His Little Turmerion (Eleadian Mates #14)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Bailey

“Truth or dare, Bailey!” Allisa shouts, bouncing on her butt.

I’m sitting across from her on the floor in the circle of my roommates in our college dorm. How did I get roped into this childish game? We’re twenty-one years old. We should be getting ready to go out to a bar or a party. Instead the four of us are playing this dorky game.

We’re in our pajamas with our hair up in messy buns. We’re eating microwave popcorn straight out of the bag and drinking off-brand sodas because that’s what we can afford.

Mary elbows me. “Dare, dare, dare. You never choose dare, and your life is too boring to keep sharing truths with us.”

She’s right. My life is the most boring life on this planet. Why? Because my father is the most overprotective, controlling jerk I know. He’s such a jerk that I’d probably get in trouble for even thinking a harsher word than that. Somehow he would find out, and I would end up back at home.

I’m so close to graduating. I made it. For four years, I’ve been living in this dorm with these same three girls. I got lucky when I met them. They’re almost as lame as me, but their reason for living in the dorm is because they have full scholarships. Not because they have an overbearing parent.

Mary, Allisa, and Kate sometimes go out on weekends.

I never do. My father tracks my phone. He also checks in with me often.

If my phone isn’t in my room or I don’t answer it, he will drive over here and bang on my door.

I know because he frequently threatens to do exactly that. I’ve never given him cause.

In a month, I will graduate. I got the obligatory education degree that good girls get. What he doesn’t know is that I’ve applied for teaching positions all over the country. None of them anywhere near here. I have three offers. All I have to do is choose one.

Kate claps her hands. “Bailey… Come on. Take the dare.”

I sigh. “Fine. What’s the dare?” I swear, if they ask me to kiss my pillow while they film it or chug my soda so fast that I end up burping, I’ll throw popcorn on them.

Allisa taps her lips deviously. “You have to go to Club Zoom tonight.”

I roll my eyes. “As if…”

“I mean it. You have to go, and you have to take pictures of the hotties and bring them back as evidence.”

“You know I can’t do that. My father would be over here in thirty minutes if I didn’t answer his good-night call. He’d wake up the entire dorm and probably have flames coming out of his head so hot they’d start a fire.”

Kate giggles. “So you wait until after he makes his last call. He always does that on weekends at about ten-thirty. You know that man doesn’t stay up any later than that. When was the last time he called past that hour?”

I can’t remember a time. “Doesn’t matter. I can’t risk him checking my location on his phone and finding I’m not in the dorm.”

Mary shrugs. “So you don’t take it. Take mine. Leave yours here.”

Allisa bounces again. “It will totally work. You can get ready now. After he calls to say goodnight to his precious, innocent, sweet child, then you take Mary’s phone, leave yours, and go to Club Zoom.”

I have to say, it’s tempting if for no other reason than to have broken my father’s rules for the adrenaline rush. I’m such a goody two shoes. Always the perfect daughter and student. For once, I’d love to sneak out and have some fun.

“I’m not going by myself,” I say.

“That’s half the dare,” Allisa exclaims.

I wince. I’ve never been to a bar or a club before. I’d be a fish out of water.

“I’ll go with you,” Mary blurts out.

Allisa shakes her head. “You can’t do that. It negates the dare.”

Kate cringes. “Aren’t you guys worried you might get chosen? I mean I don’t know what happens to people who are selected, but I do know they’re never seen again. That’s too scary for me.”

For most people, that’s a reasonable argument.

But not for me. I’ve experienced the tiniest bit of freedom living in the dorms for four years, but my father is never going to cut the reins.

I suspect his head is going to blow off when I tell him I’ve taken a position in another city. He’ll never permit it.

The truth is my life is a dead end. After graduation, I can expect to find myself back in my father’s house completely under his thumb. I’ll probably be thirty before he lets me go out with a boy.

The rule was no boys and no bars. If I break either or both rules, I can kiss college goodbye.

“I’m not scared,” I declare, sitting taller. I don’t know what’s gotten into me. I’m not the sort of person who would take a dare to even kiss my pillow let alone lie to my father, sneak out in the night, and go to a club.

I’m a grown adult. I should be able to go wherever I want. “I’ll do it.”

All three of them look at me with wide eyes.

“Seriously?” Allisa asks. “I didn’t really expect you to agree. I was kind of teasing.”

I push to standing. “A dare is a dare. What should I wear?” I hurry over to my closet and rifle through the hangers.

I don’t own anything interesting. My clothes look like they belong to nuns.

Except they aren’t dresses. I do have jeans, but all my shirts are boring.

I don’t own anything sexy, nor have I ever worn anything that would attract anyone’s attention.

My father approves all my clothes. Hell, he buys them.

I couldn’t purchase anything extra in my life if I wanted to.

I don’t have access to money. He pays my bills, replenishes the funds I need in the cafeteria, and gives me an extremely meager allowance so that I’ll have a few dollars on me in case I need something from a vending machine or an ice cream.

Ten dollars a week. He thinks I use it on frivolous things like that. I even tell him about the imaginary items I purchase—candy, sodas, and movie tickets. The truth is I rarely spend a dime. I have saved those ten dollars a week for almost four years. I have nearly two grand saved.

I’m such a rebel. Sigh.

“You’re really going to do it?” Allisa giggles as she joins me at my closet.

“Yes,” I say definitively. I’m going to Club Zoom. I really am.