Free The Duality Principle by Rebecca Grace Allen

the here and now.
    “Because I’m eating my lunch,” he lied. “And because you’re a jackass.”
    That part was the truth.
    He swallowed a bite of his sandwich and gave in. “Yes, I’ll be there tonight. And I was with Gabby Evans last night. The girl Jamie set me up with.”
    “Hold up.” Connor heard the sound of a fist pounding the dash, and the radio went silent. “You went out with the same girl twice?”
    “Since when do you know so much about my dating life?”
    “Since when do you go on actual dates?”
    Connor sighed. Dean was right, but he didn’t feel like explaining everything. “I like her, okay? I want to get to know her.”
    “Well, fuck me.”
    “That’s what she said,” Mikey added with a laugh. Connor ignored him.
    “You’ll have to introduce us to her tonight at the park,” Dean said. “See you at nine.”
    Connor ended the call without saying anything else. Goodbyes weren’t necessary with Dean—the first friend he’d made when he came to Portland, a partner in crime found in the back row of detention. Having Dean and Gabby in the same place wasn’t a combination Connor was looking forward to. If he was lucky, there’d be too many people there for that to happen at all.
    He didn’t exactly have a history of being lucky.
    Still, as he looked around at the sunny wharf and thought of Gabby’s smile, it seemed possible that his luck might finally be coming around.

Chapter Seven
    Gabriella locked her grandmother’s front door and threw her keys into her bag. Locking the door felt odd—she didn’t have a single memory of her grandmother ever carrying a key. But the house was her responsibility for the summer, and she couldn’t bear the thought of anyone breaking in. She wished she had the money to buy it herself. Losing this place was going to be like losing Nana all over again.
    Jamie stood at the end of their driveways with her hands on her hips.
    “Red, white and blue? Really?”
    Gabriella looked down at her clothes. “It’s the Fourth of July. What’s wrong with it?”
    Jamie threw her hands in the air and started walking. “I don’t know how you could have grown up in Boston and still have zero fashion sense.”
    “You know I don’t care about that.”
    She didn’t. She definitely hadn’t chosen the red tank because it clung to her breasts in just the right way, hadn’t picked out the blue-and-white striped shorts because she knew they made her ass look good. This outfit wasn’t for Connor and the hope that seeing her in it would push him over the edge. It would be a nice surprise, though.
    She’d hoped he would have asked her to go with him to the fireworks after their date, but instead, all he’d done after rebuttoning his pants and righting her wrinkled skirt was walk her back to the parking lot, gave her another well-mannered kiss on her cheek and left her at her car. Fueled by confusion and frustration, she’d given in to fantasies about her rider when she got home, thinking about all the things she was sure he would have done to her on that deserted pier. The way he would have watched her sink to her knees, the feel of the thick, heavy ridge of his cock pushing against her tongue. His touch as he spread her out on the dock and slipped his hand into her panties. Alone in her bed, Gabriella rubbed her needy, swollen flesh until her rider’s phantom fingers made her shudder into her pillow. But the solo session left her feeling empty and frustrated.
    She didn’t understand Connor’s advances and pauses, pulling back just when she wished he’d give her more. There was something hidden in his eyes when he talked about his past, about the reckless teen he once was, but maybe she was imagining more than was really there. Connor couldn’t be both the rebel and the geek, couldn’t be the bad boy turned good. Duality like that might be found in nature, but she’d had enough experience to know that it didn’t exist in men.
    Gabriella followed behind Jamie