Harper’s mouth opens and closes, and Ava sort of hardballs me with a dirty look.
“I’m going to kill Lawson.” Ava grinds her teeth. It’s not every day Ava threatens to take anyone’s life, first and foremost because her sister actually did just that.
“I’m not going to kill him.” Harper shakes her head, but the expression on her face clearly spells out pity—forme, I’m assuming. “He is my big brother after all, and big brothers make mistakes just like everybody else.”
“What’s this?” I’m practically incensed. “Death threats?Mistakes? I think maybe I should kill—as in the two of you—because obviously sharing this happy news with you was an enormous mistake.”
“No”—Ava pulls my hand in—“it wasn’t. I promise. It’s just that—don’t you wish your first time was, you know, special?”
“Itwasspecial.” I snatch my hand back from her. “Up until now, I was pretty psyched about joining your slutty ranks, but your little party pooper attitude just put a pinprick in my good time!”
Harper tries to suppress her laughter. “Did anything micro ruin your good time?”
“There was nothing micro about it.” Nope. That was a bona fide torpedo he launched inside of me.
“How’s Prince Albert?” She glances to her crotch in the event I didn’t get the implication.
“Truthfully, I didn’t notice.” I was too preoccupied with far more important things at the moment.
Harper’s chest thumps as if she’s holding back a laugh. “On a Scoville heat index scale, how bad does your vagina burn?”
“I think I started at habanero, but we’re quickly progressing toward ghost pepper.”
Ava takes the pillow from me and slumps over it as if someone just ran over her dog. “I guess I thought you would want to be in love before you actually did the deed. I mean, I know you were up for a good time with many,manyboys. I just thought you had a hard moral line and weren’t about to cross it. Lawson should have known better. How dare he take advantage of you like that? Stealing your virginity like some micropenis thief.”
All of the anger I once felt for Lawson seems to have transposed onto Ava.
“He doesn’t know he stole my anything, and I want to keep it that way.”
Harper’s expression darkens, and it looks as if she’s slowly siding with Ava and her high and mighty morality. “Where did this indiscretion happen?”
“Indiscretion? None of your business.” I hop up, pull on a jacket, and collect my purse.
“We just want you to be happy,” Ava bleats, tugging on my coat as I make my way to the door. “True love is the ultimate experience, Lucky. And you of all people deserve to have someone who cares for you that way.”
“Yes, well, for that to happen, I’d have to be loveable, wouldn’t I?”
Iheaddown to Hallowed Grounds and order the biggest cup of coffee on their menu and promptly burn the shit out of my tongue before I ever take a seat. Figures.
A group of cackling girls waltzes in, and I duck and moan simultaneously because Daisy and her friends are the last people on the planet I want anything to do with. I watch as they get their coffee, and I try to use all of my mind power to will them right back out that door. Instead, Daisy burps out a whooping hello, and soon enough all four of them have descended at my table.
“This is Cassidy,” Daisy introduces the blonde with a jagged scar running up her face. She’s beautiful in an I-can-kick-your-ass sort of way.
“Nice to meet ya.” She gives a little wink, and her country twang makes her the instant favorite of the bunch.
Daisy thumps her rusty brown nails over the table. “Are you trying to kill your brother?”
“Did it work?” I take another sip of my demonic coffee and enlarge the burn ratio over my tongue. Great. Both my vagina and my mouth are craving an ice pack right about now. And if this wicked coven Daisy hauled over doesn’t leave soon, my head will, too.
“Yes, it worked.” She snorts with a laugh. “Don’t tease like that, girl.” Daisy shudders. “I rue the day you get attached to someone of the opposite gender.”
Piper smirks. Ava doesn’t realize it, but she and Piper actually look a lot alike, same dark hair, same day-glow eyes. Ava’s brother must have wanted a girl who looked just like dear old mom—assuming Ava looks anything like her mother. Apparently, her parents are fond of disowning their children and making them pay for the sins of their sister. Whomtheyraised, mind you.
“Believe me”—Piper points at no one in particular—“Owen thought he would die if and when Ava fell in love, and, take it from me, his heart is still very much beating.”
Scarlett nods. “I think Jet would need to get over the initial shock, but as long as you’re not having a one-night stand, he’ll eventually warm to the idea.”
Did Lawson and I have a one-night stand? It was dark out, and technically, we were standing. We’re not a forever kind of a deal, are we? I glare at Scarlett a moment until her brother’s features pop up at me unexpectedly, and I instantly soften. And now it’s my heart that I’m worried about.
