by Kendra Mase
Avril turned around in her seat to make sure that she was behind her. “And holidays, of course, mean…”
“Is this going to turn into a guessing game?” Jack muttered, turning the key until the engine came alive, rumbling beneath Katherine’s feet.
Avril seemed only encouraged. “Celebration time. You’re not dead.”
“Yet.”
“You made it through the week. If you don’t have a party on a Saturday, what are you really doing?”
Not sure if she was looking for an answer, Katherine stretched against her seat belt. She peered out the front window as they’d already turned back onto the streets, crowded and filled with lights beginning to flicker on as the night set in. “Working, usually.”
Jack’s index finger tapped the wheel as if in agreement.
Avril only narrowed her strikingly green gaze at him.
“I didn’t say a word.”
The only one who continued to say more than a few was Avril. She talked to Katherine as if they had been friends for ages rather than a few minutes. She barely took a moment to breathe between stories. She touched up her lips in the mirror as she rambled about the burlesque lounge, Rosin, and parties, and gave slight mention to her boyfriend.
She kicked her heels up on the dash before Jack swatted them down.
Jack slowed at a light and took a wide turn onto the bridge. Katherine crossed it once before when she first entered the city. Though she couldn’t see it now in the darkness, she was sure that the charcoal-hued water of the Ash roared beneath them. Across the bridge, luxurious townhomes built what had to be over a hundred years ago lined the horizon.
Each was trimmed in various tints and oddly shaped windows.
“Will he be here?” Katherine asked, glancing toward Jack to see if he reacted.
Avril popped her lips, capping the tube of scarlet. “Who?”
“Your boyfriend.”
Jack snorted.
“No. Definitely not,” Avril answered, her tone a noticeable octave lower than before. “This isn’t really his scene.”
“You mean your life?”
It was Avril’s turn to give a dark look to the driver. He, however, was too busy focusing as he pulled into a spot along the curb. Avril hopped out the passenger door before he managed to put the car in park and left the door open as she trampled up the steps of a dark violet home, tall and narrow.
Standing there for a moment, the structure arched above the cracked sidewalk.
Other people greeted Avril the moment she made it to the door, everyone similarly dressed in tight jeans and heels. Faces were made-up with makeup and glitter, exactly how Katherine always imagined once upon a time that parties would look. Low light in the entryway welcomed her as she stepped inside.
Emilie wanted her to get out of the shop. She’d almost begged for weeks. Or more likely, from the moment Katherine arrived. But Katherine rarely walked farther past the block the shop was located on until her aunt assigned Katherine delivery duties to put an end to her hermit tendencies. They were no longer an option, but her opponent.
Her aunt probably cheered with every step Katherine took into the ornately decorated townhouse, even if Katherine was certainly not dressed for whatever occasion she was now a part of alongside Avril Queen—and Jack.
Katherine swallowed. She hoped saliva covered nerves.
As the door shut, a warm form pressed in behind her.
With a glance back, Jack still barely looked at her through his dark lashes, nearly closed to his cheekbones as he took a deep breath. In a single hand, without notice, he slipped the couple of canvas totes Katherine had, now limp and empty, layered over her one shoulder.
They collapsed in on each other as they fell on a bench, where about a dozen different keys were also left in a homemade pottery dish.
“Thanks,” Katherine was about to say. The words almost passed her lips, but not by the time Jack already moved past her.
In the living room, a group of others greeted him with raised hands.
Jack smiled that easy grin he always appeared to have, touching at least a single corner of his lips, except for when he looked at Katherine. He flopped down on the ottoman next to a girl with loose strawberry waves.
She tugged on his shirt until he swayed into her. His grin only faltered slightly as he brushed a single peck to her plump lips.
Oh.
Right, of course.
Katherine glanced away, forcing herself to look anywhere but the living room or her shoes, dingy and worn.
Katherine had been to a party before. She’d been to more than one. She wasn’t much of a fan of them, or at least never considered herself to be, but maybe she had a little bit of Emilie inside of her, daring her to go out. Find life.
They just never ended particularly well.
The feeling was back in her stomach, heart thrumming as people looked at her curiously, knowing that when she ended up going home, no one would notice that she was gone.
No one noticed she was ever there to begin with.
But then again, none of those parties were anything like this. Warm and bright and stark with stretching noise from the music, never overtaking voices of stories yelled between one another.
The townhouse was everything Katherine did and didn’t expect in a home owned by a Queen. She stepped down the sleek tiled hallway where an ornate rug ran all the way to the kitchen, where three people leaned over the edge of the marbled kitchen island. Antique sconces curved off the walls and cornice adorned the ceiling wherever Katherine looked up.
No one stopped her as she wandered. She studied all the knickknacks left on shelves and the postcards that littered the front of the fridge from places all over the world. Notes were written on every single one, not just for show. Katherine only stopped herself once she made her way back around to the living space again, pausing to scan the tightly stuffed bookshelves on either side of the archway.
Her fingers traced over lightly worn spines.
“Do you read much?”
Katherine took a step back, startled at the voice next to her.
“I only ask because it’s usually only one or the other around here,” the man murmured lowly. Dark brown curls women would kill for pressed around his cheekbones as he assessed her. The smallest of smiles popped out from his lip, exposing a crooked canine.
Switching his drink from one hand to the other, he extended a damp palm. “Reed.”
Reed. Katherine remembered that name from the car. The one that was calling Jack.
Peering from his hand back up to his face, she quickly realized she was supposed to take it. “Right, um, Katherine.”
He nodded, releasing her, but not before lifting the back of her palm to his lips.
She watched as his full lips gently brushed against her skin, sending a wave of nerves all the way up to her elbow. A few curious eyes turned.
“So, you’re the one that Avril brought along from DuCain. Emilie, the seamstress’s new apprentice, correct? I’d say that we were due for a new face, but...” Reed let his words trail off with a single shrug. “Are you hiding?”
Lips parted and still feeling the heat from his mouth on her knuckles, Katherine’s eyes flicked back to the room before the two of them.
Reed only shook his head and brought his glass of murky, clear liquid back to his lips again. “I see my deduction skills haven’t wavered. I was worried since I haven’t been back for a bit.”
“You’ve been out of the city?” Katherine ventured.
“Traveling, sort of. I’m finishing up the final stretch of my Ph.D. but have been luckily able to do it wherever I choose, whether that be here in-house or the south of France.”
“So you chose not to do it here.”
Biting the side of his tongue, Reed weighed her words, looking around the room again.
This time it was Katherine who couldn’t help herself, noting as they landed on a wavy-haired guy by the fireplace. His soft cheeks were pronounced when he laughe
d, though he tried to cover it by looking down into his drink.
Interrupting her stare, Avril pounded back down the stairs. She swung around the railing, changed out of her corset and pants. She easily found herself a seat in someone’s lap.
Reed blinked a few times, taking a long sip of his drink until ice clanged against the side of the tumbler. “I needed a change of pace, you know?”
“But you live here?” Katherine said carefully, trying not to seem awkward when she didn’t move away.
“Yes, Avril and I have been together since high school. And ever since Queen got to the city, she wanted one of these houses, and damn, if she didn’t get one the moment she managed enough cash. The look on the realtor’s face was priceless.” Reed shook his head at the memory. “It’s become something of a house for all of us since then. We’ve, however, done most of the decorating.”
Obviously. Looking between the two of them, Reed and Avril, it was hard not to notice that they were something of a matching pair. Well dressed, tailored, and filled with an air of… well, something Katherine never had. She wondered how formidable the two of them were side by side.
“You have good taste.”
That small yet wicked smile that made the corners of his eyes tight was back. “Thank you.”
“Can I ask you something?”
He raised his eyebrows. “I think you already did.”
Katherine clamped her lips shut.
“Go on.”
“How?”
“How what?”
Katherine looked over the room, at Avril and the house, as if that would encompass it all.
Reed’s eyes widened with understanding. Perhaps it wasn’t the first time he was asked such a question. “Walked into the wrong place at the right time. You know she used to work for your aunt, right?”
Katherine nodded. Emilie mentioned it once when they first went over where to go and who to know.
“A short tenure, but one nonetheless when Avril needed nothing more than a job, your aunt was basically the only person who would give her one. Queen was seventeen when she stumbled onto Rosin’s stage one night. Cherry, the owner at Rosin, nearly kicked her out then and there, but instead…” Reed shrugged.
“She became Queen.”
Reed only followed Katherine’s gaze to where it rested on Avril before pulling away, not wanting her notice. If she did, she didn’t do anything but turn her chin. Smile at her friend.
“Are we going to play or not?” Avril called out across the room.
Reed set his empty cup aside. Without looking toward Katherine, he made his way into the center of the den. “If you insist.”
“I do.”
“I’m still going to win.”
As Katherine watched the two of them banter, Avril pushed off whoever she was using as a human backrest and grinned at the challenge. All around her, the rest of the small gathering of people already smiling boozy smiles began to collect in the living space. They pushed Katherine with them until she was in the corner of a wide circle.
“We’ll see about that, Reedy darling.”
Immediately, people began to set up what looked to be a large game of duck, duck, goose. Only in this version, shot glasses from every state littered the floor. The coffee table was shoved out of the way, and Jack reached back onto one of the rounded built-in shelves, retrieving what looked to be a large deck of cards.
He presented them with a flourish.
“Why, thank you, love. But don’t think it will get you any bonus points,” Avril reminded.
“Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“Good, then, ground rules,” Avril went on. The final person standing as the rest of the group sat down. Even Katherine found a spot, squeezing between two people who only gave her a light smile.
She attempted one of her own back.
Across, Jack extended his legs out in front of him, taking up space as the lanky woman next to him attempted to tug on the loose sleeve of his shirt again. His eyes merely shifted to her and back to Avril standing in the center, locking there, and not once moving as she spoke.
“Should you really be the one to go over them?” Reed asked tiredly.
Avril grabbed one of the few bottles of liquor off the floor and pointed it at him. “Shut up. Anyway.” She flashed the label to the crowd. It was nearly golden, and the response was one of oohs and ahhs. Words were printed in a fiery red. “You stocked well, as if you knew this would happen, Reed. Lion vodka?”
A few chuckles.
“What’s Lion vodka?” Katherine tried to whisper to the girl next to her.
Her eyes flashed, leaning in to explain. “It’s some kind of inside joke from the first game they ever played. I wasn’t there though.”
Reed again only smiled good-naturedly. “I thought I would give you the opportunity for a comeback.”
“If you don’t cheat.”
To that, Reed said nothing before Avril finally sat down among them.
Did she already go over the rules?
Did Katherine miss them?
Katherine glanced over to Reed, hoping the charismatic man would give her some kind of hint, possible cheater or no.
Having fun yet? His expression seemed to ask.
Avril cleared her throat, slapping the deck of cards down toward the center of everyone. It was only then that Katherine realized that they weren’t just any normal sort of playing deck. Illustrations in gold and red smeared over the edges, hand painted, much like the tarot cards Emilie had at the apartment.
From another life, her aunt had said when she noticed them.
“Welcome to Passion and Prose, kinksters. One card slip, no trades, unless, of course, you are willing to trade something really good.” Avril wagged her garnet brows. She’d already uncapped the glass bottle of golden alcohol, like that of the gods’ nectar, pouring shots on the floor no one reached for even as they overflowed. “If not, take what you get and drink.”
“To figure out who goes first, it’s the name of the game. You take a passion; you turn into prose, dirty limerick—we are very open people here. Voters vote wins. Understand? I really don’t care either way. Reed!” Avril swung her gaze to him expectantly. “Care to share first? Being the big bad P&P winner last time and all.”
“If you insist.” He grinned.
“But before we begin, let’s raise a shot to our newbie, shall we?”
A few eyes glanced toward Katherine.
Katherine tilted her chin down to hide the heat spreading up the back of her neck.
Avril’s hand grazed Katherine’s as she leaned across the circle anyway and handed her a tiny glass.
“Cheers,” Avril said, lifting her own.
Sitting up, Katherine touched the rim to her lips as the small crowd easily followed through with Avril’s suggestion with her. The liquor was smooth with a hint of spice and slid down her throat with less than a burn. A few whistles went up of appreciation.
“And one more for good luck?” Avril said, handing Katherine another.
The girl on the other side of her playfully jostled her shoulder.
Friends, her brain easily told her before it paused, questioning what she was doing before a single word stood out.
More.
That was all Katherine ever wanted to be. For years, she tried through her smiles and easy compliments she gave to strangers when they were alone. More.
Taking the shot, Katherine weighed the narrow glass from Montana in her fingers. The pressure of eyes hung on her shoulders, and the liquid sloshed back and forth near the rim. She could be the someone else she always thought of herself as. She could be the girl she always wanted to be and dreamed of in the back of her mind while the world kept moving all around her, never coming to a halt.
Suddenly, looking into the shot of golden alcohol, it all made sense.
Across her, Avril grinned as she met Katherine’s eyes, as if she heard exactly the convincing Katherine led herself through. Something similar r
eflected in her expression as she lifted another shot with Katherine and swallowed it down at the same time.
Cheers.
Chapter Three
The first time Jack realized he was in love with Avril Queen, she stood up on a rickety table in some idiot underclassman’s apartment. Double-fisting, one hand cupped a bottle of bourbon, more empty than full, while her other twisted around another poor sap’s collar as he shook his head at the display. He was either stupid or far too used to being on the other side of the gorgeous fury.
Jack ended up leaving that party early. Too sober and feeling too empty as he pulled his Jeep around the front of the apartment complex, he waited for the asshole in front of him to make a left-hand turn farther uptown.
But then his unlocked passenger door swung open. Quickly, it slammed shut, and the idiot and the redheaded fury of a woman stuffed themselves inside his car.
Emerald green eyes turned up at him from where their owner kneeled down, a tight fit under the glove compartment.
“Drive.”
He did, without a thought, he drove. He weaved around the car in front that sat stagnant despite their turn signal and tore into the street while the guy sitting next to him maneuvered backward between spurts of laughter.
“That hasn’t happened in a while,” he choked out.
The vixen only grinned as she extended her legs out in front of her. Seeing the sparkle of glitter coating her chest and rhinestones stuck to either of her winged eyes, Jack’s gaze narrowed.
“Do I know you?”
Her grin only widened as if a vampire preparing to eat him as her next meal.
For some reason, Jack didn’t mind the possibility.
Instead, she extended a hand.
Jack gripped it with slender fingers, adjusting his other hand to take the wheel.
“Avril Queen,” she chimed. “At your service.”
Her lips, however, then pursed, looking down to his hand at the same time as if she wasn’t quite ready to let go. Curiosity began to permeate the car, along with bubbly adrenaline. “But, do I know you from somewhere?”
Unfortunately, she did.
She also made sure he got a new job before the sun rose, telling him to make his own left turn as they got to the next light, heading back to the unlit streets downtown.