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  Those violet eyes looked up at me with a mixture of fear and trust, and I kissed her forehead. She pressed her face into my chest. The lifeguard gave us a quick safety lecture and then closed the tube door. The water was somewhat chilly against my back, but it did nothing to cool down my body when Violet was pressed so snugly against me.

  A computerized voice started counting down from ten, and Violet made a squeaking noise. I could feel how hard her heart was pounding.

  “Vi,” I whispered her name, and after a half-second hesitation, she lifted her head. Her eyes locked with mine, and I grinned. “I love you, Vi.”

  “I-I love you too.”

  The bottom fell out from under our feet, and we were suddenly falling. She screamed so loud on the fall down that my ears started ringing, and by the time we splashed into the water, her voice was gone. Meanwhile, I was laughing so hard, I couldn’t even breathe. I was still belly-laughing hard as we swam out of the pool we’d slid into.

  “How am I going to cheer you on tonight?” she asked in a painfully hoarse voice as we drove back toward Malibu.

  “Baby, knowing you’re up there in those stands is all I need.” Stopping at a red light, I leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Thank you for today, Vi. It was exactly what I needed.”

  Chapter 4

  Violet

  At my high school, football wasn’t the be-all-end-all sport that ruled the hierarchy. Basketball was another story, however.

  At Luca’s school, I wasn’t sure they had ever done it over football either. Not until he got to high school. He’d been playing since he was old enough to be a Tiny-Mite. Even back then, he’d shown talent on the field, and when he was a freshman, the coach basically kissed his ass to make sure he played. The offense trembled every time they knew they would be facing Luca, and I’d seen more than one quarterback piss themselves whenever they would see him running straight at them.

  By the time we got back to Malibu and Luca left me to get ready for the game, he was considerably more relaxed than he had been when he’d called me that morning. But I could tell he was getting into game mode and simply smacked a kiss on his cheek before letting him go to the locker room.

  The stands were filling up, and I saw a few of my uncles already sitting in the bleachers. Seeing Shaw sitting with her parents, I called out to them as I climbed the stairs. My best friend stood when I had almost reached them and hugged me.

  As she did, she pressed her lips to my ear. “Cannon almost narked on me. Now, Mom is giving me the side-eye. I’m so going to kill him when we get home.”

  I leaned back to see her face. “How did it go with Jags?”

  She huffed. “Guys are stupid, Vi. I’m beginning to think there isn’t a single one of them worth my time.”

  “Damn straight!” Axton Cage said as he walked up behind her on his way past us. “Not a single motherfucker out there worth shit for my baby girl.”

  Shaw and I grinned at each other. Uncle Ax was pretty laid back, not nearly the worst of the overprotective fathers in our family, but he still became unhinged anytime Shaw started talking about boys.

  “I’ll bring you two back drinks,” he called as he kept walking.

  “Thanks, Daddy.” Shaw took my hand and tugged me over to sit beside her mom.

  Aunt Dallas took one look at the dirty jersey I was wearing and rolled her eyes. “That boy might as well piss on you.”

  I laughed, thankful my voice had finally come back. I would have been busted big-time if it hadn’t. Dad would want to know why I wasn’t able to talk louder than a whisper, and then he would ground me from seeing Luca for a month. “You mean he hasn’t?”

  She snorted, shaking her blond head. “It’s disturbing how much you enjoy his possessiveness, Vi.”

  “Luca Thornton loves me so much, he can’t cope unless I’m marked by him. What should I hate about that?” I asked with a raised brow. “And don’t lie to me by saying you don’t like Uncle Axton going all caveman on you. I’ve seen you do stuff just to bring that side of him out in full force.”

  “Touché,” she grumbled and I grinned at her.

  “Vi!”

  I turned my head at the sound of my name. At the bottom of the steps, Lyric was standing with my brother, both my parents, and his own. I waved and then caught Mom’s eye. Even with the distance we were from each other, I saw her wink at me, and my grin grew. My dad spoiled me rotten, but it was nothing compared to how much Mom did.

  Luca and Shaw were both my best friends, but so was Mom. She was also my mentor, my safe place when it seemed like the world was in complete chaos. I knew that when she said everything would be okay, it was true because she would move heaven and earth to make it so for me and my brother.

  Dressed in skinny jeans and a shirt with the Malibu Academy logo on it, her hair pulled up into a ponytail, and very little makeup, Harper Stevenson looked more like a college student and not the kick-ass magazine editor she was.

  The group walked up the steps toward us, and as they did, more of my family arrived. I stood, accepting hugs and kisses on the cheek from my aunts and uncles as they quickly filled the stands, leaving very little room for anyone else to sit. Uncle Drake and Aunt Lana took a seat in front of me, and I bent to kiss my uncle’s cheek.

  “I’m so glad you two came tonight,” I told him.

  “Wouldn’t miss this,” he said with a grim smile. “I love watching that boy tear up the field and make everyone piss themselves.”

  Aunt Layla distracted me with a hug, and when she pulled back, she grasped my hands. “How has he been today?” she asked in a quiet voice. “He texted me this morning that the Alabama recruiter was going to be here tonight, but I haven’t heard anything else from him all day.”

  “Don’t worry. He was a little out of sorts, but he’s good to go now.” We shared a smile, and we sat down beside Mom, who had moved to sit next to Aunt Dallas. I knew Luca’s mom was nervous for him, so I stayed beside her, and we held hands until the teams took the field. The two women who loved him most, holding on to each other.

  The moment Luca ran out of the tunnel that led from the locker rooms, the crowd went wild. He grinned up at the stands, and like I was a magnet his eyes were drawn to, he found me in the middle of hundreds of others. He fisted his right hand and pressed it over his heart, telling me he loved me without words.

  I did the same, returning the silent declaration.

  Our interaction lasted barely a moment, but that was all either of us needed. It was part of his ritual before being able to start the game, and I wasn’t sure how we were going to continue it once he was at college, but I knew we would figure something out.

  The game started, and right before halftime, we were up 14-0. The coach on the other team kept storming up and down the field whenever his offense was out there, tugging at his hair every time one of the plays he called didn’t get his team more than five or six yards.

  When Luca wasn’t on the field, I looked around at everyone else. Dad and Uncle Jesse were down by the fence with my other uncles, watching quietly, but they kept glancing at the stands every few minutes, and I followed their gazes a few times. There were several guys with clipboards in their hands as they watched the game, and I realized they must have been the scouts. None of them wore anything that could tell me which schools they were from, but there was one in particular whom Uncle Jesse seemed to be paying more attention to, so I figured he was from Alabama.

  “I just saw the Bama scout smirking,” Aunt Emmie murmured from behind Aunt Layla. “Luca is killing it tonight, Lay.”

  Halftime was called, and the teams started back into the locker rooms. I stood up as Luca turned to look for me and blew him a kiss. He pulled off his helmet and winked at me before following his teammates.

  “Violet,” Mom’s voice hissed at my ear when I sat back down. “If looks could kill, you would be on life support right now.”

  I turned my head, curious wha
t she was talking about. When I saw one of the cheerleaders giving me a death glare, I frowned. Beside me, Aunt Layla groaned. “That girl is trouble,” she muttered.

  I turned away from my hater. “Who is she?”

  “Megan Hawthorn,” she said with a grim twist of her lips. “She has been borderline obsessed with Luca from the moment she transferred here at the end of last semester.”

  “What?” I turned my gaze back to the other girl. She was taller than me by several inches, curvier too. Her blond hair was a few shades darker than mine and pulled into a chic ponytail. She obviously had some mad blending skills, or she had a professional makeup artist doing it for her. Neither would have surprised me. It wasn’t exactly cheap to go to Malibu Academy. There wasn’t a single student not from a famous family. Megan was beautiful, I wouldn’t deny that, but her eyes were cold, and I started to feel something I’d never felt before.

  Jealousy.

  Luca had never given me a reason to be jealous. Not once. And I was so confident in his love for me that I hadn’t really cared when other girls tried to catch his attention. It tended to be more amusing than anything else, and I knew I had more than a few enemies in the world because Luca was mine.

  But right then, I felt sick with it.

  Why hadn’t he told me about her?

  And why the hell hadn’t I noticed her at any other game?

  Then again, I might not have noticed her tonight if Mom hadn’t pointed out Megan’s obvious dislike of me.

  “I’m hungry,” Shaw announced and grabbed my hand as she stood. “Let’s go get some concessions.”

  I was so lost in my head, all I could do was nod as I followed her.

  At the bottom of the stairs, Lyric was standing talking to a few girls, but when he saw my face, he grabbed me around the waist and hoisted me over his shoulder, ignoring the girls when they whined as he left them behind. “Where are we going?” he asked Shaw as he fell into step beside her.

  “Anywhere that we don’t have to see that Megan Hawthorn girl for a few minutes,” my bestie told him.

  “Ah fuck. What did she do now?” He slapped me on the ass, forcing a startled laugh from me.

  “If Luca saw you right now, you would be so dead,” I told him as he set me on my feet.

  He shrugged. “You’re laughing and you no longer have that lost look in your eyes, so I figure he’d get over it.” He wrapped his arms around me, hugging me against him hard. I sighed dramatically but hugged him back.

  This guy looked just like his brother—minus about thirty pounds of muscle—but they were still identical in every other way. Yet I didn’t feel a single spark of attraction for him, whereas with Luca, all he had to do was smirk at me and I wanted to climb him like a tree.

  But I adored Lyric. He was like another brother to me, and I knew he loved me like a sister. He was a great guy—at least he was whenever he wasn’t conspiring to cause trouble with his twin.

  Shaw linked her arm through mine, and Lyric stepped up on my other side as we turned for the concession stand. “Tell me about this Megan bitch.”

  Lyric shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. She tries to get close to Luca, but you know how he is. He only talks to the girls in our family, and his eyes only see you. But it seems Megan doesn’t understand the word ‘no.’ She follows him around school like a pathetic stalker, and she even tried out for the cheer squad in an attempt to get closer.” He got in line with us and then turned to face me. “You have nothing to worry about, Vi. Luca would never touch her. My brother is loyal and loves you.”

  “I know that,” I told him truthfully. “But why hasn’t he told me about her?”

  “Probably because he never thinks about her. She annoys him, but out of sight, out of mind. The only person who is important enough to Luca to be constantly in his head is you.”

  Lyric’s answer made me smile. Most of the jealousy that was making my chest feel like someone was sitting on it eased. What he said did sound like Luca, but I couldn’t help the small bit of jealousy that lingered.

  Chapter 5

  Luca

  Sweat was pouring down my face and back by the end of the game. I was starving, sore, and ready for bed. But more than anything, I wanted to spend the rest of the night with Violet.

  That wasn’t likely to happen, but hopefully I could talk her dad into letting me drive her home.

  I rushed through a shower, ignoring the other players as they talked about a party the quarterback, Franklin, was having in the guesthouse his parents let him live in on their property.

  “Yo, Luca,” Franklin said as he came up behind me and slapped me on the back. “You coming tonight? I know Megan would be really happy if you did.”

  “Who?” I shrugged his hand off my back and pulled on a clean T-shirt. That name didn’t even sound familiar to me, and I didn’t care enough to try to figure out who he was talking about.

  “Megan Hawthorn?” He rolled his eyes when I just looked at him with a blank stare. “Dude, that chick has been trying to get on your dick for, like, forever. You should come tonight and get some of that. Then maybe some of the rest of us will have a shot at her.”

  “No thanks,” I told him as I grabbed my gym bag. “I’ve got something a million times better waiting on me.” I pushed past him, then called a goodnight to my fellow defense players as I left.

  There were at least a hundred people standing around outside the field house locker room. Most of them called my name as I walked through the crowd, looking for my family and Violet. I spotted my dad’s bald head. He threw up his hand, waving me over, and I started toward him just when someone jumped on me.

  I dropped my gym bag at the sight of blond hair flying and caught whoever it was in an effort to keep her from taking me to the ground. I didn’t even realize my hands had grabbed her ass until her lips connected with mine.

  Everything around me seemed to go deathly silent, and I tried to pull my head back. But the girl grabbed my head and thrust her tongue into my mouth. She tasted like Diet Coke and mint gum, and she sure as hell knew how to kiss—and without even thinking, I let her.

  “Vi!” I heard my brother call out, and that was enough to kick my ass into gear.

  I dropped my hold on the girl and pushed her back. “Back the fuck up,” I snarled at her when she pouted up at me, and I glanced around for Lyric.

  My twin stood there with his mouth gaping open at me, his eyes wide and his hands balled into fists at his side. “The fuck was that?” he demanded.

  “Where is she?” I yelled and picked up my gym bag.

  “She ran that way,” he said, nodding his head to his left. “Better go fix this, man.”

  “Luca,” an annoying voice whined from beside me, and I looked down to see the girl still there. When I realized who she was—the annoying chick who followed me around like some pathetic lost puppy, whose name I couldn’t remember—I muttered a curse. “What do you even see in that kid anyway?”

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  Hurt filled her eyes. “You don’t remember my name?”

  “Why would I?” Everyone around us was still quiet, and their eyes were riveted to the scene we were causing.

  “I’m Megan,” she whispered.

  “Well, Megan, don’t ever do that shit again. I’ve got all I need and more.” I tossed the strap of my gym bag over my shoulder. “Stay the fuck away from me.”

  “But—”

  “Back off,” I roared when she tried to touch me, and she flinched. I walked away but not before I saw not just my dad but Uncle Shane standing there watching me with narrowed eyes.

  Fuck.

  “She jumped me,” I tried to explain as I got closer.

  “Yeah, we saw that,” Uncle Shane said, his eyes glued to my face. “But Violet only saw the end result. Wipe that girl’s lipstick off your face, and go after her.”

  I scrubbed my hand over my mouth. “Did I get it all?” H
e nodded, and I took off at a run.

  There was no sign of her right outside, so I headed for the parking lot. I caught sight of her just as she was getting into the back of Cannon’s car. Muttering a curse, I ran faster and reached the front of the car just as it was being put into gear.

  Opening the back door, I got snarls from both the Cage siblings. “What the fuck, Luca?” Shaw snapped at me. “What the hell did you do to her? She came out begging us to take her home, crying so hard I could barely understand her.”

  I didn’t have time to explain to her, and even if I did, I wouldn’t have. She didn’t matter. Only Violet. Only ever Vi.

  Reaching in, I lifted my girl into my arms. I didn’t have time to see her face as I tossed her over my shoulder and made a run for it to my SUV before anyone tried to stop me. But I heard her sobs, and my knees went weak at the sound. Her fists pounded on my back as I carried her, the only thing keeping me upright was the thought that I couldn’t drop her.

  “Put me down!” she raged. “Luca, you asshole. Put. Me. Down!” She started kicking her legs, and I tightened my arms around the back of her knees to lock her in place.

  My keys were in my gym bag, but I didn’t need to get them out as I unlocked the door with my thumb and placed her in the front passenger seat. Once she was in place, I secured her with the seat belt, and only then did I look at her face.

  I hated the sight of those beautiful purple eyes filled with tears. They gutted me. She should only ever smile, and I couldn’t stand that I was the cause of her pain. I cupped her face in both of my hands, wiping away her tears with my thumbs as I swallowed the lump in my throat. “She jumped me,” I explained. “She came out of nowhere and took me by surprise.”

  “You outweigh her by at least a hundred and fifty pounds, Luca,” she snipped. “Are you honestly going to tell me you couldn’t manage a girl that size who supposedly attacked you with her lips?”