Page 24 of A Grinchmas Delight

“What?” I ask, looking up at her. She’s pointing to someone next to her. I look up again and am met with those piercing grey eyes.

“I can’t believe I’m seeing him in person. He is real. He exists!” she says, laughing through squinted, mostly closed eyes.

“Jesus Christ. How long have you two been here?”

“Too long,” Cassidy yells from down the bar.

I flip her the bird. Tattle tale. She gives it right back with a shit-eating grin.

“Who called you?” I demand, standing up on wobbly legs.

Zane catches me by the arm, helping steady me so I don’t come crashing down to the floor.

“Call it intuition,” he says, grinning down at me.

Yep. I’m totally hate-fucking the shit out of him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

ZANE

“Do you know…what aggravates theshitout of me?” Dayra slurs from the passenger seat of my truck.

I chuckle and her friend Maia chimes in from the back seat.

“The Tall Hateful Devil?”

I roll my eyes at the name they have given me. Dayra whips her head around in Maia’s direction and points at her. “Yes! That! But no.”

“What?” I ask, playing into the game that she’s playing.

“Why is it when women sleep with someone, they’re sluts but men can have sex with an entire cheerleading squad and they get cheered on for it?”

Maia nods from the backseat with her eyes closed and points at Dayra. “That part!”

I shake my head at the two of them.

“We’re almost to your house,” I tell her, pointing at the little yellow house just ahead of us.

“Oh my gosh, Reese Piecie!” Maia shouts.

“She’s going to be so excited to see you!”

“I can’t wait to snuggle her!”

I turn into her driveway and put the truck in park.

“No one get out yet. I’ll get the doors so you don’t fall out.”

They both start trying to say something as I close the door and get out, walking around the truck. I let Maia out first and offer her a hand. She hops down and stumbles when she lands. I hold her arm to steady her and walk her to the stairs before going back to get Dayra, who’s already opened her door and is trying to slowly reach her feet toward the ground.

I pick her up at the hips and set her down on the ground. She stares up at me with those green eyes burning a hole right through me. Her eyeliner is smudged and her lipstick has worn off, but there’s a faded red stain on her plump lips and I want nothing more than to kiss her until it’s gone.

I lean in closer to her, my hands still lingering on her perfect hips.

“Come home with me,” I whisper, kissing her lips gently.

She leans into me and kisses me back. She sighs when she pulls away. “Okay. Let me get Maia situated.”

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