Free Dangerous by Suzannah Daniels Page B

do something right.”
    “Surely he already knows that.” I rubbed my palms along his arms, until my hands came to rest on top of his.
    “You know why I started going to Quail Mountain High?” he asked.
    “Why?”
    “Because I flunked out of boarding school. My father was furious. He demanded to know why I couldn’t be more like my brother, who graduated with honors.”
    “Why did you flunk out?” I asked, wondering if he would answer.
    “Because I didn’t care. It didn’t matter how good my grades were. In my father’s eyes, they would never be good enough. I would never be good enough.”
    “That’s what parents do. They push their children to do their very best. Well, most of them do.” I certainly couldn’t say that my parents had ever fallen into that category.
    “Let’s change the subject,” Stone suggested.
    “Okay,” I agreed. “I did have something I wanted to run by you.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Remember when we were talking about the Fourth of July promotion for the bookstore?”
    “Yeah.”
    “Remember when I told you that I had a couple of friends who might be willing to braid hair and paint fingernails?”
    “Yeah.”
    “I was talking about Crimson and Scarlet. They want to open their own salon, and they agreed that this would give them the chance to meet some potential clients. What do you think?”
    “Let’s do it. Sounds like it would be a win-win.”
    “Really?” I asked.
    “Really. But we don’t have much time. We’ve only got two weeks to make a plan and advertise it. We’ll start first thing tomorrow.”
    “I’m so excited!”
    He chuckled against my hair. “That’s what I do best. Get the girls excited.” His thumbs traced my ribs, as his palms slid to my sides and worked down to my hips.
    I elbowed him in the stomach and was satisfied when a soft grunt escaped his lips. He moved his palm to my chest and whispered, “Your heart beats faster when you’re with me.” It wasn’t a question. He was stating a fact, and it was slightly unnerving that he knew it. “Faster than the wings of a hummingbird.”
    I swallowed hard, unable to respond.

    Stone

    Her hair smelled good, and I breathed in deeply. I could tell that I had made her nervous, and she didn’t know what to say. I remained quiet, content holding her in my arms while I waited for her to speak. I shouldn’t have let Chance bait me with his note. I should’ve put some distance between us and spent the evening with Jess instead. But I was finding Dara increasingly more difficult to resist.
    I skimmed my fingertips along the back of her neck, and her tiny shudder was audible. I smiled in the dark. It seemed every nerve ending she possessed snapped to attention at my slightest touch. The gleam of her hair appeared almost silver in the moonlight, and I stroked the silken strands, appreciating the softness.
    “Has a girl ever made your heart beat faster?” she whispered.
    I stopped all movement, allowing her words to flow through my mind. Dara had a knack for asking difficult questions, and I frowned, wondering how much to say or whether I should answer the question at all. There was something about her that made me want to answer her, her goodness or maybe her innocence. There was something about me that sent warning bells ringing loudly in my head. I ignored them.
    “Yes, once, a long time ago.”
    “Who was she?” Dara asked, her voice as soft as a whisper in the stillness of the summer air.
    I closed my eyes and let the memories tumble in my head. It seemed like a lifetime ago. To say it aloud would send the painful memories crashing back down. To say it aloud would make it seem terrifyingly real, and although I knew it was real, I had been able to deal with it by shutting it all out, locking it away in the deepest recesses of my soul.
    She softly rubbed my left hand, which was sprawled across her thigh. She stroked my knuckles, outlining my fingers, as if her touch were coaxing the answer from