Page 58 of Secret Submission

“Except that you’re both trying to push him to do what you want. And you’re being weird about it.” Connor shook his head, rubbing his hand over his face while he tried to decide if he should tell them to cut it out. Though, ultimately, it was harmless. Betting on friends was practically a time-honored past-time at Stronghold, though usually it was about relationships and when people would get together, not on whether they’d take it in the ass. “What does the winner get?”

“If I win, Law has to let Iris peg him if she wants to,” Q said with a grin, making Connor choke. Holy fuck.

“And if I win, Q has to wear the couple’s costume that Sam wants for this year.” Law didn’t grin, but there was smug satisfaction in his voice.

“What’s the costume?” Those two things seemed a little uneven to Connor, but Law appeared to be very happy with his choice. Q slumped as soon as Connor asked.

“She wants to be Han Solo and Princess Leia in the bikini… but she saw a picture online, and she wants to be Han Solo, and she wants Q to be Princess Leia.” Law smirked. “Though in the pic she saw, there’s no bra, but it’s got everything else.”

“She should be the one in the bikini.” Q’s gaze unfocused, the corners of his lips twisting up. “She’d look amazing.”

Connor was pretty sure there wasn’t a straight guy alive who hadn’t had some fantasy of his girlfriend dressed in the Leia bikini, so he couldn’t blame Q for wanting to see Sam in it. On the other hand, he also thought the genderbent version sounded pretty great.

“So, the timeline is Asad has to get pegged—or not—by Halloween?”

“Pretty much.” Q cleared his throat as the door to the bathroom opened, raising his voice a little. “So, you should invite Julie to come with us to Renn Fair next weekend.”

“I’ll ask her tomorrow after the thing with her family.” Asking her to come with him and his friends to the Renaissance Festival wasn’t quite the same as being introduced to the family, but it was still kind of a big thing. He also wasn’t sure how she’d take it. While they’d talked about how he was kind of a nerd—as if the action figure collection on his bookshelf hadn’t been a clue—he wasn’t sure if she knew how far that would go. Somehow, he didn’t peg her for a Renn Fair person, but he could be wrong.

First, though, he needed to get through tomorrow.

“Okay, let’s start the movie again. I need to find out what this giant octopus is doing in a megalodon movie,” Asad said, walking toward them and gesturing at the television.

They all settled back onto the couch, and Q hit the play button.

Connor sat back and wondered if he should say something to Asad or just see it play out.

He was probably going to go ahead and see what happened.

23

Connor

The noise coming from the backyard as they approached the gate in the fence was what made him realize that maybe he’d gotten in over his head.

“How many people did you say are going to be here today?” he asked Julie, not bothering to lower his voice because he doubted anyone on the other side of the fence would be able to hear them, anyway. The fence was solidly built with vertical slats that made it impossible to see through unless you were right up next to it, and tall enough that even he wouldn’t be able to see over it until they were closer.

The little path of stones leading from the driveway around to the back suddenly seemed far too short.

As soon as they’d pulled up to the house, he’d been surprised by the number of cars parked in the driveway and along the street, but the house next door also had balloons on their mailbox. He’d figured at least some, if not most, of the cars were there for whoever was having a party. Now, he was wondering if he had been wildly incorrect.

“I didn’t,” she replied a little grimly. “I just said my family. I don’t know how many of them will actually be there, but probably most of us.”

The path was almost at its end, and Connor could see over the fence now. Not that he could see much because the gate was on the side of the house rather than right at the back, so he only had a partial view of the backyard. Enough to know it was full of people. Almost all of whom had black or grey hair, though he did spot a blond man and a woman with auburn hair.

“It’ll be fine,” Julie said, though from her tone, he wasn’t sure if she was talking to him or to herself. It really could go either way. “We don’t have to stay the whole time.”

“No, I want to.” He was determined to impress her family. Even though she hadn’t said it, and she’d tried to downplay it, he could tell this was a big deal to her. She wanted this to go well. “Don’t cut the visit short on my account. I’ll be fine.”

Glancing up at him, she smiled, though it looked a little forced.

“We’ll see,” was all she said before reaching out to open the gate.

No one turned as it swung open, and they were able to approach the crowd in the backyard without drawing too many eyes to them—at least, until they reached the edge of people, and several of them caught a glimpse of Connor. He towered above everyone in the yard, which was normal, making him impossible to miss. He did his best not to hunch his shoulders as a slow ripple of quiet spread through Julie’s family, those who were facing him looking with either wide eyes, dropped jaws, or both, only for whoever they were talking with to turn around and see what they were looking at. Which meant more wide eyes and dropped jaws.

“Hey, everyone,” Julie said loudly, her voice carrying. “This is my boyfriend?—”

Before she could say his name, she was cut off by a scream.

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