Page 40 of Big Bad Tease


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Cass cocks her head, and she smirks. “You know, I was paying you a compliment, not necessarily running myself down. But I’ll accept any compliments you want to give me.”

I’ll make it my life’s mission to pay her all the compliments. Give her all the praise.

She deserves all of it. All of…everything.

THIRTEEN

Cassandra

I shouldn’t be worriedabout Herc.

My twin brother a reasonable person. Usually.

We’ll hash it out, and then one day all of us will laugh about it while we bounce our grandchildren on our knees.

Tonight is a pleasant evening, and it feels like a good idea for Titus and I to walk instead of drive over to see my brother at his apartment.

And besides that, I’ve got so much pent-up energy that I need to walk to keep calm.

We are going to tell my brother about us. Herc is going to find out the correct way, by hearing it directly from us.

Titus laces the fingers of his left hand through mine as we make our way up the sidewalk toward Herc’s apartment building. The sun is setting behind the ridge, casting a pinkish glow to the pale facades of the west-facing homes on the opposite side of the street. Leaves fall. There’s a faint scent of bonfire smoke. Tomorrow is a Saturday. Game day.

“Are you nervous?” I ask Titus.

Titus squeezes my hand and thinks for a second before speaking. “Never been so nervous in my whole life, Squeaks. Wait. Can I call you Squeaks when we’re just holding hands?”

I grin. “Yes.”

He gives me a sideways smirk. “So just not when I’m up in your lady garden.”

“Oh my god! You are such a…gah!”

“I know. I question your taste in men.”

I hip-check him for that.

So this is what it’s going to be like to be in love with Titus. To have a boyfriend, exclusive to me. My tummy somersaults. The concept is still so new, it’s thrilling. Exciting. Nerve-wracking. Everything looks and feels different, just like I knew it would if we ever got together. But also, it feels so natural. I feel so secure with him, like nothing can touch us.

We pass by several other people I vaguely know on campus, and they all have different reactions to seeing me and Titus hold hands.

I don’t pay much attention to the outside world, though. It feels so freeing to hold his hand in public. It doesn’t feel constraining at all to have decided on one person. That’s what I had let people believe about me. That I never wanted to date exclusively. When the truth was, Titus was the only one I ever wanted. And now that it’s happening, I feel like something caged inside me is finally free. My heart. My silly, silly heart. I’m going to cry again if I think too hard about all this, so I’m grateful when Titus says, “I, however, have the best taste in women. I feel like I hit the jackpot.”

“Hmm,” I reply, smirking. “Don’t spend it all at once. You know what they say about lottery winners.”

He teases me for that, and I tease him back, and I feel like we don’t need our own bubble away from the world. This right here is our bubble.

The both of us are laughing so hard, we don’t see what’s coming up the sidewalk until it’s too late.

“What the actual fuck, you guys?”

My heart leaps into my throat. Herc.

I squeeze Titus’s hand so hard, he grunts in pain.

“Oh, sorry.”

“’S alright,” Titus drawls.

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