Daisy keeps her arm wrapped around mine, yelling and screaming right alongside me as if she suddenly knew the intricate rules of the game, and it makes me smile, makes me genuinely happy right down to the soles of my feet. If I did have someone in my life, someone beside me night after night, I’d want her to be a lot like Daisy.
The game wears on, and somewhere around the fourth quarter I get a text. It’s from Owen. I lean over and scowl at him before glancing back down at my phone.
Things are looking pretty friendly down at your end of the bleachers. You need me to send for help?
I slip the phone back into my jeans before covertly flipping him off. I get it. Both he and Cade have been after me to find someone to complete their little circle of lust. But I’m not into it. It’s not happening.
The game ends in a victory, thanks to Rex, and the crowd is on their feet as soon as the clock runs out. The cheerleaders go wild as the students descend onto the field like ants.
“We won!” Daisy jumps up and hugs me. Her arms fold over the back of my neck, pulling me close to her.
“We won, babe.” I spin her in the tiny space between us.
Her mouth falls open as she looks to me in wonder. “Did you just call me babe?”
My gut burns because this is probably the part where I should laugh it off or deny it, but I can’t. I can’t deny Daisy Pembrooke anything.
“I guess I did.”
Her eyes fill with tears so fast, my heart hiccups in my throat just watching the strange mixture of hurt and joy building in her.
Everything in me aches at how easily this beautiful girl can be reduced to tears, and I want to quell them the only way I know how.
“Come here.” I close my eyes and go in for the kill. My mouth covers hers, and that’s when I realize how far past that invisible line in the sand I’ve drifted.
Daisy presses her tiny body close to my chest, and I can feel her heartbeat echo through mine until we beat as one. Her tongue probes my mouth as if she’s never been there, as if she’s hungry for whatever it is I have to offer. God knows I want to offer this girl everything under the moon, and then that would never be enough. Here I am doing exactly what I’ve fantasized about all week for all to see. I couldn’t care less who’s watching, who’s gawking at us for whatever the hell reason. All that matters is this one moment, this one kiss. Every cell in my body needs this like air to breathe.
I was wrong. Daisy and I are happening.
Hell, we’ve already happened.
A Rumor in the Night
Daisy
The lights, the noise of the crowd, it all fades to one giant roar that matches the sound of the adrenaline rushing through my ears. I’ve kissed my fair share of boys, but this kiss isn’t doled out by a mere boy. This is Jet Madden. God knows I’ve craved this man for as far back as that fated day last year when my friends and I thought it was a good idea to tat ourselves up in commemoration of the first day of school. Only in classic, needle-fearing style, I couldn’t go through with it.
Jet kisses in the same way he loves my whole body, with an intensity that makes this singular act feel as if the crux of civilization were riding on it.
My fingers run wild through his thick hair, knotting it up, pulling him closer, demanding he love me with his tongue right here in the open. I don’t really give a rat’s ass that money is most likely being exchanged by my best friends, with Cassidy winning the bets. She’s a hopeless romantic and probably guessed correctly that I’d jump Jet Madden’s bones right here at the game in the middle of the student body.
“Daisy Pembrooke!” a harsh older man’s voice calls from the field, and I pull back like a thief about to make off with a bag of diamonds. Jet and I glance to the field at the same time, only to have the heavy flash of a bulb explode in our face. The perpetrator behind the camera runs like hell once he gets his money shot.
“Shit,” Jet growls. “I can catch him.”
“No.” I pull him back before he can jump down to the field. “Forget about it. He’s already gone.” The last thing I want is Jet arrested for assault. “Oh my God.” It hits me like a wall of water, taking me under and holding me down until my next breath becomes impossible. My fingers fly to my lips. “I’m sorry.” I shake my head in disbelief at what I’ve done. Jet was in that picture, too. By morning, both he and Think Ink will be ruined. “I have to get out of here.” I slip from his grasp and make my way into the sea of bodies traversing through the flux down on the field.
“Daisy, wait!” Jet roars, catching up to me quickly. “What’s going on? Why are you running away from me?” He grabs me by the wrist, but I’m quick to break free.
“Don’t you see? I’ve ruined you!” I scream the words at the top of my lungs, but the drama of it all is quickly swallowed by the noisy crowd. “I’ve turned you to mold, Jet.” I swat him over the chest without meaning to. Tears come, and I try to blink them away, but it’s no use. I’m too tired to fight it, of fighting every damn thing. “Get away from me! I don’t want to do this to you!” In an instant I lose myself in the crowd, sailing toward the back gate before making a run for my car. I can’t go to Jet’s. It’s over. There’s no way I’m going back there. It’s too tempting. I’m too weak. This would never work. I don’t know why I ever landed on his mattress to begin with.
“Daisy.” He comes panting from behind. “Where do you think you’re going?” There’s something soothing about Jet Madden’s voice, something so wickedly intoxicating I can’t help but lose my senses. “You’re coming with me,” he whispers hot into my ear.
I look up into those sharp marble eyes. “I shouldn’t fight it?” I shake my head ever so slightly because secretly I’m just beginning to hear those magic words.
Jet sheds the hint of a dirty grin. “Don’t fight it.”
And just like that, I abandon my car and let Jet drive us back to the house where for damn sure I will not be fighting a thing.
