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Jessica leaves Miller, spying her friends on the other side of the bonfire, and she quickly hurries over to join them. Miller waits for Ryland and me to catch up as Lathan and Bishop approach us. Lathan looks relieved, and Bishop just seems bored, but he quickly smiles when he sees me looking at him.
“I feel like we got off on the wrong foot. Here, I grabbed you a drink.” He holds it out, and I can feel a ton of eyes on me, not just the ones in the immediate circle.
Internally, I roll my eyes. Shit, I haven’t even been here five minutes, and he’s already trying to get rid of me. Instead, I smile brightly and take it.
“Thanks. Now who wants to dance with me?” I ask without taking a sip of my drink.
Chapter 32
“Lathan will.” Surprisingly, it’s Miller who shoves Lathan at me. Nerdy Sexy stumbles, not expecting the shove, but he quickly recovers.
“Absolutely, let’s go.” He takes me by my drink free hand and drags me over to the crowd of partying kids and the makeshift dance floor. He pulls me into his arms, and I wrap my empty hand behind his neck. “Pretend to take a drink, Bishop is watching,” he whispers in my ear, and I throw my head back and laugh before pressing the bottle to my closed mouth and pretending to swallow. “What an asshole. He just smiled when you did that. I want to kill him myself.”
“Is he still looking?” I ask as Lathan sways our bodies in time to the music. He’s a pretty damn good dancer, and I’m getting into it.
“No, Billy just called him away.”
“Good.” I sidestep us until we’re on the opposite side of the dancing crowd. Once we reach the edge, I tip the drink into the bushes. “In ten minutes, you and I are going to stumble inside the house, and we’re going to find a room where we are going to make out like crazy. That way, Bishop or any of his new cronies can’t corner me, thinking I’m drugged, and I won’t have to injure anyone and blow our case. After about half an hour of that, I will pretend to pass out, and you can ask Ry to borrow his car so you can take me home.”
I watch him swallow, but he quickly nods his agreement.
“Great. Now pucker up, there’s someone heading in our direction, and she seems to be on a mission for your ass.” I can see Michelle over his shoulder. Her eyes are narrowed on us, and she is pushing her way through the crowd.
Lathan goes to look, but I just grab the back of his head and pull his mouth down to mine. I run my tongue along the seam of his lips, and he quickly opens, allowing me entry. Our tongues tangle, and he tastes like the same sweet beverage that Bishop tried to get me to drink. Hopefully his was drug free though. His arms tighten around me, pulling me closer to his body as he takes control of the kiss. It’s perfect—perfect pressure, perfect amount of tongue, perfect amount of nipping and sucking—and I find myself dazed and seduced when a hand yanks me away from him.
“Listen here, you whore. We don’t want sluts like you ruining all the good men in this town,” she sneers, and I slap at her hand. “Why don’t you go back from whatever hovel you crawled out of?”
“Aww, poor baby. Can’t find a man of your own, so you have to try to steal ones who are already taken?”
“Taken?” she screeches. “He’s not your boyfriend.”
I scoff. “No, why would I want to tie myself down? But he is my Mr. Right Now, and I like them a little shy and nerdy, so why don’t you run off so I can corrupt him a little? You can have him when I’m done. I’m sure you’ll even thank me. I’ll teach him things you could never have dreamed of.”
She lifts her hand to slap me, but I stop her.
“Don’t even think about it unless you want me to beat your ass. Now fuck off. I’m going to take Lathan inside now and rock his world.” I sway a little in case she is in on the drugging plan. I’m not entirely sure if this is one big town conspiracy, or if there are a couple of games in play. Michelle and Lucy live with Sophie’s family. Supposedly, they are exchange students. Lathan is doing some digging into both of their backgrounds but hasn’t gotten anything yet.
Pushing her hard, I grab Lathan and weave our way into the ranger’s house. When we get just inside the door, I pull him toward me, and he crowds me against the wall and kisses me hard. I’m so distracted by how good his mouth and roaming hands feel, I almost forget to scope out the crowded living area, but when I look over his shoulder, I just about choke on his tongue in surprise. There is a rousing game of strip poker going on at a big dining table. It looks like everyone is having a bad day, because a majority of the people are mostly naked. At a little coffee table in front of some battered sofa are lines of coke, and people are handing cash over to a guy to sit and snort a line. In the corner of the room, I can see a guy getting a blow job from not just one girl, but two, while making out with another one standing next to him.
“Oh my fucking god. This is a high school party?” I blink at Lathan, and he chuckles.
“Yeah, ecstasy was given out as a party favor to the first hundred that turned up.” He fishes around in his pocket and pulls out a little bag with a small pill in it. “Not many people say no.”
Billy and his cronies walk in from the back of the house. What’s surprising is that Bishop isn’t with them. The crowd looks up, and all the dudes cheer, and some of the half naked chicks from the poker game stand up and wave them over to seats. The football players join the poker game, hauling the naked girls into their laps, but Billy leans against the wall. He doesn’t hide the fact that he’s staring at us.
“Okay, showtime,” I tell Lathan.
He grabs my hand and leads me back toward where I assume a bedroom is. The thought of lying on one of those beds when I know exactly what goes on in this house is repulsive, but we need to sell the show. We pass Billy, and I giggle and stumble slightly. With lightning quick reflexes, he reaches out and steadies me.
“Hey there, you look like you’ve had too much to drink,” he says.
“Nope, I’ve only had one,” I slur, and he frowns.
“One?” He looks at Lathan. “Hey, man, that’s not cool. She must have been drugged or something. Maybe I should take her home.” Wow, now that was not the angle I thought he’d take. He’d almost seem decent if I hadn’t watched the video.
“Fuck off,” Lathan tells Billy. “She’s fine. Don’t be a cockblocker, man.”
We push past him, and when I turn back to look, Billy’s glaring after us and pulling his phone out of his pocket. Lathan and I stumble into the room, but I can’t help dropping the act for a moment as I look around. There’s a bed in the middle of the room, but hanging above it is a damn stuffed deer head with its giant antlers hanging out over the bed.
