Page 121 of Bride of Choice

“Jo ‘herent now. Not bad… yet.”

“Take me to my place and lock me up inside that shit tight, please,” I whispered with growing trepidation.

Reaching my place, I found it impossible to ignore just how funny the word moist was and suddenly couldn’t shut up about it. As if determined to ride out this shit show, we found Gopher and Rek, bickering as usual, waiting just outside the door.

“My boys!” I crowed, then cackled like a madwoman.

Everything after that was very much a blur. A very wild, loud, kooky, mishmash of things I was bound to regret.

Chapter 17

A deep rumble beneath my ear woke me up. Snuffling awake, I unpeeled my face from a wide, furry chest. The first thing I noticed was the fact my chest was bared, my face from the smells of it, covered in my cherry glitter gloss.

My head pounded like someone was beating my brain with a sledgehammer. Sitting up with a groan, I startled to find Odix and not Gopher or Rek, cuddling me.

Stumbling from the bed, I nearly tripped over Rek, who was mashed up against the side of it. Blinking down at him owlishly, I frowned as I spied glitter shimmering from Rek’s chest. My god, I really didn’t want to know.

Gopher grumbled in his sleep where he was pressed up against the front door, as if to block anyone from entry or exit.

He, too, was sporting a very telling, glittery chest.

I made it two steps towards the overturned chair and sideways table before I remembered my bad leg. My eyes widened as I spied bulging, ugly stitches surrounding pink, freshly healed skin.

But for the pinch of the gut strings protruding from my flesh, it was perfectly painless.

“How long was I on a bender?!” I squawked.

Odix shot up with a shout, tossing a blanket over his junk as he scanned the room with a wild-eyed stare.

Our gazes met and held. Whatever he found must have appeased him, allowing his gaze to wander from my face to my bared breasts.

“Where’s my shirt? Why am I only in underpants?” And not even the good stuff! These comfy cottons bordered on granny panty territory. These so weren’t the ones I’d been wearing yesterday.

Digging around in the bedding, Odix unearthed that awful granny gown and tossed it towards me.

Tossing it on to wrangle my head through the neck hole, I’d just finished doing up the last button along the top when Rek barked, “No sleeps! I wake!”

“You sleeps,” Odix grumbled in annoyance, stepping right onto Rek to come fix the mess I’d made of my nightgown buttons.

“My brain is trying to kill me,” I mumbled with a wince.

“Kirch call it hunged over,” Rek growled from his fetal position on the floor.

“I’m never touching another drop of alcohol, ever again,” I whispered despairingly.

Thick fingers captured my hands where I was rubbing my temples, replacing them to massage my scalp.

“Your hands are like magic,” I blurted, which seemed to give Odix pause. A small whimper escaped me when he stopped but I understood.

I had a very foggy recollection of last night but I knew at some point I’d goaded the guys into shaking their asses in some horrible attempt at shaking our rumps, chased Odix around with grabby hands aimed at that dump truck he calls a backside as he tore up the room evading me, and Gopher and Rek laughed uproariously at the whole thing. I’d drunkenly done my makeup with the little bit I had on me, most of my makeup still back at home at Celuk’s in my room. The gloss and the thick goop threatening to seal my eyelashes together I prayed was mascara was as far as I’d gotten before Odix asked what motorboating was and I’d shown him, using Gopher and Rek as models.

“Why was I topless?” I muttered offhandedly.

“Hot,” Odix offered.

“Jojoknee throwed up on clothes,” Rek informed me.

“Say Odix keep Jo warmest,” Gopher wryly admitted from the door, looking sleepy as he smirked in my direction.

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