Wet (Elemental 1)
Authors: Rose Wulf
Evernight Publishing ®
Copyright©
2016 Rose
Wulf
ISBN: 978-1-77233-793-8
Cover Artist: Jay
Aheer
Editor: Amanda Jean
ALL RIGHTS
RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized
reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
No part of this book may be used or
reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the
case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction.
All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual
events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.
DEDICATION
This book
is dedicated to my Evernight Family. So many of you have stepped up to offer
words of encouragement, praise, and even friendship. You have truly touched my
heart. Your support helped me find the strength to revise this book, and the
rest, after the fiasco of the series being taken down last year. So it's in
large part thanks to you that I can present this new and improved story to the
world.
Thank you,
Evernight Publishing, staff and fellow authors alike. It's a joy to be a part
of this family each and every day.
WET
Elemental
Series, 1
Rose
Wulf
Copyright © 2016
Chapter One
“Hawke, Blake.”
Brooke barely had time to think,
What
a name,
before the guy sitting in the desk beside hers pushed to
his feet. Subsequently, that provided her with another perfect opportunity to
ogle him. He was a good four inches past six feet tall, with dark, slightly
shaggy hair and a strong yet angular profile above a lean and toned body. Hell,
she’d dated a guy on the swim team a couple of years earlier who’d be jealous
of that body.
“Here,” Blake Hawke called obediently, his thumbs hooking
into his jeans pockets. And he even had Brooke’s favorite kind of voice—she
thought of it as ‘light masculine’. Definitely male, but not so deep or
gravelly that he sounded like he was growling all the time. ‘Lighter’ just meant
she could as easily hear him laughing, or talking with a smile.
She was so lost in her mental cataloguing, she nearly
missed the name of Blake’s assigned partner. Which, naturally, was hers.
“Munroe, Brooke.”
Doing her best not to stare at the balding man in the front
of the room, or to let on that she’d been supremely distracted, Brooke rushed
to her feet to announce her presence. Fortunately, he merely nodded, made a
mark on his roll sheet, and moved on. Brooke resettled, releasing a silent
breath, and nearly jumped out of her skin when Blake Hawke leaned toward her.
“At least we don’t have to move,” he whispered, that smile
she’d been thinking about projected in his voice.
Brooke turned to offer her own smile as it dawned on her
what he meant. Her name had been called immediately after his. And since their
professor was using the first day of the new semester to assign partners, that
meant Blake Hawke was her new partner. They’d be working together
all
semester. And that made her smile
easier.
****
“So,” Blake began on Wednesday morning, “are we supposed to
exchange life stories or something?” He had one dark eyebrow cocked over his
shining blue eyes to match his tone, and his lips were kicked up at the corners
with mild amusement.
Brooke shrugged. “Something like that, I guess.”
It was the second day of class and, after spending the
first pairing off his students, their professor had declared that it was time
to get to know each other. He’d even taken the liberty of turning pairs of
desks to face each other, so that the students were broken into their pairs as
soon as they sat down. Which was fine for Brooke. She could handle a whole hour
staring at Blake’s smooth face and gorgeous blue eyes. Though those eyes would
surely make it hard to hear what he was saying.
Blake shifted,
leaning back in his seat and angling himself so that he could stretch one long
leg out without kicking her—or anybody else. “All right, then … you want to go
first?”
After taking a deep
breath, Brooke said, “I suppose I can. I’m twenty-two, this is my third year
here, and I’m only taking this class because it qualifies as a substitution for
another one that I need.” She paused, realizing too late what it sounded like
when she said it that way, and quickly added, “Not that I won’t take it
seriously, I promise!”
Blake chuckled. “No
worries, I understand. I’m only taking it because it’s required.”
She smiled,
laughing quietly, and nodded. “Fair enough.” She tried to figure out what more
she should say and belatedly decided he might need to have a half-decent idea
of her schedule. “I’m actually only taking two other classes, but I work a lot
at a diner over in Darien, so I definitely need to plan ahead if we have to
meet outside of class.”
Or when.
With
group projects it was
always
a when.
With only the
faintest of grins, Blake inclined his head. “That’s fine. I actually live in
Darien, so that could work for me.”
“I do, too,” Brooke
admitted. “It’s a heck of a lot cheaper, and quieter.” Darien was a small
coastal town about thirty minutes directly west of the university. But with the
university also being several hundred feet higher in elevation, as well as on
the edge of another, bigger city, Darien may as well have been in another
world.
“Definitely,” Blake
agreed with a laugh.
There was an
extended moment of awkward silence between them, and then finally Brooke said,
“I don’t actually know what else I should say… Is there, like, something you
wanted to know?” And was there a way she could sneak in ‘are you single’
without tipping her hand?
No.
Not
only would it be awkward if he had someone in his life, but they had a whole
semester to work together. Their professor had already made it clear he pretty
much didn’t allow partner-swapping.
Blake shrugged. “I
can’t really think of anything. I’ll tell you a little about me, and we can
just go from there if you want?”
She smiled now and
nodded. “Works for me.”
“Well, like you I’m
twenty-two, but this is my last semester. I’m taking a few more classes, and I
work part-time as a lifeguard at the beach in Darien.”
The minute the word
‘lifeguard’ left his lips, Brooke’s imagination was off and running. She could
just picture him jogging down a sandy beach on a beautiful day, barefoot and
bare-chested, donning the requisite fire-engine-red swim trunks of a lifeguard,
his dark hair ruffling in the wind. And even though her imagination insisted
that red wasn’t necessarily the best color for his skin tone, the image was
striking. Mouthwatering. He’d be damn near irresistible if lifeguards were
allowed to wear blue—which she was sure of, because he’d worn the same blue
overcoat to school now both days.
“I’m sure we can
coordinate our work schedules when we need to,” Blake continued, unknowingly
jarring Brooke from her distracting thoughts. “My supervisor’s pretty
reasonable, especially this time of year.”
Suddenly, the picture in Brooke’s mind shifted until Blake
was running along a snow-covered beach, and she realized she was being
incredibly ridiculous. Swallowing back her awkward laughter, she said, “Yeah, I
bet January’s not the best time of year for beach traffic.”
His grin was back in force. “Yeah, not so much. Most of us
are really only on call right now.”
As their conversation again fell silent, Brooke’s eyes drifted
around the room and she caught a glimpse of another pair exchanging scraps of
paper.
Oh, right!
Turning her
attention back to Blake, she said, “I suppose we should exchange information,
too.”
Brooke looked up from the organizer she’d subsequently extracted
from her school bag to see Blake unlocking a sleek, shiny black smartphone. She
couldn’t help but feel a pang of envy. His phone might as well have come
straight from a commercial, while hers was old, chipped, scratched, and just
all around out of date. But she brushed it off, knowing she was behind on the
technological times. Technology was expensive.
It didn’t take them long to exchange the necessary
information. And then it was time to resume making small talk, because their
professor had made it clear he wasn’t letting them out early.
****
Brooke looked over, still tying her apron around her waist,
when her supervisor, who doubled as one of their bartenders, poked her head
into the room. “Hey, Paula,” she called.
The older woman smiled. “Hey. Wanted to let you know, you
got a couple cuties at three. They just sat down.”
“All right, I’ll be out in a second,” Brooke promised.
Paula was nearly out the door before she added, “And don’t you dare go all
Cupid on me!” Laughter was the other woman’s only response before the door
swung shut once more.
In under a minute, Brooke had managed to get all of her
things thrown into the appropriate pockets and was making her way to her first
table of the night. It was an odd time of day, and so the majority of customers
were currently staking claims on barstools, which made it easy for her to spot
the ‘cuties’ at her table. They were sitting calmly and talking, one leaning
forward with an elbow propped on the table, and the other leaning back with his
arm half-hanging off of the chair. Both were dark-haired, probably tall, and
fairly well muscled from what she could see.
Then she was standing before the table, professional smile
easily in place, and launching into what she figured must be the world’s most
over-used line. “Hey there, my name’s Brooke. You boys know what you want?”
Both men had turned their full attention to her the moment
she had appeared, and she realized that they both had nearly identical bright
blue eyes. Eyes that reminded her of Blake. The man to her left smiled
semi-flirtatiously, his eyes twinkling, and said, “I haven’t seen you here
before, Brooke. You
new
?”
“I’m new to the dinner shift,” Brooke offered, opting to
play along for the moment. It wasn’t like she had other customers to worry
about just yet.
“Well, that explains everything,” he replied, still
grinning. “Except for why I haven’t seen you around town.”
Brooke allowed a small laugh to slip past her lips as she
said, “Trust me, you’re not the first to bring that up. It’s just hard to find
a lot of free time between work and school.”
He scoffed, pulling his arm from the
chairback
in order to wave dismissively as he said, “Ah, school. I don’t miss it.”
“Wish I knew the feeling,” Brooke admitted. A middle-aged
couple had just stepped through the doors, so she knew she had to wrap up their
conversation. Pulling her tablet from her apron pocket, she asked, “So, what
can I get for you tonight?”
The flirtatious one easily took the hint and proceeded to
order his meal, and then she turned her attention to the other man, who had yet
to speak. While neither man looked at all weak or lanky, the second man
appeared noticeably stronger than his companion. It was in his
broad-shouldered, strong-jawed build as much as it was in his expression. And
he had a voice to match, she discovered when he calmly ordered almost the exact
same meal.
When she was done, Brooke flipped to another page and then
easily maneuvered the tables and booths until she could greet the couple who
had just taken a seat. They had claimed a booth in the middle of the
restaurant, along the window-wall. It was the same booth they usually occupied
when they came in.
“Good evening, Mrs.
Buchannon
,
Mr.
Buchannon
,” Brooke greeted sweetly. The
Buchannons
were practically local royalty, and though
Brooke had only been living in town for the better part of two years, even she
was friendly with them. They were incredibly wealthy, and incredibly generous.
She had never met a resident of Darien who could speak a bad word about them.
Katherine
Buchannon
smiled up at
her. “Oh, hello, Brooke! Are you working the dinner shift now?”
Brooke laughed and nodded. “Yeah, I had to switch it up
this semester, since I got stuck with early classes.”
“And how is school going?” Maxwell
Buchannon
asked curiously, his tone indicating genuine interest.
“It’s going.” Brooke gave a frustrated laugh and brief
shake of her head.
“Are you close to graduating yet?” Katherine asked as she
brushed a runaway wisp of faded blonde hair out of her eyes.
“Not close enough. At this rate, I’ve probably got a year
left after this semester.”
“Well,” Maxwell began encouragingly, “continue keeping the
faith, then, and you’ll do fine. It’ll all be worth it in the end.”
Brooke smiled. “I certainly hope so. But enough about me.
What are you in the mood for tonight?”
****
“I am so jealous,” Georgia Clarke declared as she stepped
up beside Brooke in the back room a short while later. Georgia was Brooke’s
favorite coworker, and probably her only good friend. She was about an inch
shorter than Brooke, nearly three years older, and had a whole lot more hair
than Brooke ever would—at least in volume.
Cocking an eyebrow at her, Brooke asked, “Why are you
jealous, exactly?”
Georgia lifted a perfectly manicured hand and absently
twirled a strand of her red hair. It was a dark, maroon shade of red, but when
Brooke had met her (nearly a year and a half before), her hair had been blonde.
She wasn’t entirely sure that had been her real color, either. “You have two of
the Hawke brothers at table three, that’s why,” Georgia declared with a fake
pout. It might have had better effect, Brooke decided, if not for the gleam of
mischief in her light green eyes.
Brooke was halfway through rolling her eyes when Georgia’s
words clicked in her head. “Wait, what? Hawke brothers?”
Now Georgia paused, her hair falling from her loose grasp,
and in a strangely shocked voice, she asked, “You mean you’ve been living here
for nearly two years and you’ve never met or at least heard about them?”
“Obviously not. But I met a Blake Hawke on Monday. He’s in
my first class. We’re partnered up for the semester.”
Georgia’s grin was instantaneous, and she planted her hands
on her hips. “You lucky girl! Although Blake isn’t my favorite of the bunch, but
they’re all gorgeous.”
“So they’re, what, triplets?” Brooke ignored Georgia’s
comment for the sake of her sanity. She didn’t know their exact ages, but the
two at her table had looked to be fairly close to her own age, and she knew
Blake was twenty-two, just like her.