Shh! by Stacey Nash
(Oxley College #1)
Publication date: February 23rd 2015
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
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Synopsis:
Nineteen-year-old Olivia Dean has the perfect reputation, the perfect boyfriend, and an increasingly perfect CV. She has it all, until Christian breaks up with her in public, calling her out as a self-gratifying sexoholic: the kind that plays solo. But Olivia doesn’t masturbate all night — the only thing she does is sleep … right?
Now all the boys on campus seem to want her attention for the absolutely wrong reason — including resident hottie, Logan Hays. He’s pulling out his best moves to gain her attention, so resisting his sexy charm is hard work. With rapidly slipping grades, a disturbingly lurid reputation and demanding parents, Olivia must discover the truth behind her rumoured sleeping problem. If she doesn’t, the perfect life she’s worked so hard for may slip away, including the one person who has Olivia breaking all her rules — Logan.
What do you do when you’re asleep?
***
Shh! is a story about acceptance, learning to trust and in turn love while facing life’s unexpected difficulties.
NB: This book is of a mild heat level, and contains no explicit sex scenes.
Purchase:
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EXCERPT:
At five p.m I was starving.
After just the muesli bar for breakfast, I’d skipped lunch to avoid a potential
repeat of this morning, which meant my stomach had jumped into full riot mode.
Nervous about facing my fellow students, I pulled my big girl panties up and marched
myself to the dining hall. It was early, so I wasn’t all that brave, if I were
being totally honest with myself. The place should have been near empty.
There were half a dozen
people in the common room, watching some crappy reality television show. I scooted
around the back of the seats and up into the dining hall. Dinner smelled
delicious—burgers—if my senses served me right.
Twirling my meal card around
my fingers, I strolled right up to the servery and stood in line. The girl in
front of me turned and I tossed a confident smile her way. She smiled back. The
line wasn’t moving yet as dinner hadn’t officially started, but people began
flowing in, increasing the number of voices in the room. I swiped my clammy
hands on my jeans. This was the first time in more than a year that I’d come
down to dinner alone. Generally I came with Christian and being alone was a
little daunting. It was all cool, though. Savvy should turn up soon, then I
wouldn’t look like a loner. She never responded to this morning’s text and I
hadn’t seen her since Saturday night, but that wasn’t uncommon if she’d hooked
up with a guy. Especially with how busy I’d be this year. She knew my Sundays
were reserved for study, so she didn’t usually bother me then, and today we’d
been at classes. Still, it was a little weird. She could have at least called
to chat about Christian, surely she knew like everyone else.
My tummy grumbled like a
truck moving at high speed. I glanced at the clock; it read five-thirty p.m.
The line started moving, thank the lord. I glanced over my shoulder, and
surprisingly the line curled all the way around the edge of the hall. Everyone
had to be famished tonight, not just me.
I kept my eyes to the front
and walked through the servery where I built my own burger: meat, egg, tomato,
beetroot, no lettuce, and a slathering of tomato sauce—perfect. As I emerged
out the other side, my gaze slid over the line, looking for someone who might
join me, and the weirdest thing happened. Not a soul met my gaze. It was like
they all deliberately looked the other way, or were engrossed in such deep
conversation that they didn’t see me.
I’d never had problems with
friends. People just … well … they liked me. It had always been that way. I
liked everyone, and they all liked me back.
My tummy churned for reasons
not associated with hunger. What the heck had I done wrong? I walked over to
one of the many empty tables and set my tray down, then flicked my phone out of
my pocket and pretended to check my texts. Savvy had replied and I’d missed it.
Sorry I missed breakfast.
Catch you at dinner.
A string of girls who I
knew—we’d all been freshers together last year—walked right past me, talking
softly as if they thought I couldn’t hear, but when people are talking about
you, it’s not hard to tell. And those girls were most definitely doing just
that. The glances my way every few seconds were a dead giveaway when everyone
else in the room was deliberately avoiding my gaze.
I ducked my head, and
studied my phone again. Whatever was going on, it was weird. I was the captain
of Oxley’s hockey team, netball team, in the social committee, and even
campaigning for the university’s student council. I had lots of friends.
Savannah’s giggle sounded
like it came from somewhere behind me. Thank gosh. I really needed to talk to
her and figure out what was happening. The whispers and stares, the fresher at
uni this morning, Dane on Saturday night, sexploits—Oh
my gosh. Christian. I glanced over my shoulder, raising my hand to call Savvy
over, but my heart dropped into my stomach.
Savvy was attached to Dane’s
hip. Her arm hung around his waist and his rested on her shoulders. Christian
walked in step with them and the two guys wore massive grins. I hadn’t seen
Christian that happy since … well, since I couldn’t remember. I suppose now
that I thought about it, lately he’d been kind of cranky and tired. Always
tired.
I swung back around in my
seat, hoping they hadn’t seen me, and there someone had sat in the chair
opposite me: the tool from this morning. He stared like I was some porn star
he’d just paid to watch. And he smelled like a brewery; not to mention his eyes
looked a little glassy.
Those same eyes locked on my
mine and he placed his flattened palm on his chest like he was about to dive
headfirst into a heartfelt apology. Which frankly, he owed me. His hand circled
over his left pec, going for his heart, but then it moved to the other side
and—ohmygod did he just tweak his nipple? My heart pounded a little faster and
I glanced away. The entire dining hall looked at us. But he was like a train
wreck. I couldn’t stop my gaze sliding back. His hand trailed down his chest
and disappeared under the table in the general direction of his groin. He
moaned, then his arm started moving slow at first and increasing in speed, all
the while his dark eyes held my gaze. Then the crazy guy rolled his eyes back
in his head and yelled, “Yes. Aaa—aa—ash. Yes!”
Someone clapped.
He arched his back. What in
hell’s name was this freak doing? It was like that old nineties movie where the
chick faked an orgasm in the middle of a café, except this was some dude in the
centre of the Oxley College dining hall and I wasn’t entirely sure he was
faking it.
Spent, he flopped in the
seat, his arms hanging beside it, then snapped his head forward again and his
face split in a stupid grin as he pushed his chair back, placed an arm across
his waist, and freaking bowed.
Everyone laughed.
The whole room full of
people thought this idiot was funny.
I couldn’t move. It was as
if the air had frozen around me and I was a statue unable to even blink.
“My impersonation of the one
and only Olivia Dean,” he shouted, loud enough for the whole room to hear.
Couldn’t the ground just
open up and swallow me already? My cheeks burned so hot they should have caught
fire. Blood rushed past my ears so loud that I couldn’t hear anything; my
stomach lurched.
I was going to throw up.
I needed to get out of
there, right now. Whatever held me in place snapped free. I shot to my feet and
high-tailed it out of the dining hall, past a million staring faces. The common
room was no more than fuzz at the edge of my periphery, Front Courtyard much
the same. I cut across the back of block F and made a beeline for K, then
darted up the stairs and into my room.
Whatever was going down, it
looked like I was the centre of a joke I didn’t find funny or nice.
~~~~~~
AUTHOR BIO:
Writing for the young and new adult market, Stacey's books are all adventure filled stories with a lot of adventure, a good dose of danger, a smattering of romance, and plenty of KISSING! Hailing from the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, she loves nothing more than immersing herself in the beauty and culture of the local area.
Author of the Collective Series; Forget Me Not and Remember Me. And Oxley College Saga; Shh! and Wait!
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