Hothouse Flower (Calloway Sisters #2)

by Krista Ritchie

I swear they love to fucking gang up on me—probably because they know I can take it.

And I hold the back of her head and whisper in her ear. “You can cry if it hurts, sweetheart. It doesn’t make you a little girl.” She lets out a deep breath. And her arms tighten around me. She places her forehead on my chest, and I reach over her shoulder to take off the last three on her back.

Lo glances at me once, clearly noticing Daisy in my arms. This isn’t the first time I’ve cradled her. Nor will it ever be the last. I stare at him with a hard, unflinching gaze. I did nothing wrong. I just helped someone who I love—the same fucking way Lo is taking care of Lily and Connor is taking care of Rose. I’m tired of being shit on for doing the right thing with the wrong girl.

It’s. Not. Fucking. Fair. And then Lo does something surprising. He nods at me, almost like an approval, not quite, but almost.

When everyone pairs off, I become the only option for her. There’s no one else but me.

We chose this because nothing else felt right. Nothing else felt as good.

Before we were together, she’d playfully do this, but I wouldn’t touch her. So I can’t put my hands on her ankles or pull her closer to me. I just have my hand on the back of her camping chair, watching her pick at a hot marshmallow on a stick.

I raise my brows at her. I can feel my brother watching, and I’m not fucking sure what’s going on in his head. His expression has been unreadable for most of the night.

“Big bad wolf, are you going to eat me?” You’re a dirty girl, Calloway. My gaze drops to her mouth. “Until you fucking scream.” Her lips curve upward.

“It’s dead, Rose,” Connor says. His voice pulls our gaze towards him. Rose is curled on a chair beside Connor, his hand on her thigh, her fingers intertwined with his. In her other hand, she fries a leech on the tip of a stick, her yellow-green eyes murderous. “Not nearly enough,” she retorts. “This little bitch took my blood.”

“How are you not scared to bite her in bed?” Lo asks. “If you draw blood does she grab a fire poker?”

Connor’s eyes fall to her ass. Even though he acts like he’s better than every horny bastard, he’s still a fucking guy. Case in point.

Daisy smiles wickedly. “Wow, who would have thought—Lo blows better than Lily.” I rub my lips to keep from smiling. Everyone else looks fairly uncomfortable by that statement—only because it came from Daisy. If I said it, it would’ve been fine. If Lily said it—everyone would have fucking laughed. Lo glares at me. I extend my arms. “I didn’t do a fucking thing.” “You’re a shitty influence.”

Daisy acts nonchalant, but her gaze flits all over the forest. Every time she tries to be one step closer to us, someone in our group has a way of pushing her back out. It’s unintentional, I think. But it happens, regardless.

“It was a fucking joke,” I tell Lo. He’s about to open his mouth, ready to chew me up and spit me back out. I mentally start p...

But I can’t get over the smile on her face. The camera caught her mid-laugh. She’s gorgeous. And she’s mine.

They think we’re flirting. We are. But they also think I’m fucking Lily. So I’m a player. I’m fooling around with both Calloway girls. It’s just so fucking absurd.

“Want to know a secret?” she whispers. “Sure,” I say, my arm stretching across the back of her chair again. She smiles and says, “You’re my favorite four-letter word.” Her bold green eyes flit up to me.

Which left Daisy all by herself. And it gave me a necessary excuse to sleep in her tent. No one really wanted her to be alone in the middle of the woods. Not even my brother.

I’m inside the girl who has begged for this type of pleasure for years. And I’m the one finally giving it to her, showing her that sex can be so fucking good. Fucking Christ, I’ve wanted this for so fucking long.

I can’t slow down, even if I wanted to.

Fucking finally. Nothing has ever compared to that.

“Better than chocolate?” I whisper. She breathes like I took her on a marathon, not a sprint. “You’re in another league.” I skim her cheek with my fingers. “Yeah?” I smile. “You’ve finally found the league you’re supposed to be playing in, Dais.” “I like it here,” she whispers. “The better than chocolate league.”

“As long as we want it to,” I tell her. “I’d fucking fight for you, Dais. You just have to let me.” She can’t be worried about hurt feelings. We’re going to upset people eventually, but if they love us, if they want us to be happy, they’ll accept this. “Even your brother?” she whispers, her eyes closing as she dozes off. “Even him,” I breathe, watching her begin to fall asleep.

“My coach pulled me aside and he told me something…” I shake my head. “It’s stayed with me for so many fucking years. It changed me.”

We’re in a serious relationship. I trust her. And I trust me. The. Fucking. End.

I want everything that my friends have. Out in the open. Real. I have to tell Lo. The resolution lifts this weight off my chest.

I glance over at Ryke. He has his hard eyes set on the road ahead, but his hand has been on my thigh most of the drive. Now that we’re alone, truly, it seems like more of our restrictions are disappearing. I love the freedom, and I want to make it last past this trip.

The sunroof groans open. I beam, happy to have air and the wind. I unclip my seat belt and kiss his cheek quickly before standing on the middle console. A gust blows into me first, and I take a giant breath, filling my lungs.

I raise my arms and shut my eyes. I’m flying.

His gentle movements turn rough, and his fingers urgently find the button to my jeans, and he yanks them down, all with one hand. Holy shit. He forces them to my feet, and I clutch onto the roof to keep my balance He doesn’t swerve the car. Not even as he pushes aside my panties and plunges his fingers into me, filling me instantly. Oh God. This can’t be happening. I’m standing up. Half suspended out of the freaking sunroof.

We can’t drive in a car all the way to the Canyonlands. She’s too hyperactive and ADD—which is an actual fucking problem right now, even if we joke about it. No matter if I’d love to finger fuck her all the way there…and with half her body out of that fucking sunroof. Fuck. My cock despises me right now. I should have let her suck me off in the parking lot before I went into the store. She gives amazing head. But that didn’t feel right. And I usually don’t jump into things when my gut says no.

“Dais,” he groans, one of his hands on the back of my head. “Fuck.” Fuck is right. Fuck. Fuck. Fuuuuckkk. Oh my God. He jerks forward, coming inside of me, and I tighten around his cock, clenching over and over, riding a wave to the shore.

“Ryke, ahhh…” My chest rises and falls heavily, like I struggle to breathe. He sits on his knees, watching me, and then he hardens, turned on. The fakeness in my body starts to switch into real, dramatic feelings. Ahhh…I moan a desperate moan. Thankfully he doesn’t make me beg for it or admit my sarcasm.

“Generally when you’re not attracted to the person you’re with, Dais, you’re not going to get off.” I turn my head and look up at him. “You know what this means?” His brows harden, and I can tell he’s expecting a joke and my normal theatrics. “What?” I smile with sincerity. “I am very, very attracted to you.” The corner of his lips rise. “Funny, I’m also attracted to you. What are we going to do about that?” “Make love and make babies.” His brows shoot up. “You already want to make babies with me, Calloway?” “I want to do lots of things with you.”

“I do think alcohol may be an issue for whatever fucking kid I have, but this disease isn’t going to take anything away from me. I won’t let it.” The answer almost makes me smile.

can’t do to my kids what my parents did to me. The separation, the divorce, the fucking fighting. I want to be in a serious, committed relationship before I have a child.” “You mean marriage,” I say. “When you’re married, you can still get divorced. I don’t take that much stock in the word. I just need the emotional fucking commitment.”

“I want to be fully committed to someone, to be married, probably earlier rather than later. And I do want babies. Maybe like three. I also want to travel and visit the great seven wonders and scuba dive and stand beneath a waterfall in Costa Rica, kissing you.” He reaches out and holds my hand.

My lips pull high because he didn’t discount a single one of my wants. In fact—I can see it in his eyes. He wants all of it too.

I adjust the strap on my backpack, that one statement putting pressure on my chest. Connor has told me numerous fucking times that Greg is protective of his youngest daughter, and it’s starting to get real for me. I’m with her, and some day, I may need his approval. I’m just not sure what I need to do in order to get it. But I’m realizing that for Daisy, I have to make a bigger fucking effort. She’s close to her parents. She loves them.

“Aren’t you proud?” “Shouting about it won’t change anything.” I’m not Connor Cobalt. After I left for college, every achievement has been an internal one, where I remember the road I took to get there. The labor, the time, the practice. My records don’t tell that story. They’re just numbers.

“You pack a brush, Dais?” “Nope.” She smiles deviously, turning her face towards me. “It’s okay. I’ll just finger it.” I force her head back down. “You finger yourself a lot?” I ask, pouring a second bottle onto her hair. “Not as much as you finger me.” Fuck. My cock stirs. That turned very literal. My fucking fault. I don’t feel as guilty as I would have before we were together.

I know she’ll love it when she sees it, which is why I begin to smile. “That ugly, huh?” she jokes. “So fucking ugly,” I say, wrapping my arm around her shoulder.

“You sure?” she frowns. “Because Lo—” “He’ll get over it.” I have to believe this or else I’ll never take the fucking leap. I stop in the middle of the path and hold her face, my fingers stained different colors already.

“Turn around.” He motions to the front of the bike. He…he wants me to… I smile. He wants me to ride backwards like I tried to practice in the garage. I excitedly switch legs over the seat, my back facing the handlebars as I lean against the gas can.

I’ve never been this fucking aroused in my life. With her standing on the back of the motorcycle, I went from fear to desire in a minute flat. After I was certain she was safe, I kept picturing her behind me. I kept picturing what she looked like, holding onto my shoulders, one of my hands gripping hers. And then my mind rerouted and I pictured her legs spread open and my entire cock filling her.

“You can, Dais.” I know. It’s fucking intense. These feelings are blinding.

To have this time with Daisy means just as much, but I do recognize that each moment spent with her is a moment away from Lo during his recovery.

And it’s at this moment that I know something is very fucking wrong. My gut knots with every step, and I can’t tear my eyes off my brother’s. His cheekbones are sharpened, his eyes cold and pissed.

His fury though, it looks like it’s on another level. Deeper. Rawer. From years and years of pain.