in Tucker’s bedroom, and I’m not alone. I blink into bright green eyes, already awake and watching me shamelessly. We’re facing each other on our sides, and belatedly I register how close we are, the hard planes of his body pressed right up against my soft curves, my leg curled around his thigh. The hunger I felt in my dream re-materializes with a vengeance, all too real.
    “Hi,” I breathe, and Tucker smiles. It isn’t his smirk, but that new, sweet smile I had barely a glimpse of last night.
    Last night.
    The memory comes rushing back and my breath hitches.
    I almost slept with Tucker Green!
    And then I chew on my lip, realizing that, more than anything, I’m disappointed that we didn’t .
    I feel the evidence of his arousal between us, and I wonder if it’s for me, or if he always wakes up this way. I wonder vaguely if I should untangle myself from him, but the simple fact of it is—I don’t want to.
    “I keep trying to think of