Page 4 of Until Waverly

I wanted to snort and brush off his worries because, in fact, this was the best day of my life. I bucked against him as he pinched my clit. The tingle growing at the bottom of my spine and my belly expanded until I shouted, flexing my hips and countering his strokes with mine. I couldn’t stop moving as I bowed. The intense pleasure coursing through me exploded and then I was falling, enjoying the endorphin release as I quivered.

Jackson’s harsh curse followed shortly after. He held himself still, staring down at me as he panted for breath. This day had no rhyme or reason. The wonder I saw in his gaze would never leave me for the rest of my life. We were two kids. The BOOM brought us together. He pulled out slowly, then pulled me into his arms.

He was gentle and kind to me.

“Happy birthday,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to the crown of my head.

“Thank you,” I whispered, not wanting to break the moment. However, I knew we wouldn’t be able to hide in here forever. This was my birthday party, after all. We’d go down in five minutes.

Maybe.

Chapter1

Waverly

Six weeks later...

I woke up not feeling well. Scratch that. For the last few weeks, I’d been feeling crummy. Everyone was busy, and school was, well, school. Because of how our classes for the nursing department were set up in the accelerated program, we were expected to spend at least two weeks a month at Vanderbilt Hospital doing clinical rotations.

Which meant viruses galore.

Last week three students called out because of an unknown virus strain, causing the pediatric floor to be short-staffed. I’d volunteered since I’d been one of the few unaffected by whatever the sickness had been.

Stupid me for thinking I was invincible.

Crawling out of bed, I wobbled to the shower, feeling both hot and cold. My stomach was queasy. My head throbbed. No good deed, it seemed, went unpunished. I turned on the water and undressed. Every inch of me ached. My legs and arms. My stomach and breasts. Whatever this was, I hoped I never got it again.

If I thought the warm water would perk me up and soothe away the aches, I’d been wrong. I had to sit on the edge of the tub to catch my breath as my heart pounded and the room tilted. I should call in and do all my work online. However, stubborn was my middle name, and I wasn’t giving in so quickly. Nine chances out of ten, the minute I had something to take my mind off not feeling good, I’d be better.

Worked before, anyway.

Because my shift was only four hours, I dressed in scrubs and tied up my wet hair, forgoing makeup and essentials like coffee. Just the thought of the piping hot bitter brew had my stomach roiling in disgust. Now I knew I was sick. Coffee was the sustenance of my life. Without it, I was a psychotic bitch—according to Macey and Mack.

On the way out, I left a message for my primary professor. If I still felt shitty by the end of my shift, I was coming back to my dorm to sleep this off. I couldn’t handle being bleary-eyed and decaffeinated. Also, wouldn’t make it to my late class at three without a shot of energy.

I should have stayed in bed.

On the way to the first floor, I realized that. The elevator, though slow, made my stomach bottom out. The room spun, and my legs felt weak and wobbly. This crap was for the birds. When the door opened, I pushed out into the warm air and instantly regretted it. Summers were brutal in Tennessee. The days were hotter than Satan’s ass crack. If we were lucky, a storm would cool us off in the afternoon before the nights became muggy and suffocating. I shouldn’t have agreed to taking extra courses to graduate sooner.

Unfortunately, the temptation had been too great.

In the accelerated program, the class load was doubled each semester, with the last year of studying being more hands-on than classwork. Also, if students took the summer program, like me, they were automatically put on rotation at Vanderbilt hospital and got paid to do so.

Today, I wished I hadn’t been so ambitious.

The smell of exhaust fumes and fresh-cut grass assailed me as I stepped out of the dorm. Horns from passing cars and conversations surrounded me, and I groaned. Yep, I should go back to bed. Thankfully, with how the campus was setup, I could use the footbridge to get to the hospital, so it wasn’t like I was far away from the dorms, should I need to cut out early.

“You look like shit,” Gracey, one of my program mates, said, coming up beside me. “Should you even be at work?”

She meant well. Her thick, curly hair fell around her shoulders in waves. Her bright amber eyes were filled with concern as she held the door for me.

“I’ll be fine. I’ve got whatever is going around.”

Gracey frowned. “If you say so.”

I did. I could do this.

The first hour was slow. I almost fell asleep twice. By my third hour, I was feeling a bit better until...

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