“Let me in, Daisy, and I’ll answer any question you have.” His voice is deep and low, and I feel it more than hear it, somewhere low in my belly. Funny warm things I don’t entirely dislike.
“You’ll explain everything? Even the… strange things?” I’m still staring at his face, at how his jaw has a short layer of stubble covering it, how his lips look red and plump, how when he smirks, a dimple appears on his cheek. The scent of warm gooey vanilla fills my nose and warms my insides, making my head feel cottony.
“Everything you want to know. I know you’ve been wondering. Seen… things. Let me in so I can explain better and even show you…” His voice takes on a bit of a growl at the end of the sentence and another shiver rolls down my back. My legs have all the stability of noodles.
“I…” I pause, the idea of spending more time with him suddenly sounding perfect. My hand falls from the door and I take an involuntary step back, widening the opening as I hold his gaze. His pupils contract and his nostrils flare. “Would you like to…”
And that’s when my phone rings from the coffee table, making me jump.
I clear my throat and blink rapidly, realizing I’m still holding a pizza box in my one hand and my messenger bag slung over the other.
“I, uh, gotta go.” And then I slam the door in Stark’s face.
I faintly hear him curse through the door, but my phone is still ringing, so I drop the pizza on the coffee table and my bag on the floor. I answer on the fourth ring.
“H-hello?” I still sound breathy, my heart still beating fast.
“Don’t ever invite a stranger into your house, no matter how charming he may seem,” a gruff voice says on the other end. The words hit me like a bucket of ice water. My hand, still on the doorknob, starts to shake. He knew. He knew what I was about to do.
“Who is this?” I pull the phone away briefly to check the number, but it says blocked caller.
That’s odd. How did he know to call right then?
“Do not extend an invitationtoanyoneinto your house. You hear me?” And the line just goes dead.
Well, fuck a duck. My day just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
I go check through the peephole to see if Stark is still out there, but there’s no sign of him.
A strange disappointment settles in my chest. I should be terrified by that warning, by the fact that someone is watching me closely enough to call at that exact second. But all I can think about is Stark, and the way he still calls me Daisy, even after reading my name on my ID.
Chapter Eighteen
WHAT IN THE MOZZARELLA?
She…
Did she…
No. She certainly didn’t slam the door in my face, right?
If she were mine, she’d be bent over that kitchen island right now, my handprint still stinging on her ass. But she didn’t welcome me in. The threshold held, and the thought of that barrier alone boils my blood.
Fuck.
What is it about this woman that drives me so absolutely insane?
Ahumanwoman no less…
It’s everything about her. The freckles splattered across her infuriating nose. The unruliness of her hair. Her scent—fresh flower blossoms drenched in decadent blood. It has me hardas a rock, like some schoolboy with his first fucking crush. A feeling I’d thought buried for centuries.
Hell, I was ready to kill that human roommate of hers last night simply for thinking he was good enough to be in her presence.
The way he stared at her with those lovesick puppy eyes, the lust practically dripping from him—it sent me into a rage. In front of Angelo’s slimy ass too. Now she’s on his radar.
Ever since that day she popped into the pizza shop looking like a drenched rat, things have begun to spiral out of control.
And I find myself oddly… welcoming it?
