Page 24 of Her Wicked Knights (Their Hallowed Queen #3)

Colton

Am I surprised that my 'girlfriend' is late to her own damn party? Not really. I am annoyed, though, since she invited half the damn town and now they're asking me questions.

"Hey, Colt," Mark calls to me from the front door. "Where do you want the keg?"

"On the beach." I tell him, nodding my head toward the back door. I don't bother asking how he got a keg, assuming it's easy to get a fake ID in college. But then I see the man behind him, and it all makes sense.

That fucking psychopath Whit grins at me like we're old friends, shoving some of his hair out of his face. "Colt."

I roll my eyes. Of course, Audrey would invite them.

I guess I should be grateful because of the access to alcohol, which I am absolutely going to need to get through this weekend.

But I could drink just as easily at home, probably even easier because my mother has a great variety of options.

The only reason I'm here is because Rev practically begged Tripp and I both to come, and we finally relented.

I caved because he's right about getting Tripp away for a bit.

It will be good for him to not have to watch Marley with Jake or Audrey.

Maybe he can try to forget she exists for a bit.

He's gotten broodier since school ended, and I'd say it's because he hasn't seen Marley, but he sees her every day, whether or not she sees him. His obsession nearly rivals mine, and it's almost comical. Tripp and I are different in a lot of ways, but when it comes to her, we're both fucked.

"You sure you want this on the beach?" Mark puzzles. "It looks like rain again..."

"A little rain won't hurt anyone." Audrey says, pushing in from behind Whit with a curt nod.

It's strange, somehow formal, so different from Audrey's usual flirtation that it catches my attention immediately.

But the moment passes quickly because Jake's here too, of fucking course, and Audrey struts right for me.

Mark obediently takes the keg outside, like a good little puppet for my fucking girlfriend, and I wonder if she's offering him sexual favors too or if he's just hanging on for the promise that some will eventually come.

"Colton..." Audrey wraps her arms around me, tighter than she ever has.

I'm so surprised that she didn't call me babe or pumpkin (both names she gets punished for using, but I'm dating a fucking brat) that I don't immediately push her off.

Instead, I focus on her arms around my neck like a vice grip, like she's... scared.

Audrey doesn't get scared. After all, she is a fucking nightmare all her own. And though half the time I don't even like the bitch, I find something inside of me feels the need to try and help. "What?" I ask, with a harder edge to my voice than I mean.

I feel her chest rise and fall fast against me before she pulls away to look up at me, her lips parted like whatever she wants to say is right there.

But then she seems to think better of it when she glances over her shoulder and sees Jake and Whit talking in low voices.

The smile she puts on her face is as fake as the rest of her personality, and it overtakes that one single moment where I think she was genuine.

But her anxiety disappears as she pulls away, pressing a kiss against my chin, and turns to the guests who have been milling about in her absence, treating this like a social club.

"Who wants a shot?"

I make my way out of the kitchen with my bottle as the crowd of people pushes in, eager to turn this fucking funeral into something fun. And I have no doubt it will be soon. I hear the chime of a Bluetooth speaker connecting, and just before I walk out the front door, I hear A SONG begin to play.

"Hey, Colton," Eliza Ryan says, tipping her head toward me as she passes.

"Liza." I nod back at her, because she's one of a rare few people that I can stand. We were paired together for a project that spanned the entire freshman year, and I actually kind of grew to like her presence. She's funny and doesn't fill every single moment with unnecessary chatter.

I take my time taking sips from the bottle, letting the whiskey burn my tongue a moment before I swallow.

I appreciate the way it traces a path through my chest, the way it makes me aware of the heart that is still inside my chest, which I mostly forget is there.

I never feel it do anything, unless I'm watching her, which is a habit I have had to give up lately.

Mr. Lavigne nearly caught me sneaking out of their house back in the spring; I don't know how he heard me since I've heard Marley gets her habit of sleeping like the dead from him.

Maybe he wasn't actually asleep that night as I shut her door behind me and crept down the stairs.

I heard the top step creek behind me just as I turned toward the front door, and then the distinctive click as he turned the safety off on his gun.

That was all I needed to hear to fucking run like my life depended on it, and he chased me down the steps and out the door that I left open.

Luckily, I didn't drive, or else he'd have recognized my car, so I hightailed it around the side of Tripp's house and used the key his parents gave me years ago.

When Mr. Lavigne knocked on the Archer's door and they came down to see what was the matter, I played it off as if I'd just woken up on the couch, after coming here because my mother had company.

It was, by most accounts, the truth. I just left out the part where I stopped to creep inside the Lavigne's home first.

A few more people nod in greeting as they pass before I see Rev's car pull up behind a dark sedan.

"Finally." I grumble when they climb out of the car. "You're the one who wanted to come, and you showed up late?"

"Sorry." Rev chuckles. "I had to... take care of something."

"He means someone." Tripp rolls his eyes. "Right, Rev?"

"Actually, two someones." Rev bites his lip to try and contain his grin.

That does nothing for Tripp, who grunts in disgust. But he's certainly piqued my interest. "Two? Like back to back or at the same time."

"Same time. Together." He shrugs like it's no big deal, but the grin on his face tells me he's just checked that off his bucket list.

"Like two girls?" I don't know if I'm disgusted or a little turned on by the thought of a threesome.

It's supposed to be every man's fantasy, I hear, to have two women at the same time.

My brain flashes to Marley and Audrey together at my knees, and I decide that's definitely not true.

I'd rather have Marley by herself than share her with anyone, even if it meant more pleasure.

"A couple." Rev's smirk deepens. "I was flirting with the girl, but her and her boyfriend were apparently a package deal."

I balk at that, because it sounds so... well, I don't know what it sounds like, honestly. Taboo. Wrong. Hot.

Rev can fuck whoever he wants; it doesn't affect me.

But I have a hard limit about other men touching me.

.. or me touching them for that matter. You can call it a little internalized homophobia or suppression or whatever the fuck you want, but it makes me uncomfortable to imagine being with another man.

But watching another guy with a girl? Another guy watching me with a girl? Well, that's unexpectedly hot.

"Don't be jealous, Tripp." I laugh. "I bet Rev would fuck you, too, if you asked."

Tripp glares at me like he'd murder me if he had a weapon handy, but Rev just laughs. "I'd fuck you both, if you asked. One day, maybe..."

"Not gonna happen." Tripp says, at the same time I say,

"Keep fucking dreaming, buddy."

Unbothered by our rejection, Rev hits the lock on his car until it chimes, and we head inside together, though Tripp's still acting a little icy if the way he keeps cutting glances at me says anything.

I don't understand why he gets so upset about little jokes like that.

Nobody would care. His parents would still love him, maybe even harder because they'd worry the rest of the world wouldn't. The Archer's are exceptional fucking parents; I know because they've done more to raise me than fucking Geneva or my dead-beat and dead-and-buried father.

I also can't see Axel giving a shit. Hell, the guy is metrosexual himself. He used to go get pedicures with his girlfriend before they broke up, and you can't convince me he doesn't wax his eyebrows.

Plus, Rev's clearly gay... or I guess, technically bisexual.

And that doesn't change anything about how well-loved he is.

Hell, if anything, he's probably more well-loved for it, because guys and girls alike seem to want their shot with him.

Or at least, they seem to enjoy flirting with him.

I'm sure that has more to do with who Rev is than anything else, including his sexuality.

Rev is fucking magnetic. I don't know how he does it, but he's just different than the rest of us.

He's always laughing, always grinning, always putting on a charm that I don't think he even tries for.

He's just got something about him that makes you want to be near him, and apparently for some people, that turns into them wanting to be beneath him, or on top of him, or.

.. I shake my head, because I absolutely should not be wondering if my best friend is a top or bottom.

"Boys!" Audrey greets us cheerfully, pushing off the counter.

I notice her movements are jerky and slow, and wonder just how much she drank since I stepped outside.

I wasn't out for very long, so she must have done back-to-back shots.

Lucky me, I guess, because it will be easier to pretend she's Marley when I do backshots on her tonight.