Better Deeds Than Words (Words#2)

Cover

Title Page

Better Deeds Than Words

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Georgina Guthrie

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Omnific Publishing

Los Angeles

Copyright Information

Better Deeds Than Words, Copyright © 2014 by Georgina Guthrie

All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the publisher.

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Omnific Publishing

1901 Avenue of the Stars, 2nd Floor

Los Angeles, California 90067

www.omnificpublishing.com

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First Omnific eBook edition, May 2014

First Omnific trade paperback edition, May 2014

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The characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

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Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

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Guthrie, Georgina.

Better Deeds Than Words / Georgina Guthrie – 1st ed

ISBN: 978-1-623421-18-2

1. Contemporary Romance—Fiction. 2. University—Fiction. 3. Shakespeare—Fiction. 4. Forbidden Romance—Fiction. I. Title

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Cover Design by Micha Stone and Amy Brokaw
Interior Book Design by Coreen Montagna

Dedication

For my husband, with love.

The Stolen Kiss

Jean-Honoré Fragonard (France, 1732–1806)

The Stolen Kiss
, circa 1780, Oil on canvas

State Hermitage Museum—Saint Petersburg, Russia

Aubrey

Chapter 1

Faithful Friends

Words are easy, like the wind;
Faithful friends are hard to find.
(
The Passionate Pilgrim
)

S
ATURDAY
M
ORNING
. H
ALLELUJAH
. No need to leap out of bed, no reason to move. I dragged the blankets over my head and stretched.

This is what it’s like in heaven—Saturday every day.

Then I realized that this couldn’t be heaven because Daniel, along with his whiskers, his hands, his lips, and his tongue, would have to be here too.

I closed my eyes, thinking about the night before. Daniel had dropped me off at Bay Street at eleven. My feet should have been killing me as I walked back to Jackman, but I was almost certain they hadn’t been touching the ground.

What a crazy night. I’d arrived at the frat house expecting nothing more than a distraction from the horrible week I’d had. Then Daniel had shown up, and between his apology and his shocking story about what that Nicola girl had done to him at Oxford, my head had started to spin. The next thing I knew, I was meeting his grandmother, being invited for Sunday dinner, and sharing a first kiss with Daniel in an abandoned parking lot. Talk about plans going in an unexpected direction.

But how the hell was I supposed to enjoy the memories of Daniel’s warm tongue and roaming hands with the unholy racket coming from down the hall? It sounded like Chef Ramsay was out there having a conniption.

I pulled on some PJ bottoms and made my way to the kitchen where Matt was creating a tower with our frying pans. Stranger still, he was wearing his hockey helmet and had his athletic supporter on over his track pants. His hockey stick was lying across the stove.

“Dude, what in the living fuck are you doing?”

He whirled around, grabbing his hockey stick and backing up, blocking my access to the frying pans. “Stay back.” He held the stick out to protect himself.

“Have you lost your mind? What—?”

“Don’t hurt me, Aubrey.” He cowered in the corner, one hand over his crotch.

Oh,
now
I saw what this was all about. What a lunatic! I decided to play along.

“Lose the cup. I’m about to claim your first born.” I edged closer to him, my eyes narrowed and hand outstretched.

“I mean it, stay back.”

I tried to continue with the charade, but he looked ridiculous. I laughed so hard I gave myself a stitch.

“I guess that means you’re not gonna castrate me for telling Daniel everything yesterday?” he said.

“Holy shit, dude,” I gasped. “What’s with the getup?”

“In case you came after me with a pan. Protecting the noggin’.” He tapped the helmet.

“I think your noggin’s safe, spaz.” I wiped the tears from my eyes.

“And my gonads?”

“Safe too. For now.” I grinned and filled the coffee maker with water.

“That’s a relief.” He sighed, tossing his helmet on the counter. He was about to follow suit with his jockstrap when I held up a hand.

“Ew, get that nasty thing out of here.”

He took his hockey equipment back to his room while I put the frying pans away. He returned and leaned against the doorframe. “So?”

“So what?”

“
So
…Did you guys work everything out?”

“Yes.”

“And everything’s cool?”

“Everything’s very cool. Thanks, Matt. I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything.” He gave me a giant bear hug. “I’m glad you guys got your shit together. And that you didn’t punch me in the junk.”

“Me too.”

“But if he screws you over again, I swear to God—”

“I know. Don’t worry. He’s suitably remorseful. And he appreciated what you did. We both do.”

“No worries. By the way, I told Shawn and Jo you left the party because you weren’t feeling well.”

“Thanks for covering for me.”

“Hey, I’m gonna shower, and then I have a shitload of reading to do. Will you let me know when the coffee’s ready?”

“I’ll bring you a cup. It’s the least I can do,” I said, punching him lightly on the arm.

“Oh, this ain’t over. Payback’s a bitch, Aubs,” he said, his toothy grin lighting up his whole face.

“How altruistic of you,
friend.
”

“Don’t mention it,” he called over his shoulder.

I slouched against the counter, watching the coffee drip into the pot. Was I seriously going to try to get work done today? All I could think about were Daniel’s lips and whiskers; his hands sliding around my hips, pulling me hard against him…

How would I control myself for the next six weeks? Keeping my hands off him now that I knew what I’d been missing was going to make graduating with distinction look like child’s play.

I poured coffee and left a cup on Matt’s dresser before returning to my room. Saturday morning. Time to email my mom and dad. I wrote a long message, telling them about Julie and Matt and talking up my social life. Mom always worried I was spending too much time on school work.

Next I turned my attention to my French homework. Emails from my group members with their contributions to our upcoming presentation waited in my inbox. I hadn’t even started writing my own part yet, so I played catch-up for the next hour. I was snapping my laptop shut when my phone rang.

My heart leapt.

Daniel
.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he said.

“Hey! You sound out of breath. Been thinking of me?” I asked, my voice low and sultry.

“You know I have. Unfortunately, I’ve also been lugging furniture around Brad and Penny’s house for the last hour. I’m helping them move.”

“Sounds like fun.”

“Not so much. What are you up to?” he asked.