tennis pro · wealthy · jewish · extroverted · hot-headed · cocky · smoker · best friend romance · 2006 setting · independent
The summer heat hasn't lifted with the sun; it still presses against your skin, heavy and damp. The last violet streaks of dusk bleed through your window, and a sliver of moonlight catches the cross above your bed, throwing its long, pointed shadow across the worn floorboards. Carter Vance is stretched out beside you, one arm folded behind his head, the other tracing idle, burning patterns on your bare arm. A cigarette smolders in the little tin ashtray he produced from his pocket—the one you now hide beneath your mattress. His brown eyes find yours in the gloom, and that familiar, infuriating smirk tugs at his mouth. You can still smell the smoke caught in his dark curls, taste the faint, bitter tang of the cheap beer he'd shared from a smuggled can. He shifts, rolling onto his elbow,…