“Seventy percent better,” I murmur against her lips. “Missed opportunity for a sixty-nine reference.”
She huffs.
“Let’s see if this”—I pull out then thrust back in, watching how her eyelashes flutter—”can raise the bar.”
I leave Mira asleep and head out to meet my friends. I got a rather sternly worded text from Aaron that basically said: show up or Thorne is gonna beat my door down.
Can’t havethat.
So, here I am. Exhausted and happy. Satiated. And trudging across the freshly fallen snow to join my friends for an early breakfast.
They must be fucking during the day and actually sleeping at night to get out of bed so early.Heathens. This is vacation!
“Merry Christmas Eve, Rhys!” Willow, Aaron’s girlfriend, calls when she spots me.
She’s wearing a dark-green…I guess you could call it an ugly sweater. It looks like it could fit her huge boyfriend better than her, swamping her frame. There’s a reindeer on it with a red pom-pom nose.
Glitterpom-pom.
I had a run-in with glitter once. A poor prank by a girl I was dating—or, uh…fucking. Who can tell the difference these days? She put glitter in my shampoo, and it tookagesfor it to all come out.
Did I also generally use my shampoo as bodywash? Yes.
I’ve since learned… one, don’t fuck psychos, and two, use bodywash for the body and shampoo for the hair. I’ve also learned that anyone who has any glitter is in the psycho category.
She comes closer, and I twitch.
“He’s got a phobia,” Thorne calls.
Willow pauses and turns back toward him, her brows furrowing. “What?”
He gestures vaguely at her. “Reindeer. Terrifying creatures.”
I snort.
Willow faces me again, covering the face of the reindeer. “Oh my God, Rhys, I’m so sorry. What an awful time of the year for you!”
“I—” I shake my head and nod at the same time, ending up moving my head in a circle. “Thanks.”
“Come on.” Thorne tilts his head. “We’ve already got a table.”
I follow him back, weaving through the tables, until we get to a giant C-shaped booth. I take the lone chair facing my pack of coupled-up friends. Thorne and Briar are closest to me, Aaron on my other side. Some of the other names and faces I should know, but they’re notmyfriends.
My chest tightens.
Why the hell do I wish my fake girlfriend was with me right now?
Probably because it’s not really fake anymore, asshole.
“So, who’s got you cooped up in your cabin?” Briar asks.
I jerk. “Huh?”
She smirks. “We’ve hardly seen you, so…”
“I’ve been around.” My tone comes off defensive.
“In between doing the horizontal tango with some girl?” Her eyebrows go up. “Or maybegirls?”
