Page 84 of Only the Devil

Once, back before I made the teams, I said it more to keep the peace than from any real feeling. In high school I said it and probably meant it—as much as a seventeen-year-old can mean anything. But this, what I feel for Daisy, happened fast but it’s real.

She shifts, stretching, and her lashes flicker. Her sleepy eyes fall on me, then she smiles, and rolls so she’s facing me on the pillow.

“Morning,” I say, letting my hand slide along her smooth hip.

“Morning.” She pushes up to look past me at the bedside clock. “Shouldn’t you be up?”

“Nah. Bed felt too good.”

Her smile widens and she lies back down on the pillow. “We should check your horoscope. Wait,” she holds a hand up and her eyes close as she shakes her head in the negative. “Nope. You can’t tell me. I don’t want to know your birth year or month. Not for a while.”

“Why is that?” I let out a low chuckle.

“Because I’ll instantly look us up to see if we’re a match, and if we aren’t, then I’ll sabotage everything.”

“And why would you do that?” My hand slides along the curve of her waist and I tug at the sheet, wanting to feel her skin.

“Because.” Both her eyebrows lift and she presses her lips together.

“I definitely do not understand.”

“Astrology. It’s a gift from my mother that keeps on giving—she got both my sister and me hooked.”

“You close to your sister?”

“Not really. She lived with her father a lot. But then as she got older she’d spend more time with us—I think mainly because it was more freedom. There’s a pretty big age gap—seven years.”

“So, you two had different dads. What was yours like? I know you said your mom changed your last name…” I let it hang there. I didn’t ask at the time as we’d just met, but now I want to know everything about her.

“My dad split when I was young. He didn’t really want anything to do with me.”

That hits hard. The thought of anyone walking away from this woman—hell, from that kid she must’ve been—makes my chest tighten.

“It’s okay.”

The forced brightness tells me it’s not, or at the very least, there was a time when it wasn’t.

“I’m good. Lily’s dad was different. He fought for her. Wanted full custody but didn’t get it. Honestly, after the court case, I never heard mom fight with her dad about custody again. Lily spent months at a time at her father’s.”

“Was he a good guy? Lily’s dad?”

“I guess so. He never lived with us, so I don’t know him.”

“But yet you’re helping your sister out?”

“She’s in college. He pays her tuition, and Mom is supposed to pay her expenses…”

“Let me guess. You cover her expenses?”

“Mostly. Yeah. It’s fine. I can afford it, Mom can’t.”

Yeah, but her sister isn’t her daughter. It stirs something protective in me, the thought of anyone taking advantage of her.

She lifts my hand and presses her palm against mine, lining our fingers up. My fingers are quite a bit longer than hers.

“And…that horoscope thing? What’s that about? I’m gonna need a little explanation.”

The sheet falls away, and I take in her breasts.