Page 96 of Honey Pot

“You’re such an ass!” I chucked a book at Dean but he dodged it.

“Don’t throw books, Cael.” Dean threw his head back in laughter, eyes growing wide as he caught sight of someone. “He’s over here!”

Darcy hated my guts after the impromptu karaoke in the auditorium during a graduation. One that had ended with me in handcuffs and on the news. The incident that had almost gotten me suspended from Harbor.

“Cael Cody.” Darcy rounded the aisle as Dean slipped from his grasp. His eyes narrowed on me, trapped in the cramped aisle. “Don’t move.”

“Can we talk about this?” I darted to the next aisle and he followed, blocking my exit. “I had no idea those girls were your daughters, or I would have never kissed them during that Queen song! I mean, what are the chances that your twins were up there during that rendition of Under Pressure?” I backed up a step and Darcy’s fingers flickered to the taser on his belt.

I cocked my head to the side, the tingle of adrenaline coursing through me.

“Oooh, Darcy. Are you going to tase me?” I gasped in fake outrage, it might actually be a little fun to be tased.

“More than once,” he huffed.

“Will it tickle?” I purred and ran a nervous hand through my hair as I scoped for an exit.

“Sure, kid,” he snapped and ran toward me.

But I was faster. I spun on my heels before he could unbutton the taser and took off down the next aisle and up the stairs to the second floor of the library. A crowd had formed inside, cheering on Dean as he darted in and out of the aisles, hands over his junk as Cole, affectionately known as ‘mall cop’, and Lionel, who was so old he should be in a wheelchair, chased him. Ella and Clem watched on from where they leaned against the help desk with wide smiles on their faces as Dean wiggled free from between the two guards' grasps.

I needed to distract him if I was going to win. Darcy was playing fast and dirty with volts of electricity, and eventually, I was going to go down hard.

Whistling loudly, fingers between my lips, Dean almost tripped over a rogue book bag on the floor. Lionel closed in on him again but Dean managed to juke him and climbed over a chair and across a row of tables. The students were screaming and clapping as he darted back toward the entrance of the library. Itwasn’t a matter of whether we’d be caught, we would; it was just about who would go down first.

“If you get caught before me, you take dinner duties for a month!” I holler down, gripping the railing and leaning over it. He lifted his hand in the air, flipping me the middle finger and launching himself from the tabletop, landing on the floor with a thud, twirling away from Cole and into a crowd of people.

“Mr. Cody, get your genitals off my glass!” The librarian screamed from the main floor and I stepped back in laughter, seeing the print I left.

“It’s art,” I said as Darcy appeared at the top of the stairs, out of breath. His red hair was sticking to the back of his neck, and sweat was building around his collar and armpits. “You agree with me, right?” I pointed to the smudge, but he wasn’t amused.

“Just stop running,” he huffed.

“Sorry, sugartits, I have a bet to win!”

“Cody!” He yelled as I jumped back from the railing. Weaving through the tables of studying students, I made for the emergency exit along the back wall.

“Excuse me.” I sneaked through a group of guys, not daring to look over my shoulder for Darcy as I focused on my only exit strategy. “Shit.” My shoulders slumped when I saw it, the door was padlocked.

“Now, Darcy, I’m pretty sure that’s illegal!” I turned with my hands covering myself, knowing he was there. “That’s a fire exit!”

“And your favorite escape route,” he added. There was a sick grin of accomplishment on his pudgy face as he popped the button on his campus-issued holster. “Don’t lecture me on rules when you've partaken in public nudity on campus more than once a year.” He stared at me as he said it, his fingers sliding over the handle of the taser.

“We’re even after this Darcy, alright?” I put my hands out to the side. “Wait!” I hollered and put my hand up to him as he aimed. “If I pee, don’t tell anyone?”

Amusement flickered across his face. “I’m framing the picture I’m about to take and putting it in the trophy case in the main office.”

“There’s no way the Dean approves–” My words were silenced by the sound of snapping electricity soaring through the air.

The muscle cramping was the worst as the prongs of the gun dug into my stomach and sent shock waves through me. I dropped to my knees, my body shaking as the electricity wreaked havoc on my nervous system and turned my vision hazy. It was the worst feeling I had ever experienced and quite possibly the most exhilarating.

Darcy knelt beside my head. “Truce?” He stared at me as I curled into a ball to ride out the aftershocks. Even if I wanted to make a snide remark, I couldn’t feel my tongue or my lips to use them. Darcy laughed at my suffering. “Good. Stay out of my library.”

CODY

“Can you carry that?” I asked Ella as she shifted the crate of beer on her hip up the cabin stairs with the Thanksgiving air whipping through her hair.

“I’m fine, grab that.” She flicked her fingers toward two more large boxes of food that were heavy but not horrible to haul up the stairs. My shoulder pinched uncomfortably, but I clenched my jaw and followed her into the noisy house.

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