He grins and spins me around so my ass is pressed against him. He’s hard, he knows it and I know it, I just hope no one else does. With his mouth at my neck, we dance together, probably a little too raunchily given that there are children present. I gyrate my hips in a circle, then shake my ass. Irish and Tina dance next to us, and the two of us share a smile. She’s a beautiful woman, with all that red hair, and I can understand why Irish can’t take his eyes off her.
“Can we leave the party for a little while?” Vinnie asks in my ear. “I want you, right now.”
I’d never admit this out loud, but I kind of want to eat the rest of my dinner. We can have sex tonight after the party, so I literally want to have my cake and eat it too.
“Can you wait an hour or so?” I ask, spinning to face him and wrapping my arms around his neck. “We can’t miss her cutting the cake.”
His eyes narrow and then fill with amusement. “You don’t care about her cutting the cake, you just want cake, don’t you?”
“You were there when we ordered it! It’s going to be the best cake anyone has ever eaten; I can’t miss it,” I say, pouting. “Can’t we please wait until after cake?”
“Well my hard-on has gone,” he says, kissing my forehead. “With all this fuckin’ food talk, so yes, you enjoy your cake, babe, but after that you’re all mine.”
“I’m always all yours,” I say, pulling him back to where I was sitting, where my plate of food is just waiting for me. I turn to look at him, just in time to catch a glimpse of his expression at my comment. His eyes light up possessively, and I see him adjust himself. Is he still hard?
“Faye, can we cut the cake?” Vinnie calls out to her, making me laugh.
“What’s the rush?” Faye asks, walking by hand in hand with Clover. She looks between Vinnie and me and scowls. “It’s my birthday, can you two control yourselves for one night? The only person getting birthday se—” She looks down at her daughter. “I mean, birthday fun should be me.”
“Just cut the cake, woman,” Vinnie growls playfully. It makes me think of the growling noises he makes in bed, and suddenly I do wish Faye would cut the cake right now. Maybe we could eat the cake in bed, naked.
“Fine,” Faye says, giving in and smiling at me. “Only because you did all this for me.”
We sing “Happy Birthday,” and Faye cuts into the giant chocolate mud cake.
I have two pieces.
Shortly after that, it’s me who drags Vinnie to the bedroom. However, after eating so much we were both in food comas and weren’t in the mood to do anything except sleep naked, holding each other.
In the middle of the night though, we make up for it.
And in the morning.
* * *
I have cake for breakfast.
I help clean up and then jump in the shower. Vinnie is meeting with Talon again today, and although I tried to get him to tell me what it was all about, I didn’t really get any answers. Vinnie just said that Talon is going to give him an update. Trace and Jess are in the kitchen, and I don’t know them too well, so I stay in my room with Colt, writing an essay for my online class. With everything going on, studying seems pointless, but it keeps my mind active, and I actually like learning. I really want to get my business degree, for myself, no one else. I studied accounting for my father, and while I’m good at it, I don’t really enjoy it.
When lunchtime comes around, I’m surprised when Tracker and Rake come into my room.
“Hey,” I say, closing Vinnie’s laptop. “Is everything okay?”
Tracker just smiles at me and says, “Want to go on an adventure?”
I arch my brow and clasp my hands together. “What did you have in mind?”
* * *
“I think my first question is going to be, why?” I say, looking out the car window. They’ve brought me to the woods. The fucking woods. “Or what? Oh my god, are you going to kill me? I thought we were all getting along great. Is this because I ate the last piece of cake? Or because I showed Bailey my Chanel bag and now she wants one?”
They both ignore me and get out of the car. I sit there, wondering why the hell we are in the woods. This didn’t sound like an adventure to me. I was a victim of a severe case of false advertising. Rake opens my door and says, “Come on.”
I get out.
Tracker pulls out a gun and hands it to me. I hold it like it’s a bag of poop, away from my body, stretching my arm out as far as it can go. “A gun lesson?”
“Yep,” Tracker says, flashing me a lopsided smile. “Followed by ice cream.”
“Well, that softens the blow a little,” I admit, holding the gun properly, stepping away from the two of them, and pointing it toward the trees. “What do I aim at? I don’t want to hurt any animals that might get in the way. Don’t you have some cans or something?”
“Follow us,” Tracker says, leading the way. We walk through the woods for about five minutes until we come to a clearing. There’s a wooden fence running along it, with about ten cans tied to the fence, so when they fall you can put them back up, I’m guessing.
“This is cool,” I have to admit.
“It is,” Rake says, then goes into teacher mode. “Now, safety first. We don’t want you accidentally shooting us in the nuts or something.”
He shows me how to put the safety on and off, how to hold the gun properly, and how to aim.