Page 130 of Devils' Day Party
“You’re kidding me?” I splutter, folding my arms on the edge of the island again. “You don’t want to have sex with me?”
“Don’t I?” he laughs, slipping off the island and into the water next to me. Raz grabs me with one arm, using the other to hold onto the moss-covered concrete edge, keeping us afloat. “I’ve never wanted anything more.”
“But …?” I continue, wrapping my legs around his waist. He’s very obviously hard and ready for me. It wouldn’t take much for us to come together … but I appreciate the thought behind the sentiment.
“But, I respect you enough to wait.”
I shake my head as Raz releases me, turning and using a few backstrokes to move through the water before I come to a stop, treading in place.
“Okay, who the fuck are you, and what happened to the real Raz?” I ask, but it’s Sonja who answers.
“That isn’t Raz out there; it’s Theodore Rasmus,” she shouts, and Raz sneers, turning back to look at his bestie as she strips off her clothes, standing stark naked on the edge of the spring while Luke blushes furiously behind her.
“Stop using my real name, Sonja Marie Jane Marquette,” he snaps. “Or I swear to fuck, I will ruin the rest of Devils’ Day for you.”
Sonja jumps into the water, splashing Luke and giving her little choice but to strip down and join us. April walks along the old, rotten dock, making me nervous as hell. She sits at the end, taking off her shoes and socks and dipping her feet into the water.
“And how would you go about managing that?” Sonja asks, swimming circles around Raz.
“I’d tell them all about how you cried to me when you got your first period, and I had to rub your back for four hours and feed you chocolate-covered marshmallows. Oh wait, I just did tell them. My bad.”
“You fucking prick!” Sonja snarls, and then the two of them get into a water fight, splashing each other as Luke and I swim up to the end of the dock to be near April.
“How’s Thad?” Luke asks, glancing back at the two troublemakers we’ve somehow invited into our lives. It seems surreal. And it is. Because it isn’t going to last, is it? You don’t know that for sure. Pearl might … she could be okay, right?
“He’s good,” April says with a soft smile, looking down at her reflection in the water. She lifts her head up and I follow her gaze, across the water to where a pair of angel statues dance in a silent swordfight, forever doomed to be trapped in a violent altercation neither can ever win. Although, I suppose if you note their cracked and broken wings and moss-covered faces, it seems that mother nature is the true victor in this scenario. “He wants to be here when the baby is born. He told his parents we’d consider giving up our baby to them if they bought him a plane ticket to come over here.”
“Total lie though, right?” Luke asks, sounding a little nervous. She loves with her whole heart, Luke does. Now that she’s decided she’s going to be this baby’s aunt, nothing will stop her from lavishing affection and care on it.
“Total fucking lie,” April says, grinning. “Nobody’s getting their hands on my baby. If my parents want to cut me off, if his parents do … It doesn’t matter.”
“All you need is love,” Luke agrees, and Raz snorts from behind me, surprising me as he wraps his arms around my waist and pulls me close to him, kissing down the side of my neck and across my shoulder.
“That, and a trust fund,” he says, grinning. “Luckily for you, Sonja has one. Her great-grandmother Marguerite left her a shitload of cash when she died. Marry her and you’ll be set for life. Of course, I’m pretty sure she’s half black widow, so you might get your head bitten off after the wedding, so there’s always that risk to consider.”
“I’m going to drown you, and you’ll never get the chance to consummate things with your dream girl. Be careful: your dick is just sort of floating around down there.” Sonja gestures to the surface of the water and then clacks her long, black fingernails together. “I could very easily rip it off.”
“You two have an interesting relationship,” I tell them, glancing over at Luke and seeing her brows raised, her lips in a soft smile. “But carry on. Just … maybe don’t rip his dick off? I’d sort of like to keep it.”
“That all depends on his behavior,” Sonja gloats, smirking and pushing off the edge of the dock. She takes Luke’s hand and drags her away. They end up swimming across the length of the spring and disappearing behind the limbs of a bowed tree, its branches dipping low to kiss the water.
