Page 46 of Play Fast (Brooklyn Dawn 2)

“I’m an acquired taste.” It took everything in me not to sling my arm around her shoulders. What the hell was my problem?

I wasn’t the virgin here. So, why was I so hellbent on showing my possession of her? As if anyone could. She was like a hurricane. No one could tame her. Exactly why she’d always drawn me.

Among other reasons.

She smiled up at me, her blue eyes still so soft and sleepy. That the look I’d put on her face could still be there in the middle of all this crap was amazing. Especially considering the purple edging across her cheek. “Yeah, so’s this place.”

“Lila neglected to inform me that you two are involved.”

“Who says we are?” Daisy asked.

My fingers tensed on the mug handle. Right. That was the answer when she still couldn’t walk straight. “Is it any of your business?”

“Everything is my business right now if it affects Ripper Records.” Chucklefest set aside his mug without touching it. “Explain what you meant when you said this happens every year.”

Still smarting from Daisy’s comment—even if it was logical—I gave him a short, terse answer.

Cabins were broken into out of season every year. It hadn’t happened to me before, but so what? We’d told the police and detailed the situation to them.

Apparently, that was not enough, because we had to run through everything again, including why Daisy had a purple cheek.

When we were finished, Noah went to get some stuff from his vehicle, and I dumped out the coffee he and I hadn’t drank. Daisy had finished hers and gone back for more.

While she was in the kitchen, I paced around the coffee table, stabbing my fingers through my hair to try to quiet the riot inside me.

“Oz?” Her soft tentative question had my back going straight. “Are you okay?”

“What the fuck is going on?” The question exploded out of me, but her stricken expression made me want to haul the words back.

“What do you mean?”

“With all this Ripper shit. Something is up. You weren’t part of the security meeting we had after the show, but—”

She re-anchored the knot in my tank top at her hip. “Um, I kind of heard. I needed a minute alone, so I ended up in the room next to yours. I overheard most of the meeting. Not on purpose.”

“Uh huh.” I shook my head. “You’re a little spy and a thief. I had no idea of all your talents.”

“It started with the gummy bears,” she said soberly as Noah marched inside, letting the screen door slap shut behind him.

“You requested clothes.” He passed Daisy a purple sack emblazoned with the Powder Puff girls on the side. At least that was what I think it said.

“Oh, thank fuck. I need some of my own. Did you find—” She set the bag on the sofa and frowned as she yanked out a woolly-looking turtleneck. “I didn’t even know I still owned this. What the heck?” She started digging through the bag, tossing things to and fro. I was pretty sure I saw thermal pajamas and underwear twice as big as Daisy’s ass.

“My sister did this,” she announced before Noah could speak. “Why would you have Ever pack my clothes?”

Noah propped his hands on his waist. “Who would you have suggested pack them? Me?”

“She’s trying to wrap me in eighteen feet of material.” Demonstrating her point, she held up a dress with a high, frilly collar. The thing seemed to go to Daisy’s ankles.

“Why would you even own that?”

“I used to go thrifting and snag stuff that I could make into different stuff later. You know, like Pretty in Pink?”

“Sorry, that’s still on my watchlist.”

She flipped me the middle finger.

“Well, at least she wants you to be warm. Although it’s spring. Soon to be summer.”

---