Danny pushes away from my door, but doesn’t move off the tiny porch which he fills with his thickly muscled body. “Rach is worried about you. I told her I’d make sure you’re okay without her. This is me following through on my commitment.”
He says commitment like he should get a prize for being a responsible adult.
I let out a harrumph. “I release you from your obligation to watch out for me. I’m a big girl; I can take care of myself. Thanks.”
“Aw, now, don’t be like that. I don’t want to break a promise to my sister. Hell, she’s the only one I keep my promises to. I have a perfect record. Don’t go fucking it up for me.”
“Rachel isn’t here all the time. I have other friends. I’m hanging out with them later, and I have a date after that. So, please, do your thing. I’ll see you around. No promises will be broken.”
He doesn’t move. I push past him to the door and let myself inside. He follows.
Great.
That first summer, after Mom passed away, Danny and I were friends—of a sort. I thought there could be something more between us. He hung out with Rachel and me almost all the time. He was nice back then. Something in him was still good. He seemed to care about stuff—his future, the world, even me.
Since graduation, he’s decided I’m beneath him. And he’s made sure I know it at every turn. Plus, he’s gotten a rap sheet for indecent exposure and public intoxication. The paparazzi love him as he’s a never-ending source of tabloid headlines. Almost every Hollywood starlet and famous rich-girl-wannabe has been caught with him. I can just imagine the angina it must give his parents. Danny’s more like a demon than the son of a big time TV preacher.
No. Danny’s not good any more.
Now, he’s—he’s just bad.
SO. BAD.
I saunter inside Mo’s domain. It still has the same furniture and pictures on the walls as when she moved here. It’s like she never really settled in. Then again, what do I know? I haven’t been through these doors since that first summer. Not sure why I came through them now. Mostly because she’s trying to get rid of me and I’m feeding that crazy-ass part of me that loves fucking with her head.
She’s so damned uptight. All I want to do is get under her skin and under her skirt. My dick stirs at the thought of what’s under that skirt.
Does she ever go commando? Probably not. Too goody-goody for that.
Damn, she needs a good fuck, if for no other reason than to loosen her up.
She turns on me, glaring. “No one invited you in.”
“I don’t have to be invited. You do live on my family’s property, in this house provided by my family. Seems I have the right to go wherever I want, whenever I want.”
Mo’s tiny growl makes me smile.
She asks, “Oh, really?”
She’s so easy to mess with.
I step closer. “Yes. Really. And while we’re discussing your living here—at my family’s pleasure—I’d rather you not use the pool this summer.”
Her brow wrinkles, her eyes hard. “Why? It’s never been a problem before.”
“Oh, it has. But with Rachel around, there was nothing I could do about it. She’s not here this summer, so, no swimming.”
Mo throws her hands up and shakes her head. “You’ve lost your freaking mind.”
“Maybe. Or maybe I’m just now finding it. I’m not spending another torturous summer watching you run around in your swimsuit.” The memory of last year’s suit, all wet and clinging to her luscious curves, causes that ache deep inside—an ache I can do nothing about.
Her jaw hardens, and she grinds her teeth. “Well I’m sorry to have spoiled your summers. Excuse me if I’m not a stick figure, plastic doll you can ogle.”
I want to do way more than ogle. “No. You’re anything but a stick figure, that’s for certain.”
Her pearly-pink lips part as though she’s searching for a comeback. She presses them together, her blue eyes flashing.
She stalks to me, poking me in the chest. “Let me tell you something, you arrogant jerk, I will do whatever I want, whenever I want. If you don’t like it you can stick it up your—your—your bung hole.”
I grab her hand, shaking my head and laughing. “My bung hole? You’re so uptight; you can’t even say the word ass, can you?”
Mo swings away, pulling out of my grasp, turning her back to me. “I can say anything. I choose not to. Just leave already. I don’t have the energy for this crap.”
I step behind her, sliding my finger under the strap on her sundress. God, what I wouldn’t give to slide it down and kiss from her shoulder over to that little birthmark on the back of her neck.