Eye Candy

Eye Candy by Tijan




Chapter 1


Samantha’s senior year at Cain University

The pumpkin had a penis. I was sure of it.

I angled my head to the right, and yep—there was definitely a thick root growing out of the pumpkin’s bottom. I angled my head to the left—still there. I wasn’t sure about touching it, but then again, it was a pumpkin. I was pretty sure no swimming seeds were going to explode from the thick root, so I used my toe to tip it onto its back, and—eureka.

The root grew out, and pointed upward.

“What are you doing?”

I jumped. Heather had come out of nowhere, and I rounded on her. “Announce your presence before you just start speaking. You could give someone a heart attack.”

Heather, one of my best female friends in Fallen Crest since high school, lifted an eyebrow. Her hand went to her slim hip. She gave me an “are you serious” look, but only pursed her lips and shrugged. “There a spider or something on that thing?”

In some ways, we were opposites. Heather had dirty-blond hair, a deep-throated and sultry-sounding voice, and heavily made-up eyes, while I had black hair and dark eyes, and I was pretty sure my voice sounded normal. What we did have in common was our slender build. We were both thin, though Heather had a few more pounds than me.

“Look at it.” I used my toe to point at the root. “Does that look like what I think it does?”

She snorted, then turned to check out the rest of the pumpkins in the field. “It looks well-endowed. Give it to Logan. He’ll be giggling like a schoolboy who got his first dirty magazine.” She thought about it. “A schoolboy who doesn’t have a self-conscious bone in his body.”

I grunted. Her assessment of my stepbrother was dead on. Logan had a girlfriend now, one that was his perfect fit, but before that, he’d been the biggest manwhore since he was in high school.

Logan and I were in our last year at Cain University. Heather had finished school last year at a local college, but was up visiting this weekend. It was Halloween. It was party time! Granted, Logan tended to embrace it more than the rest of us, but this weekend was going to be one big Halloween party. We were starting with a girls’ night tonight, and that meant no Logan—no guys at all. There’d be pumpkin carving, costumes, and drinks: lots and lots of drinks. Logan’s girlfriend Taylor was joining, and so were two of my friends from the cross-country team. It was our night, and we were even going to gossip. See—we were girly. Gossiping wasn’t our usual thing to do, but we were embracing our ovaries this weekend. I was fairly certain Logan and whoever he had in tow would try and scare us, and Heather would throw a wine bottle at them. That was my guess, but I wasn’t really thinking about today or tonight. I was salivating over tomorrow.

Mason was coming to town.

Yes—him. My soulmate. Logan’s brother. My other half. At the mere thought of him, I was already throbbing between my legs. Goddamn, I loved him. He’d been by my side since I moved into his and Logan’s house my junior year in high school. My mom had cheated on my dad with their dad, and there was this whole family drama that ensued. So to say I wasn’t happy would’ve been an understatement. I went a little mental that year, running for hours on end, throwing fireworks into my dad’s car, realizing how much I hated my mom. I hadn’t been the happiest at the thought of living with Mason and Logan Kade, either. I’d pegged them as wealthy and privileged pricks, since they were treated like gods in Fallen Crest. Guys either wanted to be their friends, wanted to be them, or hated them with a passion. The girls—well, I’m sure that’s obvious. Mason was gorgeous. Tall, broad shoulders, slim waist, a body that was sculpted to perfection . . . and it wasn’t even from trying. It was just from him being mouth-wateringly gorgeous, and from training for football.

They kind of adopted me as their family, and I became Mason’s lover. I was his in every sense of the word, and Logan became just as protective of me. For a few years, it was the three of us against the world. There were others, like Mason’s best friend Nate Monson, and then Heather, but it was always the three of us. And to an extent, it still was. No one could touch what we had, and tomorrow we were all going to be together once again.

Mason was in Los Angeles for a football game. He was playing tonight, and then he’d travel to Cain on Friday. We’d have a full weekend together.

I almost groaned. It’d been two weeks since I had last seen him, and I wanted him here now, but . . . one more day. I kept telling myself that, trying not to count the hours on the clock. One more day. Actually, half a day. Maybe I could get super drunk tonight and that’d make the time go faster? No. Even as I half-entertained the thought, I knew I couldn’t.

There’d be booze, Heather, Taylor, Courtney, Grace, and me. Plus pumpkins and carving tools, and I knew Logan would show up somehow. It wasn’t a recipe to get blitzed out of my mind. I’d need to stay alert tonight.

“Sam!”

I looked back, realizing that Heather had moved on without me. “Yeah?”

She waved to the wheelbarrow she was holding, filled with pumpkins. “I got enough of these things for tonight and the party tomorrow. Come on, let’s head out.”

We had been tasked with collecting them not just for carving tonight, but also for a party that Logan was throwing on Friday night. He was partially doing it in Mason’s honor, but also because it was Halloween and it was our last year of college. Logan was finding any excuse to throw a party this year. If I sneezed and the snot came out gold, he would throw a party to celebrate it.

I shook my head, making my way down the row to where Heather was paying for all the pumpkins. The penis one was on top.

“Really?” I looked at it. The thick root was sticking straight up. It had been pointing toward the air before, but now it was curved back against the pumpkin.

She grinned. “He’s happy to see you. I wanted to make you feel special.”

“A pumpkin has a boner for me. Special doesn’t describe how I feel.” But I was grinning too.

After the clerk handed her the receipt, we made our way back to her truck. Heather had offered to drive. My little Corolla had bit the dust that summer, and Mason had been letting me drive his black Escalade. He’d gotten a brand-new one as a present from his manager, and he was driving that in Massachusetts, where he was playing for the New England Patriots. For the weekend, he’d left his new one back there, and I’d cleaned his old one this week for him.

He kept asking how it was doing. I wasn’t the only one he was missing.

She set down the wheelbarrow, then opened the truck’s bed.

I grabbed that thick root and used it to put the pumpkin into the back of the truck. Moving to grab the next one, I asked, “What’s the plan tonight?”