“I’ve created a monster.”
“Yeah, you have.”
Not that I was complaining.
The party was…good. I was used to the constant attention, and yeah, I loved it, but having Raine there as my girlfriend made everything so much sweeter. Raine seemed comfortable now, taking it in her stride, other than the times people mentioned my PDAs with her. Something which caused Raine to blush, without fail. Every single time.
I fucking loved it. Loved having her there with me.
“You want to get out of here?” Raine was sitting in my lap on an ornate seventeenth-century sofa, sipping from her drink. At my words, she shuffled around so she was sitting sideways and could look at me. I kept one arm around her as I lifted my other hand to brush the hair away from her face.
“Have you had enough?” She leaned over and kissed my jaw, before drawing back with a hesitant expression. “Am I being too pushy? We can stay as long as you like.”
“Hmmm.” I pretended to think it over. “Stay here, watching everyone getting drunker and louder, or go somewhere I can have you all to myself. What do you think?” I smiled at her, stroking my thumb across her soft cheek.
Instead of replying, she slid her hand up my chest, over my shoulder, and around the back of my neck, and then her lips were on mine.
“Get a room!”
We broke apart, and I saw Xavier grinning at me. “Is this what we have to look forward to with you two at all our future parties now? All this PDA shit?”
“Fuck off,” I muttered.
“You—hold that thought.” He held his hand up, his attention turning to the left of the room. “I’ll be back.” He stalked off, and I followed his line of sight to see Imogen leaning casually against the wall, drink in hand, her gaze fixed on his. He reached her, snatching the drink from her grip and practically throwing it down on a table. Then he was crowding her against the wall, and they were kissing.
“I guess they’ve sorted their shit out now,” I mused aloud to Raine.
“Looks like it.” She smiled, then turned back to me. “You never answered my question.”
Lifting her to her feet, I stood. “Let’s get out of here. I’ve got a date with Poison Ivy.”
42
I stripped off my top and shorts inside Carter’s truck, telling him he couldn’t look at me. Even though it’d been a massive detour, he’d insisted on stopping back at his house for “supplies,” so I’d taken the chance to run into my own house and grab my mask. The one Carter had originally given me.
Without the atmospheric lighting of Fright Night, the park felt empty and foreboding, and I shivered. After I’d pulled on my mask and boots, I locked everything inside the truck except for a tiny key ring I had, which had a flashlight and personal alarm. Despite Carter’s presence, I wasn’t about to go running through the park without some kind of protection. Not that it would do much. I shivered again, second-guessing my decision to come here, before I shook off that thought. Carter wouldn’t be far away.
“Raine.” Carter was suddenly looming over me, his huge, strong body against mine, and I completely relaxed. He wouldn’t let anything happen to me. “Stay in the shadows. There are people in the skatepark.” His low murmur vibrated against me, and I nodded. Pulling me into his arms, he kissed the top of my head, before releasing me. “They might not know we’re playing, and we don’t want the police involved.”
I snorted at that. Yeah, trying to explain that I wanted my boyfriend to chase me around in the dark and make me scream might not go down too well with the police.
“Ready? I’m gonna give you a head start, then I’m coming for you.”
I nodded again. The same feeling of adrenaline, threaded through with the tiniest amount of fear, fizzed through my veins, and I smiled. “I’m ready.”
“Good.” He lifted his hands, and I realised he was putting on his own mask. Not just any mask. The mask. The one he’d worn at Fright Night. “Looks like we both had the same idea.”
Flicking a switch, the LED lights came on, and I shivered at the sinister slashes covering his eyes and mouth.
He spoke one word, in a low, menacing rumble.
“Run.”
I did.
She shot away from me, and I grinned. Behind her mask, I’d sensed the thrill of fear in her, the way her breath had come in short, sharp gasps once I’d put on my own mask. My girl knew I was coming for her, and her reaction to me had my cock responding instantly.
I adjusted myself, playing football drills in my mind, because yeah, running with a hard-on was not fun. After waiting for a moment, I started prowling after her, my pace slow and steady as I allowed her time to get away, always keeping her in my sights. She raced around the side of the floodlit skatepark, staying deep within the shadows, hugging the chain-link fence that ran down one side. I increased my pace, easily keeping up with her as she bolted straight for the graffiti wall, avoiding the area where the few skaters were. She slid round behind the wall, and I smiled, slowing down again to give her time to catch her breath and build the anticipation.
As I reached the wall, I stopped, listening. Her uneven, panting breaths carried through the still night air as she tried to stay hidden.
My footsteps silent, I moved along the wall and then eased my body around the back, on the opposite side to her hiding place.
I could make her out, peering around the corner. Her breath was still coming in pants, but I could feel the excitement coming off her. She loved this. The fear, the thrill of the chase, then the moment when I’d strike without warning.
As I moved closer,
