Daisy's Back in Town by Rachel Gibson

for game tokens and left. He didn't see Daisy when he walked back out, but he wasn't looking for her either.
    He took a deep breath and kept right on moving. He didn't think he took a full breath again until he was home.
    Shut up in his house. Locked tight against the memory of Daisy and Steven and him. But the memories followed him inside, and he sat down hard on his mother's piano bench and put his hands on his knees.
    He'd hated Steven for about as many years as he'd loved him like a brother. But even in his earliest rage, he'd never wanted Steven dead. Not really. Maybe there had been a time in the beginning when the thought of Steven wiped off the planet had held a certain appeal, but he had never wanted him to die the way Daisy had described it. Not like that. Not even back when his anger had burned the hottest.
    When it came right down to it, he'd never wanted him to die at all. Because in the end, he understood Steven.
    He understood that he had betrayed Steven every bit as much as Steven had betrayed him.
    It'd been Steven who'd told him about Daisy being stood up for that damn high school prom their senior year. It had been both their ideas that Jack take her since Steven already had a date. It had seemed so simple at the time.
    Take Daisy so she wouldn't spend the night crying her eyes out. No big deal, but that night had changed all their lives.
    Jack didn't really remember the actual dance, other than trying to touch as little of Daisy as possible. What he did remember, though, was standing on her front porch looking down at her, wanting her so much he ached, and telling himself to leave. To get into his car and drive away.
    Then she kissed him.
    Compared to kisses he'd experienced with other girls, it was nothing really. Just her closed lips pressed to his, but it had hit him square in the chest. He'd been stunned and angry and he'd pushed her away. Then she'd touched the side of his neck and looked up at him as if she wanted him every bit as much as he wanted her. As much as he'd always wanted her.
    "Please, Jack," she'd whispered, and even as he'd lowered his mouth for more, he'd told himself it was a mistake. Even as he'd stood there, kissing her and tasting her mouth, he'd told himself to stop. Even as he'd kept his grasp on her shoulders, he'd pulled her into his chest and felt the weight of her breasts against hint Even as he told himself that it could not happen again, he'd known that it would. He'd wanted her for years, and one little bite had not been enough.
    Not nearly.
    He'd told himself to stay away, but even if he'd been able to control his eighteen-year-old lust, Daisy wouldn't let him. At Jimmy Calhoun's party the next night, she'd pulled him into a dark closet and put his hand on her breast.
    "Touch me, Jack," she'd whispered into his mouth, and he'd about gone off in his boxer shorts.
    A few days later he'd told Steven he couldn't hang out because he was grounded. Then he'd jumped in his Camaro, picked Daisy up at her house, and they'd driven out to a deserted road. He'd parked and told her about Steven, about the two of them being attracted to her, and he explained why he and Daisy had to stop.
    She said she understood. She agreed, then she'd kissed his ear and told him that Steven didn't have to find out.
    "I love Steven. He's my friend," she'd said. "But I don't think of him the same way I think of you. I'm in love with you, Jack. I want more from you. I want you to show me how to make love."

    That night he'd taken off her shirt and unhooked her bra. White with tiny blue dots on it Her breasts were the most beautiful things he'd ever seen. Firm and white, her tight pink nipples fit perfectly into his mouth.
    He hadn't made love to her that night No, he'd tried to do the noble thing. He'd told her he didn't mess with virgins. He'd told himself it was okay as long as he didn't stick his hand in her panties and touch her there. He'd told himself to go slow with her, but that resolve quickly