Chapter 25

Delilah

2 YEARS LATER

“Are you going to call him?” Ivy looks hopeful sitting across from me at the restaurant.

I shrug. “Of course not.”

“Really?” She looks confused, but she should know how I am by now. “He was crazy hot. Popular. Muscles for days.”

“They all are.” I wink at her, and she only sinks lower in her seat.

“Don’t do that,” she mutters.

Refusing to look at her, knowing what’s coming, I give all my attention to the straw between my fingers. Stirring my already flat soda is better than facing the best friend that knows me too well.

“You can act flippant right now all you want. You can put on this carefree brave face for everyone else, but keep in mind I hear you crying through the walls when they drop you off.”

“It’s my life,” I argue. “I can do what and who I want.”

“Until it involves someone else who loves you.” She pauses, letting that sink in. “Until you get pregnant or end up with an STD.”

I glare at her. “I’m on birth control, and I use protection every time.”

“And you go to parties without a friend.”

“You won’t go with me.” She hasn’t changed much since high school, opting to stay closer to home than get involved in any outrageous campus activities.

“You risk the chance of getting drugged,” she says without acknowledging my statement. “Getting raped.”

“You sound like Dad.” I hang my head even lower. I can’t hide my true feelings, not even the hatred I have for who I’ve become.

“He sounds like a very intelligent man.”

I chuckle. Leave it to her to throw out some hard truths and still make me laugh. I didn’t start Brown University last year as a freshman with the intention of hooking up with guys that lead to nothing but one-night stands. I’ve had a few encounters but nothing like some of the girls around campus. What I’d wanted was to be different, to be free from the stereotype that I left behind in New Mexico. It took me the better part of a year to build up the courage to accept an invite to a college party, and after a few drinks, nearly everything sounds like a good idea.

“No more random guys,” I vow.

“No more risky behaviors,” she counters.

“One hundred percent studious and no life,” I mutter. “Got it.”

“Poor D. has to actually go to class so she doesn’t lose her scholarship.”

I grin at her. “You know as well as I do that my grades are great and my scholarship is in no danger.”

She shakes her head. “What I know is that you started all of this wild behavior in May and it’s only gotten worse as summer progressed. There’s no telling what the semester will look like in two weeks if you don’t shut it down now.”

“True.” I smile. “So stop the partying in two weeks when school starts?”

Her head twists back and forth in disbelief. Her finger stabs the table to emphasize her point. “I think you need to practice. Starting now.”

“Buzz-kill.”

“You have to be responsible.” She pushes the ticket across the table. “Now’s as good a time to start as any.”

“Only because you paid yesterday,” I concede as she excuses herself to the restroom.

The waitress takes the ticket along with my card on her next pass by the table. I spend the time looking around the restaurant. Dark, mysterious eyes across the room catch my attention. As if trained around good looking guys, my mouth tilts up in a seductive grin, and he looks away.

Total turn off.

Men who know what they want, who are insistent in their attraction to me is what gets my blood running. Shyness and men that need to be chased don’t appeal to me in the slightest. After the waitress returns my card, I make a second sweep around the room. He makes eye contact again, only to duck away.

Nope done.

“Leave that poor boy alone,” Ivy says walking back up to the table.

“He’s not my type anyway,” I tell her and stand from the booth.

I follow her through the front door toward my car.

“Wanna go do some shopping?”

“Not particularly,” she murmurs.

“It’s Saturday, two weeks before we start our sophomore year at college. Surely there’s something you need,” I urge.

“I need shampoo and a few more notebooks.” She shrugs. Ivy is the easiest chick to please. Her obsession with spirals, pens, and stationery should be sad, but somehow it works for her.

“I’m not spending my Saturday at Wal-Mart,” I insist.

I grin, and she grins back.

“Target,” we say at the same time.

“Starbucks first,” I say as I climb behind the wheel.

“You just drank an entire carafe inside,” she reminds me. “You’re going to end up with holes in your stomach lining.”

“Judgmental much?” I say with a grin. “I didn’t get home until early this morning. I need more caffeine.”

I smile and focus on starting the car. It’s the best I can do to try to get the hazy memories of last night’s party out of my head.

Turning the key, absolutely nothing happens. The radio nor the AC kicks on, and there’s no clicking.

“I told you,” Ivy says looking out the window.

“Yeah, yeah,” I mutter. “I’ll call Dad.”

I pull out my phone and unlock the screen.

“Call a tow truck. Jaxon is in New Mexico. There’s not much he can do for us in Rhode Island.”

“Hush,” I hiss playfully as the phone begins to ring in my ear.

“Sweetheart,” Dad answers in lieu of a hello.

“Hey, Dad. I have a problem.”

“Don’t tell me you spent all the money I sent last week.”

I shake my head. “No. I’ve barely touched it. My car won’t start.”

“Did you check the battery? Is it out of gas?”

“It has gas, but check the battery? Seriously? I don’t know crap about cars.”

“I told you to trade it in last year.”

I sigh. ‘“I told you so’ doesn’t exactly get me out of this parking lot.”

He laughs. “Fair enough. I’ll call a towing company, but you seriously need to get a new car.”

“Tell her I’ll send her some links later,” Pop chimes in from the background. “There are a few dealerships in town that are running some great end of summer deals.”

I narrow my eyes. “Don’t you need to know where I am?”

I hear both of them laugh. “Sweetheart,” Dad says. “I always know where you are.”

“Creeper.” I look over at Ivy who isn’t surprised that my dads know our location even from thousands of miles away. “I bet you have a satellite on me.”

“That’s ridiculous. The White House turned down that request, but I do track your phone.” He hangs up, and my mouth just drops open.

“Dad does the same with me,” Ivy mutters. “Gigi got a new phone when she left last year. So he has no idea where she is. Drives him nuts.”

I cringe at the idea that something could happen to me and they couldn’t find me. Having grown up with the stories of horrors going on around the world, there’s no way I’ll insist on them pulling their “surveillance.” Safety first, as I always heard growing up.

“Control freaks,” I whisper but loud enough for Ivy to hear me. I push open my door to let some cooler air in. “I hope it doesn’t take forever.”

“I don’t think they’re control freaks.”

I snort. “I wouldn’t be surprised if they had microchips planted in Sam and me when we were adopted.”

“Oh.” Her eyes scrunch together. “I thought you knew about the chips.”

I grin when she runs her hand behind her left ear, implying hers is planted there.

“I hope it’s something simple. I’d rather not spend my day looking for a place to rent a car.”

“You should just junk it and get something else.”

I run my hand over the recently cracking dash. “I’ve had this car since I turned sixteen.”

“And it was ten years old then. It’s time for something newer.”

Sighing, I look around the parking lot. I’ve heard it all before from everyone in my family. Many were surprised the old clunker actually made it across the country last summer.

“That was fast,” Ivy says angling her head so she can see out of the side mirror better.

The side of a massive towing truck blocks my car at the rear bumper.

“What does that say?” I squint, but the reflection off the shiny metal door makes it impossible to read.

“Camel Towing?”

I laugh. “Yeah. Dad would definitely send something like that my way.”

The height of the truck combined with my low to the ground car makes me unable to see the driver through his window. I don’t have to wait long, as his door swings open.

“Nice,” I say with genuine appreciation when the driver opens the door and his muscular legs and firm, jean-covered ass steps down from the truck.

I’m nearly drooling as I watch him face the truck again and reach in to grab a yellow reflective vest. The sliver of revealed skin on his back makes my mouth water.

“I think the ‘no boys’ rule is going to have to wait until Monday. This guy is just too sexy to pass up.”

I step out of my car and turn in his direction. Seductive smile playing on my lips, I give it all I’ve got.

Shielding my eyes from the sun in an attempt to actually see his face I say, “You’re my hero for coming to my rescue.”

I hear him chuckle, throaty and low, and echoing low in my belly. “So does that make me your prince, Princess?”