Hardin Scott has been madly in love with Tessa Young since the moment he first laid eyes on her, but there's no way she could ever see him as anything more than a friend. After all, he's a bad boy with a promiscuous past and she's a sweet and innoce...
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I've always wondered what it would feel like to be in love and have that love returned whole-heartedly and unconditionally. I'm not talking about the kind of love from family, although I'm lucky to have had my mum's love growing up back in England, but rather, the kind of love you feel when you've found your soulmate. Maybe the longing I have to love and be loved stems from the fact I come from a broken home, with an abusive man who was a pathetic excuse for a father and a mum who tried her best to make up for his absence. For some reason, I've just never been able to find anyone I cared for enough to make a commitment to for longer than the time it took to finish in bed. After all my fuck-ups and one night stands, I've learned it's not something you can go searching for, rather, it finds you, like it did me, the day I first saw her.
Theresa Young— the most caring, loving and bubbly girl you'll ever meet, with blonde locks, an adorable giggle, and the most mesmerizing shade of blue eyes, with a hint of grey. From the moment I first laid eyes on her, I knew I was screwed. I was in love, but there was no way someone as sweet and innocent as her would go for someone like me— Hardin Scott, resident bad boy, complete with a leather jacket, tattoos and an I-don't-give-a-fuck attitude. Pair that with being an occasional alcoholic and womanizer at Washington Central University and... Well, like I said, I was screwed.
I was used to getting my way and had yet to be turned down by a woman, so what did I have to lose? Being just over six feet tall, with devilishly handsome good looks, piercing green eyes and a charming British accent, no girl could resist me, not even a sweet and innocent one.
From the moment we first spoke, sparks flew between us. It definitely wasn't love at first sight for her. Theresa— or Tessa as she preferred to be called —was a feisty one. She didn't mind calling me out on my shit, and I certainly didn't mind letting her. It was actually quite a turn on.
After that first heated meeting between us, I yearned for more and more, until we finally became friends and saw each other frequently, both in class and during our free time. But it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to be more than friends.
As time passed and we started to become best friends, my feelings for her only grew stronger. Every time I was with her, my heart beat so fast I was afraid she could actually hear it about to beat right out of my chest. I had never felt anything close to what I felt with her before and wanted nothing more than to ask her to officially be mine, but fear of rejection stopped me. I couldn't bear the thought of losing any hope I had that someday she would finally become my girlfriend, but I also couldn't chance ruining our friendship. I wasn't ready to lose her from my life, so having her as my best friend would have to be good enough, until I was finally ready to declare my love to her.
One day Zed Evans, the closest thing I had to a best friend before Tessa, came knocking on my door. He needed a place to live and I had a spare room, so looking at it as an opportunity to become the better person I needed to be in order to win Tessa's heart, I let him move in with me. In hindsight, that was the stupidest decision I've ever made, next to not telling Tessa about my feelings sooner. I've made my fair share of bad decisions, but this one led to my heart being completely shattered.
After meeting each other, Tessa and Zed hit it off. Suddenly we had become this awkward little group of friends that soon turned into my worst nightmare— a love triangle. As it turned out, my so called best friend asked out the only girl I had ever fallen in love with before I ever had a chance to tell her about the feelings I held for her. And she said yes. I had to watch the girl I loved fall in love with my best friend. Suddenly, she wasn't mine to love anymore. That job title had gone to Zed.
As time passed, I continued to spend whatever time I could with Tessa, all while still secretly being completely and irrevocably in love with her. Tessa, still having absolutely no idea about my feelings for her, tried to set me up on dates with her friends, which I refused to go on. There was no point. My heart could never belong to another, not after meeting and falling in love with her.
Months of watching Tessa and Zed date and fall in love, all while hiding my true feelings for her, passed, until one day, in the blink of an eye, everything changed. I had accidentally stumbled upon a dark secret and suddenly, I had the power to turn everyone's world upside down. I had to make a decision. I could either pull the rug out from under Tessa, and change everything she thought she knew about her relationship with Zed, or I could let her continue to live a lie. I knew what the right thing to do was. Was it my fault if doing the right thing also happened to help get me closer to the one thing I wanted more than anything in the world— Tessa Young?
