AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She’s grinning playfully; meanwhile, I’m still stuck trying to make sense of who has been pretending to be me.
Was it one of my men? They’re the ones who took away my phone, after all.
“Yeah, that was shitty of me, I’m sorry.” Fuck. The words feel numb on my tongue. Everything in me wants to blurt out the truth, but I’m terrified of the thought of my best friend getting tangled in the web of the Anguis.
“Ok, well you’re gonna have to spill the juicy details and clue me in on this so-called whirlwind romance. One that has been important enough to have you leaving town and disappearing off the face of the earth.”
“Uhh…” For whatever reason I’ve forgotten how to form words.
“Dick so good, you’re tongue-tied?” Em fans herself.
Oh my god. “Thorne’s a very private person.” Is the first excuse I first settle on. “His line of work means he has to be very discreet.” Shit, I’m painfully aware that I’m fumbling my way through this.
“Oooh, like NDA’s and shit? I get it.” If my best friend suspects I’m lying, she’s being a real champ about not yelling at me and telling me to go fuck myself.
So, I do my best to answer as many questions as I can within murky shades of the truth: things like why I haven’t returned her calls—because the cell service is shitty where I’ve been staying—and how I could move my entire life to Port Macabre without telling her—because it was the only way Thorne and I would have an opportunity to get to know each other. You know, because of his work.
Christ almighty.
The lies flow freely amongst tiny grains of facts.
Recapping the part about how I met Thorne Calliano that night at my tattoo studio is easy enough. It’s the truth, and she helped me get ready for our ‘date’ after all. I have to gloss over the part about being drugged and kidnapped while I try to pretend that we spent the evening falling head-over-heels for each other like loved-up teenagers at some fancy black-tie gala.
Em cranes her neck to look out the window at the group of men outside before turning back to me. “And the other two? How do they fit into this cozy little picture?”
Once again, I’m left with nothing. But my face flames immediately and gives me away like a traitorous little hussy.
“I mean, I don’t have binoculars on me or anything to study closely…but they’re certainly not hard on the eye.”
Right now I don’t know whether I want the ground to swallow me whole, or to at least reveal some fragment of the insanity my life has become.
The relief of sharing some small part with my best friend sits high in my chest. That much can’t hurt to tell. Even if it is only a tiny sliver of the truth.
“Well…” I fidget with the ends of my hair, studying the purple strands. “Let’s just say I’m exploring something new.”
Em’s face cracks into pure, unrefined glee.
“Please tell me you’re exploring all of them.”
I nod, my lips twisting in a hesitant smile of my own. “I am.”
“Thoroughly and regularly, I hope.”
“You’re something else, you know. Send you in here gagged, handcuffed, and with a hood over your head, and yet you’re more concerned with my sex life.”
Smirking at me, she swivels around to get a better look out the window. “Don’t judge my idea of a good time. Besides, we’re here to focus on you, remember. Mostly the part about how my bestie scored the dick jackpot of sleeping with three men. At. The. Same. Time.”
“Are we?” This woman is giving me whiplash. Something about Em’s energy feels odd, and I can’t figure out for the life of me why she won’t give me a straight answer.
“So is it orgies twenty-four seven, or exclusively one dick at a time on the menu?”
“My NDA says I’m at my confidentiality limit.” I shake my head.
“Oh my god.” Em gives me a stricken look. If I didn’t know better, her favorite shade of lipstick was just obliterated from the face of the earth. That girl is a slut for her lipstick collection.
“What?”
“You’re not on birth control.” She leans in like we’re both in on some great conspiracy and grabs both my hands in hers. The fierceness in her expression makes me fight back a small laugh. The first real one I’ve felt able to let go of since our strange little rendezvous began.
