Crave Me (The Good Ol' Boys #4)(22)

He laughed, big and throaty. I smiled, biting my lip.

“Why do you pretend you don’t like to hang out with me? I’m kind of a big deal.”

“I’m not your fri—”

“Yes, I know. We’re not friends. You work for my uncle… yada, yada, yada, I got it. But," I paused for effect, “you’re my bodyguard-slash-driver, so that means you work for me, too.” I grinned all proud of myself.

“When did you get so smart?”

“It comes with age.”

“You’re fourteen.”

I shrugged. “Yeah, but I’ve been through a lot. It’s kind of like dog years, so I’m really like a hundred and something,” I explained, counting on my fingers.

“Ninety-eight,” he answered.

“That’s what I said."

The last few years had been uneventful, we’d all fallen into a comfortable routine, and I was thankful for that. God knows I had enough drama to last me a lifetime when I first moved in. I guess Esteban was right. Things did get easier as more time went by, I just hadn’t figured out if that was a good or bad thing.

It had been two years since I’d last changed schools. I wish I could tell you that I was happy staying in one place, but it didn’t change the fact that I was alone. I hated school. I hated my teachers. I hated the students. Nothing about my life was normal. I had no parents, no friends, no one to talk to. I was around men and adults all the time, and I began to think that was maybe the reason I stopped trying to make any friends.

It was pointless.

I still read and wrote a lot. I spent most of my time with the fictional characters I’d grown to love from the pages of my books.

But with age came wisdom or however the hell you say that… I knew my uncle was involved in some sort of shady-ass shit. I had a bodyguard who hardly let me out of his sight for more than a few minutes, and that was only when I had to use the bathroom or we were in the penthouse. There was also the fact that every man my uncle brought around, which seemed to be few and far between, were all packing heat.

Every. Last. One.

The pizza arrived shortly after I ordered it and Esteban insisted he’d go get it from the door. He set the pizza on the coffee table while I went and grabbed us some sodas. I smirked, nudging him with my shoulder when he moved to sit beside me, so that he was closer to the food.

No one warned me that The Shining wasn’t your typical horror movie with a killer who was an actor dressed in costume and made up like Freddy Kruger or Jason. I was prepared for that. The storyline in this movie could actually happen in real life and that scared the absolute living shit out of me.

At one point, I jumped and screamed so loud that I pretty much ended up in Esteban’s lap. To tell you the truth, I wasn’t even embarrassed about it. I even considered staying in his strong arms. I’d known Esteban for eight years. As much as he reminded me that he wasn’t my friend, a part of me knew that he was. It was just part of his job to tell me that he wasn’t.

At least that’s what I hoped for.

I was a young girl, a teenager well on my way to becoming a woman. It was easy to get lost in the romance fantasy that I read in my books and imagine real life being that way. Over the last few months, I’d found myself thinking about Esteban in ways that I never had before, in ways that I probably shouldn’t have.

But that still didn’t stop me.

You couldn’t blame me. It’s not like I was around guys my own age. They steered clear of me as much as my uncle did. Esteban was handsome with blue eyes, tan skin, and dark brown hair. He was as tall, built, and muscular like my uncle and only wore suits like him too.

“What are you thinking about over there?” he asked, startling me away from my thoughts.

“Mmm?” I replied, tearing my eyes away from the movie to look over at him, heat spreading across my checks.

“You went from being scared to lost in thought.”

I narrowed my eyes at him and blurted, “Shouldn’t you be watching the movie instead of me?”

He cleared his throat and peered back at the TV.

“I don’t know why I said that,” I whispered, loud enough for him to hear.

Esteban suddenly stood to leave. I knew what he was doing. He wanted to put some distance between us.

I shocked us both when I shouted, “No!” Gripping his wrist, I held him in place.

He looked down at my grasp.

“Please don’t leave.”

Our eyes locked and I immediately let go.

“I’m tired of being alone, Esteban,” I admitted out loud for the first time. “I don’t have any friends. I barely see my uncle. I have no one.” I shifted on the couch to face him. “I know you said you’re not my friend, but… that doesn’t mean that I don’t see you as one. You’re the only person I have.”

He frowned. Esteban wore his emotions on his sleeve. I could physically see his heart breaking for me. I hardly knew anything about him, but for some reason I felt like I knew everything.

“Daisy—”

“Briggs. Why do you insist on calling me Daisy?” I questioned, surprised with the turn in events.

“It’s your name,” he simply stated.

“Daisy died the day she killed my parents. She doesn’t exist anymore.”