“No tights.”
“Daphne and Fred?”
“No ascots.”
“Hmmm . . . How about a nun and a priest?”
He laughed at that suggestion. “No way. That’s just all kinds of wrong.”
“Wonder Woman and Superman?”
“No capes or spandex.”
Time to shoot for the costume idea I actually wanted. “A flapper girl and a gangster?”
He hesitated while contemplating. “I could live with that.” Score.
I smiled broadly. “Thanks.”
“You owe me.”
I licked my lower lip before biting it. I ran my finger up his thigh. “I could think of a few ways to pay you back.”
His jaw ticked. “It’s not very nice to play with me in public, knowing full well that I can’t react.”
“Chicken,” I taunted.
“Tease.”
Conner and Sophie returned a moment later. She was smiling, but Conner looked annoyed and tired.
“Never again do we take this one with,” he said to us, hitching his thumb at Sophie.
She looked affronted. “Whatever. I did well for a beginner.”
Conner shook his head and cocked his brow. “No, Babe, you didn’t.” He pulled her close and pecked her lips. “I spent more time in the woods getting your disc than I spent actually playing the game. And I don’t even know how you managed to toss the disc backwards. Awful. Just awful.”
She hit him on the arm. “Jerk.” Within seconds she was smiling again. “So Adam, Conner said you two are going to have a Halloween party. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love the idea, but I think it’s silly to host a Halloween party that you won’t even dress up for.”
“Adam’s dressing up,” I gloated, proud of my powers of persuasion.
Sophie gave Conner a death glare. “You said that neither of you dressed up, no matter what.”
Conner narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, focusing a death glare of his own directly at Adam. “What the hell, man?”
Adam shrugged nonchalantly and cocked his head in my direction. “She wants me to, so I changed my mind.”
Conner huffed. “Next you’re going to say that you agreed to matching costumes.” When Adam didn’t answer, Conner’s eyes widened. “Dude, why are you so pussy whipped?”
Adam gave him a shit-eating grin. “What can I say? She has a really nice pu—” I slapped him on his chest mid-word.
“Do NOT finish that sentence,” I warned.
He laughed and rubbed his chest. “Well, you do,” he said by way of explanation.
“Ewww,” Sophie said to Adam, but then winked at me. Perverts, both of them. Sophie smacked Conner’s butt. “Guess who’s going to be a convict? I’ll give you a little hint. His name starts with C-O-N, so it’s perfect.”
Conner didn’t look amused in the slightest. “I’m not dressing up.”
Her lips tipped into a sly smile. “But if you go as a convict, then I’ll dress up as a naughty cop.”
“I like the visual, Babe. I really, really do, but I’m not changing my mind.”
“I’ll have handcuffs to use on my misbehaving inmate,” she said in a sing-song voice.
“I want an orange jumpsuit, no stripes,” he said solemnly, but there was a definite glint in his eyes.
She kissed his cheek. “We have time to practice my handcuff skills before the party. By the time Halloween gets here in a few weeks, you’ll be happy you changed your mind. Promise.”
***
Halloween arrived, and I was twelve weeks along. I had my regular check up with Dr. Bradley yesterday. The baby was healthy, and luckily everything with the pregnancy was as it should be. I’d heard the heartbeat for the first time. The tiny thump, thump sound was the single most beautiful sound in the universe. In that moment, I realized that I’d truly come to love my unborn child with a fervor I’d never expected. I only hoped Adam would feel the same way.
I still hadn’t told him, and the guilt of my silence was starting to weigh on me like never before. So many times the words were there, just on the tip of my tongue, but I choked them back down every time. I felt brick after brick being thrown on my conscience. Soon I was going to be buried.
I’d only gained about five pounds and barely had a bump showing. Even so, I wore a lot of looser shirts and did my best to keep Adam from looking too closely or touching my stomach when I was naked. I didn’t have sex with him during the times when I should be having a period. I even went as far as to tell Adam that I didn’t want to go on birth control when he’d suggested it, so he still used a condom every time.
Sophie was starting to get irritated and less willing to help me keep my secret. It was wearing on her conscience too, and not only for Adam’s sake. She really hated that she was hiding something from Conner. But without Sophie, there was no way I would’ve been able to pull it off. On mornings that Adam was at our place, she brewed decaf coffee—she was not a happy camper about that. The first few times we went out to the bars, she rigged the designated driver toothpick drawing by breaking all four of them and having me draw first. After Adam offered to be DD instead of me, we had to change tactics. Sophie came up with a fake bet that she could last longer than I could without drinking. The boys thought it was a stupid bet until she included them in on it and made the wager five hundred dollars. The boys lasted a whopping three days. Sophie was a real trooper, not drinking for weeks to keep up the pretense of the fake bet.
The main reason for the whole charade and dishonesty was because I was happy—truly happy. Sure, Adam and I still fought like cats and dogs at times. No one could rile me up and piss me off until I was blue in the face like he could. But no one could make my insides melt and my heart fill up like he could either. Not to mention the intense physical chemistry that was always present. I loved that we could be in a room full of girls and he only had eyes for me. I would watch him brush off advances left and right. Every day, I fell further and further in love with him.
The second reason was because, in some ways, I felt as if he was still keeping our relationship at an arm’s length. He’d tell me he loved me, but not very often. Neither of us threw around the L-word on a regular basis, and we never said it in public. I told him that my parents would like to meet him, but he still said that he wasn’t ready for that step. Heck, he hadn’t even mentioned if he’d told his parents about me at all. Anytime I brought up wanting to know anything about his family, or showed interest in meeting them, he blew me off or changed the subject. He made no promises of a future or that he had a desire to move forward beyond the point that we were already at. I kept telling myself that if he’d just show me some sign of a deeper commitment, I could tell him about the baby without reservations.
“Penny for your thoughts?”
I smiled warmly at Sophie. “There’s a whole lot going on in my head right now, so I’d have to charge you a dollar.”
“Greedy bitch.” She took a seat next to me on the couch. “It’s getting late. We should get ready and head out soon.”
We had both showered a few hours ago, but hadn’t gotten past the stage of drying our hair. In fact, we were still lounging in our bathrobes.
We went to our respective rooms to get dolled up. Standing in front of my mirror, I literally shook my body and all of my worries out with it. I looked stupid doing it, but it did the trick. I was going to have a good time tonight, come Hell or high water.
Thirty minutes later, my hair was cascading in curls under the large feather headband across my forehead. I bent down and clipped my fishnet stockings to the garter belt and pulled down my red fringed dress. The fringes did a great job in hiding my teeny bump. My eye makeup was light, but my lips were blood-red. I pulled on my elbow length black gloves, slid on some bangle bracelets, and made a kissy face in the mirror.
I met Sophie in the kitchen. She looked super-sexy in her tight, little police uniform jumper, black knee high stiletto boots, and aviator sunglasses.
She had handcuffs and a nightstick hanging from her belt. Before walking out the door, she slung a large leather duffle bag over her shoulder. Judging by the way she had to exert her energy, whatever was in it was very heavy. When I asked, she told me it was a surprise.
Downtown Madison was absolutely crazy on Halloween, so I was very glad that we were going to be at Adam’s house, instead of at the bars. There was no way I would’ve chanced getting bumped or manhandled in the crowded bar scene, so this was perfect.
The party was already full-fledged when we walked in. All around us were friends, and admittedly a lot of strangers, dressed in a wide range of costumes. Drake was the first familiar face I spotted. He was dressed as Hulk Holgan.
“Love the costume, Drake,” I said, laughing at the huge wrestling belt around his waist and long blond mustache. His black hair was covered with the worst blond wig I’d ever seen and a red bandana.
“Thanks, sweet thing. Wanna wrestle?”
I shook my head and rolled my eyes. “You wish.”
Sophie came up behind me, still toting her oversized duffle.
“Hey, Drake.” Sophie had met Drake when we all went out several weeks ago. He let her know about his huge crush on her, and she thought it was flattering.
“Oh, the ever lovely, Sophie. If you weren’t Conner’s, I would do naughty things to you. You’d have to beat me off of you with that nightstick.” He wiggled his eyebrows.
Sophie laughed at his theatrics. “I might hit you anyway for good measure.”
“Conner and Adam are lucky bastards.”
“Don’t we know it,” Adam said, coming up from behind Drake and placing a firm hand on his shoulder. “I think it’s time you go refill your cup, Hulk.”
Drake chuckled. “Ladies, it’s been a pleasure.” He tipped his cup and walked away.
Ah, Adam. He looked good enough to eat. He was wearing black dress pants, wing tip shoes, a white dress shirt with the top buttons undone and the sleeves rolled up and secured with red bands, and a fitted black vest. He had a gun holster on with a fake gun in it. But the finishing touch was the black bowler hat. It also looked as if he hadn’t shaved in a few days. I knew it was weird, but I really wanted to lick the scruff. For his sake and mine, I was glad I refrained. That would’ve been really awkward.
I shivered as his gaze drifted slowly over my body. I could tell that he was appreciating me in my costume as much as I was appreciating him in his. He grabbed me by the hips and pulled me into him a little roughly, squeezing my butt in the process. He leaned in close and whispered, “A fair warning, Princess. I’m going to tear those stockings off you with my teeth later tonight.”
I pulled back and looked him straight in the eyes and whispered back, “A fair warning, Adam. I’ll be disappointed if you don’t.” I kissed him, not caring who was watching. “By the way, I love the hat,” I said into his lips. I spun around and discretely brushed my hand across the front of his pants before walking away.
“TEASE!” I heard him call out to me. I looked over my shoulder, winked, and then kept walking. My inner vixen was clapping and congratulating me. I’d finally mastered the art of winking.
I scurried through the living room, looking for where Sophie had run off to. I didn’t see her anywhere, but I spotted Courtney in the corner, laughing and drinking with Zach. She looked stunning in an angel costume. It was just the right amount of sexy and beautiful, with feathers and chiffon. He was dressed as a cowboy, and the look suited him well. Over the past few weeks, they’d moved into a friends with benefits sort of arrangement.
Courtney noticed me a second after I noticed her and waved me over.
“You look amazing,” I complimented, hugging her.
“You too,” she gushed.
Zach and I exchanged greetings.
“Hey, have either of you seen where Sophie went? I lost her.”
Courtney nodded. “I saw her go into Conner’s room.”
“Oh. I’ll leave them alone then.”
Zach chuckled. “No need. Conner’s right there.” He pointed toward the doorway. Sure enough, Conner was there, talking with some people I didn’t recognize.
“Thanks. I’ll catch up with you both later, okay?”
Courtney smiled into her cup. “You got it.”
I opened Conner’s door and peeked inside. The room was empty. “Sophie?” I called out.
Her head popped out from Conner’s closet. She looked at me, standing in the doorway, and used her hand to motion me to her. “Close the door,” she instructed. “Lock it too.”
I did as she asked, although I had no idea why. I walked to the closet and found her crouching over the big duffle bag. I kneeled down next to her, and it took me a second to realize the duffle was full of cans of non-alcoholic beer. She handed me a red plastic cup and proceeded to pour beer into it until it was full.
I took a sip. “Wow, this is freezing.”
“I put them in the freezer for about an hour before we left, so that they wouldn’t be too warm by the end of the night.”
“Smart.”
She frowned “No, it’s not smart. Smart would have been not going along with this as long as I have. I’m hiding things from my boyfriend and from my friend. She blew out a long breath, zipped back up the evidence, and pushed the bag into the deep corner of the closet. “I’m going to drink tonight, which means our pretend bet will be over. I brought you these, so you would have a way to drink too. But after tonight, I’m done with helping you keep this a secret. Adam has a right to know.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “What does that mean? Are you going to tell him?”
“No, but I’m not going to help you hide it anymore,” she said sternly.
“Okay. I understand. It’s wasn’t fair of me to put you in this position in the first place.”
“You need to tell him, Sienna. Every day you wait is going to be one day closer to him figuring it out on his own. He deserves to be told by you directly.”
“I know it’s time . . . Just not tonight. Tonight, I just want to enjoy.”
She nodded and gave me a reluctant smile. “I know, and we will have fun. I promise no more serious talk tonight.”
“Thank you for, well, everything.”
She pulled me in for a hug, some of the NA beer spilling out of the cup in the process.
I took a drink and wrinkled my nose. “This tastes disgusting.”
“I’m glad I don’t have to drink that shit.”
Sophie and I went back to the party, got her a cup of beer from the keg, and spent some time catching up with Courtney and, yes, even Cassie. She was dressed as a slutty school girl. It suited her. Sophie and I went to look for our boyfriends, eventually finding them playing beer pong against a guy and girl who I’d seen around, but didn’t know by name. Everyone in the kitchen cheered when Conner threw the final ping pong ball to win the game.
Adam saw me watching him, and a glorious smile lit up his face. “Who lost the bet?” he asked, pointing at our cups.
“It was a mutual decision to end the bet,” Sophie answered before I could.
“Thank God. I thought that bet would never end. Let’s play some beer pong, Princess.”
“Nope. She’s my partner,” Sophie interjected. “You know that we never play with anyone else. Or have you forgotten all of the times we’ve kicked your asses?” she asked smugly.
He laughed. “How could I forget? Fine. You two play against Conner and me. This time we WILL win. We’re on a streak.”
“Okay, but Sienna and I need to use the bathroom first. We’ll be back in a second.”
Conner said he’d set up our cups, and Sophie grabbed a juice pitcher out of their kitchen cupboard. “We’ll fill this with beer on our way back,” she said to Conner when he gave her a questioning look.
“There’s still plenty of beer in this pitcher,” he pointed out.
“I like mine fresh from the tap, so it’s nice and cold,” she replied.
We hurried straight to Conner’s closet and filled the pitcher with the NA beer. “You better bring you’re A-game cause the less of this crap I have to drink, the better.”
“Pfft. When don’t I bring my A-game?”
“True that, homegirl.” She pounded her chest twice and gave me the peace symbol. I returned the gesture, giggling.
We walked back to the kitchen, and Sophie poured about an inch of NA beer into the pyramid of cups on our side of the table.
“Ladies first,” Adam declared.
Sophie threw first, her ball bouncing once before landing in a cup. Conner had unsuccessfully tried to block it. She laughed as he took away the cup.
As Conner fished out the ball from his newly acquired cup of beer, I took my shot. It landed directly in one of their cups without even bouncing. “Ooh, nothing but net,” I said cockily.
Adam took the ball out of the cup and drank the beer before setting it aside.
“Lucky shot, Princess.” There was a slight challenge in his voice.
“What can I say? I’m a lucky girl,” I replied, multiple meanings in my words.
He chuckled and threw his ball, landing it in one of our cups. The worst part about this game was drinking beer that you just fished a dirty ping pong ball out of. Yuck! Couple that with the fact that this was NA beer. Double Yuck!
When the game was tied, Sophie and I started to bring out the big guns—sex appeal. Our game had drawn quite a crowd, which made me keep my gestures pretty PG-13. Sophie, on the other hand, had no problem playing as dirty as possible. When she smacked her butt with her nightstick, Conner’s ball completely missed the table and went across the kitchen floor. In the end, we won by three cups. They demanded a re-match, which we also won.
Still undefeated, we called it quits after the second game and went into the living room. Adam and Conner went to get more beer, and Sophie and I snuck into Conner’s room to refill mine.
When we re-entered the living room, I saw a girl dressed as Catwoman clawing at Adam’s chest and basically rubbing against him like a scratching post. He wasn’t exactly smiling, but he didn’t look like he disliked the situation either. Undiluted jealousy shot through my veins. Sure, lots of girls flirted with him all the time, but something felt different about this girl. Maybe it was my sixth sense raising a red flag, or maybe I was just being a paranoid idiot. Regardless, she was going to find out that I had some claws of my own.
Believing Lies Page 24