Page 5 of Puck Prince

“Of course it does. You’re a man with a pretty face. You can probably get all the girls you want with a flash of your abs and a lazy smile, am I right?”

“You’re not wrong. But also, you’re making a whole lot of judgy assumptions for a naked girl trapped on her cousin’s balcony on a Friday night. And you know what they say about assumptions.”

My eyes graze over herassumption again. You know, for good measure.

I start to turn around, but I stop. Dare I say it, I’m actually having… fun? It’s not often a girl actually catches my attention. Puck bunnies usually want one thing and one thing only, and despite what this woman thinks, I don’t even have to smile. But that gets old.

This girl is all spice, but if I had to guess, there’s some sweet in there, too. The kind you have to earn.

Thebestkind.

I turn back around. “Are you even going to tell me your name?”

I expect a glare. More fire from those blue-ish, green-ish, oceanic eyes of hers. But instead, they soften. Not a lot, but a bit. Enough. “Callie.”

“Callie.” I repeat it, liking the way it sounds in my voice. Liking the way it tastes on my tongue. Wondering what other parts of Callie would taste sweet on my tongue, too. “Well, Callie, I’m Owen. I feel like we got off to a rough start.” I lean against the railing, crossing my arms. “What are you doing alone on a Friday night?”

She chews on her own tongue for a moment, no doubt trying to decide just how much barbed wire to unravel from her obviously guarded self. “If you must know, I wasn’t supposed to be alone tonight. Kennedy and I were supposed to have a girls’ night.”

“A girls’ night.”

“You know… Wine. Thai food. Bashing men and watching trashy TV?—”

“Pillow fights in your underwear. Got it.”

She shoots me a glare hot enough to incinerate the decals on my jersey. “But that didn’t happen, as you can obviously see. Kennedy is cannonballing into the cesspool of this city’s dating scene, so I thought I’d enjoy a quiet evening to myself. God knows I could use the double dose of wine. But it didn’t get that far.”

“Well, you got the wine and the cozy part down,” I motion my hand over her. “But the quiet part needs work.”

The look she gives me has enough venom to turn me to stone.

I hold out an apologetic hand. “Don’t get mad. I just appreciate the cosmic humor.”

“What about this strikes you as funny?” she hisses.

“All of it. The way we met. Your outfit. The fucking cat. You really should come inside. I’ll even say, ‘Please.’”

I hold the smile. A smile that usually scores the goal. A smile I’ve known how to use my entire life because it falls somewhere between the devil you want to know and the boy next door.

But this girl is different.

This girl ain’t buying it.

“You know what? I changed my mind. I wouldn’t go through that door if it was the only open door in the world!”

I look at it and raise a brow. “It kind ofisthe only open door?—”

“And this Adirondack is looking like a California King in the Bahamas. So I’ll be just fine out here ‘til Kennedy gets home. Go back and watch your game, super fan. Thanks but no thanks.”

With that, she curls up in the chair, hugging her knees against herself.

I have to admit, I wasn’t expecting a no. I can see how badly she wants a warm room—and pants. But this game is even more entertaining than the one I was watching on my flatscreen, and I intend to keep playing.

“Suit yourself.” I sigh, walking back inside. “I’ll leave it unlocked if you change your mind.”

I close the patio door softly behind me and pad over to the couch where I left my phone. Even through the glass, I can hear her cussing out “Satan’s feline spawn.” I have to chuckle a little. I almost feel bad for not telling her that Kennedy keeps a spare key taped inside the cat dome.

Emphasis on “almost.” For a girl stuck on a balcony, she sure is stubborn. And ungrateful. And right now, I have enough on my hands.

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