Page 108 of Pirate Girls

“You’ve been gone too long,” I coo. “There are new men on the scene.”

“And I’m still as disinterested as I ever was.”

I circle around in front of them, seeing if I remember how to skate backward. I wobble but manage to stay upright.

“Her heart is taken,” I inform Aro.

“Shush,” Quinn growls a little.

But I don’t. “Have you heard anything from him?” I ask Quinn.

“From who?” Aro asks.

“Lucas Morrow,” I tell her, throwing Quinn a glance. “Another blond.”

Quinn is twenty. Lucas must be more than thirty by now. But she knew him when he was a teenager and she was a kid, and she followed him everywhere.

Quinn just cocks an eyebrow at me. “I’m not ten anymore. I left crushes behind.”

“Have you gone out with anyone at school?”

“Have you?” She smiles, challenging me.

Hunter showering with me comes to the front of my mind, and I know I’m blushing as images of his body flood my head.

Quinn gasps, seeing my face. “Tell me.”

“There’s nothing to tell.”

Nothing I can tell her anyway. She’s his family, too, and I doubt she wants to hear the details any more than I want to hear about all the places Aro and Hawke have done it.

God, I wanted to touch Hunter, though. I almost asked if I could watch him touch himself that night. I can’t believe I almost said the words. They nearly popped out, and I don’t know why he would think that was going too far after we’d already gotten naked together, but I stopped myself before I asked.

“Willthere be anything to tell?” she inquires.

Butterflies swarm as we fly faster and faster around the rink.

“Is he nice?” she asks about my mystery guy.

I think about it. He used to be nice. I always felt good and safe with Hunter.

Now…

“He makes me mad all the time,” I reply. “And excited all the time.”

“Sounds about right,” Aro chimes in.

Quinn touches my arm, but we don’t slow down. “You’ll be careful?”

I want to laugh, because if anyone asks me what I want to be when I grow up, the answer is, above all else, ‘not-careful,’

“I’ll be myself.” I meet her eyes. “And I’m prepared that nothing will ever be easy because of it.”

That’s all I can do.

“Let’s go,” I say, jetting off faster.

People surround us, the dancers go wild, and the air fills with heat that blankets my skin. A brunette unzips her leather jacket, revealing a black lace bra underneath, and two women whirl around us, skating backward, one in a bikini.

---