I can’t help but laugh. “If that’s what you want, it’s yours, Sunshine. Anything to see your smile.”
She does smile, and a swell of triumph warms my insides. There’s nothing that says I can’t make her happy or that she won’t make me happy. We’ll come to an understanding about what she did, and after she pays for her crime, we’ll have a life together. I cared about her before Maddox did, after all. I care about her more. It’s almost as if this were meant to happen, like it proves how perfect she is for me.
She had to get Maddox out of her system, see him for who he truly is. And she had to betray me so that she can earn my forgiveness by satisfying the hunger inside me that she refuses to acknowledge otherwise. If it weren’t for this, I might have thought I could never be with her fully because she can’t fulfill that need. But her punishment, her payment, is to fulfill me in a way she never would otherwise. Knowing she doesn’t get off on it like I do, but she’ll do it for me, makes it that much sweeter.
We’re made for each other, and soon enough, she’ll see it too.
And the longer I’m with her, the more Maddox will realize what he lost. I’ll know that I finally won one, using my wits and charm. That will never stop making me happy.
Ten minutes later, I’m climbing back into the car outside the doughnut shop.
“Oh my god,” she says, laughing. “I said just one glazed doughnut. What did you do?”
I flip open the lid on the box of a dozen doughnuts and present them to her. “Anything for my sunshine.”
“You’re crazy,” she says, shaking her head. But she’s grinning as she selects one with yellow frosting and sprinkles.
“I knew you wanted something fancier than glazed,” I say. “You don’t have to settle for the minimum anymore, Rae. You’re with me. I want to give you everything.”
She nods, looking a little embarrassed, and bites into the doughnut.
I bite into mine and lace my fingers through hers on my free hand. “Good choice. There’s no good ice cream places in town anyway. Now, tell me what happened.”
“It’s stupid,” she says. “I don’t know why I was even upset. It’s nothing, really. Just Maddox being Maddox.”
“Did he say where he’s been?” I ask, though I’m pretty sure I know. There’s more to life than a girl, after all. She’s been distracting me, but Maddox never lets his passions carry him away.
She shakes her head. “No. But he was with Scarlet, and he has that car.”
“Scarlet’s following the money,” I say, staring out the windshield as I chew.
“Isn’t she rich?” Rae asks, licking her fingers with that pretty pink tongue.
“Nah,” I say, shaking my head. “Compared to us, maybe. She’s a subdivision bitch, not gated community rich. The kind of chick that got her parents’ Honda when she turned sixteen, not a new Porsche.”
“That’s rich to me,” Rae says.
“One day, we’re going to be so rich that will look poor to us. I’ve got big plans for us, Sunshine.”
“Is that right?” she asks lightly, the corner of her pouty lips tilting up.
I did that. Not Maddox. He made her bleed. I make her smile.
“That’s right, Sunshine.”
Maybe he drew first blood, fucked her first, took her virginity. But I’ll fuck her last. She’ll do more than bleed for me. She’ll break for me. Watching her crumble will be like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel. Agonizingly slow, but worth it a thousand times over in the end.
First, I have to remove her from his reach, so he can’t take this from me the way he takes everything.
“So, he didn’t get the car from her?” she asks. “She’s been after him all year. I figured she finally lured him in by giving him a fancy car.”
“She’s a whore,” I say, dropping my doughnut back into the box in disgust at the thought of girls like her. “She wants to be somebody, but she has nothing of her own to get there, so she attaches herself to people who do. Her dad was a coach, so she tried to make herself popular through that, but it wasn’t quite enough, so she started spreading her legs for the football team. That’s all she has to offer.”
Rae winces. “Not your favorite person?”
“She’s a slut and a leach,” I say, my tone scathing.
There was a time when she pursed her pretty pink lips in my direction, batted her pretty blue eyes at me, giggled at my jokes. That month, I felt like a king.