Daisy (Pushing Daisies Book 1)

by Heather Young-Nichols

  “Do you think I’m too young for you?”

  He raised an eyebrow as he looked down at me. “Uh… ”

  I rolled my eyes and gave him a shove. “I’m not going to ask you out. I’m just asking. If you liked someone who was twenty-one, would she or he be too young for you?”

  “Not if I really liked her.”

  Well, fuck. That wasn’t what I was hoping for. There was no chance Lawson didn’t actually like me. I wouldn’t entertain that as a plausible reality. The way he’d held me in his arms last night wouldn’t let me.

  “Uh… Daisy?” he said, his voice taking on a stern, alert quality that I’d heard before, but not during this conversation. Then he indicated that I should look behind us.

  A small group of people, three men, were behind us. Not unusual when walking on the street, but something about it had Calvin’s hackles up.

  “What?” I asked.

  “They’ve been following us since we left. We should head back.”

  All of the hope about the ice cream deflated. I swore, this weirdo who’d gotten on my bus was ruining my life and he wasn’t even around anymore. What were my options? Say no. That I want my ice cream. Or take his advice. Cal had been nothing but nice, so I assumed he’d have my best interest at heart.

  I sighed. “All right.”

  Calvin placed his hand on my lower back and guided me across the street while at the same time he pulled his phone out of his pocket and hit a button I couldn’t see. He had us walking with a quick step, which got my worry up. I chewed on my bottom lip as we crossed back over to the venue where three other security guys met us.

  When I glanced back over my shoulder, those guys had followed us but kept walking past the venue.

  “Thanks guys,” Cal said, clapping one of them on the shoulder as he passed.

  “I guess ice cream was a bad idea,” I said sadly. We kept moving back toward the bus. By now, Courting Chaos would be done since I’d taken my time in the shower then done some other things before we’d left.

  He shook his head. “It’s not that it was a bad idea and those guys might’ve just been regular fans, but they were definitely following us. And there were three of them, one of me.” He stopped outside the bus door. “It was just safer to come back. I’m sorry.”

  I pulled open the door with a sigh. “No reason for you to be sorry.” Then I held out my hand for him to step on the bus first. I was quickly becoming accustomed to our new process.

  Cal stepped in, did his sweep, then came back to stand in front of me. “What do you want to do?” he asked, obviously still willing to hang out with me.

  But that wasn’t in the cards anymore. My balloon had been defeated and we’d be leaving soon anyway.

  “I think I’m just going to change and veg out in bed to read for a while,” I told him. “Thanks, though, and you can hang out in here if you don’t want to stand outside.”

  “I’ll be OK outside,” he said, giving my arm a squeeze before leaving the bus again.

  For a while after I changed into my pajamas, a pair of blue cotton shorts and a white tank top, I did lie in bed and read. The best part of the day was taking my bra off. Most women could relate, I thought. But after a while, I wanted a change of location. So I dragged myself out to the living area, grabbed a Diet Pepsi, then slid onto the bench seat at the table. But I turned myself sideways so that my feet were settled on the bench and my back was against the wall near the window.

  The seat was comfortable enough that I got lost in my steamy romance and got to forget about the fact that one man had stopped me from getting ice cream. I’d known this was a possibility. Pushing Daisies could explode, making it impossible for any of us to do anything. That was actually the dream. But this was different. This wasn’t a crush of fans creating havoc wherever we went.

  This was one guy impacting me.

  About five chapters later, the bus door opened, causing me to look up from my book.

  Lawson stopped on the top step wearing his trademark dress pants and dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His dark hair was messy, as it tended to be at the end of the day. I’d come to notice that about him. And it was sexy.

  “Hey,” he said, his eyes taking me in.

  “Hey. How was the show?”

  “Good,” he said. “But I’m glad tomorrow is an off day.”

  “In South Carolina,” I countered. “I have no idea what to do in South Carolina.”

  “What you’d do anywhere else.”

  “You mean what I’m allowed to do?”

  Lawson sighed and scratched the back of his head then raised his other hand and set a pint of ice cream in front of me.

  My gaze flew to his. “You brought me ice cream?”

  He nodded then slid into the seat across from me. “Cal told me what happened, so I thought I’d bring the ice cream to you.”

  A smile spread across my face. “Butter pecan?”

  He chuckled quietly. “Yeah. That’s what he said you wanted.”

  I let out a little squee, dropped my book, and pushed off my place on the wall. I’d seen plastic spoons in a drawer when I was looking for something earlier.

  “Is he still out there?” I asked him regarding Cal.

  “No. He’s off when I get here.”

  I grabbed two spoons, came back to the table, and handed one to Lawson.

  He raised an eyebrow. “You’re going to share with me?”

  “You did bring it and it’d be rude not to.”

  After yanking the top off, I dove in for a large spoonful. The creamy goodness melted in my mouth and I shut my eyes to enjoy the flavor. “This is really good ice cream.”

  “I think they make it right at the store.”

  “Tastes like it.” We grew quiet for a moment, which was ridiculous. We were living on a bus together. We’d kissed. We should’ve been able to talk about whatever we wanted. “Well, we’re here.” That should’ve given him the opening he needed.

  His brows furrowed. “We are.”

  So I rolled my eyes and sighed. “You said before you wanted to talk. We’re here.” I waved my hand between us. “So talk.” My stomach rolled and not because of the ice cream. “But again, I say, please don’t completely ruin my memory of what happened by telling me how awful it was.”

  Lawson took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I wasn’t going to say that,” he told me quietly. “Even if I did, it’d be a lie.”

  Adrenaline pushed through me as I bit back a smile. No need to gloat. “So why’d you say that then?”

  “Say what?” he asked as he took another spoonful of ice cream.

  “That you shouldn’t have done it.”

  Lawson cleared his throat. “Because I shouldn’t have.”

  “But why?” I asked too loudly. My frustration had taken over more than I wanted it to.

  He sighed again and set his spoon on the table. “There are a lot of reasons. Me feeling like I’m too old for you is a top one.”

  “Oh my god.” I slammed my spoon down so hard, it snapped. “You’re literally six years older. That’s not that old.”

  Humor played on his face. “I mean that I did feel like I’m too old for you. Then I talked to my mother.”

  “Your mother?” Well, that was just confusing. Wait… did he talk to his mom about me?

  “Yeah. She told me that my sister’s having a hard time and I said she was just a kid. Couldn’t be having that hard of a time.”

  “Yeah.” I didn’t want to admit that I was holding my breath to see how this affected him and me. “That’s kind of an asshole thing to say.”

  He nodded. At least he realized it. “Well, my mother snapped at me and reminded me that at twenty-two my sister was not a child and that she, my mom, had my older sister when she was that age. She’d married my dad when she was twenty, I think.”

  “Is that… bad? That she got married young?” I didn’t know too much about his family, but the fact that h
is parents were divorced probably didn’t mean anything good.

  His heavy gaze fell onto me. “My sister is twenty-two. Mom made sure I knew she wasn’t a kid.”

  Oh… I got it. She was the same age as me, basically, and that maybe helped him realize I wasn’t a kid. Or that was how I was going to take it anyway.

  “Does that mean you’ll kiss me again?” I asked, trying not to get my hopes up. If he said no, I’d live with it. But I really, really didn’t want him to say no.

  “Why don’t you come over here and find out?” His voice was low and sexy and touched me in places I hadn’t been touched in a while. My stomach fluttered and my heart raced as my chest swelled. I didn’t want to seem too eager, yet I totally was.

  I pushed up, slid the ice cream aside, then climbed over the table until I could settle in front of him. I cupped his face and brought him to me.

  When my lips touched his, his arms snaked out around my hips and pulled me closer. He pushed his hands up my back until he could touch my hair, then he brought his fingers around to my cheeks as his tongue reached out for mine.

  If I thought that first kiss had been good, this was on the next level. It was good and caused a storm of butterflies to fly through my chest, but it was slow… sensual… He was savoring it. This was just him and me in our own little space.

  “Daisy,” he said with a low, sexy tone that was both demanding and soft.

  There wasn’t a chance in hell I was done kissing him and I wouldn’t let him stop this again. Instead, I wrapped my arms around his neck and kissed him again.

  He growled into my mouth then slid me to the edge of the table. Our mouths moved against each other as he cupped my ass and lifted me. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he walked us back to the bedroom. Our mouths only parted when Lawson dropped me on the bed. I let out a small giggle as he climbed over me and brought our lips together again.

  I could get lost in Lawson.

  His hand rested on my hip, a thumb trailing across my skin underneath my tank top. I wanted more, but he pulled back when I wanted to push forward.

  “I didn’t move us in here for sex,” he said, dashing my anticipation a few notches. “I just thought it’d be more comfortable than the way you were leaning over me at the table.”

  My chest was rising and falling quickly. “If this doesn’t end with us getting naked,” I told him, “I’m going to be seriously disappointed.”

  His loud laugh filled the bus bedroom. That was when I noticed we were moving. Basically living on a bus meant that I didn’t always realize we were on the road. The sound of the tires against the asphalt had become almost a lullaby.

  “Well, if you insist,” he said, then he turned to me and yanked my shirt over my head and groaned.

  I hadn’t been wearing a bra because I was in my pajamas.

  “Damn,” he muttered, then got his shirt unbuttoned in record time and shucked off his pants.

  Lawson was glorious. I hadn’t seen him without his shirt before, but the wait had been worth it. His broad shoulders led into to muscled chest and well-defined abs to a narrow waist. He even had that mysterious V etched into his sides that led to the happy place. Or what I hoped would be the happy place.

  His lips descended, kissing me breathless before trailing over my jaw and down my neck. When he sucked a nipple into my mouth, my back arched off the bed. Lawson’s hands worked over my breasts, squeezing and holding. Just his touches had me on fire. My stomach clenched with anticipation of what was coming.

  He kissed his way down my stomach until he hit my shorts. That was when he pulled himself back and slid my shorts and panties down my legs. As he moved himself between my legs, the muscles clenched involuntarily.

  “Hey,” he said suddenly beside me. “Do you want to stop?”

  “No,” I said so quickly, he had to know how very much I did want this.

  “Then explain why your legs just clenched.”

  Ugh. That was the last thing I wanted to do.

  “Daisy, come on,” he urged. “Or we have to stop.”

  I looked over at him quickly. There were guys that really did that? Just walked away from sex because they thought their partner might be uncomfortable. All of which they felt because of a single movement.

  “That’s not an ultimatum,” he told me. “I’m just getting a bad vibe from you right now and I can’t keep going if I don’t know why.”

  I groaned and pulled a pillow over my face. “I’m fucking this up.” Though whether he heard me or not was another thing. My voice was muffled by down feathers.

  “No.” He yanked the pillow away then cupped my cheek to force me to look at him. “You’re not. Do you not want me to go down on you? Because I won’t if you say so.”

  I groaned in frustration. “Just… not everybody’s so good at it,” I told him. “Let’s just say that hasn’t been the best for me in the past. Some guys are little aggressive with their tongues.”

  Lawson bit his lips together and raised his eyebrows. “Aggressive?”

  “A little… eager might be a better word.”

  “Ah.” He sighed. “What if I promise you that won’t be an issue?”

  I glanced up at him, his face only inches from mine as I tried to keep the humor I was feeling.

  “We don’t have to do that,” he said as he leaned in to kiss me again. His tongue sliding against mine was like velvet. “I really, really want to.” His fingers trailed against my thigh before hitting the money spot. He moved softly over my wetness until he settled in over the fun button. “But we don’t have to.”

  He dove in for another kiss as I knew I’d give him a chance. It wasn’t that I didn’t want him to do it. No. My hesitation came from one guy who’d turned his tongue into a jackhammer. Lawson wouldn’t do that. And deep down, I knew I could trust him.

  “Stop me if there’s anything you don’t like,” he whispered against my ear.

  He kissed his way back down my body as his fingers continued to work me up. Finally, his shoulders pushed my legs apart and that first gentle lick shot through me like electricity. My back arched and my eyes closed as a moan dropped from my lips.

  This gave Lawson all the encouragement he needed and caused me to relax my legs. He nipped, sucked, and pulled out every sound I could’ve made, even the ones I hadn’t known were inside me. His big hands rested on my thighs then pushed them farther apart. I was open and exposed yet wasn’t the least bit self-conscious.

  With confidence building, I ran my fingers through Lawson’s hair, making him groan against me.

  He was right. This was nothing like the other times. This was a little slice of Heaven.

  As my orgasm slammed into me in waves of golden pleasure, Lawson slowed his movements until I came slowly down off my high. He kissed my thigh then sucked and kissed back up until we were face to face again.

  “Oh my god,” I said breathlessly.

  “Told you,” he said with a chuckle. When I playfully slapped him in the stomach he added, “I’m not being cocky. I just know what I’m doing.”

  “Yeah, you do,” I told him. “Two seconds and I’ll… ” I waved my hand in the general direction of his cock. Again, he groaned.

  “Daisy.” His face hovered near my ear, his chin resting on my shoulder as he put most of his weight onto his arms. “I’d honestly love nothing more than to see my dick in your mouth, but I really need to be inside you.”

  That snapped me back to reality and I turned to look at him. “You’re turning down a blow job?”

  “Not turning it down,” he countered. “Deferring it, if that’s all right with you.”

  “Carry on,” I told him with a satisfied sigh.

  Lawson removed his weight from my body and left the room. I was about to pout when I saw him reach into his bunk and return with a condom. Oh. Right. Duh. I had some of my own too. He yanked his boxers down. Damn. He was perfect. His cock was long and thick and standing at attention. And I’d done that to him. I’d
been the one to make him this hard. A wave of satisfaction washed over me as I watched as him slide the condom over himself. Something about seeing him do that turned me on even more.

  Then he was back over me, kissing me breathless again as he rocked into me. My head dropped back and my eyes fluttered closed as the feeling of him filling me was the only thing I could focus on. And when he began to move, my limited knowledge kicked in.

  I ran my hands up his back as he touched me in places I didn’t even know were erotic. He cupped my cheek and kissed me again. I’d never felt anything like this and now I knew… Lawson and I were absolutely right for each other.

  Our moans filled the air as that feeling began to fill me again. That feeling… a buildup of pleasure and pressure that would soon explode into nirvana. When it did, Lawson picked up speed, his wet kisses and demanding touches keeping me in the moment as a second orgasm struck me.

  But it was the sound… something between a groan and a sigh… against my ear that told me he’d found his release as well.

  Lawson dropped his forehead to my shoulder as we both tried to catch our breaths.

  Those moments there—as his weight meant I couldn’t take a deep breath and his head laid on my shoulder while my fingers gently brushed through the hair at the nape of his neck—were my favorite moments that I’d spent with him yet.

  “Be right back,” he said, then he kissed me quickly.

  He left the room and while he did, I grabbed my tank top and slid it on then found my panties and shorts.

  When he came back in, still naked and not seeming to be self-conscious at all, he said, “You dressed. Pity.”

  “Uh, I don’t sleep naked on a bus. Most of the time my brothers are there.”

  He cocked his head to the side and gave me a half-grin. “They aren’t here now.”

  I shook my head and took my turn in the restroom before climbing back on the bed and shimmying in beside him.

  Chapter Ten

  Lawson

  “So does this mean that you actually do like me?” Daisy asked me as the low hum of the bus tires against the road threatened to lull her to sleep.

  My body shook as a chuckle vibrated in my chest. “You could say that.”