Hothouse Flower (Calloway Sisters)

by Ritchie, Krista

  I swear they love to fucking gang up on me—probably because they know I can take it. “Thanks for the opinion, Cobalt.”

  “Always,” he says. Then he checks his watch, glancing at the woods where the girls disappeared off to. It’s been a fucking long time. I start to worry about Daisy. I don’t know where she was taking Lily and Rose, but she could have easily climbed a tree and fallen off a branch. My heart plummets to my stomach.

  And then Lo shoots off of the chair, tossing his water bottle on his seat. “I’m going to go find Lily.” He spoke the fucking unspoken words, and just like that we’re all standing, following Lo’s trail. We can leave the fire for a few minutes without putting it out.

  Walking in the general direction of where the girls went, we hear the rush of water and figure Daisy would’ve been attracted to it. Voices echo the closer we near the stream or waterfall.

  “It’s leeching all my nutrients!” Lily shouts. And Lo takes off, his walk turning into a sprint.

  “Hold still,” Daisy says calmly.

  Rose winces loudly. “I’m going to murder every one of these disgusting things!” Connor matches Lo’s pace, and I stay behind them, thinking Daisy’s fine.

  When we come into the clearing, Lily looks like a deer caught in the headlights.

  A naked fucking deer.

  I try not to look, but black leeches are stuck to her abdomen and arms while Daisy tries to pry them off…who’s also naked.

  This isn’t the first time I’ve seen her completely undressed. Last year. New Year’s Eve at Rose’s house in Princeton, Daisy had a scheming look on her face with this really playful smile. The countdown to midnight happened, and while her date, some fucking Abercrombie model, was about to kiss her, she avoided his mouth by starting to strip, backing up towards the kitchen with each discarded article of clothing. She said that the new year couldn’t start off right without someone streaking.

  Her eyes were on mine.

  Mine were on hers.

  And then the model she was with—he cut in and helped take off her bra.

  I grabbed him by the shoulder, instinctively, a gut reaction out of irritation and anger. I didn’t want her with this fratty fucking guy, a grade A douchebag. She finished undressing, and I caught a glimpse of her body before she sprinted outside, laughing in the cold. And then her date went off on me, yelling in my fucking face, and my date—she shot daggers at me from across the room, holding a champagne glass in a tight hand.

  I can’t even express how many months we both tried with someone else. But even seeing her now naked another time, it’s different. My concern is at a fucking peak, heightened, revved to the max.

  My brother has blinders on. He just goes straight to Lily without looking at anyone else.

  Connor is already beside Rose while she stubbornly tries to pull a leech off her shoulder blade, refusing his help at first, and so Daisy is instantly pushed to the side.

  Or rather, pushed towards me.

  I grab her wrist and tug her to the tree line, away from the rocks, creek and waterfall. I spin her around so I’m blocking her from my brother and Connor’s view. If there’s any girl comfortable in her skin, it’s Daisy Calloway. The only time I’ve heard her freak out about being naked was during the fashion show, when she was stripped in front of complete strangers.

  That fucking violent act would’ve affected anyone.

  I’m not even sure how much it’s left a mark on her. Maybe she doesn’t either.

  “Don’t they just suck the blood and then fall off when they’re bloated?” Daisy asks, eyeing the two leeches on her arms and the one that sucks her neck. Blood drips from underneath the leech’s belly. I glance at the other girls, and they don’t seem nearly as fucking bloody right now.

  Connor answers Daisy, “You girls have too many on you.”

  “I told you!” Lily shouts. “It’s taking our nutrients.”

  “It’s not, actually,” Connor says.

  Lo focuses on Lily’s back which has five fucking leeches attached. “How many diseases do these carry?”

  I fucking swear Lily yelps in fear, like a wounded animal.

  Rose squirms more fiercely now. “Get it off, Richard!”

  He holds her shoulder firmly now that she’s conceded, and he pries the leech off with the pinch of his fingers. “Leeches can be used for medicinal purposes. Think, Rose,” he tells her. “You know this.”

  She breathes through her nose.

  To reassure everyone, Connor adds, “The girls are fine.”

  “Should we burn them off?” Lo asks.

  “No, their stomach contents will explode on the wound.”

  “Gross,” Daisy says, poking at one on her abdomen. She slowly starts peeling it off and then stops as her skin pulls with it, the leech not detaching easily.

  I scan her body quickly, my eyes falling to her back. Two on her shoulder blades, one on her lower back, none on her ass, but one on her calf. My stomach twists because I can tell she’s in pain—that these actually hurt to remove.

  “I’m going to rip them off like a fucking Band-Aid, okay?”

  She nods a couple times, not complaining. I start with the one on her calf, squatting, and she clenches my hair while I grip the leech and tear it off in one motion. The spot bleeds profusely. Fucking Christ. I wish I brought my water bottle to wash the wound.

  I rip two more off from her stomach and her arms.

  Tears brim her eyes. “Sorry,” she apologizes, wiping the corners.

  I fucking hate when she says she’s sorry for her feelings—for stupid fucking things that don’t ever need apologies. I stand up and kiss her temple, knowing my brother is consumed with his girlfriend’s wellbeing. And I hold the back of her head and whisper in her ear. “You can cry if it hurts, sweetheart. It doesn’t make you a little girl.”

  She lets out a deep breath. And her arms tighten around me. She places her forehead on my chest, and I reach over her shoulder to take off the last three on her back. She flinches, and only one of them bleeds after removal this time. I rub her head before pulling off my long-sleeve gray shirt. Cold washes over my bare chest, and I realize that she must be freezing. I fit it over her head, and it falls to her thighs, the fabric soaking some of the blood.

  I rub her arm, creating friction to warm her body. “We’ll clean and bandage those at the campsite,” I tell her.

  She nods, and then glances over at Lo, checking to see if he’s watching her.

  Fuck it.

  I lift her in my arms, cradling her. She smiles, despite her tears drying in the corners of her eyes. “We’ll meet you guys at camp,” I tell them.

  Lo glances at me once, clearly noticing Daisy in my arms. This isn’t the first time I’ve cradled her. Nor will it ever be the last. I stare at him with a hard, unflinching gaze.

  I did nothing wrong.

  I just helped someone who I love—the same fucking way Lo is taking care of Lily and Connor is taking care of Rose. I’m tired of being shit on for doing the right thing with the wrong girl. The biggest kindergarten response pops up in my head.

  It’s. Not. Fucking. Fair.

  And then Lo does something surprising. He nods at me, almost like an approval, not quite, but almost. He gestures with his head towards the campsite. “Go.”

  I do.

  I leave with Daisy in my arms.

  As I’ve done so many times before.

  Maybe that’s why it’s not so fucking hard for him to accept this moment. When everyone pairs off, I become the only option for her. There’s no one else but me.

  That’s how this all started.

  But I think about Julian. I think about all the other fucking guys she’s been with. All the other women I’ve dated.

  And I’m certain that’s not how this ends.

  There’s no way I’m with her out of circumstance.

  We chose this because nothing else felt right.

  Nothing else felt as good.

  Our gre
atest happiness has always been with each other.

  < 39 >

  RYKE MEADOWS

  We helped the girls clean off their wounds with soap, and we bandaged them. Now they’re in sweatshirts and baggy pants, grouped around the campfire. Lily sits on Lo’s lap, her head to his chest. She keeps dozing off, but faraway howls from the woods and rustles in the trees startle her awake.

  “What was that?” she asks with wide eyes, glancing over her shoulder.

  “A big bad wolf,” Daisy jokes, her legs kicked up on my lap. Before we were together, she’d playfully do this, but I wouldn’t touch her. So I can’t put my hands on her ankles or pull her closer to me. I just have my hand on the back of her camping chair, watching her pick at a hot marshmallow on a stick. “Oh wait,” Daisy gasps, “he’s right here.” She tilts her head at me.

  I raise my brows at her. I can feel my brother watching, and I’m not fucking sure what’s going on in his head. His expression has been unreadable for most of the night.

  She leans forward and licks gooey marshmallow off her finger. My arousal heightens as she quickly grabs my attention. Her eyes lock on me, and she whispers, “Big bad wolf, are you going to eat me?”

  You’re a dirty girl, Calloway. My gaze drops to her mouth. “Until you fucking scream.”

  Her lips curve upward.

  “It’s dead, Rose,” Connor says. His voice pulls our gaze towards him. Rose is curled on a chair beside Connor, his hand on her thigh, her fingers intertwined with his. In her other hand, she fries a leech on the tip of a stick, her yellow-green eyes murderous.

  “Not nearly enough,” she retorts. “This little bitch took my blood.”

  “And here, I thought you were roasting it for dessert,” Lo banters.

  Rose holds up a hand at him, as though to say silence. She squishes the blackened leech against a log, stabbing it over and over.

  Lo looks around at us like what the fuck? He nods to Connor who sips a Fizz Life, a grin at the corners of his lips. He finds his wife fucking amusing—even if she’s half-crazy. “How are you not scared to bite her in bed?” Lo asks. “If you draw blood does she grab a fire poker?”

  “I’m not a leech,” Connor replies with ease.

  Rose tosses the stick into the fire and cleans her hands with a wet wipe. Then she reaches into a grocery bag by her side. “So I bought these on the way here.” She pulls out a tall stack of tabloid magazines. “I wanted all of us to burn them together and purge the bad energy.”

  Connor says, “As long as we don’t have to chant afterwards, I’ll participate.”

  Rose stands, trying to hide a smile that’s clear to me. She fucking loves him, arguments and all. “I’d rather you not. Your pessimism is already clouding the process.”

  “Realism and pessimism are two very different things, but I’d be happy to explain it to you.”

  She covers his mouth with her hand. “Thank you for defining arrogance. You can keep your other definitions to yourself.” She spins around, dropping her hand. “Now where were we?” She starts passing out the magazine, and Connor’s eyes fall to her ass. Even though he acts like he’s better than every horny bastard, he’s still a fucking guy. Case in point.

  Lily holds her marshmallows over the fire, and a flame engulfs it almost immediately. She shrieks and waves it around, as though that’ll snuff it out.

  I shake my head at her. “You’re going to fling it in the woods, chill the fuck out.” Last thing we need is to start a forest fire.

  “It won’t extinguish!” she defends. “Extinguish, you mallow! Extinguish!” She flaps it around some more and tries blowing, but she more or less just spits on the thing. And then from behind her, Lo easily blows out the flame himself, leaving her with a burnt marshmallow.

  Daisy smiles wickedly. “Wow, who would have thought—Lo blows better than Lily.”

  I rub my lips to keep from smiling. Everyone else looks fairly uncomfortable by that statement—only because it came from Daisy. If I said it, it would’ve been fine. If Lily said it—everyone would have fucking laughed.

  Lo glares at me.

  I extend my arms. “I didn’t do a fucking thing.”

  “You’re a shitty influence.”

  Daisy acts nonchalant, but her gaze flits all over the forest. Every time she tries to be one step closer to us, someone in our group has a way of pushing her back out. It’s unintentional, I think. But it happens, regardless.

  “It was a fucking joke,” I tell Lo. He’s about to open his mouth, ready to chew me up and spit me back out. I mentally start putting on my armor to withstand him.

  But then Rose snaps her fingers, cutting off Lo and regaining everyone’s attention. Her eyes meet mine briefly. I know she did that for my benefit. I’m grateful, but I don’t show it. “We’re supposed to be purging bad energy not creating it.” She drops a magazine on my lap. “Here, you can burn this one.”

  I read the headline: Ryke Meadows Continues to Play Games. The front page picture shows Daisy hanging over my shoulder outside of the pub in Paris, my hand on her ass. But I can’t get over the smile on her face. The camera caught her mid-laugh.

  She’s gorgeous. And she’s mine.

  I don’t want to burn this picture. I want to frame that happiness and revisit it every morning and every night for the rest of my life.

  But the headline definitely taints it.

  They think we’re flirting. We are. But they also think I’m fucking Lily. So I’m a player. I’m fooling around with both Calloway girls. It’s just so fucking absurd.

  My jaw locks, and I don’t waste another moment. I fling it into the fire.

  “You have to wait!” Rose yells at me. “We’re doing this as a group.” She slaps my arm with another rolled up magazine and then tosses it at me.

  “For fuck’s sake you’re high-strung tonight.”

  “Talk to me when you’ve had a worm suck your blood off your ass,” she retorts, walking past me to Lily and Lo. I read the headline of my new tabloid: Sara Hale at War with Her Family.

  Fucking fantastic.

  Daisy rolls up her magazine, hiding the headline from view.

  “Everyone,” Rose says, sitting back in her chair and crossing her ankles. Connor is the only one without a tabloid. Rose is sticking to her earlier claim, refusing to give him one. “Take your magazine and read something you find particularly offensive before tossing it into the fire.”

  “And what is this supposed to fucking do?” I ask.

  “Ward off evil spirits,” Lo says, sipping his Fizz Life while hooking his arm around Lily’s waist. She leans against his chest again. “Too bad it won’t cure your obsessive compulsive personality, Rose.”

  She shoots him a scathing look, the flames reflecting in her eyes. “Too bad it won’t cure your alcoholism, Loren.”

  He raises his soda can. “Look, it’s already working. You’re practically a licensed witch....shit, I meant bitch.” He snaps his fingers. He might as well have said aw, shucks.

  She opens her mouth to argue and Connor cuts her off. “This is all very fun, but the more we talk about witches and spirits, I find myself becoming stupider and stupider. So please, for the sake of all humanity, shut up.”

  I shake my head while Lo grins, finding this hilarious.

  Rose combats her husband almost immediately, “You really think your intelligence benefits all of humanity? You own a diamond business.”

  “And I give a large percentage of my money to charities and research, darling.”

  They start to bicker, and Daisy leans closer to me. She folds a napkin into an origami swan, glancing from it to me every so often. “Want to know a secret?” she whispers.

  “Sure,” I say, my arm stretching across the back of her chair again.

  She smiles and says, “You’re my favorite four-letter word.” Her bold green eyes flit up to me.

  She makes the corniest pickup lines sound like the sexiest things I’ve ever heard.

  �
�The word fuck didn’t do anything for you?” I ask, my muscles tensing.

  “You’ve desensitized me to it. It might as well be as powerful as the word foot.”

  I lean into her ear and lower my voice. “You won’t be saying that when I actually fuck you.”

  A blinding smile fills her face, and it stirs my need even more. I want her in my fucking arms. I want to kiss her so deeply that air has trouble reaching both of our lungs, gasping with wild, arresting pleasure.

  One day, it’ll happen.

  Just not this moment.

  “I’ll go,” Lily announces, cutting in Connor and Rose’s bickering. She stands up with her magazine in hand. “Um…so there’s this picture of me in this one that really bugs me.” She flips a couple of pages and then nods. “Yeah, so I’m buying condoms and they captioned it with Lily’s spiraling out of control again.”

  Rose claps, excited to have a willing participant. “Okay, now throw it in.”

  Lily tosses the magazine into the flames. It falls against the logs and burns quickly.

  Connor stands next, snatching a magazine off the towering stack beside Rose.

  “Oh so now you believe in it?” Rose asks.

  “I believe in you,” Connor refutes. “Not your superstition.” He flips open the magazine. “Connor Cobalt’s seventh sex tape has grossed over twenty million dollars. Making Scott Van Wright, the owner of the tapes, one of the world’s richest pornography distributers.” Scott Van Wright is the reason Connor and Rose have sex tapes leaked every few months. He screwed them over. After Connor dropped the lawsuits and used the publicity to grow both Rose’s fashion business and his own, I offered to personally beat the shit out of Scott. But Connor said that he didn’t want to see me in jail—even if the offer was appealing.

  I hope someday that son of a bitch gets what he deserves.

  Connor throws the magazine into the fire, hate actually passing through his blue eyes.

  Rose is next. “Rose Cobalt is a bitch.” She nods and tosses hers in.

  “That’s it?” Lo asks when she sits down. “That’s all you could come up with?”

  “Those are hurtful words,” Rose replies.