Page 5 of In the Danger Zone
I turned to look at Asher as he chugged at some beer. “Well, I’m not complaining. I need this after a week of classes.”
“You mean you don’t love being back in college? You don’t love studying and reading and all that fun shit?”
I snorted. “All I wanna do is play hockey, man.” Once college was over and done with I’d be playing in the NHL. Until then, the Wolverines were going to keep me busy. I wasn’t at college to learn. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to attend all the parties and reap the benefits that came with being a hockey player.
“And all I wanna do is get some pussy tonight,” Asher mumbled, his head darting left and right. “Where the fuck did that redhead go?”
Chuckling, I downed more of my beer. My eyes moved back over to the blonde, more than ready to make my move, but something bright yellow caught my attention. I turned and nearly dropped my fucking beer. My gaze was stuck on the brunette in the vibrant, yellow dress. Pausing mid-drink, I noted that she seemed to be walking with caution. It was like she wanted to be anywhere else but at a frat house. Honestly, I couldn’t blame her.
She was with another girl with pale skin and pitch-black hair. But Yellow Dress Girl had all my attention. I took in her big eyes and long lashes, and those plump lips that looked so damn kissable. I couldn’t help it when I eyed her up and down. Round hips. Perfect, pretty olive skin. Blushing cheeks.
I wanted to know her name. I wanted to ditch my bottle of beer and sweep her away from everyone else, because I felt like no one else had earned the right to look at someone so damn pretty. The black-haired girl suddenly said something into Yellow Dress Girl’s ear and disappeared into the crowd.
That gave me a better chance to talk to her. To the prettiest girl I had ever seen in my life. She was moving closer and closer, walking slowly with those same careful steps.
“Oh, what the fuck is she doing here?” Asher muttered, still right by my side. “No fucking way.”
My head quickly turned to him. God dammit. Of course Asher knew the prettiest girl at the party. She was probably his ex or something.
I coughed. “You, uh, know that girl?”
Asher hissed. “Yeah. Fuck. She isnotsupposed to be here.”
“Bad break up?” I asked, doing my best to get the details without being too obvious. I didn’t want her to be off limits. And one of your boys’ ex-girlfriends wasalwaysoff limits – no matter how gorgeous they were. But fuck, I was considering breaking those rules.
Asher scoffed loudly. “Fuck no. I went to high school with her.”
Relief hit me fast. Thank fuck. But then I let out a low chuckle. “What, she steal your lunch money or something?”
“No. She was just… You don’t know the story. You don’t know her.”
“She couldn’t have been as bad as you.”
“She shouldn’t be here. Someone should fucking kick her out.Ishould kick her out.”
“Whoa.” I turned to Asher, eyeing him curiously. There was fury in his eyes. Real fury. He couldn’t have hated the girl that much. There was no way. “Look, whatever she did to you, I’m sure it wasn’t that bad. She seems harmless.”
“You don’t know her. You don’t even know her fucking name.”
“Whatisher name?” I asked cautiously.
“Daisy,” Asher said with gritted teeth.
“Daisy…” That made sense. I kept my eyes on her, zeroing in on what was in front of me: and that was pure perfection. I was almost certain that Daisy was the most gorgeous girl I had ever seen. I didn’t give a fuck what Asher said. I had known him almost my whole life – before college started, back when we met at hockey camp when we were kids – but I wasn’t going to put too much faith in his opinion when it came to girls.
Daisy moved into the room that little bit more, and that was when her eyes landed on Asher. She gasped. Literallygasped. Then she took a shaky step back, her eyes big and her lips parted. Her cheeks went bright red as she locked eyes with Asher. Holy shit. She looked like she was gonna pass out.
Then she looked my way. I sent her a smile, hoping that would maybe take away whatever she was feeling, because she looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack. But all Daisy did was take another step back. Was she okay?
“Hey,” I said softly. “Are you alright?”
All I was trying to do was be nice. But those few words I said seemed to scare the fuck out of her. She spun around, darting out of the kitchen and back into the living room. I had a feeling she was running out of the house, too.
“Holy shit,” I said, shaking my head. “What did I say? Did I say something wrong?”
“No. I told you.Sheis the fucking problem. Daisy McClaine is an attention seeking, little freak,” Asher said, quickly downing more of his beer. “God dammit. Of all the colleges in the country to go to, she picks the same one as me.”
“I’m gonna go see what’s up with her.” My eyes were stuck in front of me as I shoved my bottle of beer into Asher’s chest, hoping I could catch a glimpse of Daisy. “She seems pretty freaked out, right? I’ll go see if she’s okay.”
