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  Come Back To Me

  Mari Kyle

  Kelly and Scott's undeniable connection led to one hot night during freshman year. Two years later, they've grown apart, but the attraction remains. And a night of fun that should offer a chance to start over only serves to push them further apart.

  The time for them to finally get it right may be slipping away.

  Unknowingly booked for the same flight home at the end of the school year, the two find themselves stranded in a motel room for the night when a dangerous storm grounds all outbound planes. As Scott and Kelly reconnect, the storm of lust brewing between them just might rival the one outside.

  A Romantica® new adult erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

  Come Back To Me

  Mari Kyle

  Acknowledgments

  My mom and dad for supporting me in every dream I’ve ever had. It has made all the difference in my life. Thank you. I love you!

  Everyone at Ellora’s Cave who played a role in Come Back to Me’s publication, especially Krishan Trotman for taking a chance on me and Victoria Reese for helping me get it in tip-top shape. Thank you so much!

  And a huge thank-you to all my friends for always talking me down off the ledge when I threaten to quit writing, even though we all know I could never actually give it up.

  Chapter One

  Freshmen Year

  Kelly

  “Would you hurry up, Rebecca?” Kelly Stern yelled to her roommate through the closed door of their dorm room. They had a mandatory freshman orientation event in half an hour and it was all the way on the other side of campus. She turned a shy smile to Scott Matheson, the guy from down the hall who had helped her and her parents move her stuff into her room on Freshmen Arrival Day a few days ago.

  “Are you sure she’s in there?” Scott asked.

  “Yeah. She said to meet her here after the campus safety event,” Kelly said, widening a casual smile even though heat lashed her face every time she looked in his direction.

  It had been like this for days now, ever since she and Rebecca had watched him raise both their beds a little higher on the first day. As he worked, she had gotten a peek at the sliver of chiseled muscle beneath his polo shirt. All she could think about was what the rest of his body looked like, obsessing late into the night about whether those sculpted ridges of muscle extended down into the V-shape definition at his pelvis she loved so much on men. He also had big strong hands to match very large sneakers, which made her mind wander even further. Of course, those were just myths that didn’t actually offer clues to the size of the cock in the jeans but she liked to fantasize anyway. Kelly had a thing for men who looked like they might be too big for her to handle.

  And every night since then, she’d been heading for the dorm showers, her head filled with relentless fantasies of all the things she wanted him to do to her. Pinching one of her own nipples, she would picture his dark-brown eyes filled with desire as he gave one of the pink buds a gentle bite. And in her mind, he was a dirty talker too, demanding that she tell him what she wanted. Please lick my pussy, Scott, she would think of herself saying. Then Kelly had pressed hard circles against her aching clit, grateful for the glide of warm water as she imagined his mouth there and his tongue caressing the spot with merciless flicks until she had to beg for a break. As the pulsating heat of her climax took over, Kelly would brace her hand on the wall and muffle her moans of pleasure with a bite to her lip.

  As they stood in the hallway, she wrested herself from the memory for fear she would have to excuse herself for a shower right then. “I bet she fell asleep. Give me a sec please,” Kelly said.

  “Yeah sure. No problem, Lee,” he said in a deep tone, raking his blond hair with his fingers. She clenched her entire body from the soft ripple of his arm muscles when he shrugged. Damn, even the way he speaks is sexy. And I love that he has a nickname for me already. She squeezed past him and felt the blaze from his stare on her back as she pushed into her room.

  “Wait! Kelly, no!” Rebecca yelled but Kelly was already inside and holding her hands to her mouth at the sight of her roommate’s legs spread in the air with a male face between them. “Shit!”

  The guy lifted his head and shot an unapologetic smile at Kelly.

  “Becks, I’m so sorry,” Kelly said beneath giggles as she backed out into the hallway and shut the door. She slammed into Scott’s hard body and when she turned to face him, his wide eyes revealed he had also witnessed the scene in her room. “Guess she’s not coming.”

  “Oh no, I think she is,” he said with a wink as they headed for the exit and Kelly laughed even as her face flushed.

  Damn, she would’ve done anything for some oral action right about now. Of course to maximize the agony of her own dry spell, she was with a roommate who was already getting laid during orientation. While she didn’t think she had Rebecca’s charisma, Kelly was well aware she was attractive. She hated exercise but kept as physically active as possible to maintain her tiny waist and perky, toned backside and she loved her long curly brown hair, brown eyes and naturally bronzed skin.

  “Aren’t you supposed to put a sock on the doorknob or something?” she asked. “Isn’t that the unspoken rule in college?”

  “In Becca’s defense, she hasn’t even had time to unpack any,” Scott replied, holding the dorm door open for her.

  Gabel College was lively for a place with just a fraction of the student body present. Although it had only been a few days, Kelly got the sense she would be very happy here. Her parents had been reluctant about her choice of a school across the country on the East Coast but Kelly had always been the adventurous type, eager to discover the unknown, which explained her fixation on Scott. Right now, he was the foreign territory she was desperate to explore.

  “Scott, look, the fro-yo line is finally short.” Kelly yanked him through the doors of the campus ice cream shop and hurried to take a spot behind the last person. They had been scoping out the place every time they passed through the quad but the line of waiting people was usually out the door.

  “Look at us. We’re already checking things off the ‘Gabel Got To’ list,” Scott said. The Gabel Got To list was a bunch of activities, both risqué and tame, for students to do during the four years before graduation.

  Kelly flinched at the sound of his voice, unprepared for the closeness as the sounds snaked into her ear. She touched the back of her neck where his breath had landed as her nipples puckered against her top. His mouth would be that warm on her inner thigh, she thought, and his tongue so velvety against her skin.

  “Uh, that’s true…and it’s only freshman orientation. We are so ahead of the game…” She wondered if he was the type to pry her thighs apart with a slow touch, then plant a trail of teasing kisses as he moved toward her clit. Or would he open her up with a rough motion and just bury his face between her legs.

  His hands landed on her waist, tearing her from her thoughts, and she clenched in her panties. “Kelly? It’s your turn…”

  “Oh right!” she said with a soft whimper. Damn, this man was going to drive her crazy if she reacted like this every time he was in the vicinity. After placing their orders, Scott and Kelly cut through the courtyard as they headed for the main auditorium where the freshman orientation presentation on required courses was being held. They had gone to every activity together and she already felt a strong bond with him. Besides being attractive, he was also really sweet and attentive. He never missed the chance to hold a door open for her or offer her a chair when there was only one left.

  “Where else did you look at schools in Boston?” he asked.

  “Boston University, Boston College, Brandeis. Gabel was the best of everything I ultimately wanted. Has all my potential majors, it’s small
and it has a great student-to-professor ratio. What about you?”

  He always watched her so closely whenever they talked, to the point that it was almost overwhelming, as if he was soaking her in like she was an experience rather than just someone he was having a conversation with. It was nice to be appreciated that way, even if they were just discussing which electives they could squeeze in this semester.

  “My family is all Boston University on both sides. I wanted to break the mold.” He licked around the cone of his ice cream and Kelly nearly moaned out loud as she watched. “So you think that’s going to happen all year with Rebecca?” he continued, laughter just below the words.

  “I hope not. That would be really inconvenient for me,” Kelly said as they stepped into the auditorium. She spotted two adjacent seats after someone handed them both a freshmen course catalog. Scott gestured for her to take the innermost seat and as she slid past him, she caught his stare falling to her butt before she settled onto the cushion. Kelly crossed her legs as heat flared deep in her loins, the same kind that had driven her to the shower every night. He was checking me out. It really turned her on.

  “You can always come to my room, Lee. I think my roommate has a thing for you,” he joked.

  “Your roommate, huh?” she replied with a smile. As the speaker took the stage, Kelly spotted Rebecca strolling in with several other stragglers, including the guy who had been eating her out earlier. Kelly and Rebecca locked eyes. Rebecca didn’t even have a hint of embarrassment in her expression as she waved and walked over to Kelly and Scott.

  “Hey, Becks,” Kelly drawled. “Unpack your socks, okay? So you can give a girl a warning next time.” She really wasn’t offended; she liked Rebecca. Rebecca had been so warm to her when they first met that they had become instant friends.

  “Sorry about that. It just sort of happened. One minute we were talking about how we’d both gone to the same high school and never met…and…well…you know how these things go,” Rebecca said and that was the extent of her explanation. “Anyway, I’ll see you guys after this snoozer. I’m serious this time.”

  Scott held his gaze on Rebecca as she walked away to take a seat with a few women who lived in the same hall. Kelly watched him from the corner of her eye, spotting the growing bulge in his pants. He shifted his legs as he continued to stare at Rebecca before dropping the course catalog to his lap. His skin flushed deep-red and he angled his body away from Kelly. A streak of jealousy cut through her, sharp, fiery anger blooming in her core as she flipped through her catalog at a quick pace. Was he imagining going down on Rebecca now?

  “Um…you’re really excited about those freshman courses, huh?” he asked.

  One of us is really excited but it’s not me. “I guess so.” She glared in Rebecca’s direction for a second but decided almost immediately that it was ridiculous to develop animosity for something that hadn’t even occurred yet between her and Scott, and might never occur. But Rebecca was a beauty, the kind that stole men’s attention. She was tall and thin and had waves of jet-black hair, dewy skin and the deepest of blue eyes. It was only natural that he would be attracted to her. Just because you touched yourself to him a few times doesn’t mean you have some claim to him.

  “You still think you’ll want to take that photography class together? I hear it fills up pretty fast and then they dump any other waiting students into a lottery pool,” he said. She glanced over at him. His course catalog was still pressed into his lap.

  “Yeah sure,” she said in a nonchalant tone, feeling a slight bit calmer than she had a few minutes before. She was in a room full of guys and she didn’t have to set her heart on just one so early in the year no matter how well they clicked. But she did like that Scott was from Southern California just like her family. He laughed at all of her corny jokes and they both had an interest in the same photography seminar. The past few days had been fun but most people probably didn’t even stay friends with the students they met during orientation once classes were in full swing. And if he started seeing her roommate, she doubted she would be able to remain friends with him anyway. Then another dreadful realization crossed her mind—if Scott and Rebecca were having sex in her room or his room, she would definitely have no place to go. Yikes! Time to start making some new friends, she decided in a panicked thought.

  She and Scott didn’t speak again once the lights went low and the speaker introduced a slideshow on available freshman electives. And without waiting for the lights to fully come back up when it was over, Kelly leaped from her seat and dashed out of the auditorium with Scott shouting after her. She didn’t turn, however, figuring there was no sense in prolonging a connection that would only lead to getting her feelings hurt.

  * * * * *

  “Which?” Rebecca asked. She was holding up two different shades of lipstick in front of Kelly, as Kelly pulled curlers out of her own hair.

  “The deeper red,” Kelly replied. “Okay, your turn. Which dress?” She pointed to the options she had laid out on her bed—a black lace cocktail dress and a light-blue mini. It was the last day of freshman orientation and there was a school-sponsored formal to mark the occasion. She wondered if Scott was going. They hadn’t spoken for a few days, largely due to her avoidance of him since the freshman electives seminar. He hadn’t even stopped by her room since that day. I guess he got the hint.

  “Blue one for sure! Everyone’s going to be in black tonight,” Rebecca recommended.

  Kelly rolled her eyes, raising her hands to her hips. “Or is it because you sort of want to borrow it? You’ve been eyeing it since I took it out of the closet.”

  A look of resignation crossed Rebecca’s face. “Okay, okay. I like it better than mine. And since you’re wearing—”

  A knock interrupted their conversation and Kelly belted her robe on her way to the door. “Scott!” she said as she opened it, her heart jumping for her throat. He looked handsome in his black suit, with a new haircut highlighting his blond locks, and he was holding up his tie. The weight of how much she had missed hanging out with him hit her and she was smiling before she even realized.

  “Uh…sorry to bother you. I’m embarrassed to say that one of my sisters or my mom always does this for me…could one of you do it?”

  Maybe it’s time I face what’s happening between him and Rebecca. This is probably just an excuse to see her. “Yeah,” she said sadly. “Let me get Reb—”

  “No.” He grabbed her wrist before she could retreat into the room. “I want you to do it.”

  “Okay. I’ve only done it a few times so I’m not sure I’ll get it right but I’ll try. Rebecca is still getting dressed. Can we go to your room?” she asked and when he nodded, she followed him out. Scott’s room was empty and he explained that his roommate had gone to the alterna-formal, a student-created event for people who didn’t want to participate in the actual school-sponsored one. Kelly had imagined them alone together in there a million times while their friendship was developing—had craved it, really—and the recent distance between them had not dampened that want at all. Every inch of her skin was sizzling in desire with the fantasy of having him toss her to the mattress and the two of them ravaging each other. His gaze trailed up the length of her thigh, now exposed through the split in her robe, and when his stare collided with hers, she gulped before she looked away.

  “I don’t know much about women’s fashion but I think you could pull off wearing that tonight,” he said, laughing.

  “Thanks. I definitely think blue terrycloth will be all the rage on the European runways this year. I’m starting a trend,” she said, mimicking a model’s pose she’d seen in a magazine.

  Scott’s gaze glided over her frame again, scorching her deep in her core as she swung the tie over his shoulders. “Does this one even go with this suit?”

  “Yeah it’s fine.”

  Scott sighed. “Truth is, I don’t even really want to go to this thing. I was just hoping I could force you to talk to me in a soc
ial setting. You’ve been ignoring me.”

  “Just got busy…” She kept her eyes on her task, afraid he would detect her dishonesty, but her hands were shaking as she looped the ends of the tie over his broad chest.

  Scott lifted her chin until they made eye contact and he was smiling but a trace of hurt flared in his irises, causing a lump of guilt to settle in her stomach. “During orientation? Kelly, I don’t buy that. What happened? Did I do something? ’Cause I’ve been racking my brain trying to figure out where I fucked up and the only thing that comes to mind is…” He clenched his jaw. “That you saw my hard-on during that program. You have to know sometimes I—guys—can’t help that.”

  Kelly smirked as she tightened the tie knot at his collar. “Yes, I’m aware of how male anatomy works, Scott.”

  “Are you…are you not into guys then?”

  “I’m definitely into guys.”

  “Then what’s the problem? ’Cause I miss you, Lee. I miss being able to just walk over to your room to tell you something funny or stupid. I know this is last minute but unless you really, really want to go, can we skip the formal and just talk please?” he asked, desperation thick in his voice. She really missed him too and she would have preferred staying in the dorm with him to wearing heels all night.

  “We can watch movies…or even better, let’s do shots and do some of the stuff on the Gabel Got To list. Franklin just gave me the bottle of vodka I asked him to buy…”

  “The RA? How’d you work that out?”

  “Fixed his computer.” He held her by the shoulders, aiming a serious, urging expression at her. “So what do you say? You’re my first friend here and I really want to fix whatever happened.” He winked and smiled. “I’ll try not to get an erection around you, okay?”

  Kelly sighed with exasperation and stepped back. “The truth is, that day, I was jealous. I was jealous, okay?”