“They’re making an announcement,” Dixie says, leaning across the table toward me, her eyes rounded and brimming with so much excitement I’m surprised they haven’t popped out of her head.
“Okay, calm down there,” I say. “You’re scaring me a little.”
“This could beit,” she whisper-shrieks, grabbing my hand with bruising force. “Colt could be announcing his Doll.”
Before I can answer that, a gasp goes up. I turn to watch the Darlings stride in, all three of them walking side by side like some kind of wet-dream team. Dixie sighs, melting back in her chair. I can’t blame her. The three of them together like that are almost too much to bear.
Dixie slips around the table to sit with me and Dolly, our backs to our table as we face the rest of the room from our spot in the corner. The whole cafeteria falls silent, as if every girl is stunned speechless by the sight of them, all broad shoulders, taut abs, trim hips, and long legs. Colt grins and tosses his floppy blond bangs off his forehead. Preston smirks. “Well, look at that,” he says. “They got themselves all prepped and ready for us. Just the way I like it.”
“We’ve trained them well,” Devlin drawls, strolling over and gliding his fingertips along the edge of their usual table. I swear every girl in the cafeteria must be watching those fingers, imagining them on her skin. But only I know how it truly feels.
Well, me and Dolly. My stomach twists, all my smugness that he’s mine alone suddenly vanishing. Devlin turns, his eyes sweeping across the room and meeting mine. A shock goes through me, my pulse racing and my thighs threatening to clench. God, one look and I’m putty for this boy. How am I supposed to exist without him in my life?
“You’ve probably heard that we took back the necklaces,” Preston says. “Today, we’ll give them back—but only three. We’ll each choose a girl worthy of being a Darling Doll. We might have gotten a little lax with it before, but this time, we’re choosing only the best. Girls worthy of the name.”
“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god,” Dixie whispers under her breath.
“Calm down,” Dolly says, squeezing her arm. “You’re still the Dog. You can’t be a Doll.”
Colt picks up where Preston left off. “I’m sure y’all are burning up with questions, so I’ll try to answer them ahead of time. Like before, how long you’re a Doll depends on how long we say you are. If we get done playing with you, or you don’t play nice, we’ll take back the necklace. So you better have it with you at all times.”
A little murmur goes up as girls speculate on whether they’ll be next. I see Becca getting fanned by her friends like she’s about to faint. Kaylee looks smug as she smiles up at the boys, sure she’ll get her necklace back. Colt winks at her, egging her on.
I start to roll my eyes at the spectacle. The Darlings love their audiences. But then I realize it’s all part of their control, part of their carefully constructed kingdom. The seniors listen, so the freshmen follow suit. They don’t have to quiet the room like the headmaster before an assembly. Everyone wants to hear what they have to say. It’s never boring, and at any moment, they might announce a winner, and that person’s life will change.
“One more thing,” Devlin says, his silky voice rippling over the crowd and soothing them into silence before his gaze settles on me. “The Darling Dog is retiring. There will be no new one chosen.”
They let that sink in for about ten seconds, just enough time for everyone to comment to their friend, and their friend to make a quick reply. Devlin’s eyes never leave mine.
I feel a tiny grin creep across my face, and the smallest smile tugs at the corner of his lips. He slides his hands into his pockets, looking so self-satisfied I can’t decide if I want to smack him or eat him. He’s such a colossal dick, but the fact that he knows it, that he enjoys wielding so much power, makes him strangely irresistible. He used his power, and he did it for me. And he’s damn sure going to make me show my appreciation later.
Damnit, now my thighs really are clenching.
Fucking Devlin.
“Do you think he’s really going to ask me?” Dixie squeals, pulling me from the trance Devlin’s got me in. “Maybe that’s why they got rid of the Dog. So they can make me a Doll.”
“They’re coming this way,” Dolly says, nudging me with her jeweled pink heel.
“I’m going to faint,” Dixie whispers, clutching the edges of her chair.
“Maybe they’re just getting back the collar,” I say, not wanting my friend to be disappointed. Hell, I don’t want to be disappointed. I know Devlin cares about Dolly, and since the Dolls are named for her and I told him I didn’t care about this stuff, I shouldn’t even want a necklace. But they made it so exciting that even I got caught up for a minute.
My heartbeat picks up with every step they take until it’s racing by the time they stop in front of us. For a second, I think—maybe. Maybe I could have Devlin, and Dixie could have Colt, and Dolly could have Preston. Maybe we’d be at the top, like Dixie wants, like the Darlings already are. Could it be this perfect, the three kings with their three queens, all of us best friends? Isn’t this every girl’s dream? How can I say no to that if they offer?
“I’m sure you came for this,” Dolly says, reaching inside her shirt. She pulls out a tiny, diamond ballerina charm. And even though I know what I do, and I said what I did, it still stings that he let her keep it when he took it from all the other girls.
“Dolly,” Devlin murmurs, a frown pulling between his brows. “You don’t have to give that back.”
“I know,” she says. “But I’ve been holding onto it for too long. Holding onto something that hasn’t belonged to me in years—maybe it never did. Something I thought I needed. But I don’t need it anymore.”
Everyone in the cafeteria is dead silent, leaning in, trying to hear, but Devlin and Dolly keep their voices low. She buckles the necklace and holds it up. It hangs suspended in the air between them, but he doesn’t reach for it.
“You love ballerinas,” he says.
“And you,” she says in her sweet, southern drawl, “Don’t love me.” It’s not a question, not bitter or sad, just a fact.
He looks like he’s going to speak, but she holds up a hand to stop him, her pointy iridescent nails glimmering in the overhead lights. “I thought you wereend game,Devlin Darling. But you weren’t. Not for me. You were more like… A preseason exhibition game. I got my whole season in front of me, my whole life. I got my own playoffs to win, my own championship ring waiting. And this isn’t it.”