I took in the newcomers and knew they were her sisters. Since unblocking me, I had stalked the shit out of Willow’s social media accounts and, thanks to the internet, I had known what her sisters and parents looked like.
“When I told them where I was going, they begged to tag along,” Willow grumbled.
“We’re a delight,” Megan said, if my memory was correct. She was fifteen, and Sarah was twelve. “Why wouldn’t you want us to come along?”
“Seriously,” Sarah chimed in. “And if you hadn’t wanted us to come along, you never should have told us where you were going.”
Willow gawked at her. “I didn’t tell you,” she argued. “I was telling Mom and Dad.”
Sarah waved away the facts. “Same thing.”
Willow looked at me. “Sorry,” she muttered. Then she glanced around. “Why here?”
I jerked my head towards the twins. “See those two girls over there?” All three of their heads turned to look at where the twins were.
“The twins?” she asked.
“Yeah. They’re Ford’s eight-year-old baby sisters,” I told her. “Ford and I would bring them here all the time before he left for college. And just because he’s gone doesn’t mean I can’t still bring them here when I can.”
Willow’s blue gazed widened in surprise. “You hang out with eight-year-olds for fun?”
I grinned as my eyes found the twins. “I love those girls,” I stated. “Why wouldn’t I?”
Just then, the girls in question glanced over, and when they saw my guests, they rushed right over. Their pretty little faces were red with their exertions.
“Are these your friends?” Tally asked, her voice a little breathless.
I nodded towards Sarah and Megan. “Yeah,” I said. “That’s Sarah and Megan.” Then I put my arm around Willow. “This is Willow. She’s my girlfriend.” Every girl at the table gasped except the one in my arms who let out a low, painful moan.
“Really, Duke?” she bemoaned.
“You didn’t tell us you had a boyfriend,” Megan accused.
“You’re very pretty,” Tally said. “I like your glasses.
“Well, at least he’s cute,” Sarah added.
“We’re going to be friends,” Rachel announced. “But you can’t break Duke’s heart. If you do, then we can’t be your friend anymore.”
I could feel Willow’s shoulders relax. “What’s your name, honey?”
Rachel smiled. “Rachel.” She pointed at Tally. “That’s Tally.”
“Well, Rachel, I promise I’m not going to break his heart, okay?”
Rachel narrowed her eyes a bit. “Are you sure? It’s a good heart, and he only has one.”
Willow tried to stifle her laugh with a cough. “It’s safe with me, Rachel. I promise.”
Tally leaned forward. “Are you any good at laser tag?” she asked. “That’s important.”
I looked over at Willow, and she had a smile on her face. “I’m great at it.”
“She really is,” Megan chimed in.
Tally’s eyes widened in pure excitement. “Do we have time for laser tag, Duke? The numbers are even now.”
I looked at Willow. “Do you guys have time for laser tag.”
Sarah answered before Willow could. “Hell yeah, we do.”
I called dibs on Tally. “Me and Tally.”
“Me and Rachel,” Megan said, claiming Rachel.
“Me and Willow,” Sarah blurted.
I looked over at Willow. “You game?”
Willow’s eyes narrowed behind her glasses. “You’re going down, Maddox.” Then she scanned the table. “You guys are all going down.” Sarah let out a supportive whoop, and the twins started clapping in enthusiasm.
I knew Willow and I needed to talk, but it was fairly early, so I figured we could always talk after I dropped the twins off back home.
As the table got up to head over to laser tag, I did the one thing I’ve been wanting to do since the morning after Michael Bellows’ party. I grabbed Willow’s hand and yanked her back until she stumbled against me.
She looked up, confused. “What-”
I took her chin in my other hand, leaned down, and kissed her. And what had stared out as a sweet, chaste kiss had ended up a kiss for the ages when I found my hands in her hair and her hands fisted in the fabric of my shirt.
“Willow! Duke! Come on!” someone cried, and that’s the only thing that make me break off the kiss. When Willow opened her eyes, she looked dazed, and I liked knowing that I put that look there.
I liked Willow.
“Duke, we really need to talk,” she finally managed to get out.
“I know, baby,” I replied. “I know.”
“Willow! Duke!”
“But first, a sound ass kicking in laser tag,” I smirked.
Willow’s grin was wicked as she said, “You’re going to fall like the Roman Empire, Maddox.”
I stared at this girl and was pretty sure I’d already fallen.
Chapter 7
Willow~
Tally had turned out to be as ruthless as she was cute. No wonder Duke hadn’t been worried or intimidated by my laser tag skills. He had a little eight-year-old Army Ranger on his team, and he’d known it when he claimed her to be his partner.
Next time, Tally was mine. Of course, ‘next time’ was a bit premature since Duke and I still needed to talk. Once he realizes what I did the night of Michael’s party, it was sure to end all this madness. My social media accounts have been blowing up all day with Duke’s nonsense.
And now, I was sitting in the Maddox’s driveway, feeling nauseous and ridiculous. After Duke and Tally as shamed us properly in laser tag, we had hung out for another hour before Duke had announced that he had to take the twins home. Agreeing that it had been time to leave, me, Sarah, and Megan had made our way out with them. Before Duke allowed me to drive off, he had made me promise to go to his house after I dropped off my sisters, so we could talk.
So.
Here I was.
Ready to talk.
Common sense finally taking over and reminding me I couldn’t stall in Duke’s driveway forever, I got out of my car and made my way up the walkway. I knocked on the door and waited patiently. A couple of minutes later, Duke Maddox answered the door and butterflies erupted in my stomach like they were on crack.
“Hey,” I mumbled.
There was a slight tug on the corner of Duke’s mouth. “Hey,” he returned before stepping back to allow me entrance.
When I stopped in the foyer, my eyes got a good look at what it meant to be wealthy. Duke’s home was everything you’d imagine a rich person would live in. It was huge, spacious, and tastefully decorated with art that probably cost more than my parents’ home.
“Your house is beautiful,” I told him truthfully.
“Thanks,” he replied. “But it’s my parents’ home. I just live here.”
I huffed out a laugh as I turned to look at him. “Doesn’t that make this your house?”
Duke grinned. “Nah, it’s just the house I grew up in. I didn’t pay for any of this shit, so how can it be mine?”
I cocked my head and regarded Duke a bit. He was so easy-going, you’d think he’d be spoiled. But between seeing him with Ford’s sisters, and now the comment about how rich he wasn’t, I realized I may have been a bit judgey where Duke and Samson Maddox had been concerned.
“Do you want something to drink or eat?” he asked.
I shook my head. “No, thank you,” I replied. “I’d…uh, rather just get this over with.”
Duke surprised me by laughing. “It’s not a stoning, Willow,” he remarked comically.
Little did he know.
“Duke-”
“Okay,” he relented, having mercy on me. “Let’s head to the living room.
I followed him as he led me to the living room when a thought occurred to me. “Where are your parents?”
“They’re around here somewhere,” he re
plied, and I tripped over my own two feet. I didn’t want an audience for this.
“Uh…is there somewhere more private we can talk?” I asked. This shit was already humiliating enough without a scene erupting where Mr. and Mrs. Maddox might have to come running.
Duke stopped and looked down at me. “There’s the pool house. Or we can go back to the batting cages.”
My eyes bugged. “You have batting cages?”
Duke smiled softly. “It’s my future, Willow,” he said simply. “Of course, we do.”
I snorted. “There’s no ‘of course’ about it, Duke. Lots of people with the talent to go pro don’t just have batting cages in their backyards.”
Duke grinned. “I didn’t mean to sound like a rich prick. I just meant, my father does well for himself, and he’s invested his success in his sons.”
“Okay, I get it,” I replied, because I didn’t want to sound like I was jealous of their blessings. Just because a person had money, it didn’t mean they were assholes.
“So, the pool house?”
I nodded. “Yeah. The pool house works.”
I followed Duke, and he led me though their massive home, out to the backyard, past the pool and to the pool house. It was an injustice to refer to the building as the pool house when it looked like an actual house. But when we walked in, I saw that it was actually a loft-styled structure. The living room was dead center with a small kitchenette to the left. There was a staircase on the far right side of the room that led to a loft on the second floor. The entire first floor was tile too.
“Upstairs has just the one bed and the room over to the right is the connecting bathroom,” Duke began to explain. “Down that hallway are two bedrooms and behind the stairs is another bathroom.”
“Jesus, Duke,” I breathed out. “This place is stunning. And it looks super clean.”
“We have a cleaning service that come out twice a week,” he replied. “Are you sure you don’t want anything to eat or drink?”
I shook my head. “No.” I made my way to the couch and sat down. Duke walked over and sat close enough to make me nervous. “So…who goes first?”
Duke cocked his head. “You know, I have so many questions, I’m not sure where to start,” he said honestly. “Maybe we should start with why you chose to lose your virginity to me.” I winced, and he saw it.
My reasons and explanations were going to come across horribly, and I knew it. But he deserved answers, and maybe by confessing all my sins, I’ll be able to finally sleep at night. When I had told Sally everything at lunch, she had actually been excited and happy for me. She had told me that she thought I was overthinking things, and if I liked Duke, I should just go with it and see where it could go. I had argued that, even if I did like him, he was destined for the MLB. I had no idea what college he was headed to, and everyone knew long-distance didn’t work.
Here goes freakin’ nothing.
“It wasn’t about you, really,” I started and just prayed I could get through the humiliation without wanting to kill myself afterwards. “I hadn’t wanted to be a virgin going into college, so…I had started entertaining getting rid of it before then.” God, my next words were going to sound absolutely awful. “I had actually been looking for Gary Martin that night b-”
Duke’s gaze darkened dangerously. “Yeah, about that,” he drawled out. “You and Gary are no longer friends, Willow.”
I balked. “What?”
“You and Gary are no longer friends,” he repeated, then waved his hand at me like a goddamn game show host. “Continue.”
I rolled my eyes.
Taking a deep breath, I continued, “I had been looking for Gary to…uh, help me with my concerns when I had accidentally bumped into you.” Have you ever looked someone in the eye while confessing your most sordid secrets? It’s hard as hell. “Then…you turned around and…kissed me. And while you were kissing me, I…figured that…”
Duke leaned in a bit. “That…?”
“I figured with your…carefree reputation, you’d probably be really good at…ridding a girl of that particular…uh, issue. So, I…that’s how it ended up being you and not Gary.”
His jaw clenched, and I could tell he was upset. I didn’t blame him, though. What I had done was unconscionable. I basically traded one guy for another with no regard to emotions or common damn sense.
“For the record,” he bit out, “I’ve never taken a girl’s virginity, Willow. You were my first. That’s why I was upset that you ditched me as soon as I passed out and blocked me from your life the next day. I had taken your virginity, and you hadn’t even given me the opportunity to see if you were okay afterwards.”
My chest felt like he had kicked it in. What I had done was crappy, but his opinion of me was only going to get worse.
“What I did…it was…I could have handled that better,” I admitted. “It’s just…I felt so bad, Duke. I still feel bad.”
His head drew back. “About what?”
I let out an agonizing breath. “About taking advantage of you.”
Duke Maddox looked like he’d just been kicked in the face.
Chapter 8
Duke~
I heard the words, but they weren’t making any sense. Or at least, the words about how she took advantage of me, because all her other words I understood just fine. Especially, how she had been looking for Gary fucking Martin that night, so she could hand over her virginity to him.
Yeah.
I understood that fucking perfectly.
Then I let out a humorless laugh as Karma put her arm around me and welcomed me to the club. For years, after that shit with Lilly, I had treated females casually. I’ve never led them on, and I always made sure they understood they were casual hookups and I wasn’t going to be calling them in the morning to invite them to the movies. And even though I was clear about the lack of expectations, I still knew some of them had hope, and I still hadn’t let that deter me. I had convinced myself that as long as I was able to utter those words of agreement the next morning, I wasn’t being a douchebag about my hookups. But now, here we were-roles reverse.
Hell, they weren’t even reversed. I had never even said them to Willow, and she had made me no promises either. Willow had every right to walk away from our encounter without obligation, but here I was, being a little bitch about it. Willow was the first girl to ever leave me high and dry, and the first girl I ever wish hadn’t.
But back to the madness at hand. “What do you mean, Willow?”
Her shoulders drooped, and she looked miserable. “I knew you were drunk, Duke,” she said. “I knew it, and I took advantage of your…inebriated state.”
What. In. The. Ever. Lovin’. Fuck?
“I’m sorry. What?”
Her sweet, beautiful face was a mixture of grimaces and winces and just all uncomfortableness. “When you kissed me, I knew you were drunk,” she repeated. “I mean…why else would Duke freakin’ Maddox kiss me if he wasn’t off-his-ass drunk, right?” Before I could correct her, she answered her own questions. “He wouldn’t.” Her hand ran up and down at me, like she was presenting me as a game show prize. “I mean, look at you. You’re Duke freakin’ Maddox.”
“You said that already,” I numbly muttered, because this girl had me off my nut with what I was hearing.
“Anyway, I knew you were drunk, but…like I said earlier, your reputation has you as a legend in the bedroom, so I figured who better than to get the deed over and done with.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Had Raiden or Ford been single, their reputations would have worked just as well.”
Holy fuck.
“Okay,” I rushed out. “Stop. Just…for the love of God, just stop.” I really liked this girl and I did not need to hear her tell me how Ford or Raiden would have worked just as well as anyone else in losing her virginity to. I never judged girls on what they did with their bodies or their views on chastity. It’s never been any of my business. But Willow really seemed not to care over
ly much about her virginity, and that was a first for me. Most girls usually cared for the guy they gave to, at least. Or so, that’s what I had always assumed.
“Don’t you see what I’m saying?” she bemoaned. “I knew you were drunk, and I used you for sex when you weren’t in your right mind to consent. That’s why I snuck out and blocked you all summer. I felt wretched, Duke. What kind of human being does that?” Again, she didn’t let me answer. “If you’d been a girl, and I’d been a guy, I would have deserved to get my ass kicked, or…or go to jail. There’s nothing more despicable that taking sexual advantage of someone who wouldn’t choose you sober.”
Willow looked wrecked.
The poor thing looked and sounded like her truth was the real deal.
I was fucking flabbergasted.
“Willow, baby, I wasn’t drunk,” I told her.
Her blue eyes blinked behind her glasses. “What?”
I shook my head. “I wasn’t drunk, Willow.”
I could see her getting agitated again. “I’m pretty sure you were, Duke. I was there, remember?”
My brows shot up. “So was I,” I pointed out. “And I wasn’t drunk.”
“But…but you had to be,” she argued.
“Why did I have to be?” This was the most bizarre conversation I think I’ve ever had.
“Because you kissed me,” she snapped. “Pay attention, Duke.”
My head tilted to the side as I regarded her. “Willow, I kissed you because I wanted to,” I told her. “Not because I was drunk.”
“But-”
I put my hand up to stop another one of her protests. “Willow, I have never been so drunk that I didn’t know what I was doing. I don’t and never have gotten drunk like that. It’s dangerous to get so drunk you can’t remember what you did the next morning.” I shook my head. “I would never risk my future like that.”
“You looked drunk,” she murmured, still trying to hold onto her argument.
The Eastwood Series Page 28