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“Oh,” I murmur, finding it easier to talk with everything so loose and easy. “There’s two of you.” I say it like they might not know, and the two of them trade a look, with the one not holding me tilting his head to the side in a way I’d say iscoy.
“Do you need help finding your way home, little cat?” one of them asks, his voice a low, soft purr. Ithinkit’s the one with his arm over my shoulders, and when he speaks, he pulls me a little more snugly against him, shifting his weight as he does. Another hand comes up to touch my mask, gloved fingers running over the curves of the skull and making me shiver like he’s just touched my skin.
The man pulls away, head tilting once more, and glances at his partner with the other white mask. It occurs to me then that there’s mesh over the eyeholes that prevents me from seeing their eyes, and gives them more of an anonymous, dangerous look.
“My friends are here,” I breathe, not sure why my body is completely content to be righthere. “I don’t need to go home.”
“Where are your friends?” the one not holding me asks. “Do you want us to find them for you?”
I shake my head without thinking about it, my thoughts coming slowly. Even when the thoughts from earlier tonight rear their head, it’s easier to chase them off when I’m here, with an arm around my shoulders and these two behind me.
Slowly, uncertainly, I reach up, my knuckles touching the mask of the man with his arm over me. “Do I know you?” I ask, swearing there’s something familiar in the way he holds himself.
“No,” he chuckles, his arm sliding free of me. Before he can say anything else, however, his partner is there, one arm going to my waist as he inserts himself between his partner and me.
“Would you like to know me?” he purrs in a lighter voice than that of his partner. “What’s your name, pretty kitty?”
“Don’t,” the other says. “Don’t ask her that when we’re not going to give her ours.”
There’s something suspicious about them, and it tickles the back of my brain when they trade looks again, as if they’re having a silent conversation.
It’s a shame I can't read minds. Not that I’m particularly good at reading faces, either, but that’s not an issue since I can’t evenseetheirs.
“That’s not creepy at all,” I murmur, leaning forward onto the island and cramming my eyes shut. I’m notdrunk.Not quite. I’m more buzzed than I’d like to be, but it’s not like I’m alone or driving home.
A hand on my lower back turns my thoughts to dust, and I feel fingers carding through the fur of my tail, tugging on it lightly. There’s something like a growl, then a chuckle, and when I turn, I see that it’s the slightly shorter one with his gloves on my tail, tugging hard enough to make it taut.
“This is adorable,” he informs me in a purr. “Really just the cutest thing, right?” he tips his face toward his partner, who neither answers nor moves.
“My mask is better than yours,” I assert, and I get a soft scoff in reply.
“Your mask lets everyone know who you are if they look at you for longer than a half second.” It’s still the shorter one speaking, and he steps closer, until he’s leaning on the island as well. “Why did you run away from the cute redhead? He was really into you, little cat.”
“Because…” The answer swims away on the tide of his cologne. It’s not overpowering, and it invades my nose sweetly, making me forget everything I’d planned on saying. “I don’t know,” I say finally. “I didn’t come here for that.”
But if I didn’t, then why am I not moving?
“Stop.” His partner puts a hand on his arm, drawing him back. “You saw her drinking just like I did. She’sdrunk.”
“Not that drunk,” I assert. “I’mbarelytipsy.”
“She’sbarelytipsy,” his partner teases. “And besides, you have me confused with someone else, surely. Someonemuchnicer.”
When he rounds on me again, his fingers are under my chin, tilting my head up. “Do you want us to leave you alone, little cat? We can find you someone not so cute as us to tumble into, if you’d rather. We could even tug that cute little tail of yours and take you back to your friends. It won’t hurt our feelings much, I swear.”
“I don’t need you to take me back to anyone,” I reply, trying to keep myself from sounding worse off than I am. I wasn’t lying when I’d said I was tipsy…but I’m definitely closer to drunk than sober. As it is, these two are not only intriguing, but fun. Their conversation, their attention, are drowning out the background noise of a treasonous brain that wants my night to suck.
“If you don’t want us to take you back…want us to lead you away?” he goes on, teasingly. “Can I wrap a leash around that pretty throat of yours and take you home with us? We’ll even get you an upgrade for your tail—”
His partnergrowls,drawing both of our attention.
“Or maybe I’m only allowed to tease you here,” the one in front of me goes on with a sigh. “While he watches to make sure I don’t do somethingterribleto you.”
“Is that what he normally does?” I ask without thinking, head cocked to the side as I look at the guy standing a bit further away. “Watch?” I know how I say it, but I don’t expect the slight tension in his shoulders that dissipates when he snorts out a laugh.
“Be careful, little cat,” he warns, looming closer without any other warning. “Because I’m only alittlemore polite than him. What did you say, lover?” The words are obviously directed to his partner, but the gloved hand that comes up, fingers encircling my throat, is a love letter addressed to me alone. “We’ll put a collar and leash on her and take her home?”
His voice makes my breath catch, and my fingers tighten on the wood of the kitchen island as two girls come in, their eyes on us and the precursor to gossip on their faces.
