Page 73 of Imperfection is Beauty

Kneeling down in front of her, I smiled, and before I could open my mouth, she looked up from my eyes, narrowed hers, and looked over my shoulder, “You ever get in his face like that again, I might be smaller than you, but I got big friends. And they don’t mind having blood on their hands. You understand me?”

Aliyah chimed in then, “I had to hold her down, Daemon. Don’t ever do that again.”

Then I heard Daemon, “Promise. I won’t do it again. And I’m sorry. Never seen him with another woman. It was uncalled for. Even more so when I don’t know you. It was wrong.”

Scarlett shook her head, “You don’t know me, no. But we have met before.”

Daemon seemed puzzled, “Nah, don’t think so.”

She leaned forward, wrapped her arms around my shoulders, and said, “Once, we met when Crew had a cold. His nose was running, and I had a pack of tissues on me. The second time we met, you were out getting milk and bananas and some woman bumped into you which caused a pile of green peppers to fall onto the floor. I helped you pick them up, and you said thanks for not hitting on me. Do you remember what I said?”

I looked over my shoulder and saw Daemon’s mouth dropping open, then looking at me, then back at her and he smiled, wide, “You told me my skin was too light. My eyes weren’t the right shade of hazel, and I didn’t have a beard that could make a woman scream.”

I snorted then looked at Scarlett, and lifted my brow, but she missed it, all of it. She was still looking at Daemon, smirked, then said, “The third time we met was right outside of Marcus’s hospital room once he woke up from surgery.”

I heard Daemon chuckle, “Gotcha. Remember you now. You were talking about my boy here, weren’t you?”

Scarlett didn’t even bother to look ashamed, “Yeah, you even commented about my hoodie that day in the grocery store.”

“Well, I’ll be. Forgive me, my lady. I’m Daemon Campbell, you are?” That was when he held out his hand for her to shake.

She let go of my shoulder, and offered her hand to him, “I’m Scarlett McKinney. And even though we haven’t broached the Tonya subject yet, I would never be after him for his money. I make a good living, and I’ll be making a better one in just a few short months. I even tried to pay him back for a few things and got growled at.”

“Did you do the thing I told you to do?” Aliyah asked her. I knew what she was asking her.

Scarlett smiled, looked at me then winked, “Nope, didn’t have to.”

I grinned.

An hour later we were finally out on the field.

Four hours later we were in the showers and even though the conditions we played in were terrible, we came away with the win.

Scarlett

Seeing him walking out of the locker room, after the conversation I had with Aliyah, I couldn’t help myself.

I let go of her hand and ran.

Marcus luckily saw me coming, braced his feet, opened his arms, smiled freaking wide, and then I was jumping into them. Wrapping my legs around his waist, my arms going around his shoulders.

He winked at me, and looked down at my lips, silently asking for what he wanted.

Smiling wide, I gave my lips to his. Softly at first, but my Marcus… he just didn’t do soft. No. Not at all.

“Holy shit,” I jumped in Marcus’s arms when I heard Daemon say that.

“You weren’t kidding.” Another voice sounded but I paid them no mind.

“How’d you get here?” He asked me as he ignored them as well and started walking out of the tunnel ignoring everyone with me still wrapped up in his arms.

I grinned, “Uber.”

He winked, “Good. Love having you as my shotgun rider.”

I smiled, “One condition?”

He stopped, gave me his eyes, and said, “Name it.”

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