Page 58 of Grudge Puck
He cracked a grin. “Yeah, but I teasedallthe girls I thought were cute. Hell, I guess I still do. Usually, they like me back. That's how it's always worked. Not with you, though.”
“Y-you—” I stammered as my throat began to swell shut. “You didn't think Iwas cute.”
“Actually? Yeah. I did.” He added quietly, “And still do.”
“But I wasn'tcoollike you. I flew under the radar. No one noticed me.”
“Yep. Which I happened to find insanely hot, believe it or not. And once I found out you had a dark side? That made you even more mysterious and attractive to me.”
“So that's what you were always getting at with the dark side stuff,” I grumbled. “That damn site.”
“Duh. You really couldn't figure that out?”
“I guess I was in denial. If you knew that I made that site, then you'd know I wasn't just a shy girl. You'd know I was actually …” I trailed off.
“Kind of ab?” Beau proffered.
“Beau!” I slapped at his muscular arm. “But, um, yeah. Exactly.”
I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath to ready myself for what I was about to admit.
“I had a crush on you too,” I blurted out.
He laughed with surprise. “You did?”
“Granted, it wasn't really aconsciouscrush, because it was heavily obscured by several layers of denial and anger at you. I was so jealous of all the popular girls who got your attention. I'd always thought you were cute, way back to middle school, even before you got all hockey-famous. Which is why it made me so mad that suddenly,everyonewanted to be with you …”
“No shit. You did?” Beau said. “Wish I'd known that.”
“You were so shy back then!”
“And so were you.”
I held up a palm. “And that was the problem. We didn't know how to talk to each other.”
We both let out a sigh.
The bartender delivered our food, and we talked between bites.
“So last night. You set out to grudge-fuck me,” I said with a small giggle. Now, after all that had been said, I found it kind of amusing.
And maybe even a little sexy, in a deranged sort of way.
“Sure did.” He put his arm around my waist, reached lower, and sneakily grabbed a handful of my ass. “And now I can't stop thinking about it.”
“You're so bad,” I said—but I let his hand stay there, hoping the cute hostess would look our way and notice it, too.
“Don't lie, Camille. You know it was hot.”
“Maybe just a little,” I admitted quietly. Then I gently jabbed my elbow into his chest. “But you just said you regretted it a minute ago.”
He sighed. “Yeah. Once we got to talking in the club, I realized I didn't wanna go through with it. Like I said, I actually had fun catching up with you, and—I don't know. It felt wrong, somehow. I wasn't sure why. But then Piper passed out, and suddenly we were kissing in the cab, andgodit was hot, Cam.”
My throat tensed. “Yeah,” I mumbled shyly.
“And then we were back at Piper's place, and alone in her bedroom, and, well … old habits took over, I guess. I had to have you. But I feltdifferentafterward, not like I normally do.”
“Explain.”
