crossed. “They’re being gross,” she mutters.
And wow, are they ever.
Reyn is leaning against his Jeep, arms hanging loosely around Vandy’s waist. She’s gazing into his eyes—yuck—and smiling as she whispers something. He gives her a smirk and a slow, disgustingly gratuitous kiss before letting her go.
She turns to us, shrugging. “Sorry, but movie night with my boyfriend was my cover story.” Still, as soon as we start toward Vandy’s car, Reyn grabs my arm, pulling me to a stop.
“About tonight—”
Groaning, I say, “Let me guess. Don’t let her drink. Don’t let her leave a drink unattended. Don’t let her dance with anyone. Don’t let her be seen dancing by anyone. Don’t let her blah blah, yadda yadda.” I give him a slow, hard look, folding my arms. “This is girls’ night, buddy! You have no power here.”
Reyn stares at me, his handsome face perfectly blank. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill. “I was going to tell you to make sure my girl has a good time.” He raises an eyebrow, extending the bill to me between two pinched fingers.
“Oh,” I say, blinking in surprise. “Well, yeah. Obviously.”
Still.
Aww.
Vandy and Caroline are already waiting in her car. I slide in the backseat and we all wave Reyn goodbye as she starts off.
“Damn, you girls look hot.” I peer over the seat to get a better look at Vandy’s dress. It’s short and sparkly with a low cut front. I whistle my approval. “Reyn’s really cool with you wearing that out?”
“He picked it out himself, actually.” Her cheeks turn pink. “You know he likes it when I dress sexy.”
There’s more behind it, of course. He loves the fact she’s confident enough now to put herself out there. There was a time when she wasn’t. It doesn’t hurt that he trusts her.
“Well, when you reject all the guys that are definitely going to hit on you tonight, send them my way. After the last twenty-four hours, I need some kind of distraction.” I can’t have sex with them, but I’m totally willing to grind up on a nice piece of meat—any piece of meat that isn’t Heston fucking Wilcox.
Caroline twists back and looks at me. “So what’s going on? Why couldn’t you come to the game last night?”
I launch into the whole thing with Heston—well, not the whole thing, but enough. I explain how he’s using his teacher leverage to force me into doing all his grunt work and that I spent Friday night setting up the natatorium for the swim invitational.
“Which, by the way, is totally stupid,” I complain. “You’d think it was prom with all those pointless decorations.” Vandy and Caroline share a look, both knowing damn well that I’m a complete decoration whore. I offer, “There wasn’t even any glitter. It was all boring banners and dumb ropes with the floaty ball things. And I can tell you now that it’s a lot harder to get those ropes across the pool when you can’t swim.”
“That’s bullshit,” Vandy says, glancing back in the rearview mirror. “You need to tell someone that he’s over-stepping.”
“Well, that’s not everything,” I say, sighing. “He’s also been asking questions about the Devils.”
Caroline frowns. “What kind of questions?”
“He wants to know who’s in and he thinks I know because he’s seen my tattoo.” I quickly add, “You know, on account of swim.”
The girls exchange a worried look.
Vandy asks, “Did he guess that you’re a Devil?”
“God, no,” I laugh. “But only because he thinks I’m just a Plaything. He thinks one of the Devils branded me like a cow.”
Caroline snorts. “Sexist pig.”
I laugh, already feeling so much lighter. This night was the best idea we’ve had in a long time. “Yep. He’s going to be shook when he finds out they let girls into his secret society.” I tug at the hem of my black, sparkly skirt. “Anyway, when I wouldn’t fess up to anything, he made me do all the setup work in retaliation.”
“He’s such an asshole!” Vandy bursts, forehead puckered angrily. “Why does he want to know all this, anyway?”
Shrugging, I answer, “Hell if I know. He could just be curious. I mean, he was a Devil himself and was pretty much why they got disbanded in the first place.” The lights of the club up ahead illuminate the dark street. “But with Heston, you never know. He’s always working some kind of angle. I definitely don’t trust him.”
“You shouldn’t,” Vandy says. “No one should.”
“I still can’t believe the school let