Girl in Luv

by Jay Crownover

  “Don’t think my girl is stupid enough to fall for that, chief.” I started to make my way to the first glowing barrier, and caught a flash of blonde hair zipping by out of the corner of my eye. She wasn’t really mine, but damn if it didn’t feel good to claim her in some kind of way, even for a short amount of time.

  “Chicks always stick together. They even go to the bathroom together. If we corner one, the rest will follow.” He sounded so sure of himself. It was going to be really fun to watch him get taken down a peg or two—by females, no less. He had no clue Langley was a wolf looking for prey, not a rabbit, waiting to be picked off.

  Deciding to play along for the time being, I obediently split off with the rest of the boys, sticking to the outside part of the arena. I didn’t see the girls anywhere, but a few moments later, a female shriek echoed out of the darkness and one of the boys called out, “Holly?”

  The concern in his tone was obvious, and I wasn’t surprised at all when he broke formation and darted in the direction of the scream. A second later, the red flashing lights indicated a member of our team had been hit. The girls scored their first point.

  I heard the mouthy teenager swear and couldn’t hold back my chuckle. It never paid to underestimate the fairer sex. They were tricky and far more diabolical than many gave them credit for. Let’s face it, any adult male has a pretty good idea that women are often the stronger, savvier sex. These wet-behind-the-ears rookies were about to get their asses handed to them on one of Langley’s silver platters.

  A few minutes later, a blue light flashed overhead, indicating one of the boys had scored a point.

  “Mark? Is that you? It’s so dark in here.” Another female voice whispered out of the darkness, and I felt my eyebrows raise. This plan was different than the fake scream of pain. This one was all about seduction. “I can barely see my hand in front of my face. Why aren’t you saying anything? It better be you groping me.”

  “What? Jenna, get away from whoever that is. It isn’t me.” A second later, one of the teen boys bolted in front of the low wall I was crouched behind and was immediately taken out. The cheer from the girls that went up made me smile. They were crafty and I had no doubt who the mastermind behind this diabolical plan was.

  “You guys are so stupid.” The angry voice of the ringleader echoed through the darkness. “We can play those games too. Meghan, if you don’t come out where I can see you right now, I’m going to break up with you.”

  What a douchebag move.

  “What?” A female shriek followed the announcement. I heard hushed whispers and soft crying. “That’s so mean, Jeremy.”

  “Whatever. I came to win. Come out now, or we’re through.”

  Sighing, I pushed up from my hiding spot. I was tall enough I made an easy target. “Stop being a dick to your girlfriend, man. It’s just a game.”

  “Get the fuck down. What’s wrong with you?” I hated guys like him, and I felt really bad for his girlfriend. “Who says that kind of shit to their girlfriend? I hope she stays hidden until the very end and you do break up with her, so she can find herself a decent guy to date.”

  “Fuck you!”

  It was no surprise when the kid gave up his hiding place and charged at me. A split-second later, the blue lights shrilled overhead and both our vests flashed, indicating we’d been hit. Overhead, an electronic siren sounded and declared the red team as the winners. The girls cheered and Langley appeared from behind one of the walls with her arm wrapped around a crying, redheaded teenage girl. The younger girl was cute. She could definitely do better than the asshole currently glaring at me with the fiery hatred of a thousand suns.

  “You threw the game on purpose, asshole.” The accusation wasn’t wrong.

  I lifted my eyebrows at him and nodded in the direction of the girls—Langley, specifically. “She is more important than any win. I didn’t throw the game, I sacrificed myself because there is no way if it came down to just me and her at the end, I could take her out. She was going to win, no matter what.”

  He scoffed. “Pussy.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” As insults went, it was weak and not worth a reaction.

  The redhead girl still cowering behind Langley suddenly sniffed loudly and took a step forward. I was happy to see her friends immediately surrounding her for support.

  “You don’t have to worry about breaking up with me, Jeremy. Because I’m breaking up with you. You’re such a jerk.” She flipped her hair over her shoulder in a very sassy way and turned on her heel.

  “Wait. Meghan, don’t do this. I’m sorry.” The jerk wasn’t so full of himself when faced with being dumped in front of his squad. Suddenly, the room was full of teenage boys trying to appease their girlfriends.

  Laughing under my breath, I watched as Langley made her way to where I was standing, a small smile playing across her face.

  “You didn’t have to do that. I had a plan in place to win fair and square.” She tapped a finger on the still-flashing light on my chest.

  “Eh. I wanted to shoot him myself. Figured you doing it was the next best thing. I don’t remember relationships being so complicated when I was that age.” I took her gun from her and complimented her on her strategic skills. She flipped her hair over her shoulder, in similar fashion to Meghan, and started walking back to the front as I chuckled at her sass, while ogling her ass in those short-shorts.

  We turned all the gear back in and headed to the parking lot. I asked her if she wanted to grab an early dinner somewhere, and ordered the bubble of delight in my chest to chill out when she agreed. That fragile thing was going to burst any day now, so it needed to stop getting bigger and bigger every time we were together.

  “Do you date a lot?” The quiet question caught me off guard. When I told her everything was about me was an open book, and I was proud of where I came from, that didn’t necessarily include my pretty lackadaisical approach toward women most of my life.

  I’d always been so busy, loaded down with so many responsibilities, that starting something serious with anyone had never even crossed my mind. I liked women…a lot. But, I’d never found one I wanted to hold onto for longer than a few hours, until her.

  “I date here and there. Since I answer to the army first and foremost, and never really know where I’m going to end up since I’ve been transferred so frequently, I tend to keep my options open. I always figured it was better to keep things casual than be responsible for someone else’s broken heart. How about you? Aside from Richard, did you date much?”

  She shook her head, which sent her long ponytail swinging. This time, I couldn’t resist the urge to catch the shiny gold strands. I caught the ends of her ponytail and wrapped my fingers through the shiny locks. They slid across my fingers like silk.

  Langley cocked her head to the side and wrinkled her nose cutely. “My dad was pretty strict. And then my mom got sick. Richard was really my first. He was very persistent.” She looked up at me and flashed that grin, which always turned my insides to mush. “However, this has been the best date I’ve ever been on. Even if it wasn’t a real one. I always have fun with you, even when everyone else around us is being awful. How do you make that happen?”

  Maybe because the rest of the world faded away for her just like it did for me when we were together.

  Letting go of her hair, I put my hand on her lower back and stepped into her, moving her backward until her spine was pressed up against the driver’s side door of my truck. Her eyes widened and I watched as her throat moved up and down in a gulp as she tilted her head back to meet my gaze. Her palms hit my chest, and she made a soft sound which had everything behind the zipper on my jeans pulling tight.

  “We weren’t putting on a show for anyone today. There was no one to impress or rattle. It was just me and you, Langley. Who says this wasn’t a real date?”

  “Oh…” She exhaled a long, soft breath that feathered across my throat.

  I dropped my head so I could
drag the tip of my nose along the elegant arch of her high cheekbone. Her skin might’ve been the softest thing I’d ever touched in my life.

  “If I kiss you right now, it isn’t for any other reason than I really want to kiss you. How do you feel about that?” My voice was raspy and slightly uneven. Things were so convoluted between us, the lines between real and fake getting continually blurrier. There were still so many things she needed to know about me, about who I was and what I had to do.

  But none of that mattered when she slowly licked her lips and whispered, “I feel like I might die if you don’t kiss me for real.”

  She surprised a laugh out of me. I lifted my hand and rubbed my thumb along the line of her jaw. “Can’t have that, can we?”

  This kiss was different from the ones before.

  I wasn’t trying to prove a point. I wasn’t being watched. I wasn’t thinking about all the ways it was wrong, and instead was focused on everything about it that was so right.

  She fit against me so perfectly. Every dip and curve lined up with all my hard and suddenly aching places.

  Her arms wound around my neck as mine glided down her back and rested right above the back pockets on her shorts. I tugged her closer at the same time as I dropped my mouth over hers. I caught her soft sigh, and answered with a low growl.

  When one of her bare legs lifted and wrapped around me, I stopped playing around and kissed her like we both might die if we didn’t learn the way the other tasted.

  She opened her lips when I flicked my tongue across the seam, asking for entrance. She tasted like peppermint, and the interior of her mouth was a slick, sexy inferno. She was hot, all over, and getting hotter the closer I pulled her and the deeper I kissed her.

  I was under the mistaken impression she would be refined and slightly regal in a situation like this, but she returned the kiss as down and dirty as I gave it to her. She didn’t hesitate to rub her tongue along mine, and I felt the sharp edge of her teeth more than once. Her nails dragged through the very short hair at the back of my head and if I wasn’t mistaken, she rolled her hips against mine in a way that was more appropriate for a darkened room than a parking lot in the middle of the day.

  It didn’t surprise me she had a lot of fire hidden underneath the block of ice she kept her emotions frozen inside of. I’d seen a hint of the flames flickering at her edges every single time we were together.

  I traced the full swell of her bottom lip with the tip of my tongue, and felt the way her nipples suddenly dug into my chest through the thin material of her tank top. I was a guy used to moving fast because there never seemed to be enough time to savor the good things in life, but Langley was about to push me from zero to full throttle in a matter of seconds. It was the wrong time and definitely the wrong place for that.

  I pulled back slightly, taking my hands off her ass and clasping her blushing cheeks. She had a hot pink flush all across her chest that was now climbing up her neck, and her eyes looked dazed and slightly out of focus. It was a good look on her, and there was no denying the shot of pride that rushed through my veins at being the one who put it there.

  “Full of surprises, aren’t you, Langley Vaughn?” Her tongue darted out again and swept across her damp lower lip. She made a face, and I was pretty sure she was tasting me and enjoying it. She was trying to kill me with every movement she made. I cleared my throat. “Let’s get some food and I’ll take you back to your castle before my truck turns into a pumpkin.”

  She nodded. Before she released her hold on me entirely, though, she braced her hands on my shoulders and lifted onto the toes of her sneakers so she could plant her lips firmly on the slight indent in my cheek. I felt my eyes widen in surprise as she grinned against the dimple she just kissed.

  “I’ve wanted to do that since the first time you smiled at me.”

  I had no clue what I was doing with this girl anymore, or why she was the only one who so effortlessly slipped past years of hard-earned defenses. All I knew was the ten grand had stopped being the only reason I wanted to spend time with her long before her tailor groped me and her stepsister tried to kiss me.

  Langley

  “It’s really only for the sex, isn’t it?” Camille asked, lifting a cucumber from her eyelid.

  I felt the stare of every single bridesmaid as we reclined on the soft lounges in the spa, waiting for our next treatment.

  “At least it looks like you’ll have sun tomorrow for your wedding day,” I noted, looking out of the floor-to-ceiling windows that offered an impeccable mountain view.

  “No, really. Come on, Langley. We’re all curious,” Camille cajoled, her tone sliding into that sweet maliciousness I knew all-too-well.

  “About the weather?” I smiled at Camille, and reached for my phone on the small table between us.

  She snatched it away as my fingers grazed the case.

  “Camille!” I snapped.

  “What? You wouldn’t deny me this little thing, would you, Langley?” She made her eyes go all soft as she dangled my phone.

  “Deny you what? Last time I checked, you had everything you wanted.” My smile stayed far from my eyes, while my intent with my words hit the bullseye.

  She dropped the pretense of being nice, and narrowed her eyes. “You know it can’t really go anywhere between you two, right?”

  “Cammy, be nice,” Nessa chastised from Camille’s other side.

  “But I am being nice,” she answered Nessa, while looking straight at me. “Would a good sister let you continue with this disastrous rebound? Let you think you had any kind of actual future with that guy?”

  “Iker really isn’t any of your concern, now is he?” I leaned over for my phone and she ripped it away again. “God, Camille, stop acting like you’re five and give me my phone.”

  “He’s nothing, Langley,” she continued, her eyes glacial. “He’s not in college. He has no manners to speak of, and doesn’t fit in our world. And let’s not even discuss all of those hideous tattoos he has. You two don’t belong together. He came from nothing and he’s going nowhere.”

  I stood, uncaring that my robe stayed closed only at the mercy of the terry cloth tie. “And yet, that didn’t stop you from trying to hook up with him at the barbecue, did it?”

  She hissed, her gaze darting over to where Virginia sat with Richard’s mom, oblivious to the storm brewing across the room. “He’s pretty. I’ll give you that. So, go ahead and have your fun, sis. Just don’t expect Daddy to sign over your trust fund with a leech like that standing by your side.”

  I blinked. She doesn’t know. Of course she didn’t. My trust fund hadn’t been funded by my dad’s money. It had come from the wealthier of my parents—my mother. She thought I was waiting—like she was—for my twenty-fifth birthday.

  I wrestled my cell phone out of her hand, a quick glance telling me that Iker had texted a few minutes ago, no doubt sparking this whole conversation.

  “Cat got your tongue?” Camille stretched on her chaise.

  “Nope, I just stopped caring about what you think about me…and my life…five years ago, so…” I shrugged, dropping the compliant bridesmaid/sister act. If she wasn’t pulling her punches, then neither was I.

  “I think he’s hot,” Nessa said, flipping the page in her magazine.

  “I second that,” Phoebe chimed in behind me.

  “Third,” Zoe added.

  Camille’s bridesmaids obviously had good taste. He was hot. He was also smart, dedicated to his family, funny, and strong. There was much more to him beyond the sexy body and dark, bedroom eyes.

  “I didn’t say he wasn’t hot,” Camille snapped. “Just that he’s obviously only here for your money, because someone who looks like that doesn’t date someone who looks like…” She scanned me up and down. “You know. Without a good reason. Or millions of good reasons.”

  He’s only here for your money.

  My stomach hit the floor, because in a way, she was right. But somewhere between t
he parking lot that night, and laser tag yesterday, it had started to feel real.

  Sure, I’d paid him to be here, but he wasn’t the kind of guy to stick around for a trust-fund girl. Besides, it wasn’t like he even knew how much money I had, or even knew about a trust fund.

  “Are you ladies ready for your next treatment?” Mandy, the spa attendant, asked in that soothing, you’re-supposed-to-be-all-zen-in-a-spa voice as she came over to our lounges.

  “Absolutely! It’s been just so perfect today!” Camille grinned up at the young woman as Virginia came over. “Right, Mom?”

  “Yes, perfect,” Virginia replied. “Perfect day for a perfect girl.”

  Oh, fucking kill me now.

  I swiped my phone open to see Iker’s text.

  Iker: just got here.

  Iker: found your dad.

  He was early, and I was glad.

  “Let’s go, sis,” Camille whispered in my ear. “I know the next treatment should help exfoliate all that dirt off you.”

  “You’re just pissed because he made it clear he didn’t want you,” I said to her, my tone low as the others continued down the hall.

  “I’m sorry?” She spun, putting her hands on her hips. “What makes you think I even offered?”

  I ignored the question. There was no point arguing with a pathological liar. I’d witnessed her advance on Iker with my own two eyes and ears. And watched the way Iker coolly shut her down.

  “He didn’t want you. You couldn’t take him and then use him to break me. So, you’re trying to use the idea of him to scare me. But you don’t know the first thing about him.”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She folded her arms across her chest.

  “Girls!” Virginia sang. “We don’t want to get behind schedule.”

  Camille stared at me in open challenge.

  You promised Dad. It was the refrain that kept me going. It was also the only promise I’d made to him I really, really wanted to break.

  “Why can’t you just be happy?” My voice was so quiet even I barely heard it. “When is it ever going to be enough for you?”