Page 1 of Digital Desire

Prologue

Her heart beat fast as she lay in her bed, the covers pulled up to her chin and listened. The sound when it came, as she knew it would, made her sigh. She had known ever since she’d seen the look in her sister’s eyes as they ate dinner that night with their parents, that Madison was going to try and sneak out.

Madison was a few years younger than she was and was the wild, free-spirited one of the family according to their dad. She was the sensible older sister, always got good grades, never got in trouble but that was how she liked her life—ordered and predictable.

But she adored her baby sister and had accepted and relished the role of big sister. Ever since Madison was born, she had mothered her and looked out for her and now they were teenagers she covered for her and protected her, following her into trouble to make sure she stayed safe.

Throwing back the covers she moved to the window just as Madison’s feet hit the ground at the bottom of the cherry tree. Swinging her legs out of the window, her trainers already on her feet, she climbed down the trellis that was nailed to the wall being careful not to damage the clematis that were her mother’s pride and joy.

“What took you so long? Come on, Brey,” her sister said using the nickname for her that had started as a toddler because she couldn’t say Aubrey and had stuck. Aubrey loved it, but Madison was the only one that called her that. Despite being so different they were close.

“Sorry, I was trying not to get us caught,” she replied sarcastically as they raced to their bikes that were parked at the back of the shed.

As the girls climbed on their bikes and peddled their way across the field to the farm two miles over Aubrey felt exhilaration pump through her veins.

The cold October air kissed her skin, her lungs filled with it, the scent of apples from the orchard heady and smelling of home. It was her favourite smell in the world, it reminded her of her mum’s apple pie, and nights by the fire when her mum crocheted, and her dad dozed after a hard day at the hospital.

As a surgeon, her dad kept weird hours, so when he was home, she loved them all being together. Tonight was a rare night when they had done just that. Daddy had played scrabble with her and Madison, pride in his eyes when she beat him. At sixteen she was still daddy’s girl. She always would be, and she wanted desperately to go into medicine like him.

Madison was more like their mum, her art spoke to her and she was good, maybe one day she would be famous. Aubrey thought she would be, her sister was like a shining star and burning so bright that she almost burned you if you got too close.

Dropping their bikes outside the barn, the girls giggled as they joined hands and ran into the barn where the party was taking place. Madison beamed a smile at her as they saw some friends from school. Aubrey nodded, and Madison dropped her hand before kissing her cheek.

“Love you, Brey,” she said with a quick tight hug, her infectious spirit hard to contain.

“Love you too, brat, now go have fun for a bit. I don’t want us out for too long.”

“Always the good girl, Brey,” Madison said with a soft look.

“Yeah well, someone has to keep your ass in check,” she replied brushing it off.

Aubrey walked to the long table that had been set up at the end of the barn as music played loudly. They were in the middle of nowhere, so nobody would hear it. She was pouring herself a coke when she felt someone beside her. She looked up into the most handsome face she had ever seen.

Tall, dark-haired, and with the most expressive brown eyes she had ever seen, but it wasn’t that which made her heart stop beating. It was the cheeky, sexy, devilish grin he wore as he looked at her.

Taking his time to peruse her from head to foot he made her feel like her skin was electrified. She licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry as she dropped her eyes away, taking in his leather jacket, the ripped jeans, and House of Rock t-shirt he wore.

He had ‘bad boy’ written all over him and for the first time in her life, Aubrey didn’t think about her grades or her parents or doing the right thing. She let her heart and her body lead her.

“Now, what’s a good girl like you doing at a party like this?” he asked his voice like butter on her senses.

She felt an intense desire to impress him, to show him she wasn’t the good girl everyone thought. “How do you know I’m a good girl?” she asked, her sass seeming to surprise and delight him.

He raised an eyebrow and rubbed his thumb over his bottom lip as her eyes followed. “I would say the fact you’re the only one not drinking the beer or the twenty-twenty,” he said and grinned.

Aubrey wrinkled her nose as he named the popular alcopop.

He laughed again, a full-out belly laugh that made her toes curl in her trainers. “What’s your name, bad girl?” he asked with a twitch of his lips.

“Brey,” she answered not wanting to be Aubrey with him.

“Nice to meet you, Brey,” he said as he took her hand in his and kissed the inside of her wrist making her feel things she hardly understood. “I’m Mickey but everyone calls me Knuckles.”

“I’m going to call you Mickey because I’m not everyone,” Aubrey replied having no idea where her confidence was coming from.

He tilted his head to the side and looked at her for a long minute, the intensity making her squirm. “No, you’re not,” he answered.

Aubrey spent hours that night talking to Mickey, they shared things nobody else knew about each other and at the end of the night as the party wound down, she shared her first kiss with the boy she knew in her heart she loved.