Devil Incarnate (Boys of Preston Prep #4) - Angel Lawson Page 0,25

over the aborted ‘Devils’, but recovers smoothly. “I know Reyn would love it if he had a friend to suffer through it with him. Oh, hey! What about Emory?”

Emory would be a great date, except the part where I wouldn’t be getting any dick afterward. Not only is he still dating Aubrey, but after the thing with Sebastian, not fucking Devils is a hard and fast rule of mine. I finally found friends I don’t mix sex with, and I like it. It’s nice.

“I’ll consider it, but I’ve got a while. I’m sure I can find someone to go with me.”

We’re excused from the table to go into an adjacent room where one of the formal dress boutiques has set up a display. Vandy flips through the white dresses, mandatory for the ball, stopping on one that has a mermaid bottom. “What do you think?”

“I think it’s pretty.” I eye the beading at the top. “But if you want to bang Reyn in that thing, you’re going to run into issues. You should look for something he can hike up easily.”

Snap!

Caroline’s cheeks turn red and she scampers around to the other side of the rack, hiding. Vandy’s wide blue eyes dart around before she aggressively whispers, “Jesus, Georgia! Not everything is about sex.” Despite this, I can’t help but notice she re-hangs the dress and moves on to a more sex-accessible style. “Maybe this is why you can’t find a boyfriend,” she says, suddenly. “You’re too focused on sex and not the rest of it.”

“It’s easy for you to say that,” I say, feeling strangely stung. “You’re getting it on the reg.”

“Yeah, but that’s not all we do. We watch movies, hang out with friends, do our homework. You know,” she smiles softly at one of the dresses, “couple stuff.”

Wrinkling my nose, I insist, “I have zero interest in a study partner. I just need someone who can help take off this edge. It’s fucking unbearable.” And I’m not even lying. It’s getting hard to pay attention or care about anything else. I hate this part of it, feeling like a slave to my urges. I don’t think I’ve gone this long without it since freshman year.

Vandy frowns. “What do you mean?”

“The edge. You know, the not-having-enough-sex edge?” She stares at me blankly. “You don’t start feeling crazy when you and Reyn go too long without? Like when you went to,” I lower my voice, “rehab, weren’t you dying for it by the time you got back?”

“Well,” she says slowly, flipping through another rack, “I mean, I missed Reyn and being close to him. Mostly I just missed talking to him, joking around, cuddling, sleeping—all that stuff. I missed watching him and Emory play HORSE in the driveway and kicking his butt in Call of Duty. Reyn’s not just…that. He’s my best friend, you know?”

I think back to all the guys I’ve hooked up with. They’ve been hot or not. They’ve been funny or quiet. They’ve been into it, or kind of lame. But none has ever been more than just a hookup. Not even Sebastian, who was my friend both before and after we fooled around. It never moved emotionally beyond that.

Vandy’s eyes light up as she spots a dress across the room, calling me and Caroline to follow. I don’t go with her, though. I’m too overwhelmed by the gnawing feeling in my belly, the urge combined with guilt. The longing for something that’s always just out of reach. Is what Vandy’s talking about what I’m missing? The friendship and connection as much as the sex?

No way.

I know boys, and they’re terrible. All they want is a good thrust between my legs. If I’m very lucky, they might not even be jerks about it afterward. But otherwise? The only universally good thing men have in common is what’s between their legs.

I don’t need cuddling and all that nonsense. What I need is to get dicked-down. Fast. Otherwise, I’m going to lose my mind.

The thumping music and nonstop giggles from the outer room penetrate my door, my white noise machine, and my headphones. Thanks to some upscale camp she’s been attending for the last decade, Josie already knows half the junior class here.

Even though I promised myself I wouldn’t, I try again—for the fifth time—grabbing my vibrator and shimmying it beneath the covers. I just need to fucking come. One more time would do the trick. Then maybe I can roll over and finally get some damn sleep.

I’m not