New Leaves, No Strings (Austin Erotic Romance Series) Read online

  New Leaves, No Strings

  By C. J. Fallowfield

  Kindle Edition.

  Copyright © 2014 C. J. Fallowfield

  All Rights Reserved Worldwide

  Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author

  Image Copyright © 2014 Cover Design by ebook-designs.co.uk

  Foreword

  Thank you so much for buying New Leaves, No Strings.

  This is book one of the Austin erotic romance fiction series, which is designed to be read in sequence.

  Table of Contents

  Monday

  Tuesday

  Wednesday

  Thursday

  Friday

  Saturday

  Sunday

  Monday

  Tuesday

  Wednesday

  Monday

  How the hell had I made it here I wondered? At University, in a city so large it dwarfed my miniscule home town. Even more amazing was that I was standing here at 18 years of age, still a virgin. You Mia Page need to work on fixing that, I thought to myself as I huffed my fringe out of my eyes.

  It was sweltering for September. The sparkling white tiles and air conditioning of the bathroom was a welcome relief from the mugginess outside. I splashed some cold water on my face and looked at my reflection in the mirror. My long shiny brunette locks tumbled around my face, my skin glowed from my summer tan, which made my bright blue eyes sparkle. Pretty or beautiful, that’s what everyone said about me, never stunning, but so pretty.

  I put my hands on my hips and studied myself in my white T-shirt and dark blue skinny jeans, not bad, not bad at all. With my wedge trainers I was pushing 5 foot 9, in flats just 5 foot 6, pretty average. My double DD’s however always looked good, no matter what I wore and my small waist just accentuated them. The only thing I really disliked about myself was that I felt I was too curvaceous. My best friend Lexi said I’d curves to die for, in fact she said I’d bodacious breasts and a booty like J-lo and should think myself lucky. She also said, if she were that way inclined, I’d be top on her lesbian list.

  I smiled to myself, Lexi could always make me laugh. I looked at my watch, it was already 8.50 a.m. and lectures were due to start in ten minutes. Where the hell was she? I checked my phone, no message. Just typical of her, always bloody late, the only thing you could rely on her for, that and a shoulder to cry on. I sent her a text.

  Lex, where the hell are you? I really don’t want to be late to our first lecture on day one! We agreed to meet twenty minutes ago. It was too hot outside, so I’ve come into the bathroom on the ground floor to the right of the main door. Hurry up!

  I took another deep breath of the refreshing cool air. From outside I could hear the clatter of feet hurrying past and chatter of excited students. Attending Uni and being away from home, was a really big deal to both of us. We came from a small rural town, where we’d attended Rowleys, a highly respected all-girls boarding school totalling 100 odd students, if that. It was stuck in the middle of nowhere, with nothing but fields, trees and sheep for company and the constant smell of manure. To leave home and come to Westhampton, an actual city no less, was a scary proposition for both of us. I was in awe at the sheer volume of men and had to be reminded to close my mouth by Lexi on more than one occasion. It was like being released from prison, after life in isolation we’d discovered a new species and Lexi was taking full advantage. We’d only moved up here the Friday before last, to move into our new home and be here for freshers’ week, yet she’d already bedded five of the natives. My phone vibrated in my hand and I glanced down to see her response.

  Soz Mia. OMW L8 as uz. Cover 4 me. CU soon x

  I sighed. Why did she have to use slang in all of her messages? Half the time I couldn’t even decipher what she was trying to saying to say. I picked up my messenger bag and left the bathroom to join the throngs of students in the long corridor. How she’d got the grades from sixth form, to make it to study English Literature and Modern History here with me was astonishing. There again, it was in no small part down to the hours of extra tuition I did with her, but I was so glad I’d persevered and dragged her here with me. Lexi’d been my best friend for 7 years and I couldn’t have entertained the thought of going through this experience without her. She really knew how to push my buttons sometimes, but when I really needed her she was always there. Best friends to the end, that’s the pact we’d made when we met at Rowleys all those years ago.

  We both started there as boarders at age 11, in the Autumn term. We soon discovered that we weren’t posh enough for the rest of the girls in our year, who all looked down their noses at us. We didn’t come from homes with a Rolls Royce, or have parents who sailed, played golf, or ran money making empires. We’d also bonded over the fact that our fathers had given both of us issues. Mine had buggered off before I was even born and I only saw him twice a year at most and that was under sufferance.

  Lexi’s mum was an alcoholic and would beat her dad. Lexi’d get the odd backhand as well, if she wasn’t quick enough on her feet to avoid it, so her dad decided he’d had enough and left when she was 11. His parting gift was paying for her boarding school education up to the age of 18, so she wouldn’t have to stay at home with her drunken mother.

  Seven years later and here we were, starting a new educational establishment together, or not as it seemed this morning. We were 20 minutes into Mr Taylors History lecture when Lexi turned up. She was wearing a short black leather mini skirt with metal safety pins, black ripped fishnets, black lace up biker boots and a ripped cropped white t-shirt that showed off her torso and belly button ring. She’d had her nose pierced a few weeks ago back home and was sporting a large ring through that too. She’d insisted I have my belly button done at the same time and I’d cursed her for days it was so painful.

  She’d also started hair modelling for a local salon a few years back and would often turn up to meet me with the most bizarre looking cuts, with outrageous colours. Today it was long on one side and shaved on the other, with a spiky fringe with graduated coloured stripes spiralling around in purple, then blue, then finally in red. No outfit, piercing, cut or colour however could take away from her face, she really was stunning with deep emerald green eyes. She was six foot tall, without heels and straight up and down, no curves at all, unlike me. Even back at Rowleys Lexi was smoking, drinking and having sex. She was quite simply the coolest person I’d ever known, yet none of it had rubbed off on me. I’d resisted the rebellion, it just wasn’t worth the hassle while I lived at home.

  ‘Where are you? Daydreaming again?’ she asked as she popped a large bubble of pink gum in my direction.

  ‘I was thinking that as we’re starting a new chapter in our lives, maybe we need to turn over a new leaf. I could do with a little bit of your wildness and you could do with a bit of more of my sensibility and then we’d be just perfect,’ I whispered.

  Lexi snorted. ‘Yeah right, although you were pretty wild on the drinking front last week.’

  ‘Don’t remind me,’ I groaned. ‘So much for Uni orientation, I only made it to the parties.’

  ‘Well I like wasted Mia, you’re so much fun. We need to do it more often.’

  ‘Lex, I really can’t afford to flunk out. I need to study hard, but I’ve also decided that I do need to let my hair down and go a bit crazy now and again.’

  ‘What nearly g
etting kicked out of Rowleys for getting drunk on site and skipping out to play pool in town wasn’t crazy enough for you Miss Prim and Proper?’

  ‘Hmmm good times. I’m lucky they let me stay on to sit my A levels, that went down so well at home. I was put on detention and kept on site for a month as well if you remember, at bloody 18. You know who my parents blamed for that?’

  ‘I get the blame for everything that you do wrong. Rightly so, as I keep enticing you to the dark side Anakin, but your folks still adore me,’ she said with a cheeky grin.

  ‘Sssshhhh.’

  I looked around to see a scowling blonde who shook her head at me and I looked back at Lexi and pulled a face.

  ‘See Lex, other people have actually come here to study as well as party. We’re just going to have to carefully balance both. Are you going to actually make an appearance at home tonight?’ I whispered.

  She grinned back at me, popped her gum again and saluted. ‘Sir, yes Sir.’

  When the lecture was over, we headed out to the grounds. Students were littered all over the grass, eating lunch in the sun and the sound of chatter and laughter filled the air. The lawned area was peppered with trees and it led down to the river, which cut directly through the middle of the city. We found an empty spot under the shade of a beautiful weeping willow.

  ‘So, have you heard from Kai since we left home?’

  ‘No,’ I sighed thinking of my ex. ‘He really wasn’t very happy when I told him it was over.’

  ‘You think? You were together for 3 months Mia, he was so in love with you.’

  ‘3 months on and off,’ I corrected. ‘And he wasn’t in love with me, he hardly knew me.’

  ‘Mia, don’t be so naïve. Any guy that looks at you with those puppy dog eyes and hangs around for 3 months, without getting any action, is in love. Besides, whose fault is it that he didn’t get to know you? You never open up, it’s enough to drive anyone to rage,’ she retorted as she lit a cigarette and blew a smoke ring in my direction.

  ‘I open up to you don’t I?’

  ‘Yeah, but I’m your best friend, I already know you inside out, so nothing’s going to put me off. If you want a relationship, you need to share and fuck, it’s a whole big deal so I hear,’ she shrugged.

  ‘I just didn’t feel that way about Kai, I really wanted to Lexi, but it just wasn’t happening. Besides I want my first time to mean something, to be with someone I crave and can’t resist. Look at my mum, knocked up the first time she had sex, that worked out so well for everyone. Why would I rush into something that I don’t feel’s right? I don’t want to end up like her, full of regrets.’

  Dad had only married my Mum because she got pregnant with my older sister Georgie, so her getting knocked up with me was the last straw in their tempestuous relationship, so he’d walked out. I didn’t actually meet him until I was 8 and I’d already made up my mind I wasn’t going to like him, so we clashed from the get-go. I became a bit of a handful at home and withdrew from any form of socialising, so out of despair Mum and my stepdad Gerry sent me to Rowleys as a termly boarder. They’d hoped that the school could make me take heed of an authoritative figure in my life, reign in my stubborn argumentative side and help me make some friends. Their plan had moderate success. When Mum realised I’d bonded with Lexi, who was a year round boarder, she’d hated the thought of her being at school alone during the holidays, so decided it would do me good to have my best friend with me. So Lexi became part of my family from that moment on, spending every holiday with us. I was closer to her than to my own sister.

  ‘Christ Mia. I know you’re all kinds of screwed up with father abandonment issues, but if you’re going to plod along in one short relationship after another, with guys who may as well be a brother, what’s the point? Why not just get out there and have great sex without the strings? What have you got to lose, other than your virginity of course,’ she chuckled.

  ‘Is sex really all that good?’

  ‘Hell yeah,’ she grinned. ‘Well 90% of the time. Dave, the removals guy from the other Friday, was so bloody slow and monotonous. I lit a fag and smoked it while I read my kindle over his shoulder.’

  ‘Only you could shag one of the removal guys before they’d even finished moving us in,’ I laughed. ‘Didn’t he even notice that you weren’t enjoying it?’

  ‘I made the odd noise and moaned “o yeah” now and again. Seriously though, it can be mind blowing, way better than masturbating or a vibrator. As you won’t let anyone else down there, please tell me that you at least get yourself off?’

  ‘Of course I do. I’m not totally frigid, I’ve got toys. I wouldn’t say mind blowing, but it’s nice,’ I said, my cheeks burning.

  ‘Nice?! Jesus. Trust me, sex with the right guy will totally change your mind. Besides you deliberately set yourself up for failure by honing in on arseholes, then you dump them for being arseholes. God forbid one of the prats says the love word, you turn into Usain Bolt and dump them even quicker.’

  ‘Love, yeah right,’ I sighed. ‘Look at me, my own bloody father can’t even love me.’

  ‘At least he’s trying to make an effort.’

  ‘What effort? Every time he makes plans, I get my hopes up and then there’s always some excuse, something’s come up that’s yet again more important than me. I’m left all upset and then a few days later the guilt cheque arrives. Rewind and repeat over and over, I can’t keep doing this dance with him Lexi. It’d just be easier to cut him out of my life for good. So yes, maybe I pick guys I know I have no long term future with, at least I get some company. That way I’m safe in the knowledge that there’ll never be any deep emotional attachment on my part. It’s just easier that way, it’s no wrench when I decide to leave. I’m the one in control not the other way round, that’s how I like it.’ There was a heavy silence and I glanced up at her and she just gave me a look. ‘Damn it Lexi. We were having a great morning and now you’ve made me talk about it and I hate talking about it. I wish I could be more like you and not give a shit.’

  ‘Mia we’re not so different. You have short term relationships without the sex, I have sex without the relationships.’

  ‘Then we’re both screwed,’ I stated with a smile of resignation.

  ‘Ok sod it. Let’s make another pact, a new leaf and all that. I’m going to cut way back on my conquests and see if I can find a guy that I can stand to be around after I’ve shagged him the once. You’re going to find someone that you’re just going to screw, no strings attached. Make that clear from the start and no guy in his right mind will refuse. You still chose to walk away when you want, no one gets hurt and in the meantime you get mind blowing orgasms. Baby steps for both of us. How about it?’

  ‘Really Lex?’

  ‘We’re 18 now, not those damaged young kids that met at school. Let’s get you on the horse or the bike, or whatever method of bloody transport it is and shag it out of your system. And as for this not being lovable shit, I know you better than anyone and I’m still here aren’t I?’

  ‘Ok Lex, sod it. I’m in, challenge accepted,’ I nodded with a heavy sigh. She was right, I needed to just get it over and done with and get out there and start enjoying myself.

  ‘Wow, really? That was easier than I thought it was going to be. Touchdown for the Lex,’ she said with a huge grin on her face.

  ‘Don’t get too excited, first we have to find me a guy that’ll make me want to go all the way.’

  ‘Bugger, now I’ve really got my work cut out for me,’ she sighed as her face fell.

  ‘Meaning?’

  ‘The last guy you actually went crazy for was Tyler and you were 12.’

  ‘I’ve fancied other guys, I’ve had lots of boyfriends,’ I said indignantly.

  ‘Maybe, but the only one you wouldn’t shut up about was him. Ooooo Lexi, he rescued me from the pool, looking all Lucas Scott from One Tree Hill, with his abs of steel. You went on about him for months.’

  ‘No, seriously?’
I racked my brains to try and come up with some others. ‘O my god, you’re right. 6 years? 6 bloody years and I’ve only had the hots for one guy?’

  ‘Actually no, there were two. Tyler and your first boyfriend Alex, the shit that dumped you as you wouldn’t have sex. So at least we know you that you can be physically attracted to someone. We just have to find you another. I’m on a mission now to find you the hottest sex machine to show you the ropes.’

  ‘I’ve got some moves. I’m not totally coy and virginal. I could make Kai come just by snogging him.’

  ‘Impressive talent. Please tell me that you’ve at least given and received hand jobs and oral? Otherwise we really have our work cut out for us.’

  ‘Yes sort of and no, no and no,’ I replied after a considered silence.

  ‘I’ve no idea what “sort of” is for a hand job, but seriously? No to the other three?’

  ‘Yes seriously. Let’s worry about that if and when we find someone, though at a rate of two attractive guys in six years, I’m not holding out much hope.’

  ‘Living in a virtual convent 36 weeks a year and then spending 16 weeks of our holidays in a small town in bloody Scotland’s wilds or back home, wasn’t exactly conducive to putting yourself out there to find a guy you fancy was it? Besides, we’re now surrounded by young virile men all at their sexual peak. Trust me, this is going to be like shooting fish in a barrel.’

  I was suddenly acutely aware of the sounds of the river trickling past, the chirping of the birds and hum of the traffic.

  ‘Christ Lex, everyone’s gone in, it’s nearly 1.30. Come on, were going to be late for our first English Lit lecture. How did we end up with both subjects on the same bloody day?’

  We grabbed our bags and started to run, but we’d only gone 200 metres when Lexi stopped dead in her tracks.

  ‘Shit,’ she muttered. ‘I’ve left my fags on the grass, go ahead so at least one of us makes it on time.’