Page 43 of Creed

“You gonna be okay, man?” I ask when I notice his rigid posture and unfocused stare. “We can just eat and talk in the morning if you’re not in the right mindset.”

“No,” he snaps, but then he squeezes his eyes shut, taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry. Fuck, I’m sorry. Yes, I’ll be fine. Tonight’s just… been a-fuckin’-lot. A goddamned roller coaster.”

I study him for a moment before nodding in acquiescence. “Alright.”

We didn’t have a chance to move all the food and snacks to the living room before another set of bare feet on the tile has our attention shifting to the entryway of the kitchen once more. Collins walks back in and I freeze, the air in my lungs seizes and my body is suddenly rooted to the spot as I take in the woman standing before me, because?—

Holy. Fucking. Shit.

She’s got to be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. The red wig is gone and in its place is a head full of blonde hair so light it looks to be nearly white, the pale color damn near looks like freshly fallen snow, so beautiful resting against her porcelain skin that I’m inclined to think that it’s a natural color and not bleached. It’s hanging in loose, messy waves around her shoulders. Her face has been washed free of all makeup and paint, leaving behind flawless skin and a smattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose and some along her forehead, mirroring my own but I’ll argue until the day I die that hers are absolutely cuter than mine. The light green of her irises stands out even more against her dark lashes without the makeup. Maybe it’s because of how much rounder her eyes look without all of that makeup distracting from one of her most stunning features.

She’s also wearing a sparkly hoop through her septum. She’s also got the most prominent lips I’ve ever seen. A full bottom lip and the upper has a cute pointed cupid’s bow with the perfect pout. I fight a shiver when I remember the feel of her lips brushing my ear as she talked me through the dance she gave me earlier tonight.

The sweats I gave her have been rolled at the ankles but still brush the ground because Collins is a petite little shorty.

She’s fucking perfect.

Collins Weston is a wet dream come true. And the fucking cherry of the cake? She’s wearing my goddamned clothes and that does something to me. It shouldn’t, I freaking know it shouldn’t, but it does.

“Feel a little better, Stardust?” Creed asks her, leaning back against the counter with his arms crossed over his chest. I find it odd that he’s still using her stage name, but she doesn’t seem affected by it, so I make a mental note to ask Creed about it later.

“Yeah,” is all she says, her eyes lingering on Creed. She opens her mouth like she wants to say something else to him, but she snaps it shut before turning to me, a small smile curling her lips as she tucks an ivory strand behind her ear. “Thank you for these.” She tugs at the shirt and I have to work really fucking hard to not look down at the bare, uncovered nipples I caught a flash of beneath the fabric when it settled back against her chest. “I feel a little more human now.” Her smile widens a bit.

Look, I respect women. I respect their boundaries. Their bodies, and their privacy.

But I’m also a dude who gets hard at the sight of a great set of tits.

And Collins? She’s got the best.

“No problem.” I look between her and Creed, the tension in the room growing so thick you could cut it with a knife. “Well, I don’t know about you two, but I’m fucking starving and utterly confused as to how the hell we ended up here tonight. So why don’t we sit down and figure some shit out, yeah?”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you in the living room once I plate these real quick.”

I nod at him before turning my attention back to Collins. She doesn’t know I know her name now, so to ease the atmosphere surrounding her, I return to the little game I promised her I’d play. “Come on, Arabella, follow me.” I wink at her.

She scrunches her nose in the most adorable way at the name I spat, before leading her through the entryway and into the living area. “Really? Do I look like an Arabella to you?” she quips, a raspy laugh following her question.

I plop down on the L-shaped couch as she takes the oversized recliner next to it. I narrow my eyes, pretending to study her. “Nah, you look like you’ve got a cooler name than that. More unique.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yup.” I say, popping the ‘p’.

“And what might that be?”

“Memphis.”

“Memphis?”

“Dallas?”

“What?”

“Kissimmee.”

“Wha—are you just naming random cities now?” she laughs and it’s music to my ears. I don’t even know this girl, but what I do know right now is that I want to make her do that again.

Unfortunately, I don’t get to pretend guess anymore though because Creed comes in with his arms loaded with the pizza rolls and a shit ton of other snacks that I completely forgot about when Collins reemerged, including the ice cream that Collins was unknowingly seducing me with earlier. He lays them all out on the coffee table in front of us. “Dig in, guys.”

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