Page 19 of Provocation
Would you do it for Daisy?
What is it?
I let out a breath and frown as I type out the message, wondering if there’s even anything she can do, but she messages back a minute later to tell me to give her some time, and not to contact her again, like ever.
I put my phone down and get up, flopping down onto my bed and trying to figure out what has my mind all riled up as I close my eyes.
My phone alarm wakes me at five and I crawl out of bed, grabbing a quick shower and then turning on the bath. I get dressed and see a message from Blake detailing all he’s found on Joe Banderville so far. It’s clear that, as we thought, this guy is a nasty fuck and it turns my stomach to know that Daisy will be anywhere near him, that we’ll have to tell her just how bad he is.
I try to put it out of my mind for now as I plod downstairs. The kitchen is deserted, which isn’t unusual for this time in the morning. I make a pot of coffee and boil some water in the pan on the stove for Daisy’s tea. Taking both mugs upstairs, I check the tub and turn off the water. I sneak into Daisy’s room and set her cup on the nightstand. She’s still asleep with Mav curled around her. Her head is resting on his chest. I stare for a minute longer than is customary, mostly because I figured she’d be on one side of the bed and he’d be on the other.
I want this with her. I haven’t even had a turn!
My eyes narrow and I decide that Blake can fuck himself. Daisy is sleeping with me in my bed tonight. She’s going to be wrapped around me for a change.
I touch her shoulder, noticing it’s bare. Is she naked?
She groans a little, stretching. Her hands run across Mav’s chest, and she makes that same little hum that she did when she was eating pizza last night.
‘Daisy?’ I whisper, shaking her gently.
‘Hmm?’ she asks.
‘We need to go to the lab, remember?’
She mutters something unintelligible.
‘To make Envy?’
Her eyes open and she sits up. ‘The lab. Let’s go.’
She gets out of bed, and I swallow hard. Sheisnaked. My eyes roam over her. I don’t even mean for them to, but I can’t help it.
‘I drew you a bath and there’s a cup of tea on your nightstand, okay?’
She gives me a sleepy grin and yawns, stretching high. I think she’s still half asleep because she hasn’t grabbed my robe, the one she thinks I haven’t noticed her stealing all the time.
She blinks at me and then frowns. ‘Oh! The lab. Yes.’
She picks up my robe and puts it on, leaving the room in a swish. I hear the bathroom door close, and I stare after her for a minute.
How did I go a decade without seeing her, speaking to her? How didn’t I realize how much I missed her, how hollow my life was without her?
‘You’re looking like you just got hit by cupid’s arrow,’ Mav mutters from the bed and I immediately scowl at him.
‘Are you coming to the club with us?’
I hear him yawn. ‘Yeah. What time is it?’
‘Five fifteen.’
‘When you leaving?’
‘When Daisy’s ready.’
I see a thumbs up from the covers and go back to my room as I hear Mav get up and pad across the hall into his own room.I drink my coffee while I sort out some notes for Applegate. He wants to meet with me this week for an update on the non-opiate, and he’ll want to know what’s going on with Envy, too. We’ve kept him out of the loop, mostly at his insistence because he was adamant that he wanted plausible deniability as well as his cut for letting us use the lab like it was ours for the past eighteen months.
I still have no idea how he was able to swing it so that a group of undergrads were given free reign over the shiny, new lab, but I think he probably used me and the Novelle name as the excuse. I can imagine him telling a room of stuffy assholes that I wanted first dibs on the lab and my daddy would throw a fit if his son didn’t get what he wanted. I snort. Yeah, he definitely did that.
