Not in the slow, boring way my parents preferred—bloodlines and golf club weddings. No.
I wanted her like gravity.
Like chaos.
Like a fire I didn’t mind getting burned by.
And if I had to make the first move?
So be it.
Because that girl?
That girl didn’t belong in my world.
Which meant I was going to wreck hers.
I don’t know what made me do it.
The kiss.
It wasn’t planned. Hell, nothing about her was.
She was standing there on the edge of the firelight—flat seltzer in hand, white sneakers, hair catching the flames like gold thread. Like she didn’t belong. Like she didn’twantto. That was the first thing that caught my attention.
The second?
She looked at me like she wasn’t impressed.
That was new.
Everyone else at Royal Oaks either wanted something from me or wanted tobeme. She just stood there like I was a mildly interesting footnote in her night.
I walked up without thinking. The world tilted a little, narrowed until it was just her and me and the sting of smoke in the air.
“You’re not from here,” I said.
Not a question. I already knew.
She blinked. “Wow. That obvious?”
I smirked. “Your shoes don’t have dirt on them yet.”
She looked down at them, then back up with a smile that wasn’t sweet. “Maybe I like being clean.”
“Not around here you don’t.”
She didn’t flinch. I liked that.
She looked right at me, head tilted like she was trying to decide if I was worth her time. “You always this charming or just when you're bored and slumming it with the commoners?”
My smirk deepened. Slumming it. That hit. “You think I’m bored?”
She gave me this look—half dare, half warning. “Not sure. You look like you’re trying really hard not to be.”
Damn. She was different.
She wasn’t laughing too loud. She wasn’t pulling at her shirt or angling her face for the best lighting. She wasn’t trying to impress me. Which is probably why I couldn’t stop staring.
