Page 127 of Devils' Day Party
“They’ve got some chemistry, don’t they?” I ask, watching them as my head is muddled with drink and joints. Technically, the rule is to smoke first, drink later, because alcohol amplifies the effect of weed, but that’s okay. We’re here to have a good time today, right?
“I’m surprised you’re not pissed about Luke lying to you,” Raz says, smoking a cigarette. He’s leaning back on his elbows, that chiseled midsection of his catching my attention. It’s impossible to ignore the fact that he’s unbuttoned his slacks, letting them hang far too low on his hips. “I would be, if Sonja had lied to me.”
“How long have you known about them?” I ask, scooting a bit closer. We’ve kicked off our shoes and socks, tossed our blazers and ties. It feels nice, to sit and relax for a while. Dragonflies buzz across the surface of the water and music plays from Luke’s car stereo, just barely drowning out the chatter of the birds in the trees.
“Since last year,” Raz says, turning onto his side so he can look at me. “Sonja sucks ass at keeping secrets. She kept telling us she was going to use Luke, string her along a bit, and then dump her. Actually …” Raz starts and then pauses, shaking his head. “Never mind.”
“Oh, come on,” I say, reaching out and grabbing his red leather devil’s mask from the grass. I slip it over his head, using the opportunity to play with his hair again. But as soon as I take my hands away, he pulls it off, like he just can’t bear wearing it. Not today. I appreciate that more than he’ll ever know. “Just tell me. We’re past lies and bullshit now, right?”
“Yeah, but when you hear this, we might just fall right back into it,” he says, glancing over at the water. But I know what he’s going to say: Sonja was going to let the boys use her relationship with Luke to fuck with us both. Little do they know it never works. Never. I went through that scenario several times, and we handled it well every single day. “If I promise to tell you later, can we forget about it for now? The point is, Sonja is full of crap. She likes your weird friend, and I can’t even judge her. I like you, and you’re just as weird. Maybe weirder.”
“Me, weirder?” I ask with a laugh. “Luke paints tiny orc figures and sets up mock battles with them.”
“Well, shit, why did you tell me that? It’s gonna be impossible not to make fun of her now.” Raz takes a drag on his cigarette and then stabs it out into the dirt.
“You can’t make fun of her, period,” I tell him, reaching down for the buttons on my shirt. Raz watches hungrily as I undo them, nice and slow, lifting my eyes up to meet his gaze. “We once climbed into a tiger cage at the wildcat refuge.”
“You’re shitting me,” he replies with a sharp-edged grin. “You and the uptight, morality officer over there committed a B&E to pet a goddamn tiger?”
“That’s exactly what we did,” I reply, pushing my shirt over my shoulders. “So, are we going to swim or what?” I stand up and push my skirt down my hips, turning and walking backward toward the water. Raz shoves up to his feet with a grin, raising his brows in surprise as I chuck my bra and step out of my panties.
“Oh, come on,” Luke groans. “Nobody wants to see that.”
“Speak for yourself,” Raz growls, and I turn with a shriek when he comes for me, leaping into the water before he can catch up. I’ve just barely broken the surface to grab a gulp of air when a splash sounds next to me, my body bobbing with the waves as I look around for Raz. When he doesn’t come up right away, panic overtakes me, and I start searching for him, certain that the universe is going to pull one over on me yet again.
Hands grab me and I let out a shriek as Raz yanks me under the water and presses a kiss to my lips before letting me go. When we both come up, he’s laughing, the sound echoing around the ancient statues and their moss-covered grins. Raz swims over to a small island and uses the cracked cement wing of a demon to pull himself out of the water.
“Who do you think put all these statues here?” I ask, swimming over next to him and folding my arms on the mossy concrete edge of the little island.
“Who the fuck knows or cares?” Raz asks, not giving two shits that his dick is on full display for everyone else to see. My eyes catch on it, and I have a really hard time pretending that I’ve never seen it before. “See something you like, Karma Sartain?”
