Page 15 of Bite Me

At this point, I wasn’t sure which of us was supposed to be the predator here. I also wasn’t sure it mattered. “You thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Depends,” Chet mused, shifting into my touch. His back arched as I chased the dip of his spine, fingertips testing how far down I could go before his breath hitched or he swatted me away. “You still planning on letting me have your ass if I can find you?”

“Big if, Pynch.” I scoffed, even though the way he’d said it all low and ominous turned me on.

“I do love a challenge.” He squeezed my hip hard enough to bruise and, in retaliation, I caressed just above his sacrum. “Especially when the prize is you bent over in some dark corner.”

Before I could fire back with something equally dirty, Kyle, our current president, charged toward us looking frazzled, a wolf mask shoved high on his forehead and what looked like a smear of glow paint on his cheek. “Mark. Thank fuck. Brad’s puking, so I need you on maze duty now.”

Fuck me. “How ‘now’ do you mean?” I was barely a beer in and was hoping to actually enjoy the party for a while before having to sequester myself in a dark alcove and thrust a skeleton-on-wheels between the plastic sheeting as drunk partygoers passed by.

“Like, now. Sorry, man,” Kyle said, already scanning the room for the next disaster to mitigate. “Marty’s at the entrance. He’ll get you squared away.” Kyle was off before I could protest further. I guess that was that.

I groaned, and Chet nudged my shoulder. “Sounds like you get a head start. Go terrorize some freshmen. Then maybe you can terrorize me. We’ll see.” He plucked my beer out of my hand and drained it in two gulps like an asshole before flashing me an unrepentant grin. “Don’t get lost down there.”

“I built half that maze,” I grumbled. But it was true. We’d been working on it for weeks, and I could attest that it was legit. Chet was more likely to get lost, but after the stunt he pulled with my beer, I decided he didn’t need to know that. He could figure it out himself.“Don’t make me wait too long. I get bored easily.” I smacked his ass hard and danced out of reach.

Chet’s grin was all dark omen as he called out, “Oh, I’m counting on it.”

6

CHET

Idowned the rest of my beer and stacked it with Mark’s empty cup. The foam was bitter on my tongue as I watched Mark disappear into the crowd. Kyle had shit timing, but at least Mark seemed more relaxed than he had all evening. I never knew what the hell to expect when we hung out with his parents, kinda like Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates. Never a dull moment. Fortunately, it’d been a long time since I’d given a shit what anyone besides Mark and my best friends thought of me. So when his dad looked at me like I was a wadded-up piece of gum stuck to the underside of a table, it was no skin off my back. Honestly, I’d gotten so used to it that his handshake tonight was more disconcerting than anything else.

The party churned around me, a mishmash of dancing and people standing in clumps conversing. There were costumes galore but also plenty of folks in street clothes just here for the booze and social clout. I said hello to a few I recognized from various classes, spotted Ansel and upnodded him. He was in a corner and seemed deeply involved with his phone, though, so I decided not to bother him.

The fog machine near the stairs worked overtime, making it hard to see more than ten feet in any direction.

I was debating grabbing another beer versus heading straight for the maze to fuck with Mark when I spotted a flash of red a few feet away.

“Amanda!” I called out, pushing through a cluster of dudes dressed as Marvel superheroes.

She turned, her face lighting up when she saw me. “Holy shit, there you are!” She threw her arms around me, nearly spilling her drink, and then pulled back to look at me. “You look hot.”

“Uh, no, you do.” She was dressed as Poison Ivy, and she’d nailed it. A fitted corset of shimmering green leaves clung to every curve, her legs encased in glittery emerald tights. Fake vines curled up her arms and tangled through the waves of her hair, which somehow looked like it was glowing from within.

“Psht. But do go on,” she said, and we both laughed. “Where’s your better half? Or maybe he’s the worse half.” She pretended to consider, and I bumped her shoulder. It’d taken her a while to come around to me and Mark being together, but she’d also been one of the few who knew the full measure of our history.

“Scare duty in the maze.” I adjusted my toga strap for the millionth time. I should’ve just accepted the fucking duct tape solution. I’d never tell Mark that, though. “Kyle pulled him early.”

“Oh, bummer.” She waved at someone over my shoulder. “How’d it go with the parentals? Did Mr. Farrow try to stab you with a butter knife?”

I chuckled. “He’d probably go for a letter opener. No, poison. Definitely poison.” I shrugged. “It was okay. He shook my hand. That was different. Baby steps, I suppose.”

What I didn’t say was that watching Mark afterward had shifted something inside me—the way he’d melted against thesteering wheel, then leaned into my touch without thinking about it, trusting me to ground him.

Trust was hard for me. I felt like life had betrayed me over and over, that nothing was ever as it seemed. But tonight had made me want to trust Mark with some of my family shit the same way he trusted me with his. Maybe it was time for him to go with me to see my dad.

It was a terrifying thought. He’d come with me to the facility before, but had always stayed outside in the car at my request. Some part of me felt I was shielding him, I guess, but I wasn’t sure what I was shielding him from. Maybe me. Maybe I was still scared that if Mark saw my dad in person, it’d be all too easy for him to think I was destined to become the same kind of person my dad was. Yet, Mark had let me into his messy, imperfect world, and I was still here. Shouldn’t he have the same opportunity to ground me during the tough times, too?

“You okay?” Amanda scrutinized me with the sharp look she got when she sensed drama.

“Yeah, I’m good.” I shook myself out of my thoughts. “I’m gonna go check out that maze and find Mark.”

She was still studying me, but she nodded along, even gave me a scandalous waggle of her green brows. “Alright. Go get your man. Maybe I’ll go find one, too.”

She probably would. Amanda was a devoted bachelorette. She rarely did relationships, but she was stellar at one-night stands and claimed it was her calling. She probably had a roster that would make even me double-take.