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First published in Great Britain by Harper 2014
Copyright © Jennifer L Armentrout 2014
Cover layout design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2014
Cover photographs © TBC
Jennifer L Armentrout asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the authorâs imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780007531011
Ebook Edition © September 2014 ISBN: 9780007531028
Version 2015-07-24
The Hot Guy Brigade surrounded me.
A lot of people believed that the Hot Guy Brigade was a myth. Nothing more than a campus urban legend, kind of like the story about the homecoming queen whoâd pitched herself out of one of the dorm windows because she was tripping balls on LSD or crack, or she had fallen in the shower and busted her head open or something. Who knew? The story changed every time I heard it, but unlike the supposed dead chick who haunted Gardiner Hall, the Hot Guy Brigade was a real living and breathing thingâseveral things to be exact.
Several hot things.
It was rare that they were all together nowadays, which is why theyâd become sort of campus lore, but wow-wee, when they got together, it was a whole lot of eye candy.
And it was probably the closest to perfection Iâd ever get in my lifetimeâthat and the miracle makeup called Dermablend, because it almost covered the scar on my face.
We were all piled into Avery Morganstenâs apartment. Based on the rock on her ring finger, she was well on her way to getting a last-name change, and although I didnât know her well, really didnât know anyone except Teresa, I was happy for her. Anytime Iâd been around her, she was always sweet. She could be a little quiet sometimes and seemed to disappear into her own head, but anyone could tell she and her fiancé, Cameron Hamilton, were deeply in love by the way they watched each other.
Like the way he was watching her now, as if there were no other woman in the world but her. Even though they were sitting together, Cam on the couch and Avery in his lap, those bright blue eyes were fixed on her as she laughed at something his sister Teresa said.
If I had to rank the Hot Guy Brigade, Iâd say that Cam was the president. It wasnât just his looks, but also his personality. No one felt odd or left out around him. He had this . . . warmth that was absolutely contagious.
Secretly, and Iâd totally take it to my grave, I envied Avery. I barely even knew her, but I coveted what she hadâthe gorgeous hot guy, who was also genuinely a good guy, who still could make you feel comfortable around him. That was rare.
âWant another drink?â
I dipped my head to the left and then back, toward the voice of Jase Winstead, and my breath caught a little. Here was the opposite of Camâextremely good-looking, but totally did not make me feel comfy when my eyes locked with his deep gray ones. With his swarthy skin, longish brown hair, and almost unreal, model good looks, heâd be the lieutenant of the Hot Guy Brigade. He was by far the sexiest out of all of them, and he could be supersweet, like now, but he wasnât as easygoing or charming as Cam, which was why Cam held top position.
âNah, Iâm good.â I raised my half-full bottle of beer Iâd been sipping since Iâd gotten there. âBut thanks.â