ComeBackToMe

Mari
Kyle

Kelly and Scott's undeniable connection led to one hot night
during freshman year. Two years later, they've grown apart, but the attraction
remains. And a night of fun that should offer a chance to start over only
serves to push them further apart.

The time for them to finally get it right may be slipping
away.

Unknowingly booked for the same flight home at the end of
the school year, the two find themselves stranded in a motel room for the night
when a dangerous storm grounds all outbound planes. As Scott and Kelly
reconnect, the storm of lust brewing between them just might rival the one
outside.

A
Romantica®
new adult erotic romance
from Ellora’s Cave

Acknowledgments

My mom and dad for supporting me in every dream I’ve ever
had. It has made all the difference in my life. Thank you. I love you!

Everyone at Ellora’s Cave who played a role in
Come Back
to Me
’s publication, especially Krishan Trotman for taking a chance on me
and Victoria Reese for helping me get it in tip-top shape. Thank you so much!

And a huge thank-you to all my friends for always talking me
down off the ledge when I threaten to quit writing, even though we all know I
could never actually give it up.

Freshmen Year

Kelly

“Would you hurry up, Rebecca?” Kelly Stern yelled to her
roommate through the closed door of their dorm room. They had a mandatory
freshman orientation event in half an hour and it was all the way on the other
side of campus. She turned a shy smile to Scott Matheson, the guy from down the
hall who had helped her and her parents move her stuff into her room on
Freshmen Arrival Day a few days ago.

“Are you sure she’s in there?” Scott asked.

“Yeah. She said to meet her here after the campus safety
event,” Kelly said, widening a casual smile even though heat lashed her face
every time she looked in his direction.

It had been like this for days now, ever since she and
Rebecca had watched him raise both their beds a little higher on the first day.
As he worked, she had gotten a peek at the sliver of chiseled muscle beneath
his polo shirt. All she could think about was what the rest of his body looked
like, obsessing late into the night about whether those sculpted ridges of
muscle extended down into the V-shape definition at his pelvis she loved so
much on men. He also had big strong hands to match very large sneakers, which
made her mind wander even further. Of course, those were just myths that didn’t
actually offer clues to the size of the cock in the jeans but she liked to
fantasize anyway. Kelly had a thing for men who looked like they might be too
big for her to handle.

And every night since then, she’d been heading for the dorm
showers, her head filled with relentless fantasies of all the things she wanted
him to do to her. Pinching one of her own nipples, she would picture his dark-brown
eyes filled with desire as he gave one of the pink buds a gentle bite. And in
her mind, he was a dirty talker too, demanding that she tell him what she
wanted.
Please lick my pussy, Scott
, she would think of herself saying. Then
Kelly had pressed hard circles against her aching clit, grateful for the glide
of warm water as she imagined his mouth there and his tongue caressing the spot
with merciless flicks until she had to beg for a break. As the pulsating heat
of her climax took over, Kelly would brace her hand on the wall and muffle her
moans of pleasure with a bite to her lip.

As they stood in the hallway, she wrested herself from the
memory for fear she would have to excuse herself for a shower right then. “I
bet she fell asleep. Give me a sec please,” Kelly said.

“Yeah sure. No problem, Lee,” he said in a deep tone, raking
his blond hair with his fingers. She clenched her entire body from the soft
ripple of his arm muscles when he shrugged.
Damn, even the way he speaks is sexy
.
And I love that he has a nickname for me already
. She squeezed past him
and felt the blaze from his stare on her back as she pushed into her room.

“Wait! Kelly, no!” Rebecca yelled but Kelly was already
inside and holding her hands to her mouth at the sight of her roommate’s legs
spread in the air with a male face between them. “Shit!”

The guy lifted his head and shot an unapologetic smile at
Kelly.

“Becks, I’m so sorry,” Kelly said beneath giggles as she
backed out into the hallway and shut the door. She slammed into Scott’s hard
body and when she turned to face him, his wide eyes revealed he had also
witnessed the scene in her room. “Guess she’s not coming.”

“Oh no, I think she is,” he said with a wink as they headed
for the exit and Kelly laughed even as her face flushed.

Damn, she would’ve done anything for some oral action right
about now. Of course to maximize the agony of her own dry spell, she was with a
roommate who was already getting laid during orientation. While she didn’t
think she had Rebecca’s charisma, Kelly was well aware she was attractive. She
hated exercise but kept as physically active as possible to maintain her tiny
waist and perky, toned backside and she loved her long curly brown hair, brown
eyes and naturally bronzed skin.

“Aren’t you supposed to put a sock on the doorknob or
something?” she asked. “Isn’t that the unspoken rule in college?”

“In Becca’s defense, she hasn’t even had time to unpack any,”
Scott replied, holding the dorm door open for her.

Gabel College was lively for a place with just a fraction of
the student body present. Although it had only been a few days, Kelly got the
sense she would be very happy here. Her parents had been reluctant about her
choice of a school across the country on the East Coast but Kelly had always
been the adventurous type, eager to discover the unknown, which explained her
fixation on Scott. Right now, he was the foreign territory she was desperate to
explore.

“Scott, look, the fro-yo line is finally short.” Kelly
yanked him through the doors of the campus ice cream shop and hurried to take a
spot behind the last person. They had been scoping out the place every time
they passed through the quad but the line of waiting people was usually out the
door.

“Look at us. We’re already checking things off the ‘Gabel
Got To’ list,” Scott said. The Gabel Got To list was a bunch of activities,
both risqué and tame, for students to do during the four years before
graduation.

Kelly flinched at the sound of his voice, unprepared for the
closeness as the sounds snaked into her ear. She touched the back of her neck
where his breath had landed as her nipples puckered against her top. His mouth
would be that warm on her inner thigh, she thought, and his tongue so velvety
against her skin.

“Uh, that’s true…and it’s only freshman orientation. We are
so ahead of the game…” She wondered if he was the type to pry her thighs apart
with a slow touch, then plant a trail of teasing kisses as he moved toward her
clit. Or would he open her up with a rough motion and just bury his face
between her legs.

His hands landed on her waist, tearing her from her thoughts,
and she clenched in her panties. “Kelly? It’s your turn…”

“Oh right!” she said with a soft whimper. Damn, this man was
going to drive her crazy if she reacted like this every time he was in the
vicinity. After placing their orders, Scott and Kelly cut through the courtyard
as they headed for the main auditorium where the freshman orientation
presentation on required courses was being held. They had gone to every
activity together and she already felt a strong bond with him. Besides being
attractive, he was also really sweet and attentive. He never missed the chance
to hold a door open for her or offer her a chair when there was only one left.

“Where else did you look at schools in Boston?” he asked.

“Boston University, Boston College, Brandeis. Gabel was the
best of everything I ultimately wanted. Has all my potential majors, it’s small
and it has a great student-to-professor ratio. What about you?”

He always watched her so closely whenever they talked, to
the point that it was almost overwhelming, as if he was soaking her in like she
was an experience rather than just someone he was having a conversation with.
It was nice to be appreciated that way, even if they were just discussing which
electives they could squeeze in this semester.

“My family is all Boston University on both sides. I wanted
to break the mold.” He licked around the cone of his ice cream and Kelly nearly
moaned out loud as she watched. “So you think that’s going to happen all year
with Rebecca?” he continued, laughter just below the words.

“I hope not. That would be really inconvenient for me,”
Kelly said as they stepped into the auditorium. She spotted two adjacent seats
after someone handed them both a freshmen course catalog. Scott gestured for
her to take the innermost seat and as she slid past him, she caught his stare
falling to her butt before she settled onto the cushion. Kelly crossed her legs
as heat flared deep in her loins, the same kind that had driven her to the
shower every night.
He was checking me out
. It really turned her on.

“You can always come to my room, Lee. I think my roommate
has a thing for you,” he joked.

“Your roommate, huh?” she replied with a smile. As the
speaker took the stage, Kelly spotted Rebecca strolling in with several other
stragglers, including the guy who had been eating her out earlier. Kelly and
Rebecca locked eyes. Rebecca didn’t even have a hint of embarrassment in her
expression as she waved and walked over to Kelly and Scott.

“Hey, Becks,” Kelly drawled. “Unpack your socks, okay? So
you can give a girl a warning next time.” She really wasn’t offended; she liked
Rebecca. Rebecca had been so warm to her when they first met that they had
become instant friends.

“Sorry about that. It just sort of happened. One minute we
were talking about how we’d both gone to the same high school and never
met…and…well…you know how these things go,” Rebecca said and that was the
extent of her explanation. “Anyway, I’ll see you guys after this snoozer. I’m
serious this time.”

Scott held his gaze on Rebecca as she walked away to take a
seat with a few women who lived in the same hall. Kelly watched him from the
corner of her eye, spotting the growing bulge in his pants. He shifted his legs
as he continued to stare at Rebecca before dropping the course catalog to his
lap. His skin flushed deep-red and he angled his body away from Kelly. A streak
of jealousy cut through her, sharp, fiery anger blooming in her core as she
flipped through her catalog at a quick pace. Was he imagining going down on Rebecca
now?

“Um…you’re really excited about those freshman courses, huh?”
he asked.

One of us is really excited but it’s not me.
“I guess
so.” She glared in Rebecca’s direction for a second but decided almost
immediately that it was ridiculous to develop animosity for something that hadn’t
even occurred yet between her and Scott, and might never occur. But Rebecca was
a beauty, the kind that stole men’s attention. She was tall and thin and had
waves of jet-black hair, dewy skin and the deepest of blue eyes. It was only
natural that he would be attracted to her.
Just because you touched yourself
to him a few times doesn’t mean you have some claim to him.

“You still think you’ll want to take that photography class
together? I hear it fills up pretty fast and then they dump any other waiting
students into a lottery pool,” he said. She glanced over at him. His course
catalog was still pressed into his lap.

“Yeah sure,” she said in a nonchalant tone, feeling a slight
bit calmer than she had a few minutes before. She was in a room full of guys
and she didn’t have to set her heart on just one so early in the year no matter
how well they clicked. But she did like that Scott was from Southern California
just like her family. He laughed at all of her corny jokes and they both had an
interest in the same photography seminar. The past few days had been fun but
most people probably didn’t even stay friends with the students they met during
orientation once classes were in full swing. And if he started seeing her
roommate, she doubted she would be able to remain friends with him anyway. Then
another dreadful realization crossed her mind—if Scott and Rebecca were having
sex in her room or his room, she would definitely have no place to go. Yikes!
Time
to start making some new friends,
she decided in a panicked thought.

She and Scott didn’t speak again once the lights went low
and the speaker introduced a slideshow on available freshman electives. And
without waiting for the lights to fully come back up when it was over, Kelly
leaped from her seat and dashed out of the auditorium with Scott shouting after
her. She didn’t turn, however, figuring there was no sense in prolonging a
connection that would only lead to getting her feelings hurt.

* * * * *

“Which?” Rebecca asked. She was holding up two different
shades of lipstick in front of Kelly, as Kelly pulled curlers out of her own
hair.

“The deeper red,” Kelly replied. “Okay, your turn. Which
dress?” She pointed to the options she had laid out on her bed—a black lace
cocktail dress and a light-blue mini. It was the last day of freshman
orientation and there was a school-sponsored formal to mark the occasion. She
wondered if Scott was going. They hadn’t spoken for a few days, largely due to
her avoidance of him since the freshman electives seminar. He hadn’t even
stopped by her room since that day.
I guess he got the hint.

“Blue one for sure! Everyone’s going to be in black tonight,”
Rebecca recommended.

Kelly rolled her eyes, raising her hands to her hips. “Or is
it because you sort of want to borrow it? You’ve been eyeing it since I took it
out of the closet.”

A look of resignation crossed Rebecca’s face. “Okay, okay. I
like it better than mine. And since you’re wearing—”

A knock interrupted their conversation and Kelly belted her
robe on her way to the door. “Scott!” she said as she opened it, her heart
jumping for her throat. He looked handsome in his black suit, with a new
haircut highlighting his blond locks, and he was holding up his tie. The weight
of how much she had missed hanging out with him hit her and she was smiling
before she even realized.

“Uh…sorry to bother you. I’m embarrassed to say that one of
my sisters or my mom always does this for me…could one of you do it?”

Maybe it’s time I face what’s happening between him and
Rebecca.
This is probably just an excuse to see her. “Yeah,” she said
sadly. “Let me get Reb—”

“No.” He grabbed her wrist before she could retreat into the
room. “I want you to do it.”

“Okay. I’ve only done it a few times so I’m not sure I’ll
get it right but I’ll try. Rebecca is still getting dressed. Can we go to your
room?” she asked and when he nodded, she followed him out. Scott’s room was
empty and he explained that his roommate had gone to the alterna-formal, a
student-created event for people who didn’t want to participate in the actual
school-sponsored one. Kelly had imagined them alone together in there a million
times while their friendship was developing—had craved it, really—and the
recent distance between them had not dampened that want at all. Every inch of
her skin was sizzling in desire with the fantasy of having him toss her to the
mattress and the two of them ravaging each other. His gaze trailed up the
length of her thigh, now exposed through the split in her robe, and when his
stare collided with hers, she gulped before she looked away.