Hello everybody! Before I start, I just wanted to say a big thanks to Paddawhump for fixing all of the errors in my story. I'm sure there were many, but she doesn't complain, just goes into it with a machete and hacks all the bad stuff out. Also, thanks to everyone that told me exactly what they thought of Lacey's little Beastie! It was so fun to hear what everyone thought. Enjoy!

--

The sun beat down on me, and I could see the heat waves shimmering over the parched ground. I heard Beast's hurried footsteps behind me, and soon he was walking next to me. For the moment, there was a breeze, and I was upwind. For this I was grateful. We walked in silence while he took a sip of water, then he broke our silence, "How'd you get here?"

"I took a school bus."

He laughed, "No, what'd you do to get sent here?"

I didn't particularly want to let him in, but he was irresistible. His eyes bore into my face, willing me to look at him, but I didn't. Instead I answered the question, "A man jumped me, so I beat him up, put him in the ICU, and the jury sent me here."

He whistled, "What'd you do to him?"

Calmly, I listed off the injuries. Each one brought back the memories, of the court, of the street, neither one mattered: they both came to me. "Five broken ribs, a broken tailbone, cracked skull, bruised throat, cracked larynx, broken nose, bruised groin, punctured eyeball, and collapsed sinuses."

His voice was reverent, "Whoa."

I could tell he was imagining how I could have possibly caused all of those injuries, and he spoke again, "What'd you think he was gonna do?"

"I thought he would rape me."

My voice wavered on the words, and I was disgusted by the weakness in my voice. He was quiet, and I wondered if he could tell. Of course, I wasn't about to ask him, that would give it away completely.

"Do you wanna know how I got here?"

I did, I really did. But again, I was supposed to be aloof, cold, and impenetrable. "No."

He chuckled, and I ached at the sound. He was gorgeous in every way. I was avoiding his eyes already, and his body. I was so attracted to him, it was unbelievable. The breeze changed suddenly, and his scent filled my nostrils. Arousal exploded in me, and I clenched my hand tighter over my shovel, watching the knuckles pale. The scars on my knuckles lit up when I did this, showing white. He noticed.

"What did you do to your hands?"

"Nothing. I fight a lot."

It was silent for a minute, I think, but it seemed like so much longer. Finally he broke the silence, "I'm here for a lot of stuff. Grand theft auto, shoplifting, underage drinking, assault, and statutory rape."

My chest tightened with fear, and I felt my breaths start to come faster and shorter. Fighting to keep my voice casual, I put in a sentence, "Oh yeah?"

My voice was shaking, and he stopped to meet my eyes. I stopped too, looked into his eyes, truly afraid. We held the stare for what seemed an eternity, and then he kept walking, eyes soft. "Yeah. I had sex with a sixteen year old. I'm eighteen."

The cold knot of dread loosened, and I found my voice. A kernel of anger was building, why would he take advantage of a sixteen year old? I walked a little faster, my eyes on the ground, "Was she a girlfriend?"

He shook his head, a humorless smile on his face, "No. I was slammed with tequila, I can't even remember it. I remember meeting her and her saying she was nineteen. After that it's a blur until I woke up in bed with her, and her parents started screaming at me. That was the final straw."

We were silent for a good five minutes while I processed the information and the emotions I felt. She had taken advantage of him. Oddly, I was relieved, and pleased a little. I could only think of one thing to say, "That sucks."

"I know. That's one that goes on my record for life."

I cringed, and then thought of something. Quietly, I wondered aloud, though the first half of the thought was still in my head. Could he be trying to get me into bed? "Is he lying to me?"

He stopped dead in his tracks, and grabbed my shoulders roughly. He turned me to face him and I looked up into his onyx eyes, "I would never lie to you, Butterfly."

I swatted his hands away, and we walked the rest of the way to camp in silence. It was kind of pleasant to walk with someone, and I was glad we could walk without fighting. Or maybe not. Before I slipped into my tent, he smacked my backside, and winked. I turned around, speechless with fury, but he was too far away by the time I could move again. Angrily, I stormed up the stairs to the tent, and found Zero lying on his bed.

"Beast?"

I nodded, not trusting my mouth with words right now.

"Was he bugging you?"

I burst out, nearly shouting, "Yes! That jerk thinks he can just go for a casual grope without consequences! What a pain in the neck!"

Zero cracked a smile, "What's the catch?"

I collapsed on my cot, "I am so attracted to him. It's not fair!"

Zero laughed, "Let's go shower."

I grabbed my shower gear, and my extra set of clothes, and followed him out to the showers. Like the gentleman he was, he let me go first, and I stood bare under the icy water. Never did icy water feel any better than it did at the end of a long day of digging. Diligently, I scrubbed every inch of my skin, working to get all of the dust out. When I finished, I pulled on my relaxation clothes, and stepped out of the showers to let Zero have his turn. I leaned against a pole, just looking into space, when a movement caught my attention. Tent A's flap opened, and Beast came out. For a second, I was blinded by the sun, but my eyes adjusted, and boy was I glad they had. Beast had a perfect body, absolutely lovely. His abs were tight, and formed a perfect 8 pack. His pectorals were sleek and defined, and I caught myself admiring his arms. He sauntered over, the muscles stretching and moving under his tan skin, and I think I drooled a little. Finally, I had some hard core eye candy. He stopped in front of me, face smug, "Enjoying the view?"

I shrugged, aiming for a nonchalant tone, "I've seen better." In all truth I hadn't, and he laughed. It was hard to stay focused with a body of this caliber staring me in the face. Interrupting my moment of floundering, Zero walked out of the showers, rubbing his fluffy hair with a towel. He raised an eyebrow at me and I blushed. I looked up again at Beast, and was instantly trapped in his eyes. Easily, with a smirk, he broke the hold he had over me, and sauntered into the showers, waving a lazy hand. To my delight, his back was just as defined as his front, and I could see all of his back muscles outlined under his tan skin. Zero chuckled, "Ready to go?"

"Please."

--

The whole night, nothing interesting happened until we got to the wreck room. There was a basketball court at Camp Green Lake. I never payed much attention to it. Although I was pretty good at basketball, and absolutely loved to play, I didn't want to play with these boys. There would be no joy of competition in it. If they won, they'd gloat, and say it wasn't my fault, after all, I was just a girl. And if I beat them, well, there would be much hatred. Today was different though. As we came to the court, I saw Beast facing off against Thlump, and my interest spiked. Intrigued, I leaned against the building, and settled in to watch. Most of my tent stayed with me, also interested in seeing what the newcomer could do. Someone tossed it up, and immediately Thlump had the ball. He started advancing at a pretty good pace, but quick as a flash; Beast darted in and stole the ball, charging at full speed to the opposite side of the court. At the basket, he jumped and slam dunked it, hanging off the rim for a second before he dropped. I was impressed, he was fast and strong. The game was long and fierce, but they played first to twenty, win by two, and Beast got it. He won by five. By the time they finished the game, the sun was starting to set, and his skin had a sheen of sweat. The light highlighted every contour of his chest, I was distracted. My tent soon started up a game of knockout and called me over to play.

I was up for it, the intense game left me aching to play, but this was the closest it would come. The boys were pretty good, but I was just as good. The last three were me, Magnet, and Squid. It was fierce; we each made every shot, until Squid missed one. Magnet tossed the ball to me, and I took careful aim, and shot, knocking Squid out. In quick succession, I made another, and I'd won. There was much patting on the back. Beast looked on with interest, but didn't say anything. In fact, he didn't speak to me for the rest of the night, and it seemed like things were back to normal at Camp Green Lake.

--

I woke with a struggle. A hand was over my mouth, and adrenaline shot through my bloodstream. My fists lashed out, and hit someone in their general torso area. One hand caught my wrists, and I struggled until a quiet voice interrupted me, "Jeez Ladybug. You've been awake for two seconds and you're already trying to beat me?"

Then I took a breath, and realized that it was Beast who had his hand over my mouth. He motioned for me to be quiet, and led me out of the tent. I waited until we were out of hearing range of my tent, and then hissed angrily, "Why the hell did you wake me up?"

He chuckled quietly, and the butterflies (no pun intended) fluttered in my stomach.

"I wanted to play you in a game of Pig."

I was flabbergasted, but my anger quickly replaced that. My voice rose two octaves, "You woke me up in the middle of the night, ruined a potential eight hours of sleep, to play a game of Pig?"

"Yes."

I shook my head wordlessly, but followed him to the court. There was one light on, and it filled the court with light. Easily, he bent for the orange ball, and dribbled it absently with his left hand. I catalogued that fact for reference. He turned to face me, and the heat in his eyes was intense, "Let's make this interesting."

"I'm listening."

"If you win, I'll stop randomly groping you."

I thought about the offer, pleased at the thought that I'd get reprieve. Of course, there was always a catch, "And if you win?"

He smirked, "I get to kiss you, without you smacking me."

I weighed the options. If I won, I could stop watching my back around him. I wouldn't have to worry about what I would do the next time he smacked my backside. On the other hand, if I lose, he'd kiss me. Though I wasn't entirely sure I didn't want to kiss him. In fact, I was pretty sure I did. His smile was sly now, and I wondered if he knew that both options seemed like winning to me. Still thinking, I lashed out and hit him hard in the side of the head. He reeled a little, "What was that for?"

"Earlier. You're on."

The game took a long time, and we each pulled out all the stops. I shot from tricky angles right underneath the basket when I had a choice, and he got two letters. He shot from far away, past the three point line. And he shot them with one hand, his left hand. I was a hopeless shooter with my left hand, and after he realized this, I was done for. He won. I sighed, and faced him, "Alright, let's get this over with."

He smiled, sly again, "Nope, I'm not going to kiss you right now. I'm going to save it, and wait until the moment is right. I'm going to surprise you. And if I kiss you and you hit me, I get to kiss you again, and I get to try until you don't hit me anymore."

He stepped close to me, and his scent washed over me. His eyes bored into mine, and I felt myself sway towards him like he had his own gravity. His smell was making my head spin and I could barely think straight. Slowly, he leaned in towards me, his mouth over mine, and my eyes fluttered shut. His finger touched my lips, and I opened my eyes to see a satisfied smirk on his face.

"Nope, I won't kiss you tonight, I'll wait."

Then he left me standing underneath the lights, staring after him. My body was crying out for him, and I ached to feel his arms around me, his lips on mine. I sighed and started the trek back to my tent, wondering how I felt like I'd lost, when both options were a win. I resolved not to make deals with him any more.

--

Alright! How was it? You should really let me know. Wanna know why? Because then I'll write more, and I'll get to you quicker! Wouldn't that be fun? I know, so review! Also, thanks to all of my extremely faithful reviewers, I love you all!

Em.