Annalise Writes

Chapter 1

I typed away furiously on my laptop.

He had hair like the summer's sun and eyes like a turbulent, stormy, raging, fathomless ocean.

She kissed his tats. She licked the inky black rose on his wrist. His skin tasted hot, so hot, hot like the lava from ten thousand and one volcanoes.

"Oh, God! Cate! That feels sooooo goooooood!" he screamed.

I yawned lazily, leaned back in my IKEA chair, and took a sip of my boba.

Damn, taro milk tea was sooooo goooooood.

With Taylor Swift on full blast, I continued to write. My fingers flew across the keyboard in a blur. I was determined to finish this chapter within the hour.

He attacked her with his pierced tongue. The slippery muscle felt even hotter than lava inside her mouth. His passion excited Cate so much that her thick black-rimmed glasses slipped right off of her face.

Jaxon gasped in shock. "Wow, Cate! I've never seen you without your glasses before! Your eyes are gorgeous! They're the exact same shade as aquamarine cerulean emeralds under a midday moon!"

Cate's cheeks burned red like a fire engine.

In a soft whisper, she whispered softly, "Just for you, Jax, I'll never wear glasses again!"

"I love you, Caterina Alicia La Dante! I thought you were only a nerd, but now I know you're nothing like the other girls on campus!"

"I love you, too, Jaxon Zane Maddox, even though you used to be such a player!"

And—

End scene!

I grinned.

Man, the inspo was really flowing tonight.

I uploaded the new chapter of my story, The Nerd and the Player, onto Hottpad and waited for the votes and comments to roll in.

omg jaxton is so hawt!!

Cate is such a lucky bish!!

I gave myself a mental pat on the back. Twenty comments and eleven stars in ten minutes. Not too bad.

With another yawn, I pulled up the Google doc for my new historical vampire romance. It was close to midnight. I should've been working on my paper for psych class—due by the end of this week—but Lord Byron Malachi Maxwell simply needed to be written!

So, like a girl possessed, I began to type.

His dark midnight-colored hair sparkled like black glitter under the moonligh—

BAM! BAM! BAM!

My fingers hovered over the keyboard in mid-sentence. I glanced over to my rickety bedroom door. I was surprised it hadn't collapsed under the sheer force from my roommate's violent knocking.

"Annalise! Can you please turn down your music? It's the witching hour right now, and I'm trying to cleanse my chakras!"

I rolled my eyes. Kyra was always such a killjoy. For a black-lipstick-wearing-and-Doc-Martens-obsessed goth girl, she often reminded me more of a daughter of Karen than a daughter of Satan.

Reluctantly, I turned down the volume on my speakers to appease Her Cranky Highness.

"Sorry about that, Kyra!" I shouted through the door. "Is this better?"

No answer.

I assumed my roommate had plodded back to the dark, grumpy cave from whence she came. Good riddance!

I continued to write for another five minutes or so before deciding to call it a night. Kyra the Killjoy had officially killed all of my grand ideas for Lord Maxwell.

With a sigh, I shuffled over to my bed. I pushed all of my unfolded laundry to the floor and crawled onto the mattress.

As my head hit the pillow, I passed out almost instantly. I slept restlessly, though, haunted by annoyingly realistic dreams of Kyra chanting strange witchy spells into my ear all night.

The next morning, sunlight streamed through my window. I groaned. I wasn't ready to get up yet. I snuggled deeper into my pillow. The whole mattress shifted.

I frowned and popped one eye open.

Something hard and solid brushed against my legs, my back, my bum...

No, wait, not something—

Someones.

I jolted awake with a start.

To my left, a deep, husky voice murmured against my neck. "Your blood smells divine, my love."

To my right, a tattooed, muscled arm slid around my waist. "Good morning, gorgeous. I love your eyes. They're the exact same shade as chestnuts roasting on an open fire."

I screamed and leapt out of bed.