Page 100 of I Blame the Rival

Nico snorts, “The fact you just made up a verb proves exactly why you are not an alpha. Accept it, man. You are nothing more than a cinnamon roll.”

My brother slumps next to me, “I don’t want to be a cinnamon roll.”

I nudge him gently, “I always thought you were more of a golden retriever.”

“Is that better?”

Nico looks like he’s about to burst a kidney laughing while Trip shakes her head and walks over to her boyfriend. He immediately brightens when she climbs onto his lap and presses a kiss against his lips.

“Stop being ridiculous and maybe I’ll let you alpha me again tonight.”

I shudder and shift away just as a couple of dimples pop out.

“Yes ma’am.”

Skylar

She’s wearing makeup.

That’s my first thought when Lacey opens the door.

Besides the first night I met her, I have never seen her wear makeup. It’s not something that bothers me, her natural beauty is more than enough, but now I am having a hard time looking away from the shockingly dark lashes.

The slight addition has made it so her already sparkling eyes are downright magnificent, the dark emerald colour poppingagainst the eye shadow smeared along her lids. Her lips look redder than usual as well, less pink and more dangerous.

I swallow thickly, trailing my eyes down to the exposed skin between her crop top and skinny jeans.

“Was the drive okay?” Lacey smiles, recapturing my attention with the bright shade of her lips, “Those roads are kind of sketchy at night. They really need to put in more streetlights.”

“It was fine.”

“Good.”

She leads me to her room and I try not to stare at the sliver of skin peeking out above the curve of her ass.

“Thank you for driving here tonight. I really appreciate it.”

“If you want me here, I am happy to make the drive.” Clearing my throat, I tear my gaze away from her body, “What was it you wanted to show me?”

“It seems silly now, but…” Lacey walks over and picks up the romance book I got her. She hugs it against her chest before passing it over to me.

“Look how far I got.”

I take it gingerly, noting the freshly painted fingernails as well. The new colour is darker than the last shade of purple, and it makes me wonder if she chose it for me.

Flipping open the book, I skip to the section I annotated for her and find most of the sticky notes gone. My heart skips a beat when I read the first moment of entry without any trace of black sharpie.

“This is amazing, Flower. How did it feel?”

“The first part was pretty easy. Especially since we’ve done most of it.” She blushes prettily and breaks eye contact, “But the pink stage was tough. I cried the first couple of read throughs but by the fifth time it was okay.”

The thought of Lacey crying alone in her room has a spark of anger igniting inside me. There’s so many things wrong with the way her ex-boyfriend treated her that it hurts to even think about.

“I am so proud of you.”

The blush spreads to her neck, the smile taking over Lacey’s face dousing my simmering rage with a bucket of cold water.

“I’m trying, so it’s nice to see results.” She hesitates, running a finger along the spine of the book, “I was hoping maybe you could help me with the red stage.”

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