Page 22 of Veiled

Her eyes turned to me as she took me in, a smile slowly forming on her lips. She was gorgeous, athletic but still curvy, and she had a general air of not giving a fuck as if the bottle in her hand wasn’t an indication of that already.

She walked up to me. “Hi, I’m Remi, you must be the girl in the purple dress, with a lion people are talking about.” And she laughed sweetly, no false tones in her laugh.

I blushed. “Yeah, that would be me, a bad ass lion tamer.”

She reached up and put her hand on my face, brushing my hair back. “No blushing yet, gorgeous. What’s your name?” she asked. Was she flirting? Did I want her to? I wanted a friend, but don’t close friends typically play around with each other that way? I shrugged internally, this is why I avoid people, this was too complicated.

“I’m Hudson and thank you for the compliment. You look bored.”

She laughed that sweet laugh again. “I am, my RA invited me apparently to meet someone who is also on an accelerated path like me, and the music sucks.” I laughed and I rolled my eyes internally at the first part, of course the guys would try to get me to meet people. Keep me away from other guys.Idiots.

“That would be me, so I guess we will be in all the same classes then. I’m glad we met, I typically don’t really like people and I usually prefer to be a loner.” Her eyes widened at that.

“I wouldn’t have expected that at all, you seem so easy going and relaxed.” She shrugged, “But since I’m the same way, I guess that means I have you all to myself,” she says with a smile, and her hands touch the curve of my hips as she steps closer. Yup, definitely flirting. And honestly? I wasn’t remotely bothered by it. In fact, I liked it. I never had a chance to explore my sexuality and what I liked, but fuck it, that’s what college is about, right? I chugged my glass, took the bottle from her and drank. She laughed.

“I have a familiar as well, although he doesn’t really ever venture into crowds. He tends to lean more toward volatile, I guess it's my bubbly personality.” She smiled.

“Really? That is awesome. I’m not sure about the protocol for asking about other familiars, just being able to research about them now, but can I ask what form yours takes?” I asked curiously, sitting on the counter in the kitchen, opposite to where she was leaning.

“There really is no proper way to ask, people generally don’t as not having one may or may not be an indication of power, or the size of the familiar having the same result.” She shrugged. “I don’t really mind, I don’t attempt to hide him, he just isn’t a people person but Cerubus can take two forms. He can be a very large snake or shift into a phoenix. Depends on his mood, what he wants to hunt or how sneaky he wants to be. Either way, picture Nagini from Harry Potter and there you have Cerberus.”

“That is freaking amazing. I’m not sure if Xena can shift. As it is, she’s freaking huge but I guess I also haven’t asked her if she wants to or if she can change.”

“Familiars were said to shift to human form in order to protect their person or take the shape of what was needed. Either way, it is a blessing not a lot of magic users have. There is a legend though that the stronger the magic the more likely you are to have a familiar, but the closer to magic, the stronger the familiar.” I nodded.

“When you saycloser to the magic, what do you mean?” There were strong magic users who were more intune with their magic but I wouldn’t necessarily consider them closer to it. She smiled at me.

“Just some folklore,” she glossed over my question before continuing, “ I can give you some books and such to help guide you since you haven’t learned much about them yet. It will be fun for you to learn as much as you can.”

“Thank you! I’ll look forward to that. In the meantime, you did mention lame music. Do you still want to dance?”

“Fuck yes, this shit makes me feel like I’m drowning.” She laughed.

“Well, let’s change the music. Fuck that bullshit, and we can dance,” I pointed to the throng of people moving awkwardly to whatever the fuck was playing. I mean, fuck, didn’t the boys ever hear about R&B and HipHop?

“How will you manage that?” she asked.

“Easy, I live here.” I laughed at her expression. “No, I'm serious, Zane was adopted into my family when he was older, and my father wanted us to live together on campus. So, here I am.”

“Wow, well, then lead on. Let’s change this shit.” She whooped and we made our way to the living room where the guys were now settled on the couches that were pushed further back to make space. I leaned over Ryder and grabbed his stupid phone out of his hand despite his protests. He tried to reach around me, and I sat on his lap and leaned over with the phone in front of me keeping him away and I logged into my Spotify playlist. His fingers dug into my waist to stop me from moving.

He leaned down to my ear. “You need to stop wiggling on me, or I won't’ be able to get up from this couch anytime soon,” he growl. I laughed and waved him off.

Finally getting to my playlist, I popped my head up, suddenly remembering my manners. “Gentlemen, this is Remi, she is also in the accelerated rated path. She is my new friend; she also has whiskey, and we’re going to dance to good music now, not this funeral shit. Also, I know you guys wanted me to meet her. You’re still cockblocking you know,” I sing-songed, the whiskey making me forget present company. “But I’ll forgive you because she is hot as fuck.” I winked at them and they attempted to hide their laugh, failing miserably. I got up and jumped a bit to fix my dress, slightly flashing Ryder, oops, and they all groaned. Well, actually, Grayson growled. I started my playlist and “Sleeping in My Bed Remix,” by Dru Hill started blasting on the sound system booming throughout the entire house.

This was a real fucking party, no more YouTube twerking for me folks! I’m a big girl now and I didn’t even need pull ups! I grabbed Remi’s hand and walked closer to the now dancing people, the guys watching. We started to dance to the beat, singing and rapping along, taking turns with the whiskey bottle. Each drink making us a little bit bolder. Joshua found me, and we danced to a couple of songs, while Remi danced with another girl. We laughed and at one point, Joshua and I exchanged numbers. He winked at me, thanking me for the dance before going back to his friends, even though I felt his eyes continue to follow me.

My playlist switched to the reggae portion of my playlist after a few more songs, the whiskey bottle long gone. The beats switched, prompting dancing that was more melodic and smoother, yet coupled with sensual movements of your hips. I learned well from sensei YouTube, I refused to be someone without rhythm. So, when Remi pressed her body up against me, her back to my front, we rolled our hips together without missing a beat. She reached up and wrapped her arms around my neck, tugging me closer, and heat spread throughout my body. I’m honestly not sure where this was going, but I’m not going to fight it. I gave as good as I got, so when the song changed to something more fast paced and she turned me around and grabbed my hips, I moved against her, slightly bent over, moving my ass and hips to the rhythm.

She ran her hands around my hips and reached up to grab my hair and tug me back and she pressed a kiss to my neck. Her other hand roamed across my abs as she hummed in my ear, her hand grazing the underside of my breasts, which were thankfully contained by the tightness of the dress, but still gave a show to whoever was looking, which was pretty much everyone at this point. “Drive Me Crazy,” by Kevin Lyttle, started to play, how appropriate. I turned to face her and I’m not sure exactly where the boldness came from, but I tipped her head to mine and captured her lips with mine. Still swaying to the music, she caressed her tongue with mine, moaning into my mouth. She grabbed my ass as we deepened the kiss before pulling apart and breathing heavily looking at each other. Half the room was full of writhing bodies and lip locked couples. The only people aware of what was going on was me, Remi, and about 8 grown ass men on the couch. Four of which looked like they were turned on, the other four looked like they were ready to punch everyone who was looking at me.

I leaned into whisper into Remi’s ear, “more whiskey?”

“Mm, among other things, yes.” And she pressed a soft kiss to my lips.

I grabbed her hand and we walked into the kitchen without a second glance at the boys and went to get some whiskey. Half of the party had moved into the pool, so we sat by the pool sharing the bottle between us, as we laughed at people’s antics and kissed.

* * *

---