Page 59 of Provocation
Blake goes to his desk and starts to sit down, but I beckon him. ‘Lay on the other side.’
He nods and does what I say, pressing himself against her so that she’s sandwiched between us. Her body is shuddering, but her breathing has slowed and she’s only occasionallywhimpering quietly. Her eyes are closed. I wipe her wet cheeks with my thumbs and kiss her forehead.
My phone vibrates, and I find a message from Shade.
B there in sec. Just cleaning up her room and getting one of the guys to get a replacement mirror.
He should be here with us, but I concede it’s a good idea. She’s clearly embarrassed by her actions like she was in the lab with the noises. We don’t want to draw attention to it. She’s already upset enough.
‘How are you feeling?’ Blake asks, clearly deciding that now isn’t the time to broach the picture.
‘Better, I think,’ she says. ‘I’m sorry about the coat.’
She looks up at him and tears come to her eyes.
‘You got it for me and they…theyruinedit! I didn’t even know they were there. I left it on the chair and went into the reading room to finish the project with…with Bennet.’
She breaks off and doesn’t say anything more, but she clutches at me harder.
Waiting for her to open up is torture, but that’s what we do. We wait for her to be ready to tell us the rest. I just hope she does.
No more secrets, I plead silently.Just tell us everything.
We lay together for a few minutes and Daisy gradually calms down, her body relaxing. I think she’s asleep, but then I hear her phone, and she delves into the pocket of her sweatshirt. She cracks one eye and looks at the screen. Nothing shows on her face at all.
Alarm bells ring inside my head.
‘What is it?’ I ask, only just stopping myself from tearing it out of her hand to see for myself.
‘There’s something I have to tell you.’ She winces as she turns the phone around.
I’m letting out a sound of fury before I realize it. It’s the same picture we got of her coming out of the library with the word ‘whore’ in red scrawled across it.
‘Who the fuck is that from?’ I snarl.
It takes everything in me to stay even that calm, but I’m rewarded when she lays her head on my chest.
‘I don’t know the number, but probably the stalker. I’m due a note. It’s been a week or so since the last.’
How can she be so calm about this, yet her ruined coat is the thing that causes her to trash her room and get so upset she can barely breathe?
‘I’m sorry,’ she whispers. ‘The picture…’
She fucked him.
My heart sinks. But I already know I’ll forgive her. She could fuck the entire school, and I’d get over it so long as she was still mine. I see those same sentiments mirrored in Blake’s eyes whether he knows it or not.
‘It’s okay,’ I say, holding her close.
‘It’s not,’ she persists, pulling out of my hold to sit up. She gets to her knees and turns to face us. ‘I didn’t realize. I’m not trying to excuse it, but I didn’t know he thought…I guess I did something to make him think that I…’
My eyes narrow and I see Blake’s do the same. This already doesn’t sound like what that photo we were sent seemed to hint at. Not at all.
‘Can you tell us what happened?’
In my periphery, I see Shade pacing just outside the door, listening.
‘We were at one of the small desks upstairs in the library. There was nowhere else to sit. We were working for a while and then it cleared out. There wasn’t much space. He kept brushinghis arm against me and it was really annoying, so when he said we should go into the reading room when it was empty, I thought it was a good idea. More space. We were working in there and then we were finished, and I was going to leave, but he stopped me and said… He said things that weren’t very nice, but I suppose I can see why he thought…’
