Page 74 of Her Devils

“Lenley,” he pleads, “don’t you see? These guys don’t care about you. To them you’re just a hot piece of ass. They are fucking sleaze balls.”

I roll my eyes, but it’s Channing who responds. “It takes one to know one, asshole. What the fuck are you doing here? You have a girlfriend.”

I nod. “Channing is right. He and his teammates aren’t cheating on anyone. Go back to Kiara, and just thank all the skydiving gods that I no longer care enough about her to tell her that you tried to kiss me twice. If you want to fuck around, the least you could do is dump your girlfriend.”

“You don’t understand, Len,” he whines. “It’s complicated.”

Channing chuckles. “Said every cheater ever. Just get the fuck out of here, Penn, before I throw you off this balcony and we find out how aerodynamic you are without a wingsuit. This was funny five minutes ago, but now you’ve overstayed your welcome.”

Darrius glares at me for a long, intense moment, but to my surprise, he turns on his heel, steps back into my room, and leaves without one more word.

I relax into Channing as he tightens his arms around me. “I think Darrius is scared of you,” I say, pushing onto the tips of my toes to brush my lips against his.

“Good,” he rumbles, nipping my bottom lip. “He should be.”

I pull back to look at him. “You look mad.”

A flash of anger darkens his green eyes. “That’s because I am.”

I open my mouth to ask him why, but he precedes me.

“I’m not mad at you, baby. I know we have a deal and you’re just doing what you’re meant to be doing, but I don’t like it when someone who isn’t J, Peyton, or me touches you.”

Oh.

“I—”

He silences me with an impossibly light, warm kiss. “Like I said, you aren’t doing anything wrong, and I’d rather you get Penn out of your system before the end of our deal.”

I hold my breath, confused and a little scared to ask him what he means.

I’m almost sure that he’s going to launch into another tirade about how much he hates Darrius and seeing him seethe with jealousy is as much of a victory as winning an actual skydiving trophy. “I don’t—”

“Baby,” he says, caressing my bottom lip with the pad of his thumb. “We have time until after worlds, but I want you to figure out how you feel about Penn by then.”

“Why?” I exhale in a breathless whisper, lost in the depths of his green eyes.

“Because I like you,” he admits with a smile that lights up his whole face.

I don’t know what to think, too scared to take his words at face value in case he doesn’t mean what I think he does. “Well, fuck,” I say with a self-deprecating giggle. “I should hope so, or the things we’ve been doing together would be very wrong.”

He chuckles again, but this time it’s a softer sound. “No, silly. Ilike you, like you.”

I circle his neck with my arms, hugging myself tighter against him. “Really?”

He nods, suddenly serious. “Really. Look, I know things are weird right now with our deal and Penn and all the pressure of nationals and hopefully worlds, and it’s not like I even know what I’m doing. I’ve never been boyfriend material, and I was okay with it because I’ve never wanted to be someone’s boyfriend.”

Fuck.

I melt against him, brushing his lips with mine and playing with the short hair on the nape of his neck. “There’s only one way to know if you’re boyfriend material, Chan.”

He arches a dark blond brow. “You don’t say.”

“You’ll never know until you try.”

He nods. “That’s what I’m scared of. What if I try and I fuck it up? I like you way too much to risk losing you.”

I understand what he means. “I think we’re in the same boat, babe. I’ve never been anyone’s girlfriend, and there’s a very high chance that I’d fuck it up. Look at the mess I made with Darrius.”

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