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“Looking for Harpy.” Dane may or may not have read the tension in the room, but he did at least move over to stand next to me. He didn’t touch my arm, but he pulled the back of his t-shirt that I was wearing, so I stepped back. “The rest of the bunnies are waiting upstairs. You should join them. We should join them.”
Tituss looked at the shirt again and then said, “You know the rules.”
“Yes.” I nodded. I didn’t other than I had to say yes for anyone to do something to me, with me. Well, that was supposed to be the rules. I was pretty sure of that.
“I think he was talking to me, but yeah. I also know the rules. I didn’t touch her.” Dane snorted a sound. “Though it seems they don’t apply to you, now do they?”
“I’ll come back and put them in the dryer.” I would do anything to prevent any more of whatever that situation between them was about to become. “We should get upstairs, right? Someone might think…”
I close my eyes. Way to remind him.
Tituss didn’t say a word. He stormed past me. I could feel it more than see it. I opened my eyes, and Dane was giving me a quizzical expression. He said, “If you care about him at all, you’ll quit.”
That pissed me off. Who the hell does he think he is? He just met me. He doesn’t know a damn thing about me other than what I look like naked and when I come. Plus, he doesn’t know that if shit implodes with Cass later, I can’t afford to not take this job. “I care about me more. He cares about him more. You…I don’t know you.”
I turned and stomped the best I could in bare feet to the stairs. He was behind me, not really affected if the tone of his voice was an indicator when he said, “True. I wonder if I should just take that shirt back now, then.”
I was two steps up, and my next one was a lot slower, precise in its placement. I did not have anything on under his shirt. “You—”
“You have clothes. Wet clothes, but…it’s not like you absolutely need that shirt.” He moved up to the step I was on and looked down at me. “There is something about you that’s different than most of them up there. You do want to be here. Couldn’t keep yourself away. Stole someone else’s bracelet, which means you didn’t read anything more than the flyer or hear more than what was said about it. You don’t have a fucking clue what you are trying to force yourself into.” He looked up the stairs, and I heard my name in a commanding tone. Dane looked at me and said, “But you saw his name on it, didn’t you? Couldn’t resist, could you?”
I didn’t answer. I felt a bit exposed and not in a naked way. In the worse than naked way. I headed up the stairs and looked at an angry Tituss and the women in line looking at me like they hated me more than he did. “I’m here.”
It is upon this statement that I looked up and around at all of the young men on the second and third floors, looking over the stair rails of this creepy ass house and down at us in the center of the large living space that is made for entertaining. Tituss is so pissed he said through practically clenched teeth, “Get. In. Line.”
I did and tried to ignore the fact that the tone caused a tingle, and I didn’t have panties on under there. I lined up next to some other girl and realized there was an extra person in this room. Tituss said, “Tell them who you are.”
The guy held his hand up and waved. He said, “I’m Mark. I’m a freshman.”
Tituss said, “And why the fuck is a freshman in our house on this day? Who invited you?”
Mark pointed at one of the people in this line and said, “She’s also a freshman. In a class with me.”
“Why are you here?” Tituss asked, and I knew that every man in this house wanted that answer.
“I unclogged the toilet on the—” Mark started to explain, but Tituss cut him off.
“Why would you do that?” Tituss asked.
The kid’s complexion was dark, so the fact that he blushed so deeply it was noticeable made me realize someone was about to get fired, and it was not me. Mark said, “I uh…she uh…said if I did, she would…so…it’s not the first time I’ve unclogged a toilet, but it would be the first time…you know?”
Mark is, in classic stereotypical terms, what would be considered a geek. He is not built like an athlete unless chess or video games could be included in that sporting lineup. I knew both had teams at this school. Those teams were not like the ones Tituss and Dane played on. Both giants in this room and over that kid. Yeah, Mark qualified as being a kid. I lost my virginity at fourteen and my childhood at fifteen when my dad died. My whole world took a spin where I suddenly had to fend for myself. Learn to survive. Tituss was the only good thing in my life back then. Him, and maybe Cass. She was part of my survival package more than anything else. I just hadn’t realized until I saw his lips around her nipple that I wasn’t the only one using our relationship for more than surface-level shit.
He had been the best thing in my life. I was the worst thing in his life, though.
There was a heavy silence that was almost thick enough to hold. Tituss looked up and said, “Well? It’s day one.”
Like they were in a stadium somewhere in Rome, and the Emperor just asked to kill or spare the gladiator in the arena, thumbs go up and down. Mark was nervous as he said, “I don’t…I might not—”
Dane practically barked at him, “You might not what? You might not say no to one of our bunnies? You might not tell one of your brothers she is asking you to do her job? You might get manipulated by the promise of wet lips on day fucking one? What?”
Mark, to his credit, looked at Tituss and then down the row of women and landed that gaze on me. Bold little one. Bold fucking move. Dane laughed and said, “Oh, you got some stones, freshman. I’ll give you that. I didn’t fuck her. I didn’t touch her. I sure as fuck didn’t clean up the bathroom she took a shower in after scooping dog shit all afternoon. She did, though, didn’t you?”
He looked at me, and I nodded. I have no idea what psycho circus I got myself into, but when I arrived, I thought I would just be sent away. Instead, I was placed. Guaranteed a job, though I really needed to know what the rightful owner of this bracelet agreed to about now because this was taking an odd turn.
Dane continued, “And this is our house. Those are our bunnies. You want us to come down there and—”
“No.” Mark shook his head. “No.”
