Page 45 of Gather the Storm

She was still a little quiet, still a little quirky with her lists for the house and the wallpaper swatches I saw her saving to her phone, the spreadsheet full of numbers that I assumed was her renovation budget.

Plus, she was a fucking smoke show. She didn’t know it yet, but there was something crazy sexy about her lush beauty combined with the innocence that lurked under the confidence she wore like a suit of armor.

I had a hunch she was still a virgin, and while that had never been of interest one way or the other, the thought of Daisy’s perfect untouched body definitely did weird things to my own.

“Where is Otis today?” she asked from the passenger seat.

The question shook me from my thoughts, made me feel like a giant perv for thinking about Daisy’s body count when we were just going to the home store.

“He went to get supplies of his own,” I said, pulling out of the narrow drive and onto the main road into town.

“What kind of supplies?” she asked.

“He’s installing a security system at the house,” I said, stopping at a red light.

The early summer sun slanted behind her, casting her in a golden halo that made her eyes look purple. She’d pulled her hair into a braid and hadn’t bothered with makeup, and for a second, all I wanted in the universe was to plant a chaste kiss to her creamy cheek.

She was the only person I’d ever met whose music I hadn’t been able to place. She was a symphony and a ballad, a lullaby and a folk song, so fucking beautiful I got a lump in my throat just looking at her.

I heard the melody that had been winding through my mind since the night she’d invited us to the house. I’d been picking away at it on my guitar, hoping that would put the haunting music to rest, because the last thing I needed was another reason to think about Daisy.

Then my gaze was pulled to her tits, showcased by one of the tight T-shirts Jace had put in her closet, and that was the end of any thought resembling the wordchaste.

Jace was a fucking asshole but I said a silent prayer of thanks anyway because Daisy in a tight T-shirt was basically porn, even if she didn’t know it.

She frowned. “I’m not sure I have budget for a security system.”

“It’s on us,” I said.

She shook her head. “I can’t let you do that.”

I smiled at her. “You think we’re asking your permission?”

She folded her arms over her chest and looked out the passenger side window. I wanted to pull over, kiss her pouty mouth until it opened under mine.

Fuck. Now my cock was hard. I needed to stay focused on the house, on keeping Daisy safe while we figured out what was going on with the latest missing girl.

“I knew this would happen.” she said.

“What?” The light turned green and I accelerated through the intersection.

“You’re going to bulldoze through me on the house,” she said. “Take it over.”

“That’s not what’s happening here,” I said. “Listen, we just got out of prison for murdering the son of one of Blackwell Falls’most upstanding citizens. We’re not exactly popular. We don’t want you to be a target when word gets out that we’re helping you with the house.”

It wasn’t totally a lie. Daisy would be a target for the townspeople who hated us.

But we weren’t worried about them.

“That’s why we’re springing for the system,” I continued. “You wouldn’t need it if not for us. And you know Otis. He’ll have the whole thing set up by the time we get home today. Consider it an add-on to the house’s value, one you don’t have to pay for.”

She sighed and I knew I’d made my case even though she still didn’t like it.

“What are you going to do with it?” I asked, pulling into the home store parking lot. “Once the reno is done, I mean.”

I didn’t see her selling it — it was a link to her mom, like the Mustang — but what did a twenty-year-old girl do with a giant Victorian house in the middle of nowhere?

“I’m not sure yet.” I was glad she didn’t sound pissed anymore, our argument about the alarm system behind us. “I have a few ideas but I’m still sorting them out.”

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