Page 33 of Fake Coral and Keys

Not yet.

“Does it hurt?” I ask her, looking down at the blistered red line on her ankle.

She smiles sleepily at me. “A little.”

“We don’t have to attend this party,” I tell her. “We can go back to the room instead.”

She looks at the crowd gathered around the large fire pit in the center of the courtyard. “I want to be here.”

I tear my eyes off her and look out at the view. Flames lick up from the large fire to the night sky, highlighting all the faces nearby with a garish orange glow. Tonight’s party means that nearly every guest at the resort is gathered around the bonfire, waiting for the festivities. The staff promised food, dancing, and a special show tonight. At least a hundred people must be milling about, all drinking and laughing.

Daisy’s family is in the crowd somewhere, Erin no doubt taking pictures. Daisy’s family told her to rest tonight and they’d resume pictures tomorrow. Lily had fussed over her for hours when we returned. Heather had brought her pain medicine in a little orange bottle, a fruity drink, and hugged her like she was a small child. When Daisy looked overwhelmed from all the attention, she said she needed a nap, and everyone finally left. I felt completely useless and put to the sidelines, but I could tell that Daisy loved all the attention from her family.

“Do you want to be here?” she asks me.

I look back at her. She’s watching me intently and I wonder if her question has a deeper meaning. Like do I want to behere. At this resort. Withher. “There is no place I’d rather be.”

The corner of her mouth flickers with the start of a grin, but she covers it by taking a sip of her drink.

“Daisy,” I say her name lightly, more so to taste her again on my lips. Her eyes travel back to me and stop on my mouth. Instantly, my dick hardens.

“Blake?” she says, a bit of a question.

“I’m glad you invited me.”

Her lips do that little tugging down at the corner thing again, and it seems as if her eyes sparkle even brighter as she looks back at the crowd.

I suck in a huge lungful, not sure if I should ask the next question. “Will this happen again?”

She blinks but keeps her eyes on the crowd in front of us. She knows exactly what I mean. Will this, our meeting for another Gathering, happen again? She takes so long to answer that I regret asking. Finally, she looks at me. “Do you wantit to?”

Fuck yes, I want to scream, but say instead, “I’d like it to. If you want me.”

She looks at me now. She opens her mouth, but then her face changes and contorts when her eyes move to something behind me. Her jaw clenches tightly as she shifts in her seat.

I swear I smell the cheapness of his cologne before he walks into my view. He’s smart enough to keep his distance, but his eyes are all over Daisy, undressing her. No doubt imagining her like he did the other day when that tiny bikini barely concealed her glorious body. I’d hated her in it only because that stupid part of my primal male brain didn’t want any other man to see her smooth skin and freckles.Only I’m supposed to see her perfection,it screamed at me. Not this frat boy with perfect teeth and privileged sneer.

Even though I’m staring at Greg with such hatred that he’s got to be feeling a pinprick of pain where my eyes bore into him, he refuses to take his eyes off Daisy. Fucking man has some balls coming here and leering at her.

“Blake,” Daisy says like she can feel the shift in me.

Greg leans back against the bar with such arrogance that I wonder what my fist would feel like smashing into his smooth jaw. My pulse quickens, thumping in my neck. I need to calm down, but my mind is sizzling with how he looks at her. Hetakes a long pull of the beer his friend hands him, then slowly slides his palm down his white shirt and grips his dick, flashing that sneer at Daisy.

I’m up and moving before he’s let go of his dick. That primal brain hears Daisy calling me, but the thundering of rage burns away the sound of everything else. No thumping of music. No laughter from the cheerful crowd around us. Only my heavy breathing and pure wrath thumping through my head.

He doesn’t flinch when I approach him. But he does when I grip his fist, still cupping his dick, and twist. He bends into the move as I twist his arm behind his back, pressing all my weight down on him. With my other hand, I shove the back of his head down, smashing his face into the bar. His mouth hits with a satisfying smack.

“You seem to have a hard time keeping your eyes to yourself,” I growl in his ear like a rabid dog. Someone shrieks to let him go, but I twist his arm up higher on his back until he lets out a small grunt. My shirt gets tugged roughly back, but I ignore whoever is trying to pull me away.

“Get the fuck off me,” Greg says, but it’s muffled because his mouth is smashed into the glossy bar top.

“You grab your dick in front of her, fuck—in front of any woman—and I see you? I’m going to twist your little prickoff.” I knock his head into the bar again for good measure and let go.

It all happened in less than a minute, but a large crowd has gathered around us. The hand at my back tugs hard, and I step away from the sack-of-shit and turn to find Kane pulling me away.

“Dude,” Kane hisses. “Let’s go.”

“Do we have a problem?” a man in a resort uniform asks, pulling a phone from his pocket.

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