Music thumps around me, competing with the roar of the ocean far below as it crashes into the base of the cliff. Someone throws another log on the fire and it explodes in a crackle of sparks, momentarily outshining the trillions of stars carpeting the sky above.

The girls are dancing around the fire in their caps and gowns, their tassels swinging from side to side. I grin at them as the music slows down and they begin pressing their tight, young bodies seductively against each other, slowly unzipping each other’s gowns. They’re smiling. Giving us a show. Yeah, they know what we like.

“Class of 2005 forever, man. Great party.”

Jake slides into the chair beside me and tosses me another beer as he inhales against the fattest joint I’ve ever seen. He passes it to me and I don’t hesitate. I pull. Hold. Wait for my world to relax even further than it already is. I’m coming down from coke, but still feel the shit Brandi brought squirming under my skin. Not sure what it was laced with. Something mean.

“Where’s Annalise?” Jake asks.

I lift a shoulder. “Don’t know. Don’t care.”

His head rolls in my direction. “Seriously. You two over?”

“Yep. Bitch practically proposed to me the minute I walked across the damn stage. Can’t believe you haven’t heard about it. Crying. Screaming cause I turned her down.”

Jake laughs and points at me. “No shit?”

“No shit. In front of my family too, at the damn graduation reception they hosted. Hell, man, the fucking governor was there. Security was called. Wouldn’t be surprised if she isn’t in a psych ward right now. She was fucking threatening to kill herself.”

Jakes laughter is infectious, and for the first time in three hours, I laugh too.

“Bet The Parents loved that.”

I toss back half of the beer, trying to push away the memory of the looks they’d shot me as Anna was dragged from the club. Embarrassed mixed with bitter disappointment—I know that look very well.

“Yep. Fun times all around.”

He’s still laughing, man giggles. The weed ensuring it will last for a while. He sobers suddenly, sitting up straight. “They’re still letting you go to Europe, right?”

“Yep, but it was close. Between that and my grades, they were pissed as hell.”

“Well, you graduated. How’d you pull that off anyway?”

“Practically had to suck Murdock’s dick to get him to pass me. Two points was all the fucker gave me; just enough to graduate.”

Jake slaps his knee. “How much of your trust fund did that cost you?”

“Five fucking Gs. For two points.”

Jake tilts his bottle toward me and I tap his with mine. “Sounds like a good use of five grand. At least your folks will be off your back for the summer.”

I lift my chin in agreement. “Hell yeah, it was. High school gone. Anna gone. Two months backpacking through Europe. Best five grand I ever spent.”

“You and Anna seriously broke up. Like for real this time?”

I lift my chin again. “For real. It was cool hanging with her senior year, but don’t want any strings for the trip. College.” I nearly gag on the last word.

I take the joint he passes, light the tip and inhale deep and long. I cough to get it deeper, let it swirl into my system. A wave of warmth settles through me as the stars above us begin to blur. The fire turns blue and the girls seem to dance in slow motion.

Perfect.

Jake tips his bottle in the direction of the girls. “So which one tonight?”

I scan them. Blondes, brunettes, redheads. Light skin. Dark skin. Everything in between. Couldn’t go wrong with any of them. Then I see her. Mattie. The only one I’ve not slept with yet. A fitting graduation present.

“Mattie still hooking up with Todd?”

“Fuck if I know.” Jake looks around and then over at me. “Don’t see Todd here, so…”

I smile and watch her sway to the music. Like the others, she’s wearing her cap and gown. Like the others, she’s naked underneath. The front of the robe is now unzipped to just below her breasts, showing off her cleavage to its glorious advantage. When she moves just right, I catch a glimpse of nipple. Just a glimpse. It’s pebble hard. Pink. Ready for my mouth. My cock twitches in my shorts, doing its own dance with my balls.

“Got any X?” I ask Jake, wanting a high to mix with my low. Sex is always better that way.

“Sorry, man. Got xannies. Happy to share.”

I scowl at him. “Fuck no, man. Need up, not down. Speaking of up, don’t take any of Brandi’s coke; that stuff’s fucked. Puked up Dad’s two-hundred dollar a plate dinner. Still don’t feel too good.”

“What time you want to jump tomorrow?”

Jump. Glide. Hang in the air. A few moments of freedom from the life that has started a full court press against me. I get this summer to ‘sow my wild oats’. Yeah, like I’ve not been doing that the past four years. Then its business school while I intern under the watchful eye of my big brother. Then I ‘get’ to take over one of the family businesses. I ‘get’ to marry a woman my parents approve of. I ‘get’ to reproduce to ensure the Duffy name lives on into perpetuity.

Fuck.

I motion for the joint again, inhaling deeply once, then again. Hoping to let my sudden bad mood exhale on the tail of the smoke.

I’m the ‘spare’ to the Duffy fortune. My parents don’t need me for all of that shit. My big brother, Charles Jacob Samuel Duffy, IV, is supposed to fulfill that role.

But no.

I’m being molded too. Doesn’t matter what I want. Doesn’t matter that the idea of wearing a suit and sitting in an office makes me sick. Doesn’t matter that I also have three older sisters, one of which would jump at the chance to run a business. The ‘girls’ have been regulated to marrying well and attending charity functions. When it comes to females and my father, you’d think we lived in the eighteenth century.

“Link, man.” Jake elbows me to get my attention and I try to pull myself from the well of depression that wants to pull me down.

“Sorry, what’d you say?”

“I asked what time you want to jump tomorrow.”

I look out over the cliff we’re partying on. Out over the Pacific Ocean churning below. The moon is full, reflecting off the inky darkness as far as the eye can see.

“Dawn,” I tell him. “Let’s jump early. Catch the light. And maybe we won’t get caught that early.”

Jake laughs. “Yeah, it’ll be your, what, third strike?”

It’s my turn to laugh. “Unofficially, it’s more like my thirteenth strike. Officially, zero. But who’s counting.”

Jake stands up, lilts to the side, corrects himself and stumbles to the cooler for two more beers. After he drops back in the chair beside me, he asks. “Then why’re you worried about getting caught? It’s not like Judge Cardell is going to send you up the creek.”

I laugh. “River.”

“Huh?”

“Send me up the river.”

“Creek. River. Puddle of piss. Why does it matter? Your dad has him wrapped around his little finger. The DA too. Hell, half of law enforcement.”

True. Very true. I drink—no, I chug nearly the entire beer. “Not worried about the legal system.”

“Aahh. What is it this time? Getting disowned again? Daddy gonna pull the plug on your trust fund? Shit man, you know he won’t do that. Won’t look good in the press. Plus, he’ll never give up that much control over you. So do whatever the fuck you want. When you want. It’s worked so far.”

My stomach churns. “I don’t know. He was pretty pissed today. He’d personally selected Annalise as the perfect wife. Hell, I think he’s already named our kids.”

“Link, he just picked her because she plays by the rules. He’s hoping she’ll calm you down.”

I think of Anna hovering over me, riding my cock so hard my balls nearly burst. Doing a line of coke off my dick. Joining a threesome and eating out her best friend.

Yeah, on the outside, Anna is a good girl. Behind closed doors, she’s a damn wildcat. Which makes not wanting to be with her more confusing. Isn’t the old saying that you want a lady on the streets and a freak in the bed, or something like that? Then why am I so dissatisfied with Anna? So unwilling to settle down with her? She’s hot. Willing. Well-bred—priority one for my father.

Crazy.

Yeah, that’s why. The girl, beneath all the polish, is certifiably nuts. And she hides it very well. But maybe after her scene at the club today, she can get a little help.

“Hey Dez!” I shout to my football buddy. The man who saved my ass many times.

He looks up, sees me and throws both arms in the air. “Liiiink!” he shouts back and makes his way over to us.

I wince as he clamps a meaty paw on my shoulder, with all the weight of his three hundred pound frame. As expected, Dez got a full ride to USC and will probably be starting by the end of his freshman year, protecting another quarterback’s ass.

“Got any X, Dez?”

He gives me a ‘what the fuck do you think’ look and pulls a baggy out of his pocket. I open my wallet to slip him a hundred, but he shrugs it off. “Graduation present,” he says as he tosses me the pill. I force the money in his pocket anyway. His folks have it rough, work their tails off just to feed their kids. Especially this one. This big son of a bitch eats enough for five men at each meal.

“Thanks, Dez. Appreciate it. Mind tossing me another beer.”

The big man pulls two from the cooler and hands one to me. I twist the top off and slug down the pill. In an hour, all my worries will float away.

Jake slaps my chair. “I think you have a winner.”

I look up and follow his gaze. It lands directly onto Mattie, who’s on the other side of the fire, but looking directly at me. She’s still moving, her body swaying side-to-side, but slower now, more seductive. She lifts a hand and pulls down her zipper a little more. The opening creates a perfect ‘v’, pointing in the direction I want.

‘More’ I mouth the word and the zipper slides down past her navel.

‘More’ I mouth again.

She smiles. Or smirks. Some damn lift of one side of her lips. It’s sexy as hell. The zipper slides down another two inches.

“Hell, man,” Dez’s low voice comes out more like a rumble. “Why you sitting here with us?”

My eyes still on Mattie, my cock tight in my shorts, I begin to wonder the same thing too. I toss back the rest of the beer, then stand. The world tilts a little, but rights itself soon enough. Then I’m walking, stalking, moving toward my prey.

She doesn’t run. She doesn’t hide.

When I’m in front of her, she smiles and her face takes on a glow as bright as the sun. “What took you so long?” she asks.

“Making sure.”

She lifts a pale eyebrow. “Making sure of what?”

“Making sure you were alone for the night.”

She has the grace to flush, then raises her blue eyes back up to meet mine. “I am for tonight. That okay with you?”

I think of her boyfriend, tennis prick Todd. I lift a hand and trace it down the zipper’s path. “Yeah. Very okay with that.”

Taking her hand, I lead her to my tent.

* * *

Thanks for reading this preview, you can get Badass - The Prequel Free here: https://lesliejohnsonauthor.com/get-your-free-book/