40. Daisy
40
DAISY
E very minor irritation for the rest of the night is burned away by Harrison’s feral, hungry gaze.
Liam referring to me as Lazy Daisy is inconsequential. My mother telling anyone who will listen that I’m not studying enough for the LSAT is almost amusing. And I’m not sure where it’s going to happen, but there’s not a chance that Harrison’s waiting forty-eight hours to touch me. I can tell just by that grinding jaw and the way his gaze keeps flickering to me as we return to the house that he’s trying to solve the impossible. That even as we walk in the front door, he’s picturing pinning me to the foyer floor.
Inside, Emerson excuses herself to make a work call while Liam cracks open beers for the guys. “Let’s stay up all night drinking and surf at dawn the way we used to,” he suggests.
Caleb laughs. “We did that once , dude.”
Lucie yawns and then presses her lips to Caleb’s cheek. “That sounds awful. I’m going to bed.”
Caleb watches her walk away longingly. A hundred bucks says he now regrets inviting us all here .
“It’s after eleven, Daisy,” my mom says. “You should get to bed too.”
I guess the minor irritations aren’t so inconsequential after all. “I’m twenty-one, Mom. I actually choose my bedtime pretty successfully on my own and was already heading there.”
“Goodnight, hon,” she says, blowing me a kiss. “Don’t forget to brush your teeth.”
Oh. My. God.
I go to my room, brush my teeth—which I’d actually have done without my mother’s reminder—and then lie in bed, desperate for his weight above me.
Eventually, the noise downstairs quiets—I’m guessing Liam didn’t get anyone to stay up—and I’m still wide awake and full of bad ideas.
What if I texted Harrison and we met on the beach? What if I went to his room?
I’d seriously consider either option if it wasn’t for the fact that he’d be the only one who’d lose things if we got caught. Liam and my mom will still view me as na?ve and easily led when I’m fifty—I’m apparently not even to be trusted with my own dental hygiene yet. It’s Harrison they’ll blame for all of it.
I lie awake for another fifteen minutes and then…the door opens with a barely audible creak. I smile as his shadow stretches across the room, as he locks the door and climbs into the bed behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. “I’m sorry,” he whispers. “I couldn’t stay away. I’m only here for a second.”
I reach behind me, letting my fingers slide through his hair, urging him closer. His lips press to my neck, and air hisses through his teeth as my ass brushes quite intentionally against his erection.
He groans quietly. “We can’t. Someone will—”
I grab his hand and slide it inside my shirt until it’s covering my breast. My nipple hardens, and I grind against him. “We could be really, really quiet,” I say, reaching back to palm him through his shorts.
“Fuck.” His breath is hot against my ear. “This is such a bad idea.”
He tugs my panties down and his hand slips between my legs. I’m so wet I don’t even need foreplay. I lift my leg and when I can’t get his shorts down one-handed, he takes care of it, rough in his haste.
I cry out as he thrusts inside me.
“Quiet, Daisy,” he warns.
I bury my face in the pillow as he does it again.
“This is how we should have spent the whole fucking summer,” he grunts. “Just like this. Right from the start.”
My hips push back toward him, wanting more, and his hand slides from my breast to my stomach and between my legs. It’s like an electric shock, that addition of his fingers. I gasp again.
“Tell me how to do this, Daisy.” His voice winds tight as he gets close. “Tell me how to be in the same room without wanting you, without needing to be buried inside you.”
I push back harder and gasp again as my orgasm bears down on me. “Cover my mouth.” He does it with not a second to spare.
His teeth sink into my shoulder as he explodes, holding himself still inside me, his groan muffled by my skin.
“I’m not done,” he says, as his breathing begins to slow. “I need more. I feel like I’m never going to be done.”
Me neither. But I guess we mean that in entirely different ways.
He leaves my room just before dawn and when I wake a few hours later, I’m deliciously sore…and euphoric .
It felt different, last night—in his reluctance to leave, in the way he curled against me in his sleep. As if perhaps he’s finally realized that I matter to him. As if, as crazy as it is, he saw a future for us. Or maybe it’s just that I’m starting to see a future for us, which is the last thing I should allow myself to do.
We get a few hours of surfing in before we have to clear out. “Meet me at the wharf tomorrow night,” he says as we leave the water. “I have a call at six, but I can get there by seven-thirty, and we’ll go out to dinner after.”
My mouth opens and he cuts me off. “I know you’re about to say something dirty and I’m begging you not to. This wetsuit shows everything.”
My mouth closes. I was, actually, about to say something dirty.
We throw our boards in the sand near Liam, who’s lying on top of his, resting.
Liam squints into the sun as we remove our wetsuits, his smile fading as he stares at me. And at the mark Harrison left last night. “Dude. What the hell happened to your shoulder?”
Harrison and I exchange a glance. Shit.
“That’s old,” I lie. “I got bit by a dog on the beach.”
His jaw falls. “You got bit by a dog ? What the hell? Was it on a leash?”
“No, it was some stray dog running around. Super old. He was just being playful.”
Liam sits up. “Daisy, are you serious? A wild dog bit you, and you didn’t even check it out? It could have had rabies, for fuck’s sake.”
“It wasn’t rabid,” I say.
Harrison raises a brow. “Just super old.”
“Barely had any life left in him.”
Harrison’s mouth twitches. “It appears he had a little life left in him.”
Liam glances between us. “Rabies isn’t a fucking joke. Remember that girl Shelley who was a year ahead of us at Prep? She got bit by a rabid bat and died.”
“This wasn’t a bat,” I reply.
Harrison grins. “Just a dog.”
I nod. “A really old one.”
Liam groans. “I hope one of you dies of rabies just to prove my point.”