Page 23

KEENE

I searched for my mystery girl for the rest of the night, but she managed to evade me.

After losing her trail outside, I returned to Archer House, and I swear I checked the wrist of every girl at the party, but none of them had a feather tattoo on the side. She must not have returned to the scene of the crime after our merry chase down the sidewalk.

I wasn’t really surprised.

Frustrated and exhausted, I helped Damien, Oaklynn, and Alec shuffle the last die-hard stragglers out the door at nearly three in the morning. We did a quick sweep-through, picking up trash and empty bottles before calling it a night.

Xander returned home, walking in the front door just as we were finishing.

“Where the hell have you been, young lady?” I asked, my gaze going to the side of her wrist out of habit now, even though I knew there was no way it was Xander. She was too tall, her breasts were too big, and her curves were too curvy to be my mystery girl.

“Because if you went off and hooked up with someone,” I went on, “I hope you made sure to use protection. I know it’s been a while for you, and you’ve probably forgotten all the mechanics of—what the hell?”

Xander walked straight into me without a single word and hugged me. I mean, she put her head on my shoulder and squeezed like she meant it, too.

“Uh…” I lifted my hands, not sure what the fuck was happening. “Union?” I asked uneasily, suddenly worried about her.

I was beginning to think someone had hurt her, and I was going to have to be the one who called her cousin and broke the bad news that we had to kill a motherfucker together tonight. But then Xander sighed out a satisfied sound and patted my back.

“Thank you,” she told me. “Thanks for being such a good guy under your slimy surface.”

“Okay,” I answered slowly, not knowing where that had come from. “You’re…welcome?”

When Alec entered the living room and saw us together, I lifted my hands and sent him an I-don’t-know look over Xander’s shoulder.

He narrowed his eyes at me just as Xander pulled away and noticed him.

“And Alec,” she said, going to him next for a hug. “Thank you for being such a good guy.”

I couldn't help but notice she forgot the slimy-surface part with him.

“I… Sure,” he fumbled out, hugging her back and asking me with a look what the fuck was going on.

I shrugged, letting him know I had no clue.

When she pulled away, he smiled at her questioningly. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” She nodded, not really looking all that okay, especially when she wiped both cheeks as if brushing away phantom tears. But she sent us a brave smile and announced, “I’m going up to bed now. Goodnight, guys.”

“’Night,” we told her in unison.

We watched her disappear up the steps before sharing a look.

“Yeah, that was completely normal,” Alec said, his brow furrowing in concern.

“Chicks.” I shrugged. “Who understands them?” Especially when they kneed you in the junk and ran off before you could learn who they were.

“Oh, hey.” Realizing I hadn’t shared my mystery-girl encounter with Younger yet, I widened my eyes and said, “Dude. Do I have the story for you!”

Grabbing his arm, I hustled him down the stairs to my room, where I shut the door and proceeded to tell him everything.

He’d made himself at home on the end of my bed and was gaping at me by the time I finished. “And you seriously have no idea who she was?”

“Nope.” I shook my head as I plopped onto the corner of my desk. “Not a clue.”

“Holy shit,” he uttered, gazing blindly around my room before coming back to me with concerned eyes. “But what if she has some venereal infection or something, and now you have it in your throat after going down on her?”

With a roll of my eyes, I sighed. “I already planned on getting checked out on Monday. But that’s not what I’m—” Growling at him in disgust, I lifted my hands. “Seriously, man. That’s all you have to say after hearing everything?”

“I mean…” He winced at me and lifted one shoulder before asking, “What was I supposed to say?”

“I don’t know!” I shook my head in disbelief. “I was hoping you had some idea of how I could discover her identity?”

He snorted out an incredulous laugh and shook his head. “Yeah, if Hope and Parker didn’t even know after seeing her face, I think you’re just going to have to chalk this one up to a loss, buddy.”

I sniffed at that. “What the fuck ever. I’m not giving up that easily.”

“So what are you going to do, compile a list of every girl who was at the party and go around checking their wrists for tattoos?”

“For starters, yes. That’s exactly what I’m going to do. And then, if I ask everyone I remember being present to list everyone they remember, eventually I’ll have the whole guest list.”

“Wow.” Alec blinked at me as if I’d lost my mind. “You’re really determined to find this girl.”

My mouth dropped. “Wouldn’t you be?”

“I mean…” With a laugh, my best friend sent me a knowing look. “Sure, but I can’t even fathom me being in a situation where I hooked up with someone without knowing her identity first.”

“I thought I did know her identity,” I cried, snagging a stress ball that was shaped like a brain from the surface of my desk and chucking it at him. “Butt licker.”

“Hey!” He shifted so that it beaned him in the side of the arm and bounced back toward me. Sending me an exasperated shake of his head, he announced. “You need a candy bar or something. You’re starting to get hangry.”

“Am not,” I muttered petulantly, even as I shifted my leg aside to open the top drawer of my desk and pull out a bag of Twizzlers, as if it were some kind of a habitual response after the mention of food.

Untangling two ropes, I tossed one to Alec and bit off the end of my own. Chewing thoughtfully, I said, “I’m just pissed she got away before I could figure out who she was. I hate it when people one-up me like that.”

“True that.” Alec nodded in agreement as he chewed on his own cherry-flavored cord. Watching me with a contemplative squint, he swallowed before asking, “What’re you going to do once you find her, though? Press charges?”

“Press charges?” I sputtered in confusion as I shook my head. “Why the hell would I press charges?”

“Because she…” Alec motioned toward me vaguely. “You know, because she—damn man, she catfished you.”

“No, she didn’t,” I argued. “You have to meet a person online for it to be called catfishing. Hello.”

Alec rolled his eyes. “Well, she purposely impersonated this Makayla girl to make you think she was someone else.”

“I mean, I don’t know if that was on purpose,” I started, feeling the need to defend my hookup because people who gave that good of a blowjob just needed defending, you know. “In the beginning, I think she actually tried to tell me she wasn’t Makayla. I just…misunderstood.”

“You misunderstood?” Alec repeated with lifted eyebrows. “How in the world could you possibly misunderstand that?”

I sighed, seeking patience before explaining, “Okay, so she came right out and told me she wasn’t who I thought she was. I just assumed she was talking about her reputation or some bullshit like that. I didn’t realize she meant her actual identity.”

“Dude!” His eyes grew big. “She freaking told you she wasn’t Makayla, and you still messed around with her without trying to figure out who she was?”

I ground my teeth with a frustrated groan.

“She didn’t say she wasn’t Makayla; she literally said, ‘I’m not who you think I am.

’ But honestly, even if she had made it clear she wasn’t Makayla, I wouldn’t have cared.

By that point, I was into it. She was into it.

I wanted her , whoever she was. Not Makayla. ”

Shuddering with distaste, Alec made a face and claimed, “Bleh. I can’t believe you. I mean, you know what all this means, right? That she’s probably really…” When he lifted his eyebrows meaningfully and let his words trail off, I frowned.

“She’s probably really what ?” I demanded, scowling at him because I already knew I didn’t like where he was going with this.

“Un…appealing,” he finally answered with as much tact as possible.

But my eyes still narrowed, so he was quick to lift his hands in apology.

“Dude, you gotta know it’s true. I mean, if she was even too embarrassed to let a fuckboy like you see her face…

” He shook his head and winced. “It’s got to be. ..”

When he winced, I growled, “Fuck you. She is not ugly.”

He lifted his eyebrows as if I was being delusional. “And you know this how ? You didn’t even see her? Because she didn’t want you to see her. Because she’s got to be so bad off she knew you wouldn’t want her if you did see her.”

“I didn’t have to see her,” I argued. “I touched her. And smelled her. And tasted her. She wasn’t fucking revolting. She smelled really good. Didn’t I tell you how good she smelled?”

“Yeah, but?—”

“I don’t care. She gave the best damn blowjob I’ve ever gotten. I’m telling you, Younger. I came for longer than I’ve ever come in my whole fucking life.”

“Hmm, yes. So you said.”

“And her pussy tasted like fucking Heaven. Heaven ! Frankly, I’m not sure what part of that you think is repulsive, but I want to dine there again. Which is exactly why I need to find out who she fucking is.”

Alec’s eyes widened in dismay. “Wait. That’s why you want to find her? You just want another round with her?”

“Fuck, yes,” I cried. “Of course, that’s why. I want to finish what we started. She can’t just rock my world like that and then disappear into the night with no way to contact her again. That’s not fair. I mean, her nipples. They were perfection. Did I tell you about her nipples?”

With an exhausted sigh, Alec rubbed a hand along his forehead and admitted, “Dude, you told me about her nipples.”

I lifted my hands in outrage. “Then how can you even question my motives? I’m going to find this girl. And I’m going to fuck the mystery right out of her.”

Laughing softly, my best friend pushed to his feet with a slow shake of his head before sending me a farewell salute. “Well, I bid you good luck with that, bro.”

“Hey, why you leaving?” I cried in outrage as he started for the door. “You’re not going to help me?”

He laughed. “Of course, I am. I gotta find out what chick was smart enough to know she needed to keep her identity a secret from you, and I want to shake her damn hand. But I need my beauty sleep first.”

I rolled my eyes. “Man, fuck you.”

He chuckled some more as he opened the door and stepped into the hall. “Yeah, yeah. Love you too, buddy.” Pulling the door shut behind him, he left me alone in my room to stew on this all by myself.

“I hope you choke in your sleep and die,” I added, lifting my voice so he could hear me through the wall.

“See you in the morning,” he called back.

I heaved out a breath, feeling better after my talk with him, and I hopped off my desk to pace my room, picking my stress-reliever brain up off the floor and tossing it between my hands as I went.

But no matter how I played the encounter with Mystery Girl back through my head, I couldn’t figure out who she was.

I swear, it was starting to get light outside when I finally gave up and called it a night. I stripped down to a pair of jockey shorts and threw back the covers to climb into my bed, only to hiss out a curse and leap about five feet in the air.

“Son of a bitch, motherfucking hell balls!” I danced back on my tiptoes until I realized the snake on my mattress was rubber, not real.

“What the fuck?” I muttered, slowing to a stop to frown at it.

But who in the hell thought they were funny enough to pull a prank like this on me?

Growling, I stormed back to the faux serpent and picked it up, only to pause and blink at it dangling from my thumb and index finger.

There’s a fake snake in your bed .

Holy shit.

I jerked my face up and blinked around my room in surprise.

Mystery Girl had known this was here.

Thinking back to her words, I couldn’t tell if she’d been warning me about its presence or…confessing. Which meant, she either knew who’d put this here, or she’d done it herself.

I dropped the snake in the trash, wondering if she’d been inside my room. And if so, what else had she left for me to find?

Curious, I did a quick search, glancing in my closet, under my bed, through all my desk drawers. When I didn’t find anything else out of place, I huffed out my disappointment and returned to the bed, crawling under the covers and punching my pillow before settling down.

By the time I finally found some sleep, my brain hurt, and I knew I had to find this girl.

Because not knowing who she was might just drive me insane.