“You lay so much as a fingertip on me, and you’ll be carrying two severed balls into the emergency room.” After another glance back at the water, I nod toward his groin. “Okay, shriveled balls.”
“You talk tough, girl. Gonna get you in trouble, someday.”
“I’d say it already has.” Abandoning the warmth of the fire, I spin on my heel and race toward the water’s edge, ready to get this the hell over with. The two catch up to me, and all three of us stand just outside of the shoreline. “You boys still game?”
“This ain’t our first rodeo. Question is, are you?”
It’s not my first time, either, but I don’t mention that and risk losing the prize. Instead, I dive headfirst into waters that I’ll bet are no warmer than thirty-nine, maybe forty, degrees.
The icy fluids wash over my skin in a numbing shock. The fist around my chest tightens, squeezing the air right out of me, while my body succumbs to the temperature. I shoot up from the sandy bottom to the sounds of laughter and hollering.
“Fuck! Holy fuck!” Up to his waist in cold water, Travis wades back toward the shore, scrubbing his hands down his shimmering face.
“I can’t feel my nuts. I can’t feel my nuts!” Conner cups himself, water splashing all around him as he cuts toward the shore and scampers for the pile of clothes beside the bonfire.
Needling whispers of air seem to harden the water clinging to my skin, my toes swollen and stiff as I hustle back toward the fire with chattering teeth and achy cold limbs. Not even the rush of adrenaline pumping through my veins like electricity can quell the thickening of muscle and bones still sore with a frigid bite. Once near the flame, a comforting blanket of heat settles over me, reminding me of early mornings in the hunting shack with the propane heater, and the warmth from a thermos of hot coffee leaching into my cupped palms.
Conner tips back the same fifth of whiskey as before, and hands the bottle to me with an unsteady hand. “Here, this should warm you up.”
Taking the proffered bottle, I tip it back, and the moment the fiery liquor hits the back of my throat, I grimace, wiping the dribbling fluid with the back of my hand as I pass it back to him. The sizzling burn of the whiskey settles down into my chest, loosening the unrelenting grip over my lungs. Just shy of twenty, I’m no stranger to drinking, but too much of this will hit hard later, so I sip light, because alcohol and I don’t tend to mix well.
Hands snake around my stomach, yanking me back against the cold stiff body behind me. It’s been over two years since I last saw Connor, or Travis. In high school, the two didn’t pay much attention to me. No one did, really, so I was surprised when they approached me back at the boardwalk, as I was leaving the camera shop where I work parttime. The bulge pressed against my ass confirms his intent, though. “I’ll get you warm real quick. You’ll be nice and hot when I’m finished with you.”
I shove his arm away. “I’d snuggle with a grizzly bear before I’d sleep with the likes of you.” The guy’s probably screwed half the sororities at Central by now. Not that I’d be interested, even if he hasn’t. Contrary to being known as the community whore, I’m pretty particular when it comes to men and sex. I like them slightly older. Not silver foxes, but mature enough not to have to rely on Mommy and Daddy for everything.
Travis’s lips are at my shoulder, fingertips pushing the fabric of my panties to the side. “I’m not talking about sleeping. I’m talking about fucking you. Right here.”
As long as it’s been since the last time I was with someone, I’d almost be inclined to take him up on that, if I thought I’d never see him again. That’s the hell of casual hookups--always being the one to stay behind, and in his case, I’d have to face his smug grin every time he breezed through here on his way to bigger and better things.
Better than here.
I can’t stand the cold, suffocating isolation of this place. The emptiness. The endless stretch of nothing.
Jerking my head away, I push at Travis’s arm again, but he swipes up my wrist.
“Quit playing hard to get.”
“I’ll quit playing hard to get, when you quit pretending that mediocre bulge between your legs is anything special.”
The hold on my arm tightens with that signature Jenkins temper I’ve seen shine through in his father at football games. “I forgot you only fuck old men with fat wallets.”
If he thinks he can rile me with that accusation, he’s sorely mistaken. I’ve been called worse than a gold digger before.
Something flickers out of the corner of my eye, movement at the edge of the otherwise empty beach, and I don’t bother to look. I’m the only one who knows it’s there, the only one who can sense its presence, and looking will only reaffirm their accusations that I’m crazy.
I’m not entirely convinced that I’m not.
Without drawing attention to the move, I gently tap my free hand’s thumb against my thigh three times.
Three. Two. One.
“Give me what I came for.” The cool, unfettered keel of my voice must grate on Travis, the way he grinds his teeth at me. What he doesn’t realize is, inside, I’m one hard shake away from losing my shit, because that image on my periphery is just the beginning. Next will come the voices and a multitude of hallucinations I can’t deal with right now.
I need the pills he’s withholding from me.
“Man, leave her alone.” Still shivering by the fire, Connor glances over his shoulder toward the houses behind him. “Nobody wants to watch the two of you go at it, anyway,” he says, tipping back another sip of the liquor.
Snorting a laugh, Travis turns his attention back to his friend. “Bold words for someone who used to rub one out every night to her--”
“Shut the fuck up!” Conner shoots to his feet, hands balled into tight fists.
“Don’t act like some kind of saint. Like you didn’t come here to get a piece of that thoroughly used ass.”
The sharp sting of his words has my hand reflexively drawing back for a smack that he captures, so he’s holding both my arms captive now. “Fuck you.”
“You want to, don’t you? That’s why you agreed to this little dare, right?”
“You know exactly why I agreed to this dare.” Wriggling myself loose, I push off his chest and hold out my hand, flicking my fingers. “Pay up.”
“Price just went up. You want the goods? Suck me off first.”
A sound of exasperation carries over the crackling bonfire, from where Conner crouches rubbing his skull back and forth. “Just give her the fucking pills, man. She did what you asked.”
“Shut up.” Travis doesn’t bother to look at Conner as he slides his fingers beneath my bra strap. “You know, I once watched you in gym class, running the track. Watched your tits bouncing. The sweat on your neck. Your ass in those shorts you wore every day. You carry yourself differently than the other tight-ass prudes here. Like a girl who needs to fuck. It’s part of your DNA, isn’t it?”
“Forget it.” I swipe up my boots and spin away from him. “Bunch of cheating assholes. That’s the last time I make a deal with you, Jenkins.”
A tight grip of my arm brings me swiveling back around to face him. “’The fuck is your problem? I can get any girl I want. Any fucking girl. Girls who are smarter than you. Hotter than you. Girls with a future.”