Note: Alright I hope that my first teaser was appreciated and yes, this is aption of age-gap erotic romance.


    Now the actual book begins. Happy reading everyone.


    LAINE


    My stupid pumps aren’t cut out for this weather. Cold water squelches between my toes and my breath is misty, wet hair like frozen straw against my cheeks. I can hardly see through the rain.


    Dam, n my birthday for being sote in November.


    Damn me for not thinking harder about my wardrobe choices.


    I wasn’t nning on being out thiste, eighteenth birthday or not. I’m dressed for a quick coffee on a cloudy afternoon, not for clubbing through a stormy evening  leggings and a strappy cami under a fluffy teal cardigan that holds more rain than it keeps out. This stupid scenario is all Kelly Anne’s fault, insisting it wouldn’t be a proper birthday celebration unless it involved getting trashed in some sleazy club in the backstreets of Brighton. We’ll have a great time, she said, just a bus ride and a couple of drinks, she said. Who knows, you may even meet someone hot and finally ditch the V card, she said.


    I have no intention of trading my virgin status for a drunken fumble in a back alley with some random who barely knows my name.


    And now she’s bailed on me, typical Kelly Anne style. Last I saw of her she was lip-locked with some vest-top-d hipster with thick-rimmed sses. Then she was gone, off in a puff of tequ-scented pheromones for some bump and grind at hipster-guy’s pad, no doubt. Regr, except she still has my pho, ne, purse, and keys in her handbag for safekeeping.


    My stupid fault for believing for one single second she’d take care of them. Nothing is safe with Kelly Anne after a couple of tequs, despite what she’ll have you believe.This is the property of N?-velDrama.Org.


    I root through my sopping pockets, nothing there but a couple of soggy cigarette papers.


    Idiot, I’m such an idiot.


    I have no real n for getting home to Newhaven. It’s the best part of a ten-mile hike, and the odds of making it back without either sumbing to hypothermia or stumbling into the sea are slim to nil. I’m sure I should be more freaked out than I am, but I feel strangely nonchIt’sy, it’s more numb than nonchnt. Maybe I’ve had a few too many tequs myself, or maybe it’s the sorry knowledge that I have nobody who cares enorealizeI’ve been strandedstrandstranded stranded out a penny in my pocket.


    The fact that Kelly Anne is my best friend and the only real person who gave a shit about my birthday says it all. Even if I do make it home tonight, there’ll be nobody there. Mum’s away again, off in France with hertest conquest. Denny, he’s called. He works over there, doing up properties for rich folk, giving Mum the illusion that she’s one of them, and that’s all she’s ever wanted. That and a man who’ll stick with her longer than it takes to shoot his load. So far so good with Denny, six months and going strong. At least she remembered my birthday enough to send a text this year.


    I think I’m headingseafrontsea front, I hope I’m headingseafrontsea front. They have bars there that stay open all night, maybe I can find somewhere to hang out until morning, somewhere vaguely warm to pass the time until I figure something out  except I don’thaveethat iss, thatthat’sly Anne’s handbag, too. Even if I had any money for a drink, nobletever let me buy one without ID. I still get half-fare on public transport, that’s how young I look. Kelly Anne says it’s because I’m so blonde. You look like one of those creepy porcin dolls, she says, but prettier. I guess that’s supposed to be apliment.


    Maybe I should try to find a police station, exin my sorry situation, and hope they’ll let me stay until morning. Maybe I could face the ten-mile hike home when the sunes up if it ever stops raining. Maybe I could find a way to break in at home, or I could head over to Kelly Anne’s and wait for her to resurface, give her a piece of my mind for leaving me up shit creek birthday without so much loose change to my name.


    Maybe her parents will be home, maybe they’ll let me dry off and wait it out in her bedroom.


    My numb feet ssh through a puddle and it turns out they aren’t as numb as I thought. My teeth are chamy ttering, arms folded tight, my wet cardigan so cold against my skin that it feels like an ice bath. Everything seems darker here. I can’t hear any distant bass from nearby clubs, just the asional drone of a car and the drumming of the rain. The streets are narrow, a rat run of back alleys, wheeled bins piled high with crap. It smells rancid, and even though the dim lighting and the rain make it damned near impossible to get my bearings, I’m sure this isn’t the waseafrontsea front. I haven’t got a clue where I am or where the hell I’m going.


    Shit, shit, and more shit.


    For the first time through this sorry mess, I feel fear creeping up my spine. I’m out of my depth, and the tequ is wearing off fast. Way too fast.


    My nerves are chattering worse than my teeth. I would kill for a cigarette, just to take the edge off, and as I turn the corner I may be in luck. A solitary figure is propped in a shadowy doorway. He’s wearing a hoodie, so I can hardly see his face, not that I’m looking. I’m far too focused on the glow of the cigarette between his fingers.


    “Hey,” I say, smoothing back the wet hair from my face. “Could you spare me a smoke?”