The Captive Page 0,38

thirsty?"

Suzan was pouring a glassful of the clear ruby liquid. She held it out to him with a smile. The delivery boy wet his lips, looking dazed.

Cassie could understand why. She thought there was probably no guy in the world who could resist Suzan, with her cloud of strawberry-gold hair and her low-cut blouse, holding out a crystal glass. Suzan leaned over a little farther as she offered it to him, and the guy took the drink.

Deborah and Faye exchanged knowing glances. "I'll go move his car around the side," Deborah murmured, and left.

"My name's Suzan," Suzan said to the guy, as she sank into the cushiony couch beside him. "What's yours?"

Deborah had barely returned when the doorbell rang again.

Chapter Ten

"Yuck," Deborah said, as they peered out the parlor window again. This delivery guy was skinny, with lank hair and acne.

Faye was already moving to the front door. "Pizza? We didn't order any pizza. I don't care who you called to confirm it, we don't want it." She shut the door in his face, and after a few minutes of hanging around the porch he went away.

As his delivery van was pulling out, another one pulled in. The tall, blond guy with the cardboard box kept looking behind him at the receding rival van as he walked to the door.

"Now this is more like it," Faye said.

When they brought the blond delivery guy into the den, Suzan and the muscular one were entangled on the couch. The pair disengaged themselves, the boy still looking foggy, and Faye poured the new guest a drink.

Within the next hour, the doorbell rang four more times and they collected two more delivery boys. Suzan divided her attention between the muscular one and a new one with high cheekbones who said he was part Native American. The other new one, who looked younger than the others and had soft-brown eyes, sat nervously next to Cassie.

"This is weird," he said, looking around the room, and taking another gulp from his glass. "This is so weird ... I don't know what I'm doing. I've got deliveries to make..." Then he said, "Gee, you're pretty."

Gee? thought Cassie. Gosh. Golly. Oh, my God. "Thanks," she said weakly, and glanced around the room for help.

None was forthcoming. Faye, looking sultry and exuding sensuality, was running one long crimson fingernail up and down the blond guy's sleeve. Suzan was sunk deep in the couch with an admirer on either side. Deborah was sitting on the arm of an overstuffed chair, eyes slitted and rather scornful.

"Can I put my arm around you?" the brown-eyed boy was asking hesitantly.

Boys aren't toys, Cassie thought. Even if this one did look like a teddy bear. Faye had brought these guys here to play with, and that was wrong... wasn't it? They didn't know what they were doing; they didn't have any choice.

"I just moved up here last summer from South Carolina," the boy was going on. "I had a girl back there... but now I'm so lonely ..."

Cassie knew the feeling. This was a nice guy, her age, and his brown eyes, though a little glassy, were appealing. She didn't scream when he put his arm around her, where it rested warmly and a little awkwardly around her shoulders.

She felt light-headed. Something about the incense ... or the crystals, she thought. The music seemed to be pulsing inside her. She should be embarrassed by what was going on in this room-she was embarrassed-but there was something exciting about it too.

Some of the candles had gone out, making it darker.

The warmth around Cassie's shoulders was nice. She thought of yesterday night, when she'd wanted so much for someone to comfort her, to hold her. To make her feel not alone.

"I don't know why, but I really like you," the brown-eyed boy was saying. "I never felt like this before."

Why not do it? She was already-bad. And she wanted to be close to somebody. , . .

The brown-eyed boy leaned in to kiss her.

That was when Cassie knew it was wrong. Not the way kissing Adam was wrong, but wrong for her. She didn't want to kiss him. Every individual cell in her body was protesting, panicking. She wiggled out from under him like an eel and jumped up.

Faye and the blond guy were also on their feet, heading out of the room. So were Suzan and her unmatched pair.

"We're just going upstairs," Faye said in her husky voice. "There's more room up there. Lots of