Page 78 of The Puck Chase

“My boyfriend is a cock tease,” he huffs, reaching down to readjust himself, and I smile wide.

“Say it again,” I dare him, and he meets my stare, sees my smile, and then rolls his eyes like I am being ridiculous.

“You’re my boyfriend, Archer Gray. Are you satisfied now?” he snaps, leaning in to kiss me again.

“Not as satisfied as I was in the maze, but yes,” I reply, and he laughs against my lips. Making him smile is one thing, but making him laugh feels like a damn miracle.

Daemon Forbes is my boyfriend. Life is good.

After kissing one another senselessly, the attendant finally brings us back down, and Daemon gets off on shaky legs, much to my amusement. We are making our way back towards the big top, when I hear Everest, Griffin, and Harden calling my sister's name.

“What happened, where’s Rora?” I demand, storming toward them, and they all share a look.

“That tool, Jason Miles is here,” Ever spits, looking lost in his rage, and his friends don’t look much better.

“Who is Jason Miles?” Daemon asks, and the three of them glare at him, until Griffin finally sighs.

“Some dick we go to school with. He’s got a hard on for Ro, wants to pop her cherry, and he won’t let anything get in his way,” he grunts, and his meaning isn’t lost on either of us.

Daemon and I share a look, and both our eyes flick to the maze, before he snaps, “Let’s go.”

All five of us move as one, searching high and low, Ever and the guys going one way, and Daemon and I going the other. It doesn’t take us long to reach the center, the fountain coming into view, and as soon as it does, I spy my sister. That prick, Jason, has her pressed into the same hedge where we saw the guys fucking earlier, his hand ripping at her dress, but it’s the tears staining her cheeks that have me seeing red.

I’m screaming my brother’s name in a rage before I can stop myself, already moving towards them, but before I can reach them, Daemon is there, ripping Jason away from my sister, and smashing his fist into his face. My eyes flare wide in shock, but one look at my sister’s crying face, and I am dropping down and scooping her into my arms. Which is how Everest and the other two find us, with Aurora crying and apologizing in my embrace, and Daemon with his knuckles bloody and busted, almost as badly as Jason’s face.

Everest is taking our sister from my arms as soon as he reaches us, which only makes her cry harder, and it’s then that I reach down, pulling Daemon away from the fucking predator on the ground. “It’s okay, baby, that’s enough,” I tell him with a gentle hand to his shoulder, and instantly his body relaxes, looking at the now unconscious dick on the floor, before rising back to his feet, breathing heavily.

Griffin and Harden stare between my sister and Jason, before the latter slams his foot into his ribs, no doubt damaging a few, and then they are at her side, wiping away her tears.

“RoRo?” I whisper, leaning into her. “How are we handling this? Are we making a fuss, or dealing with it quietly?”

She meets my stare, before glancing at Ever, and they seem to communicate silently, before she whispers, “Just get me out of here, please.” Her voice breaks on the last word, and my brother looks ready to level the fucking earth for her, which I can’t say I blame him, when I feel the exact same way.

“Take a photo of her dress and the marks on her arm, and then wipe her face and take her around the edge of the party, and we’ll meet you out front. I’ll tell mom she ate too much funnel cake,” I tell Ever, before I glance at Jason on the ground, and address Everest’s two friends. “You two deal with this prick, and then meet us back at the house.”

I drop a kiss to my sister’s head, and nod at my brother, before grabbing Daemon’s busted hand and dragging him away. We exit the maze and search for my parents, thankfully finding David first. I lean in and whisper in his ear, telling him what really happened, along with the story we are telling my mom, and his rage rivals his son’s, but still he nods, telling us to head home.

We meet Everest and Aurora at the end of the driveway, and we all climb into one of the limos silently, and head home. Once we are back at the house, Everest takes Aurora right upstairs, helping her undress, and putting her into bed. He doesn’t leave her room until she is fast asleep, and when he makes his way back to the kitchen, I am sitting at the counter cleaning Daemon’s hand.

He grabs himself a bottle of vodka from the fridge and moves to storm back out, before he pauses on the threshold and focuses on my boyfriend. “Thank you, Daemon, for what you did back there.”

Daemon nods, meeting his stare. “Anyone would have done the same,” he replies, his voice sounding unusual, and it’s only now I realize how he saw it. Someone was hurting my sibling, and he had to stop them. Like he tried, and failed, to stop his father.

“No, they wouldn’t have,” Everest replies, and I know he sees it now. What I see in Daemon, what I’ve always seen, and I know instantly that going forward, he will always have his back.

He heads back upstairs, and I finish up cleaning Daemon’s hand, before we head up to bed ourselves. We get undressed, each showering quickly, and when we slip into bed, I drop a kiss to his chest, as I ask, “So, how was your first outing with your boyfriend?” I tease, and he grunts a laugh, pushing me onto my side and spooning into my back.

“Like I’ll need a month to recover before I have another,” he grunts, and I smile in the dark, as I settle into his arms.

“Damn, already talking about our anniversary, I told you that you were obsessed with me.”

“Archer,” he groans. “Go to sleep.”

“Goodnight, boyfriend.”

“Goodnight, baby.”

For once in my life,I’m not excited to be back on campus. Daemon and I spent another day at home with my family, my mom even going as far as to crack out the damn baby photo albums, before we headed back to Fairfield in time for classes to start back up. For the last week, I have been enduring classes, getting back into practice, taking calls from David, and sneaking into Daemon’s bed every night, the latter being the only thing I actually want to do. So when my last class finishes for the day, I head straight over to the campus art studio, where I know I will find him.

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