Flirting With Chaos Read Free

would change for everyone involved,” he had slurred. “She’d see things clearer and so would he. No more Garden of Eden for her. She’d be cast out into deserted territory, Rain. Save your apple! For all of the world’s sake, save your apple!”
    I had called him a moron, and he’d passed out on my bed.
    “Jude! What’s taking so long?” a female yelled from upstairs.
    “Just a minute!” he called back.
    “Who’s that?” I leaned to the side.
    “Vicky.”
    “One of your dad’s groupies?”
    “Of course.”
    Of course.
    I sighed.
    “Well, there are your condoms. Feel free to use them on your dad’s groupie.” I gestured to the bag and simply accepted that I’d made a bad decision in choosing him. “Tonight’s a bust anyway. Let’s just hang out tomorrow.”
    “What the fuck?” He dropped the bag and caught me before I could turn around again. “Now you’re mad? That’s not fair. I didn’t even know you would be here or that you would…you know…want me to…deflower you.”
    “Deflower?” I buried my face into my hands. “Just kill me now.”
    “That is what you wanted, right?” He moved my hands away from my face. “You were going to ask me to take your virginity, or am I to assume that you intended on taking mine?”
    “You’re so not a virgin.”
    He fluttered his long eyelashes. “I could be.”
    “I thought I told you to forget about it.”
    “No way. We’re discussing this.”
    “Jude! Can you bring up some wine too?” Vicky, the groupie, called out.
    “You better get her that wine.” I rolled my eyes. “See you tomorrow.”
    “Hell no.” He brought me back. And just like that, his face shifted from fun-loving to pissed. He pressed his lips into a straight line, and his blue eyes glittered with an edge of annoyance. “I planned all types of shit for us tonight. In fact, I’ve been putting it all together for months.”
    “I didn’t know—”
    “Of course you didn’t. It’s a surprise.”
    “None of it can wait until I’m less embarrassed?”
    His right cheek twitched as if he was holding in laughter. “Rain, you’ll be embarrassed for years after this. I’m going to make sure I remind you about that moment for a long, long time. You might as well stop pouting like a baby.”
    “I’m not pouting.”
    He poked my bottom lip. “Yes, you are.”
    “Fine. Just a little.” I tucked some of my curls behind my ear. “Do we really have to hang out tonight?”
    “Hell yes. You just got back yesterday, and I don’t get to see you much anymore. You’re always up there painting with geeky guys that aren’t as awesome as me. You barely come home. You said your summer was mine this year.”
    “It is.”
    He raised his hands in the air. “And this is your birth weekend!”
    “Oh God.”
    “I have twenty-two surprises for you.”
    “I’m turning twenty-one, not twenty-two.”
    “Doesn’t matter.” He shrugged. “I had an extra surprise pop up this time, so we’re starting a new tradition. For each of our birthdays, we add an extra surprise for luck.”
    “I’m scared.”
    “You should be.” He winked. “Are you pissed at me?”
    “No.”
    “Let me go tell Vicky that plans have changed.” He motioned his head toward upstairs. “I’ll tell her never mind on the sex. I’ll just jump in the shower and get ready to go.”
    “You might as well have sex with her.” I bent over, picked up the bag, and tossed it to him.
    He caught it with ease. “No way I’m hooking up with someone else while you’re here. I’ve been waiting forever to see you and—” he dangled the apple bag “—how can I even think about another woman with this shoved into my head?”
    “No.” I envisioned him messing with his dad’s groupie and cringed. “I’m taking back the crazy thought that you should be my first.”
    “It doesn’t matter. It’s too late. You can’t take it back.”
    “Actually, I can.”
    He held his hands against his chest. A mock hurt