Free DEEP: The Complete Man Candy Trilogy by Joanna Blake

couldn't go back out there as keyed up as I was.
    My will power wasn't that strong.
    When I got out of the shower she was gone. I wasn't surprised. There was a polite little note.
    That didn't surprise me either.

    Sleeping with Katey tonight. See you in the morning.
    -C

    I ran my fingers through my damp hair. I glanced at the bed, then down at myself. I was still hard. The cold water had done exactly nothing to relieve the enormous sexual pressure that had been building up inside me.
    Basically forever.
    I'd been 12 when I started noticing girls.
    Let's be honest.
    I noticed a girl.
    Her.
    I'd already been fixated on Caro of course. With her golden pigtails and perfect posture, she'd been noticeable from the first day we met. Teasing her in Church. Getting her into trouble. Wondering what was going on in that pretty head of hers.
    But one day I suddenly had an inkling about what I'd like to do with that one girl.
    It had something to do with the pesky thing in my shorts.  
    I learned pretty quickly that lots of girls would let me experiment. Play around. Eventually do the deed. But they just made the ache go away for a little while.
    And tonight, I'd gotten very close to easing that ache once and for all.
    A big part of me was screaming inside my head that I was an idiot. That I wouldn't get a chance again. That I should have taken what she was offering.
    But that part of me was a bastard.
    I could wait. I had to.
    I wanted her for keeps.
    I pulled a beer out of the mini bar and lay back on the bed. I wondered if she was burning for me the way I did for her. That night by the lake I had thought she loved me. I'd almost said the words.
    Caro had been wearing a new dress that night. Something she'd bought at the one mall a hundred miles away. It was the last night that everyone was together before going off to school.
    Not that I was going to college. I'd had enough of school that was for damn sure.
    But I would have followed her anyway.
    I would have followed her anywhere.
    That was the night I got up the courage to tell her so. It had taken half a bottle of whiskey, but at last I'd had enough. It was now or never.
    Her big eyes had gotten so wide when I grabbed her hand and pulled her away from the bonfire. She hadn't laughed at me the way I'd feared. She'd looked at me with something that looked like hope.  
    Caro... I can't let you leave without telling you...
    Telling me what Chan?
    How I feel about you.
    I'd leaned in to kiss her before saying another word. It felt like we kissed for hours. Hell, we probably had. We'd ended up side by side on the sand, staring into each other's eyes.
    That's when her friends had called her. It was time to go home. She'd walked away but not before smiling at me with sweet promise in her eyes.
    But something had changed that night. I knew because I tried to see her off at the bus station. But she'd taken an earlier bus. She was long gone.
    Hell, I even wrote.
    I never heard from her again.

Carolina

    Even before I opened my eyes I knew where I was. The smell of the leather, the sound of the car, the movement.
    I was tied up in the back of a car. A big car. A luxury car.
    I was in Max's limo.
    Dread thudded in my veins. I opened my eyes, afraid of what I would see. The first thing I saw was Hanz, Max's right hand man.
    The second thing I saw was Katey.
    She was tied up beside me. Her eyes were wide with fear. Whatever they'd given us to knock us out- they'd given me more. She was wide awake, not coming out of a stupor like I was.
    My head thudded dully.
    We were in trouble. Very, very big trouble.
    Whatever Max had in mind, it wasn't good. He wasn't even pretending to be a good person. He was having us manhandled by thugs.  
    Everything Chan and Joss had told me was running through my head. He liked to hurt women. He was a criminal. He wasn't just bad.
    He was evil.
    How could I have been so blind? And now my friend was in danger because of my stupidity. I looked over at her, my eyes