Chapter 9
Daisy
Hazy and Valentine chatted about a video game while Daisy drove. They seemed close now—much closer than when she met them. Maybe she was getting through to them. She basked in her success.
The last stop before they left town was to get Connor. She honked when she pulled to a stop outside the address he’d sent, and Valentine rushed to climb out of the passenger seat. He hurried around the car and joined Hazy in the backseat.
They were the least subtle people she had ever met.
Here she was, channeling professionalism, and she swore they were intent on derailing it as fast as possible.
She shot Valentine a glare in the rearview mirror.
She opened her mouth to ask what the hell they were doing, but the words died in her throat when she saw Connor.
The passenger door sat open from Valentine’s maneuver, and it gave her a full, unobstructed view of his body.
In gray sweatpants and a t-shirt that pulled tight across his chest and biceps.
He ran his hands through his hair, tousling it.
She forced her mouth shut and her gaze straight ahead.
Valentine and Hazy were cruel, cruel boys.
When Connor sat in the seat behind her, she could easily ignore him.
She couldn’t see much after all. But this.
Sitting two feet from him. He would eat up all the oxygen in the car before they left town.
He tossed his bag into the trunk and slid into the seat next to her. “Hey.”
He greeted the car as a whole, but she cleared her throat and responded, “Hey.”
He fastened in, and she pulled away from the curb, but they still sat in silence. She would die if they had to drive for hours like this, so she took one hand off the wheel and gestured to the stereo system.
“Most people who drive choose the music, but that’s too much responsibility. In my car, the passenger chooses.”
Daisy refused to look away from the road, but she was pretty sure Connor was scrolling on his phone, not choosing the music.
A few beats passed before he touched the screen to connect to Bluetooth. It connected, and she swerved, almost killing them when a low, sexy voice filled the car.
Xavier sighed as he finally got what he wanted.
He’d waited so long. When his thick cock slid into Alina’s tight, wet pussy, it felt like coming home.
The moan she let out could have woken the whole camp, and he didn’t care.
He grabbed her hips and slammed into her, claiming her as his own for all to hear.
She clenched around his aching cock while their bodies moved togeth —
Daisy fumbled to kill the sound and also navigate the freeway, but Connor pushed her hand away and stopped the book.
No doubt, her face had turned the shade of a tomato.
This was the worst day of her life. It would stick with her for an eternity, always keeping her up at night.
On her deathbed, when her great grandchildren asked her if she had any regrets, this is what would pop into her mind.
She was trapped in a vehicle packed with beautiful hockey players she admired, and her smut had played on the loudspeakers.
Silence filled the car. Daisy couldn’t decide between laughing, crying, or begging forgiveness. As usual, Valentine brought the atmosphere back to habitability. “Dude, I’m reading the wrong books.”
The entire car erupted. Valentine giggling like a little kid, Hazy howling, Connor with deep chuckles, and Daisy, wheezing, desperately trying to get air into her lungs without wrecking the car. Tears streamed down her face. They were born of both hilarity and embarrassment.
When Daisy was brave enough, she said, “Um, can we maybe pretend this never happened?”
Hazy denied her. “Not a chance, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, definitely not,” Valentine agreed.
Daisy sighed in exasperation. “Didn’t think so. Can you at least not tell my employer?”
“We would never tattle to your employer for something like that,” Connor said. “You should hear half the shit these two say in the locker room. Makes that book sound like children’s stories.”
“Well, I don’t know,” Hazy said. “That was pretty explicit.”
Daisy was going to die of embarrassment. She’d never escape. “Play some music.” She handed Connor her phone. “I’m trusting you. But please, for the love of God, turn off Bluetooth before you scar me for life again.”
Connor’s jaw dropped. “I scarred you? It was your book!“ He turned off Bluetooth and handed her phone back.
“You could have chosen something on the radio like a normal person.”
Valentine came to Connor’s defense. “This isn’t 2007, Daisy. Literally nobody uses the radio anymore. It’s ninety percent ads.”
“Work pays for the fancy radio. It’s got every genre you could want!”
Hazy took Connor’s side, too. “If you connect your phone, you can play the exact song you want.”
Connor pointed at Hazy. “What he said. If the radio is so good, why was your phone connected?”
Daisy rolled her eyes. “I wanted to listen to my book.”
Valentine drove the knife of embarrassment in deeper. “You know people can hear your audiobook from the outside, right? It’s the same as when people talk on the phone. Screams it for the whole world to hear.”
“Oh my God. Please tell me that’s not true.” Daisy begged the universe to do her this one solid. She didn’t ask for much.
Hazy reached across the car and squeezed her shoulder. “You’ve been advertising your wicked ways to the whole world.”
This explained some nasty looks she’d received in traffic. “Fuck. Can we please turn on some music and never speak of this again? Before I keel over from a heart attack?”
The men snickered but agreed to let it go. “Don’t worry,” Connor said, “I got you.”
The iconic notes of Ginuwine’s ‘Pony’ rang out through the car. Daisy moaned. The Connors dissolved into more laughter.