Summer_The Chosen by Him Series Prequel Read online

  Summer

  The Beginnings Series

  A Prequel to the Chosen by Him Series

  By

  Ellie Danes

  www.EllieDanes.com

  Copyright

  First Edition, August 2018

  Copyright © 2018 by Ellie Danes

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and situations are the product of the author's imagination.

  All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written consent from the author.

  License

  This book is available exclusively on Amazon.com. If you found this book for free or from a site other than an Amazon.com country specific website it means the author was not compensated for this book and you have likely obtained this book through an unapproved distribution channel.

  Table of Contents

  Summer

  Copyright

  Book Description

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

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  Book Description

  I’ve made too many bad decisions.

  Brandon was one of them.

  I thought he was my everything,

  My knight in shining armor.

  Little did I know he would be the one

  to push me into the arms of a billionaire.

  Chase Kerns put me back together after Brandon had broken me.

  Summer is a prequel novella about Summer Farris, the heroine in the Chosen by Him series.

  Chapter 1

  While my roommate yelled something unintelligible over the sounds of music and cheering, I held the phone away from my ear.

  "Sounds like the bar is really packed," I said. It was the last day of college finals before Spring Break and my roommate, Mara, was begging me to join in the celebration.

  "Please, Summer!” she yelled over the cheering crowd. “I haven't paid for a drink yet. You need to be here!"

  I smiled but didn't stop stirring the sauce I had simmering. "Maybe later. I'm celebrating with Brandon first."

  "Ugh." She didn't even try to cover up her disapproval. "I can see about twenty guys who are better for you than Brandon. Get down here!"

  "We'll meet up with you later. Have fun!" I hung up the phone and sighed. It sounded like everyone was having a great time, but I was content in Brandon's apartment.

  It was great having a boyfriend who lived off campus. He let me use his place whenever the distractions of the dorms got to be too much.

  I left the sauce to simmer and went to his sunny bedroom. Over the year he'd let me move a few things in: a bag of toiletries, my second-favorite make-up case, flowing dresses that would otherwise be crushed in my tight dorm closet, and a handful of my sexiest lingerie.

  I slipped into a thin, linen sundress and skipped the underwear. Brandon would be home from his last final soon and I had promised to welcome him home.

  Home. Brandon's apartment was a dingy rental with a tiny galley kitchen and flaky paint. Mara thought it was silly how much I liked to stay here. She called it 'playing house.' She was right; this was just a place to live and I often daydreamed about what our first home would look like.

  So what if my dream house had a white picket fence? I was only going to play the aproned housewife on special occasions. The rest of the time I would be climbing to the pinnacle of my career and working for an apex company like Velocity Capital. Brandon loved my ambition and I knew he'd help me keep things balanced.

  That's why I posed, one thigh sitting on his tiny dining room table, the other spread wide, and my sundress slipped high so high it barely concealed my lack of lingerie. Brandon always liked his dessert before dinner.

  He licked his lips as he came in the creaking apartment door, then laughed. "Why aren't you at the bar?"

  "I was waiting for you." I stood up and gestured toward the steamy kitchen. "I thought we could have dinner first. Maybe dessert?"

  He chuckled and squeezed my ass. "I love the way you think, but I have something better in mind. What about a beach house? I rented one for Spring Break."

  "For me?" My hands fluttered.

  "Sure. I mean, I invited everyone to come and party, but we're staying in the master suite," Brandon said. He ignored the almost-ready dinner and rushed into his bedroom to pack.

  I turned off the stove and slumped against the counter. So much for a little alone time with my boyfriend.

  Brandon tossed me an armful of what I'd left at his apartment and grinned. "Put on some panties, sexy. Let's go to the beach."

  Chapter 2

  "How does Brandon afford an apartment, a car, and a beach house?" Mara asked.

  I laughed. "It's just a rental."

  "Yeah, an expensive one," she said.

  Mara, as usual, was right. The beach house was perched on top of the dunes like the most popular image under the search for 'dream vacation.' Dove gray shingles, glossy white trim, gables on the third floor, and the bobbing mast of a sailboat docked just beyond the formal gardens.

  The rental fees must have been astronomical and I was starting to share Mara's doubt. "Maybe we took a wrong turn?" I wondered.

  "Brandon's idea of a prank," Mara muttered.

  A cheer went up from the beach and we peeked past the gardens in time to see Brandon finishing a keg stand on the dock. He waved to me and another cheer greeted us as the party rushed back up to the patio and loaded grill.

  "Guess this is the place!" I called as Brandon scooped me up over his shoulder and paraded me around the patio.

  My sundress slid up as Brandon lowered me into a shady corner and pressed a foamy kiss to my lips. I loved how he never tried to hide or repress his desires. It made me hot even as I blushed with embarrassment.

  "How about you get me a drink first?" I giggled nervously.

  "I changed my mind about you wearing panties," he breathed in my ear. His hands slipped lower than my waist and pulled me closer.

  I snuggled against him, the thin sundress feeling very insignificant between us. "Then let's go to the master suite for a while."

  He kissed me again but the crowded party reclaimed his attention. "C'mon, babe. Let's celebrate first. It's Spring Break!"

  He splashed some champagne in a glass for me and then bounded off to the beach. I poured a second glass and went to find Mara. She had commandeered the second-floor bathroom and pulled me in with her.

  "This place is insane, Summer. How did Brandon get it?" Mara asked.

  I shrugged and unpacked my best bikini. "You know how he always says that 'networking' is his best class? He probably knows the owner's son or something."

  "Or daughter," she said. She was determined to be suspicious of Brandon. "And I didn't think computer geeks liked to socialize so much."

  Brandon had created his own major, a combination of coding and cutting-edge computer technology that confused even his advisors. There was no denying his talent, though he had yet to find a good focus for his abilities. The sheer possibilities his genius opened up inspired me every day.

  "He's pretty amazing, isn't he?" I said. It was a statement, not a question.

  Mara snorted and pulled on a daringly low-cut one-piece swimsuit. The black and gold stripes made her mocha skin glow. Next to her, I looked
like a pale pearl. My string bikini did nothing to break up the paleness of my skin and I squirmed a little. Brandon often complained that I spent too much time studying and not enough on myself. I had completely forgotten to use the self-tanning lotion he'd bought me as a gift.

  My roommate loaned me a gold sarong and we made our way through a house full of appreciative glances. After seeing all the guys jostling each other and ogling us, I felt better about my lack of a tan.

  I hoped Brandon wouldn't be able to keep his eyes, or his hands, off me.

  "Whoa. Now look who decided to join the party." Brandon wrapped an arm around my waist and kissed me until I giggled.

  "Were you two seriously talking about school work?" I asked.

  Brandon's classmate, Roger, tore his eyes off the tiny triangles of my string bikini top and cleared his throat. "I don't think they teach what Brandon's talking about in class."

  Mara shot a disapproving frown over Brandon's shoulder. "I'll get us some more champagne."

  Brandon ignored them and stroked his hand up and down my back. "You like it, Summer? I did good?"

  I shivered delightfully under his caress and smiled. "This place is great. How on earth did you afford it?"

  Brandon tipped his head back and laughed. "It's not like anyone pays with real money these days, just numbers on a computer screen."

  I wrinkled my nose after the blast of his beer breath. "What do you mean they don’t pay with 'real money?'"

  He swept me into his arms and kissed me until the heat between my legs made my knees weak. The way his arms tightened possessively around me took my breath away. After years of flirtations, I felt ready to be claimed and the idea turned my body to liquid honey. I gave myself up willingly to the kiss despite the curious eyes all around.

  When Brandon finally broke away for a breath, he said, "I can do this and more for you, Summer. Do you like that? Does that make you hot?"

  He turned me away from the party crowd, his broad back shielding us as he wiggled his fingers through the folds of my sarong. Like a heat-seeking missile, his long middle finger found my most intimate folds and slipped underneath the damp bikini bottom.

  I gasped, my slick desire obvious to his probing fingertip. "Brandon!"

  He caught my shy exclamation in another kiss and I could feel the quivering edge of my control slipping away. Still, there was something strange about what he’d said.

  I tore my lips from his and pushed his hand out and away. "You paid for this beach house with a phony bank account number?"

  Brandon waggled his eyebrows at me and licked the finger I had wetted. "And it was so easy, Summer. We could live like this all the time."

  "But we won't," I reminded him. "I'll make enough money. And you could, too. Just think of all those tech companies that want to hire you!"

  He looked relieved when Mara returned with more champagne. Within seconds, he slipped away, always the life of the party, and left me with more suspicions than even Mara could imagine.

  "You okay?" she asked.

  I gulped down the champagne and shrugged. "I will be when I have a few more of these."

  Brandon was already drunk and he’d just been joking. There was no way he was seriously considering hacking as a career. The beach house was probably just a prank.

  I never understood the stupid jokes and risks people took in college, but Brandon always said I was too serious. So I slammed another drink and tried to get into the Spring Break spirit.

  Chapter 3

  I was still sunburned and hungover when classes resumed. The rest of Spring Break had gone by in a blur, and all I knew for certain was that I had seen very little of Brandon. We'd had hot sex in the cool cellar of the beach house and then again in a hidden dip of the sand dunes, but he kept having to leave on what he called 'business.'

  Mara had convinced me to leave early, in case the authorities came to arrest Brandon, she’d said. It wasn't a hard sell anyway, because I needed to concentrate on what credits and accomplishments would earn me a place at graduate school.

  "This has to be the longest application in the history of the world!" I complained to Mara.

  She glanced over from our sagging futon and grinned. "Check out the profile picture of Chase Kerns again. That should cheer you up!"

  "His company is hotter than he is," I said, but we both knew that was a lie.

  "Still, the chance at sitting in a classroom with him at the front should be enough to get you through that huge stack of paper,” Mara pointed out.

  I was reading my personal essay out loud when Brandon burst into our dorm room. "College is total bullshit! Do they really think I need their stupid slip of paper?"

  I jumped up from my twin bed and caught his angrily shaking fist. "What are you talking about? Is everything okay?"

  He gritted his teeth and let out a terrible growl that had Mara scrambling for the safety of the hallway. She shut the door behind her as he started to yell, "I'm going to fail my last requirement, that goddamn language class! Who cares what language I can speak—I can write in dozens of different computer codes!"

  I pressed my palms to his chest and tried to get him to sit down, but he pushed me away.

  "Can't you just retake the final or hand in some extra credit?" I asked.

  His dark eyes glittered. "It's up to the professor, that stuck-up old creep. He hates me and he'll never change my grade."

  "Why does he hate you?" I asked.

  Brandon grimaced. "I don't know. His teaching assistant complained about me or something.” He shook his head and seemed to calm somewhat. “I don't care, though. Whatever. I don't need him to change my grade!"

  An icy thought hit me. "What do you mean? Just go talk to him."

  Brandon laced his fingers and stretched them out, the same way he always did right before touching a computer keyboard. "It's not just me, Summer. He's threatening to fail a few of us. Just because we didn't complete the language lab component."

  I knew all of his classmates; they were some of our closest friends. "Like who? Is Andy okay? What about Tanner?"

  Brandon scowled and turned back towards the door. "They're all fine."

  "Who else? Jimmy?" I asked. "Maybe you can all work together to lodge a complaint against the professor."

  Brandon yanked open the dorm room door and would have left if I hadn't grabbed his arm with both hands. "Don't worry about it, Summer. I got this," he said.

  I tugged on his arm until he reluctantly turned to face me. "Hey,” I said. “I'll help. I'll go talk to the college president."

  Brandon rolled his eyes and pulled his arm free. "You don't need to worry about it. I just wanted to rant. Sorry for scaring off Mara again."

  "It's okay." I kissed his cheek. "I'll even help you cram for the retake, if you want."

  "Nah. I mean, no thanks." Brandon pushed me back into my dorm room. "I gotta go talk to my language lab partner. This is all her fault."

  I frowned. "Her fault? What, did she never show up? Why don't you tell the professor?"

  Brandon glanced down the hallway, clearly done with our conversation. "No, it wasn't like that."

  "She didn't do her half of the assignments?" I asked. "Was she not flexible enough to work around your schedule?"

  "Oh, she was flexible." Brandon waggled his eyebrows at me.

  I swatted his arm. "I'm serious, Brandon! I'm trying to help. You have to graduate!"

  "Why?" he asked.

  The question was so honest it had a ring of finality about it. My mind reeled. Not graduate college? For me that meant I wouldn't be able to get into graduate school and on track to the career of my dreams. Why didn't Brandon feel the same?

  "So we can start our life together. Our careers. Don't you want to get out of this place and move on?" I asked.

  Brandon's forehead furrowed. "Move on as in follow you to another college campus? Start our lives as in buy a house and start ticking off boxes on the boring life checklist?"

  "I thought
that's what you wanted." I stepped back.

  "I want to go talk to my language lab partner," Brandon said.

  "If it's her fault, then you have to tell your professor," I said.

  "Don't worry about it, Summer. I'll see you at my place later?"

  I stopped him before he could walk away. "Who is she? Your lab partner?"

  "Tanya," he said. "Don't worry. I'm sure we'll think of something."

  I didn't like the way Brandon said 'we.' Tanya was a visual arts student with long black hair and a reputation for wildness. She loved to wear provocative clothes just to fluster the professors and distract her fellow students. It was easy for her with voluptuous curves and bright red lips that always looked hungry. I could think of a dozen ways Tanya could have screwed up Brandon's required course and they all worried me.

  I planted an anxious kiss of Brandon's wry lips and watched as he marched away. The confident set of his broad shoulders should have reassured me, but I was afraid he was going to do something reckless.

  And, until I knew what, I couldn't concentrate on my application or anything else.

  Chapter 4

  "What about after college?" Mara sat down at the campus coffee shop and clutched her mug with both hands. "You have a plan and Brandon has problems. Is that really what you want?"

  I reached for my coffee and the twinkling gold bracelet Brandon gave me caught my roommate's eyes. "He gave it to me last night. He apologized for everything."

  "Everything?" Mara asked.

  She didn't understand that away from the crowds and the pressure of college, Brandon was a totally different man. He could be quiet and thoughtful, sweet, and so, so sexy. It was hard not to fall into the memory of wearing nothing but my new gold bracelet. The delicious remembrance made me shiver and smile.

  "Doesn't everybody rebel a little bit in college? Isn't that the point?" I asked Mara.

  She laughed. "Everybody but you. That's why I don't get it. How can you put up with him?"

  I wanted to tell Mara that I loved Brandon, that I could see our lives together all the way through marriage, children, and everything else that happened to happy couples. The truth, though, was that the beach house incident had thrown me. It felt like I didn't really know Brandon at all. Little moments, like the night before, reminded me of why I was with him, but every day there were strange new suspicions.