Page 18 of Forbidden Puck
But why I had such strange thoughts about a girl's laugh, I couldn't possibly tell you.
The video ended. We were still sharing my fold-out chair, the two of us side by side. She was so close, I smelled her, her scent alluring and sweet like vanilla. Was it her hair? Her perfume? Her skin? I didn't know, but the smell made me want to pull her closer, brush the golden lock of hair from her face, and kiss her.
Of course,holy shit,I couldn't ever do that, and even thinking it was a bad idea …
Still, she locked her eyes on mine. Bright and shining, her green eyes were flecked with radial streaks of a brilliant amber. Her eyes offered me an invitation, and if this were any other girl I might have taken her up on that invite, but—I knew I couldn't, of course.
“And, so, that video ought to explain it,” Ella said quietly, her eyes still glittering and fixed on mine.
“What?” I laughed. “That didn't explain a thing. In fact, I'm more confused about your nickname than I was before.”
Gently, she pounded her fist square against my chest. “C'mon! You don't see it?”
I leaned back to appraise her from head-to-toe. Of course she didn'tactuallylook like a honey badger. But like I said earlier—the girl was athletically built and, hell, she just seemedtough, even if she wrapped all that toughness in a cutesy package.
“Okay—I'll say this,” I began. “You've got a certain swagger.”
“Ah-ha! See, you get it.”
“So you're actually proud to be like that thing?”
“I used to hate it. Because Lance first started calling me Honey Badger as an insult. Then, one day, I showed the video to my Mom to tattle on Lance. But she saw it, and she just couldn't hold back her laughter. She said, 'I'm so sorry, sweety, but Lance is right. You really are a honey badger.'I couldn't believe it! I wasbeyondpissed, but that only made the problem worse. Soon, the entire family was calling me Honey Badger. At a certain point, I stopped fighting and embraced it instead.”
I chuckled and quoted the video: “Honey Badger don't give a shit.”
She smiled at me, looking deep into my eyes, and I smiled back at her.
“Honey Badger just takes what it wants,” she quoted back at me.
I looked at her lips, so pink and full, and she looked at mine. I had a terrible feeling I knew what was going to happen next … that I wasn't strong enough to stop it …
But a conflicted voice inside me screamed,You guys have been drinking!Do not do anything stupid! This is Lance's sister, you moron!
But she was so close, I felt the warm, gentle puffs of her breath against my face. Her scent, her pheromones, whatever it was, smothered that screaming voice and lured me closer.
Ihadto taste her lips …
I reached my hand for her cheek, when—
Kthunk!
—a sound made me freeze. The sound of a key inserted into a lock.
For a second, I froze. Deer in the headlights. We both paused, face-to-face, eyes huge, as if to say to each other,is this really happening?
Then we heard the sound of the key turning, and the deadbolt popping free—cli-thunk.
Ella jumped out of my lap, and I hurried across to the far side of the room.
Like my life depended on it.
Because, well, it kinda did.
***
Lance never had a chance to suspect anything. The second he stepped through the door, Ella was already half-way across the room and advancing on her brother like a lion about to ambush its prey.
“Uh, hey, Ella,” he said nervously. He was carrying a large plastic shopping bag from the sports store. “How are you?”
