Page 11 of Marked by the Pack (Crooked Point #2)

Thursday

Zoey

The moon disappeared behind a cloud for a moment and I shivered. I pulled my jacket tighter around myself as I walked toward Otto’s house.

I couldn’t believe that Emma was worried about me. Me. When she was the one dating a vampire who was fond of biting her neck. I was pretty sure I’d aged five years overnight worrying about her.

And I couldn’t get King’s warning out of my head. He’d asked me if I’d seen anything peculiar in town recently. I’d said no. But I had forgotten about something very important. The freaking hay maze massacre!

What if King was right and vampires made other supernatural creatures show up. And…what if they were already here?

Callum claimed he hadn’t killed those people at the Fall Festival last weekend. I wanted to believe him. I really, really wanted to believe him. But at the same time, if it wasn’t him who’d killed those people…who was it?

Vampires bit your neck and drained the life out of you.

They didn’t leave disembodied hands in a family hay maze.

That was something else. Something even more horrifying then a vampire.

I’d originally thought it was a serial killer.

But I was worried this screamed more supernatural than normal psychopath.

I shivered again. I should have told Otto to pick me up. Before Emma had come to visit, I thought I was living in the safest town ever. Now I was scared to walk down the street.

I sighed. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t scared of the tiniest thing.

Gah! But vampires and other supernatural creatures weren’t just a tiny thing.

Maybe I should have let King send me his bodyguards.

But there was no reason that two strangers would be better at protecting me from vampires than someone already here.

Otto didn’t want to date me. He’d made that clear. Kind of. Either way, tonight wasn’t about that. For the first time ever, I wasn’t propositioning a hot guy for sex. I was propositioning him to protect me.

I turned off Main Street and past a few houses until I was standing outside Otto’s house. His huge house.

As a thief, I knew he was probably wealthy. But damn, this was nice. It looked a lot like my house only twice as big. Why did one person need this much space?

I opened the white picket fence and walked up the sidewalk, past the manicured hedges.

Everything about this house screamed family man.

And I wondered if that was just for show.

A thief hiding in plain sight among us. Or maybe he truly wanted to be a family man soon.

His friend, Bennett, had told me that Otto was looking for something serious.

He probably wanted to fill this whole house with kids.

Not my kids though. Because I was the undatable one. Asshole.

Before I was able to knock, Otto opened the door. His hair was wet and he was wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a fitted t-shirt .

Why did he have to look so yummy?

“Hey.” He gave me that smile that made my heart beat funny in my chest. And then he looked both ways, like he was worried someone would see me. He grabbed my arm and pulled me inside.

“Embarrassed the neighbors will see who you’re socializing with?” I asked. I thought the people in Crooked Point liked me. I knew Emma said that the women gave me dirty looks. But I never saw it. Now I wondered if everyone thought I was easy like Otto did.

“No.” He caged me in against the door. “I’m definitely not embarrassed to be seen with you, Zoey.”

I smiled. At least he wasn’t being an asshole tonight. “So what’s with the secrecy…”

He silenced me by kissing me.

God, he was giving me major mixed signals. But it was hard to think about that when he was grabbing my hips, pulling me closer. He was going to be a great bodyguard. A bodyguard with benefits sounded pretty good to me. I sunk my fingers into his wet hair.

He groaned and pressed my back against the door. “I knew you’d be a good kisser.”

I laughed. I hadn’t even realized it, but he’d never kissed me last night. Just the side of my neck when he’d touched me in the kitchen. “Otto, what are you doing? You said you couldn’t date me.”

“But I also said I like doing things I’m not supposed to.”

“So you do want to date me?”

“Fuck, Zoey. It would be ridiculous for a guy to not want to date you.”

I smiled up at him. “So you’re ridiculous? ”

He reached up and touched my cheek. The smile had fallen from his face. “No, I’m cursed.”

Okay… What did he mean by that exactly? I really wasn’t here to play whatever game he was trying to play with my heart. “Well, you can’t date me. And that’s fine. I’m over it.”

He lowered his eyebrows as he stared at me. “So what are you doing here?”

Why was he the one who looked offended right now? He was the one that kept saying he couldn’t date me. “I have a proposition for you.”

“I kind of have one for you too,” he said. “I can’t date you…but that doesn’t mean we can’t hang out. In secret.”

I stared at him. “You want me to be your dirty little secret?”

“I mean…the things I’m going to do to you are pretty dirty.” The humor was back in his eyes.

If I was going to start dating someone, I wanted to do it for real. Not “hanging out” behind closed doors. I already did that every night. “I’m not interested in that. I want a boyfriend. I’m ready for something…more.”

He pressed his lips together. “I can’t.”

Why did he keep saying that? I tried to keep my face void of expression. I didn’t want him to know how much his words stung. It was just a silly unrequited crush. I had no idea why it hurt so much. “Which is why my proposition is better.”

“I’m listening.”

“I want to hire you. To be my bodyguard.”

“I’m sorry…what?”

“I’ll be honest, I’m a little freaked out that Callum is a vampire. Just a teeny bit. I’ve been having trouble sleeping at night. And I thought maybe if you were there with me…I’d sleep better.”

“You want me to just sleep in the same bed as you?”

“Yeah.”

He smiled down at me. “Zoey, I don’t know if we’d be doing much sleeping.”

“Hm.” I ran my finger down the front of his t-shirt.

If he was playing games with me, I could play games with him too.

“I don’t know about that. I’m a very sound sleeper.

And I’m only interested in men who want to date me in public.

” I removed my hand a second before it reached the waistband of his sweatpants.

He groaned.

“So where’s dinner?”

“How about you get on your knees and find out.”

I laughed. “You have a great sense of humor.” I pressed on his chest and walked around him. The outside of his house was neat and tidy. But the inside looked a little more like a bachelor pad. Specifically the open kitchen to the right.

Dirty dishes were in the sink. A few cans of beer were sitting on the island. It looked like a dozen people lived here instead of one. And I definitely didn’t see any dinner cooking. Everyone said that Otto was looking for something serious. It looked more like he needed a maid.

I turned around. “I’m starving.”

He gestured to the erection pressing against his pants.

I raised my eyebrow at him.

He raised his back .

But I stood firm in my spot. He was looking for a serious girlfriend. I’d offered to be his girlfriend. And he’d turned me down. He wasn’t getting head right now. “I guess I’m cooking?”

“I ordered a pizza.”

“Well aren’t you romantic.”

He smiled. “I try.”

Maybe he tried with other, more suitable women. I stared at him. Really, what was so wrong with me? I liked doing dishes. I liked cooking. I liked him .

The doorbell rang.

“Speaking of pizza…” He opened up the door.

There was a pizza delivery guy standing there with three pizzas. Why the hell were there so many? How much did this man eat? I stared at his butt in his sweatpants. Well, I guess he was pretty muscular…

“Hey, Zoey,” someone said from behind me.

I turned around to see Ace coming down the stairs. He looked happy to see me, and not at all surprised.

But I was definitely surprised to see him. “Oh. Hey.”

Ace’s twin brother Huxley came down the stairs too. Why were they both upstairs in Otto’s house?

“I’m glad you made it,” Ace said.

Um…what? Why didn’t Otto tell me Ace and Huxley would be here?

Ace looked past me at the door. “Great, the pizza is here.”

Huxley walked over and gave me a hug. His hair was wet too. And he smelled like some kind of expensive cologne. Ace didn’t give me a hug, just a smile before he grabbed the pizzas from Otto .

The twins went into the kitchen like this whole thing wasn’t super weird.

Otto went to follow them.

I grabbed his hand to stop him. “What is going on? You specifically said there wouldn’t be any surprise guests tonight.”

“Yeah.”

I gestured toward the twins in the kitchen. “There are literally two surprise guests eating your pizza.”

He laughed. “They live here too, Zoey. But we can eat in the other room. I thought we could watch a movie or something.”

So he couldn’t date me in public? But he was fine if Ace and Huxley knew we were having dinner?

Otto was the most confusing man in the history of men.

The big house suddenly made a lot more sense though.

And Otto was full of shit. He wasn’t looking for something serious.

And he certainly wasn’t a family man. He was a bachelor living in a bachelor pad with his buddies, playing games with my head.

But it just so happened that I was really good at teasing men. I did it for a living.

“We should all eat together,” I said. “It’ll be fun.” I walked into the kitchen without waiting for a response from Otto. “Hey, guys. Do you want to come watch a movie with us?”

“Sounds good to me,” Ace said.

Huxley handed me a plate. “I hope you like pepperoni.”

“That’s perfect. Thanks so much, Huxley. You’re the best.”

He smiled at me .

I turned around to see Otto frowning. I ignored him and followed the twins into the family room. There was a huge couch and a few recliners that definitely didn’t belong in any interior decorating magazines. But everything looked really comfortable.

Huxley sat down in one of the recliners and grabbed the remote. Ace sat down on the couch.

There was so much room on the couch, I could have sat anywhere. But I wanted Otto to drop this whole “I can’t date you” game by making him realize I could get whoever I wanted. Including his friends. Besides, it would be easy to flirt with Huxley and Ace.

I sat down right next to Ace. Like really close.

Emma said I couldn’t date twins. That I had to choose one.

Which seemed a shame. Because they were both beautiful.

I’d actually had a dream once about being with them both at once.

There was just something captivating about their shaggy blonde hair and brown eyes.

And the fact that there were two of them.

Ace turned his head and smiled at me. “What would you like to watch?”

“Anything is fine with me,” I said and batted my eyelashes at him.

For just a second, his gaze dropped to my lips.

Otto sat down and put his arm around my shoulders, pulling me a little closer to him.

I shook his arm off me and turned back to Ace. “Is there a game on tonight? I love watching big strong men competing.” I nudged my shoulder against Ace’s.

He laughed. “Yeah, there’s probably a basketball game on or something. ”

“Yup,” Huxley said. He turned on the game, but he didn’t look toward the screen. “Do you like basketball, Zoey?”

“I love anything with balls.”

He laughed.

Otto leaned toward me. “What are you doing?” he whispered in my ear.

“Nothing.”

“Nothing, huh? It seems like you’re trying to make me jealous.”

“Huh. Is it working?” I took a bite of my pizza. And then I leaned forward and put my plate on the coffee table, giving Ace and Otto both a nice view of my ass in my dress. I looked over my shoulder at Otto.

He raised his eyebrow at me.

“If you want to make him jealous, you’ll probably have to take it a bit further than that,” Huxley said.

I turned to him. Otto and I had been whispering. How had he heard that from over there? I shook away the thought. Who cared? I was more interested in the way he was looking at me. Like I was the only person in the whole room.

“And what did you have in mind, Huxley? How can I make your friend here super jealous?”

He put his plate down. “You could kiss my brother.”

I laughed.

But no one else did.

I turned to Otto. He was looking at me like he always did. Like he wanted to devour every inch of me. But he didn’t say a word. He didn’t tell me he’d hate it if I kissed his friend. He didn’t tell me he wanted to date me. He didn’t say anything at all .

I turned to Ace. He was staring at me like he wanted that kiss. Like he wanted me .

I was waiting for one of them to laugh. Or say just kidding or something. But they didn’t. So I laughed instead. It came out weird and squeaky.

Ace smiled at me. “What do you say, Zoey? Should we give it a try?”

Otto put his hand on my thigh, pining me in place. But he still didn’t say a word.

My heart hammered in my chest as Ace leaned toward me. He put his hand on the side of my face.

Still no one said “just kidding.”

And there was something about Otto’s hand being on my thigh and Ace’s hand being on my cheek. I wasn’t even sure what my plan was anymore. I just knew I wanted Otto’s hand to inch higher like it had last night. And I wanted to know what Ace’s lips tasted like.

Otto’s hand moved a little higher.

I remembered what his fingers felt like deep inside of me last night. My lips parted as I held back a moan.

Ace took that as a yes from me. He closed the distance between us, pressing his lips against mine.