Page 55 of House of Deceit

“Would you rather be a toothless dragon or the strongest squirrel?” Molly’s random questions no longer shock me. Small talk is not her preferred communication style.

“Toothless dragon, duh,” I say, setting my back against the now empty chair.

“Same. I want to be able to fly, even if I have to drink dragon smoothies every day since I wouldn’t be able to chew.”

Ezra walks in. His outfit is slightly too long, and I try to smother my laugh.

“Who keeps fucking with my clothes?” he screams at no one in particular this time. My self-control goes out the window and a small laugh escapes.

I make a mental note to hug Alec for pulling off the pant switch.

“Ezra, good. Toothless dragon or strongest squirrel?” Molly asks, her head lying on my outstretched legs.

“Oh, because I’m short you think I’d pick a squirrel, right? Is that it?”

Awkward silence settles on the room while Ezra’s angry, beady eyes jump between us.

“You would benefit from some pot, my friend. Mellow out a bit.” I let this laugh out fully as I run my fingers through Molly’s hair, making sure to use my nails on her scalp. She purrs like a cat as she closes her eyes.

Ezra stomps over to one of the couches and flings himself down, pouting.

“What do you think we are doing today?” I ask, unable to fully let go of trying to guess our competitions.

“Hopefully something that gets you and Parker wet and climbing all over each other. I miss porn and y’all are the closest thing I have. The sexual tension is thick.”

“There is no sexual tension between me and Parker,” I say, trying to pretend like I’m just being shy, even though there really isn’t any tension.

Ever since making our agreement, Parker and I have done a pretty good job of playing up a romance. Holding hands, spending time talking. Luckily, Parker is fun to talk to and his friendship has become important to me.

“I mean, Christ himself is probably yelling at the TV screen for you two to do it already, but sure.” Her grin is evil and I pull her hair. “Ow! Brat.”

If not Christ, I’m sure Courtney is yelling at the TV for the same reason.

“You will burn in Hell if you take the Lord’s name in vain, Molly,” Jaxon says, coming into the room. We ignore him as we normally do.

“There’s nothing between me and Parker,” I whisper as the room continues to fill.

“Girl, you need to climb that man like a tree, take whatever he gives you, thank him, and beg for more.” I flick her on the nose.

I consider telling her about the agreement we have, but decide against it, wanting to keep it believable with everyone in the house.

We stand outside with our face masks on top of our heads and paintball guns in our hands as we listen to Head Deceiver, Molly, read from the instruction card.

Sweat rolls down my back despite the short amount of time we’ve been outside. Inflatable blocks dot the backyard. Parker stands at my side, bumping into my arm when he notices my attention wavering.

“The blue team will start on the right side, the red on the left. The last player standing wins it for their team,” Molly finishes.

Parker is on the blue team today while I’m on red.

“What were the consequences for the losers?” I ask him in a whisper.

“A five a.m. wake up time to do various cleaning jobs as well as only being able to take cold showers for the week.”

“Cold showers? I hate to tell you this, but your ass is going down. I will shoot you straight in the face to avoid a cold shower.”

“The feeling is mutual, babe. I’ll send you warm vibes when I’m in my lava level hot showers.” His smile is beautiful and makes my heart squeeze at the sadness that tinges it.

Knowing this part will probably be shown in this week’s episode, I give him a wink before separating to our sides. Molly steps up to me before I can go to my side.

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