Experiment

  EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2017 Sam Crescent

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-172-4

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  EXPERIMENT

  Sam Crescent

  Copyright © 2017

  Chapter One

  Nathan—or Nate to his friends—Bridges stared down the long corridor, waiting for her. Biting his lip, he said his hellos to his friends, and those who were in his circle, but he was more interested in seeing when Shawna Prescott would arrive. Her locker was across the hall, and from where he was standing at six feet away he could see it clearly.

  “What the fuck are you looking at?” Buster, one of his friends, asked.

  “Nothing. Just checking out the hall, you know. Seeing who’s around and shit.” He put his books back into his locker, while taking another glance down the hall. Where the fuck was she?

  “You know, Amanda has been nagging all fucking weekend. She wanted to know what the fuck you were doing, and why you weren’t hanging out with her.”

  “I was busy.” He’d been balls deep in one of the most unpopular girls in the school, taking her virginity, and loving every second of it. Shawna Prescott wasn’t so much a loser as she was the kind of girl he never went for. For one, she was smart. Two, she was…chubby. She was beautiful all right, but if any of his friends found out, he was going to be a fucking laughing stock, and he couldn’t have that. They all looked to him for answers, and screwing the chubby, unpopular girl wouldn’t exactly help his rep. It would drown it, completely.

  “I’d be warned. Amanda is on the warpath, and she is coming for your ass.”

  “I’m well warned.”

  “What is up with you?” Buster asked.

  “Nothing. Nothing.” He forced himself to stop looking out for Shawna and to focus on the now. “What did you do this weekend?”

  “I was balls deep in Stacey, man. I should have been practicing, and I’ve got to do that shit otherwise my dad’s going to flip. He wants me to be picked up this season, you know, for when scouts come out.”

  Nate knew all right, but right now, he really didn’t care. “We’ll play a little ball after school. I’ll help you practice.”

  “You’re the best.” Buster leaned forward, and pretended to punch his stomach. It was something goofy they had all done since they were kids.

  Why did he suddenly feel like it made him look like a giant kid?

  “Oh, Amanda, twelve o’clock.” He turned in the direction of Shawna’s locker to see she had finally arrived and was with a few of her friends. At the same time Amanda was walking down the long corridor. Her blonde hair was pulled up into a tight ponytail. Every time he saw her hair like that it always made him wince. Did it hurt to have hair that tight it looked like she was being pulled up?

  “Hey, baby, where were you? You totally missed a killer weekend,” Amanda said, wrapping her arms around his neck, and pressing a kiss to his neck.

  They were not dating, never had been. In fact, he couldn’t stand her half of the time, and only liked the fact she was easy. It wasn’t hard work to get her to put out. Shoot a couple of nice compliments her way, kiss her hard, and she was always spreading her legs, and for half of the football squad as well.

  He didn’t mind.

  Glancing across her shoulder he saw Shawna was chatting with her friends and giving no notice that he existed at all. Her long, brown hair was in ringlets today, and it was halfway down her arms. A few strands curled underneath her breasts, almost as if her hair was taunting him. He knew what she looked like naked. He’d memorized the bounce of those tits as he rode her hard.

  Fuck!

  Nate had to get her out of his mind right now.

  “Are you going out with us tonight?” Amanda asked. “We’re going to the Shallow Falls bonfire, and it is going to be epic.”

  “Sounds like a good time. Buster and I can meet you there. I’ve got to help him practice tonight.”

  Amanda pouted. “I guess I can wait to have you all to myself.” She bit his ear, and the urge to cringe was so damn strong. He stopped himself, and grabbed her shoulders. Just as the bell rang, he pushed her away.

  “Go on, go to class.” He gave her ass a little slap, and she squealed.

  “Saucy, Nate. I like it.”

  “She’s going to eat you up and throw away your bones,” Buster said. “Catch you at lunch.”

  Everyone started to walk away, and he watched as the halls started to thin out. Slamming his locker door, he slowly made his way toward Shawna. Her friends had already disappeared, and she was grabbing the last of her books out of her locker. She closed the door and spun around.

  He stepped forward so that she collided with him.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said, looking up.

  Nate watched as she went pale.

  “Nate?” She took a deep breath, and blew out a breath. “Excuse me.”

  “You’re going to treat me like nothing has happened.”

  “Nothing has happened.”

  This was why he was so fucking confused right now. He wanted to step away, warn her not to mention their time to anyone or else. Another part of him wanted to goad her. He wanted to reach out, touch her, taste her, and make her belong completely to him.

  She’d been a virgin.

  He’d never been with a virgin before, and he’d hurt Shawna. He hadn’t meant to hurt her, but he had.

  Placing his hand on the locker beside her head, he smiled. “So, you were with someone else this weekend?” he asked. “Someone else fucked your pussy. Took that precious cherry of yours, and made you moan. Made you beg.”

  She pressed her hand to his mouth. “Shut up.”

  “So, were you with someone else?” he asked. He didn’t like the strike of jealousy that rushed through him at the thought of someone else tasting her, having her. She belonged to him. He didn’t know where the possessive feelings were coming from, only that they existed.

  “Do you want me to tell the whole school, is that it?” she asked, folding her arms underneath her breasts.

  Just like that reality came crashing down.

  “There, now you have a problem, don’t you?” She put her hands on his chest, and shoved him away. “What happened this weekend, happened. I get that, and even though it was a giant mistake, I accept that. I won’t be asking for a repeat performance, Nate, nor will I be so desperate as to beg.” She shoved past him, and he turned to watch her walk away. Her ass was nice and full. The jeans she wore molded to every curve, making him ache to touch her, to feel her, to explore her all over again.

  “You’ll beg me, Shawna.”

  She paused, and turned back to look at him. “What do you want, Nate? Seriously? You and I, we’re never going to happen. This weekend was a damn mistake, and I know that now more than ever. Why don’t you just forget about everything?”

  “You can easily forget your first time?”

  “Yeah, I can. Really, really easily if you must know.” She sighed. “I’ve got to get to class. I don’t have time for this.”

  She moved away from him, and he watched her ass sashay off. There was no point him waiting around, so he made his way to homeroom where the teacher commented on his late arrival.<
br />
  He really didn’t give a fuck. He wasn’t interested in appearances right now, or anything else. His thoughts were dominated by a little brunette whom he’d fucked. The reason she’d even been at his house had been because their parents were dating. At least, his father was screwing her mother, and this weekend had been the first time they had been invited over.

  Nate hadn’t known that his father’s new girlfriend had a daughter, or that said daughter happened to be Shawna from his own year at high school. It was like every single nightmare had come to fruition, only it wasn’t really a nightmare.

  Friday night, Shawna had been as surprised as he was, and just as uncomfortable. His father’s new plaything was in fact Shawna’s mother. Nate couldn’t get his head around it. What else he hadn’t anticipated was being left alone with Shawna. A room had been made up for her while his father took her mother out on a date that had lasted until Sunday night. He had been so pissed about that, until that moment in the shower that had led from one thing to another. The only reason they hadn’t fucked Sunday night was because Shawna went home with her mother.

  Damn!

  He really needed to get her out of his mind before he ended up saying or doing something that would cause a whole load of shit. Shawna was not the girl for him. If he told himself enough times, he might start believing it.

  * * * *

  “You’re going over there again?” Shawna asked when she got home that afternoon and found her mother in the kitchen.

  “Nope. I’m not heading over there.”

  She blew out a breath.

  “They’re coming here tonight.”

  “What?”

  Her mother, Belle Prescott, raised a brow at her. “Sweetie, I’m happy with him. I don’t know why you’re behaving this way. You had fun last weekend, right?”

  “Mom, you abandoned me there.” She was not about to tell her mother that she’d lost her virginity, and that she and Nate had had a weekend full of sex. Not happening. She told her mother everything but certainly not that.

  “I did not.”

  This time Shawna stared at her.

  “Fine, fine. I did. Daniel didn’t expect us to be gone that long. We decided to stay over, and you are eighteen. I figured you’d really like to have some independence.”

  “I do want that, but, Nate Bridges’ father? I mean, seriously, Mom, you can do so much better than him.”

  “Daniel is a really nice man.”

  “His son is an asshole.”

  “What evidence do you have to support that, sweetie?”

  “I go to school with him, and have done since kindergarten. He’s a jock.”

  “So now all jocks are assholes?” Belle asked.

  “Duh, yeah.” She knew she sounded like a kid, but she couldn’t help it. Nate Bridges? She wanted to go and get her head examined. It was just so…wrong. She shuddered just thinking about it.

  “Since your father left.”

  “I hate that fact you still call him my father.” Her father had decided to leave, doing the classic midlife crisis, and running off with his much younger secretary. Just thinking about that made Shawna want to vomit. Sandy had been so nice as well. Shawna had liked her, until she walked in with her mother to see her father in a position that was constantly seared on her eyeballs. Gross, disgusting, ew!

  “Regardless of if you like it or not, he is still your father.”

  “Sperm donor.”

  “He hurt me a lot, Shawna. It has taken me a lot to get to this stage. Mr. Bridges would stop by the shop and ask me out all the time. He bought thousands of dollars worth of flowers, and I don’t think he needed them, and I’m sure he did it just to see me.”

  She saw how soft her mother’s eyes got just talking about him. This was not good. She wanted her mother to be happy. Of course she did. Just with another man. Was that too much to ask?

  “I wish you had told me,” Shawna said.

  “I did. I told you I was dating, and that it was getting serious.”

  “Not once did you mention that it was with a father of one of the guys I go to school with. That’s just weird.” She wrinkled her nose.

  “Are you going to cause a problem for me with Daniel?”

  Shawna looked into her mother’s tired eyes and shook her head. “No. I’m going to be the nice, proper daughter, fit for a queen.” She crossed her legs and rested her hands on her knee, speaking in a posh British accent.

  Belle laughed. “You’re such a goofball.” She kissed her head. “I’m sorry if this is uncomfortable for you.”

  Shawna waved her hand. “I’m happy that you’re happy. If he’s what you want, I’ll accept that, and I won’t judge even if I want to.” She hugged her mother, and sighed. “I’m going to do some homework while I wait.”

  “Sweetie, your father called, and he wanted to talk to you about something.”

  She paused at the foot of the stairs. “What?”

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t interested to be honest. I figured you could call him yourself and see what he wants.”

  Making her way upstairs, she threw her bag onto her bed and grabbed the telephone. She really didn’t want to speak to her father. Dillon Prescott had hurt her and her mother. She would never forget the look on her mother’s face that day.

  Tapping the phone against her lip, Shawna sighed, and then went ahead and dialed his number. There was no point in waiting around to talk to him. The sooner she talked to him, the faster she could get him out of her life.

  “Shawna, honey, is that you?” Dillon asked.

  “You called and wanted to speak to me.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  Shawna waited. She wasn’t about to give him the time of day. She was only calling him for her mother’s sake.

  Silence stretched.

  “I’m waiting,” she said.

  “You don’t have to be that way. I’m sorry things ended the way they did.”

  “Oh, you mean with you sleeping with your secretary and hurting Mom? Not to mention I’m scarred for life?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “It’s not going to change anything. What do you want? I’ve got homework that I really need to do.”

  “Sandy and I were wondering if you would like to come and visit.”

  “No.”

  “Shawna, I know I’ve screwed up, but I want us to still be close.”

  “Look, Dillon, I’m not interested. My home is here with Mom, and I don’t want to leave here.”

  “I’m your father.”

  “You don’t act like it.”

  She didn’t want to hear any more, and disconnected the call. There was no way she could forgive her father. He had hurt her mother, and if he thought for a second that she was going to forgive him and start treating Sandy like family, he was mistaken.

  Throwing the phone onto her bed, she grabbed her books out of her bag and started to work on English followed by math.

  After twenty minutes, a knock sounded on her door, and she looked up to see her mother standing in the doorway.

  “Hey, Mom, is dinner ready?” she asked.

  “Daniel will be here in ten minutes. Your dad called.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Did he phone to tell on me, how mean I’ve been?”

  Belle laughed. “He tried to blame me for the fact you’re calling him Dillon, and that you’re being disrespectful.”

  “He needs to learn to take responsibility. I don’t want to live with him, nor do I want to visit him and Sandy. He made his choice, and I’m not interested in being part of his new little family. Just thinking about them makes me sick.” She pressed a finger into her mouth, and pretended to vomit.

  “I’ve got my issues with him.”

  “I know,” Shawna said.

  “He’s still your father, sweetie. He has a right to be part of your life. He did help to create you.”

  “Ew, I’ve seen too much of my father already.”

  “I’m not going to forc
e you to forgive him. You will do that in time.” Belle moved in and pressed a kiss to her temple. “I’m going to finish cooking dinner.”

  “Thanks, Mom, you’re the best.”

  “I try.”

  Shawna watched her mother leave, and blew out a breath. Going back to her homework, she continued to study until she heard the doorbell ring.

  Closing her books, she headed out of her bedroom and was heading downstairs as Daniel and Nate entered. She watched Daniel pull her mother into a hug. It was passionate, and she saw the attraction between the two.

  Glancing at Nate, she couldn’t help but tense up.

  They were different.

  They didn’t like each other, and they had both been thrust together, which had caused complications. There was no way she could tell her friends about what happened. She didn’t even want to think about it.

  “Daniel, you remember my daughter, Shawna,” Belle said.

  “I do. You look beautiful, honey.”

  She forced a smile. “Thank you. Great to see you again, Daniel.”

  “And we already know that you two know each other,” Daniel said, pointing at his son.

  “We do,” Nate said. “How are you doing, Shawna?”

  “Great, Nate. You?”

  “Peachy.”

  She nodded.

  That wasn’t awkward at all.

  “Come on, I’ll take you to the table.”

  Daniel and Belle left while Nate stayed back, leaving her alone with him.

  She folded her arms, and went with a glare. “Why didn’t you stay at home?”

  “And miss the chance of being inside your home? I wouldn’t miss it.”

  “You’re going to be an ass about this?” she asked.

  “Not really. Just curious is all.” He took a step toward her, and she didn’t like how her nipples tightened, or how much she really wanted his arms wrapped around her.

  “What could you possibly be curious about?” she asked.

  “You. I was deep inside you after years of knowing who you were.” He looked around the corridor. “It’s nice. A little simple but nice.”