Page 11 of Sweet
“Fucking cute,” he muttered.
Daisy blinked. “What?”
“Nothing.” He tugged at her arm until she pulled her hand from her pocket. Then Spider lifted it and slid his thumb lazily from her palm up the inside of her fingers, parting the index and middle fingers with his own.
Oh.Daisy felt something inside her start to burn.This is why people talk about sex so much.
“Here.” He teased the edge of her middle finger. “If you smoked, you’d have a tobacco stain here.”
She didn’t want to move, and she definitely didn’t want to move her hand. She stared at his full lower lip and the defined line of his mouth. “I tried it once, but honestly, it tasted pretty gross.”
“It’s a disgusting habit.”
She couldn’t stop staring at his mouth. “So why do it?”
“I used to have other ones that were a lot worse.” He released her hand. “So why’d you really come out here? ’Cause it wasn’t to smoke.”
“I’m supposed to get your phone number.” She blurted the words in a Spider-induced haze, then realized what she’d said and looked up in panic. “I mean…”
He didn’t look amused. “What was it? You win a bet? Or did you lose one?”
Chapter 4
Spider feltthe humiliation burning in his chest, but he didn’t look away. She and her pretty little cousins had been giggling at the table, glancing at him and the guys from the tattoo shop. Then she’d followed him out here and he’d entertained the ridiculous thought that she’d come to talk to him.
It must have been some kind of challenge, some pretty-girl bet that she’d lost to get a number from the cholo at the bar.
Spider couldn’t even be angry; she was clearly embarrassed to be there.
“They were teasing me.” Daisy looked at the ground. “I don’t date much, and they said something about you getting coffee at the café every day and I told them…” She stepped back. “I’m stupid. I’m sorry I—”
“You’re not stupid.”
She looked up. “What?”
“Everyone in town talks about how smart you are, how you’re going off to a big college next year, so I know you’re not stupid.”
She stepped closer to him, and he was hit by the combination of vanilla and something spicy like cinnamon or cloves. She smelled like the café, and the café smelled like pie, and Spider couldn’t decide if he wanted to run away or take a bite out of her.
You taste as good as you smell, princesa?
“Thanks.” She smiled, and then she looked away. “Yeah, everyone is planning my great exit, including my two idiot cousins.”
Something about the way she said it bothered him. “You don’t want to go to college or something? I was just saying you’re not stupid; I need to change my opinion on that?”
She lifted her chin, and a hint of fire came into her eyes. “You know,you’renot stupid; I could tell by the way you talked to Emmie about doing her history homework. So why do you have to go to college to be smart?”
“I’m not smart; I’m ignorant as fuck.” Shit. He probably shouldn’t curse around her. “Listen, princesa, I don’t know about Rome and that shit because I’m educated. I know about it because I’m fucking poor and I don’t have a TV, so books are my only entertainment.” He tossed the cigarette, which had burned out, and stepped back to light another one. “But you not going to college when you got the brains and the family to support you? That’s fucking dumb.”
Her mouth dropped open, and her eyes narrowed. Damn, it should not have been hot, but Spider had always had a weakness for women with a temper.
“Screw you,” she said. “My dad didn’t go to college, and he’s smart. My tia Imelda didn’t, and she’s one of the most brilliant people I know. And I’m not a princess, okay?”
“I’m gonna guess they didn’t exactly have the choices you have. You may say you’re not a princess, but you got a chance to leave this little-ass town and go do something huge in the world, and you’re acting like it’s some kind of hardship?” Spider took a slow drag on his cigarette and blew out the smoke. “I mean, that’s dumb as fuck.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it. “I… I don’t even know you.”
Spider held out his hand. “Spider Villalobos. And you are?”
