Jennie

Lisa Manoban is up to no good.

As usual.

I can tell. I don't know how I know, but I do. Over the last few days it's been lurking in her little glances. I've seen it in the way she's looked at her phone and hammered out a message, or the devious little glint in the smile that follows. She might try to hide it, but it's there. I can sense it. It's like a faint trace of smoke on the wind. A flash of light on a blade. Whispers in shadows.

She's scheming.

My eyes narrow as she loads the dishwasher. If she can feel my gaze drilling into the side of her face, she doesn't let on. When I clear my throat, she doesn't look up. I fold my arms across my chest and lean against the counter, but she still doesn't acknowledge that I'm staring right at her. She said once that she always notices me, and it wasn't a lie. I'm positive this whole oblivious act has to be bullshit.

So I wait until she finishes with the dishwasher and then takes a sip of her coffee before I announce, "I call skullduggery."

Lisa sputters and coughs. When her watering eyes finally land on me, she's clearly fucking delighted.

"Skullduggery? Does this mean you're going to put on a sexy pirate costume and fuck me while you're wearing an eye patch?"

"No."

"What about if I wear the eye patch?"

"Still no."

"What about if I throw in a stuffed parrot?"

"Lisa—"

"Love," she says with a warm grin that lights her eyes with amusement. She sets the mug down and approaches, grasping my wrists and tugging my arms from their firm hold across my body. "What kind of skullduggery are you worried about?"

"I don't know," I reply as she wraps my arms behind her back and lays a kiss on the pulse that surges in my neck. "Why don't you tell me?"

Her lips drag up my skin in the way she knows ignites my ticklish streak. When my body squirms in response, she pushes me back against the counter. "Blackbird, the only shenanigans I'm up to are the kind where I'm in your pants."

"You mean like, kidnapping me again?"

"Umm, I was thinking more like right now, but that can be arranged."

Lisa's grip tightens on my waist and she lifts me onto the counter as she catches my lips in a demanding kiss. With my arms wrapped around the back of her neck, I kiss her back with desire that matches her, reveling in the glide of her tongue over mine and the caress of her calloused hands as they dip beneath the hem of my shirt to warm my bare flesh. But my thoughts? They are still wrapped up in a question.

"What are you up to?" I ask when I pull back just enough to form the words against her lips.

"Making out with my fiancée," she says, and dives back into the kiss.

I manage to pull back and break the kiss despite her best efforts to keep it going. My eyes narrow with a suspicious glare. "You're deflecting."

"I'm not." One of her hands roams to my breast and she toys with my nipple piercing in a way that has my pussy aching for attention. "I answered your question. I'm making out with you and then I'm going to fuck you on this here countertop," she says as she gives the polished granite a slap. "Pretty direct response."

"Are you scheming to kill someone?"

"What?"

"You know, murder. That thing we're good at. Oh my God, you're going after the Forest Phantom, aren't you? You're going to kill him before the annual game."

"Love—"

"Just tell me. That's it, isn't it? I bet you've already got him locked away somewhere. You're probably going to have him up on the statue in Boston Common riding that horse with George Washington by morning—"

"Blackbird," Lisa says, her palms a sudden warmth on my cheeks. Her eyes shift between mine, and though she's amused, I can tell she's a little worried too. "Though I find your paranoia adorable and I'm filing that George Washington idea away for later, you're way off course here." She presses a kiss to my forehead before pulling away to level me with a serious gaze. She seems to come to some conclusion as a lengthy sigh passes her lips. "Is this about the wedding?"

The wedding.

Every time I think about the wedding, my heart rate spikes. The room seems to close in, as if all the air has been vacuumed out and I'm left with nothing to breathe. It's not the thought of marrying Lisa that gets me. She's my best friend. I love her more than anything. It's the enormity of the task that we've barely even started since she proposed six weeks ago, and especially the presence of guests. Two in particular. Do I invite my parents? Would they even bother coming? If I don't, will it look bad when Lisa knows half the city and probably wants a bunch of her friends to attend? They've been nothing but kind to me, but won't they wonder what's up when I have Solar and maybe her family but no one else? Won't that look weird? Won't I look weird?

"Jennie? Is that the issue?" Lisa presses, her voice soft.

"No …" I lie, even though I hate the thought of lying to Lisa about how I feel. But I don't want her to think the wrong thing, that I'm changing my mind. And besides, I am still convinced she's up to something.

"Do you think the wedding might have something to do with it?"

I shake my head.

"Here's what I think," Lisa says as she lowers her hands to the countertop on either side of my hips, caging me in. "I think you're stressed about planning this thing out. You're putting too much pressure on yourself. And now you're seeing trouble where there isn't any."

"But you're always trouble. So maybe I'm seeing pretty clearly."

Lisa's grin turns rakish. "I'm delightful trouble. As for skullduggery, like I said, my scheming is pretty straightforward. Fuck my fiancée. Make her come. Send her away on her spa vacation with a couple of hickeys on her pretty tits."

"Hickeys? Seriously?" I can't help but giggle as her hands climb beneath my shirt, towing it up my body until she lifts it off and discards it on the floor. Lisa's eyes stay riveted to my chest as she pulls the cups of black lace down with an appreciative groan.

"Damn straight," she says as she toys with one of the piercings, tugging gently on the little bar. I bite down on my lip to trap a whimpering moan, and Lisa's eyes immediately dart to my mouth and hook there. "Hmm now, Blackbird. You're not keeping your sounds from me, are you?"

I swallow. "Winston will start growling."

Lisa might laugh, but we both know it's true. Winston has taken a liking to me and has used that as a convenient excuse to attack Lisa when he thinks I'm in mortal danger.

"I'm willing to risk a few more scars on my arse," Lisa says before laying a bite to my neck that draws a gasp from my parted lips. "I'll lock him in the bathroom if I have to. But all those little sounds you try to hide? They belong to me."

My hands thread into her hair as Lisa kisses her way down my throat and across my chest to lavish my nipple with attention. She swirls her tongue over every curve and angle of the piercing before gripping it between her teeth to give it a delicious tug.

"Goddammit, I really love it when you do that," I hiss as her fingers toy with the zipper of my jeans. She drags it down with agonizing slowness, as though she can hear every thought in my head that screams at her to move faster.

"When I first saw these piercings through your bra at the gas station, I nearly fucking died," Lisa says as she plays with one of the little hearts, coaxing my nipple into a firm peak. "I swear I had a hard-on for the rest of the drive to Jay's."

My giggle becomes a gasp when she leans down to suck on my breast. "I know. You kept shifting around in the seat. You looked miserable."

"I was miserable. I needed to touch you." She lays a kiss on my neck, presses in on my body. "I needed to know everything about these fucking little hearts. And to think, I didn't even know about the other decorations."

I grin as Lisa nips my earlobe. "I thought you might like the nipple piercings. You spent enough time staring at my boobs in the diner. It was kinda cute how hard you tried not to."

Lisa groans against my neck before she pulls away to look in my eyes. "Blackbird, I have a question."

"Okay …"

"Did you get the hearts for me?"

Blush crawls beneath my skin, and Lisa's eyes dart down to my cheeks to soak it in. "Maybe a little bit."

She swipes a hand down her face before resting her forehead against my shoulder. "I love you so fucking much that it physically hurts me," she says as I laugh. When she straightens, Lisa tugs me off the counter and sets me on my feet. "I got something for you too. I've been saving it for a special occasion. Get naked and stay right here."

"What are you—"

"Just trust me," she tosses over her shoulder as she heads down the hallway to the bedroom. I start to undress as Winston's growl precedes the sound of the bathroom door closing. And then a few moments later, Lisa appears from the dimly lit corridor, stalking toward me with a new purple dildo and a bottle of lube in one hand.

… A purple vibrator that matches her outfit.

A dragon onesie costume.

"Lisa Manoban, what the fuck," I say as I cackle with disbelief.

"I'm not Lisa. I'm Sol," she growls as she stalks closer. Her ravenous gaze pins me and doesn't let go. I take a step backward and then another, every laugh that escapes me only feeding the hunger in her eyes. "And I'm going to breed you, little human."

"You are so weird," I say on the heels of a shriek as she surges forward and I run around the end of the island, narrowly avoiding her reaching grip.

"Try to escape all you want, my little human. I will still catch you."

I cackle as I keep the island between us and creep toward the end closest to the corridor in the hopes I can make a break for it toward the bedroom. "Why are you like this?"

"A sentient dragonman knows not why it is a talking dragon. Only that it must make little dragonlings with its two dicks." Lisa tries not to smile as I giggle maniacally. "Run, human."

I squeak and take off for the corridor, but I don't make it more than ten steps before she's got me. She lifts me from the floor and into her arms as though it's effortless. "For a dragon, you're not very scaly, Sol. This will be more like being fucked by a velveteen rabbit."

Lisa snorts a laugh as she tosses me onto the bed. "A half-boiled rabbit at this rate. This is not breathable fabric."

"Take it off then, you weirdo."

"No way. I'm committed to the bit, Blackbird." She clears her throat and resumes her booming dragon impersonation when she says, "On your hands and knees, little human."

I do as she says, laughing the entire time as I bend over. But the laughter dissolves into a loud moan as she plunges her cock into my pussy with a single stroke.

"Fuck, Jennie. So fucking wet for me, every single time," Lisa says as she glides out and thrusts back in again, the soft fabric pressing against my ass cheeks every time she bottoms out.

"You're really doing it," I say as I look over my shoulder and grin. Her hair is already clinging to her damp forehead beneath the hood where two little orange horns are sewn. "You're fucking me in a non-breathable velveteen dragon suit."

"Damn straight I am," she grits out, not breaking the cadence of her thrusts as she grips my waist with one hand and opens the bottle of lube with the other. I watch as she drizzles the thick liquid onto the crack of my ass. "And I'm going to fill this perfect cunt and then this tight little hole before I pass out from heat exhaustion."

I snort a laugh and brace my head against my arm, pushing my ass up higher as she slides the toy through the slick lube to press it against the pleated rim. With a deep breath and a little push of the toy, it slips past the resistance.

"Oh my God," I moan into the sheets as she pushes it in deeper, slowly, inch by inch. Every thrust in my cunt is deep and slow as she guides the vibrator in until I'm filled, until I feel like I couldn't possibly take more.

Then she turns it on.

We both pause, as though any movement we make will push us over the edge before we're ready to take a breath and dive. Lisa hisses a string of swears and I try to relax, but it becomes impossible when Lisa starts to resume a pace of slow, languid strokes. Her rhythm becomes faster, her thrusts deeper. She turns up the level of vibration on the toy, and then she isn't just fucking me. She's claiming me, like no one else ever could. She grips my breast with one hand, my hip with the other, and ruts into me with merciless, carnal need.

"Touch yourself," she grits out. "Make yourself come. Fucking scream my name, Jennie. Let me hear how I fucking destroy you."

I do everything she asks.

I bring my fingers to my clit, slick with arousal and lube, and roll my touch over the triangle piercing as I cry out Lisa's name. An electric surge blankets my flesh, like all the energy of my body is siphoned from my limbs until it explodes in my core. My pussy cinches tight around Lisa's erection and I fall apart as a growl rips free from her chest. She pulls the toy from my ass and pushes her length in its place as she shudders, emptying the rest of her spend into the tight heat.

"Fuck," she hisses when she catches her breath and slowly withdraws. When she's slipped away, she keeps her hands on my flesh, separating my ass cheeks so she can watch as the cum drips free. "I thought I could go another round, but I need six bottles of Gatorade first."

"Maybe we should do the pirate costume next time."

"You be the pirate, I'll be the parrot."

"You are so fucking weird."

"But you love me," Lisa says as she shimmies off the bed to take off the dragon costume, her body slick with sweat.

"I do."

Lisa grins and leans down to kiss my temple before heading to the bathroom to free Winston and return with a damp cloth. Winston hisses and takes a swipe at Lisa's bare calf in retribution, but Lisa manages to dodge the perpetually disgruntled feline before she climbs back onto the bed to clean my skin with reverential strokes.

"Are you excited to go away for the weekend?" she asks, her gaze trapped on the motion of her hand as she runs the cloth over my inner thigh.

"Yeah, it'll be fun. I'll miss you, though."

Lisa smiles as she casts a fleeting glance up to meet mine. "You'll just miss my dragon cosplay. Admit it."

I grin and fold my hand around her nape to draw her lips to mine. The kiss lingers, sweet and slow, until I pull back to admit, "Maybe I'll miss that too."

"Knew it," she says with a grin before she backs away and offers a hand to help me off the bed.

I don't have much time to shower and get the last of my belongings packed before Solar calls to let me know she's waiting on the street below. Lisa wraps me in a tight hug and peppers my cheeks with kisses before she's pushing me out the door with instructions not to get eaten by a shark, despite my protests that it's early October and I have no intentions of getting in the frigid water at Cape Cod. And then I'm rushing down the stairs of the old brick building, bursting out into the sunshine to be greeted by Solar's even brighter smile.

Within twenty minutes, we've picked up Anna and are heading to the Leytonstone Inn, a boutique spa hotel overlooking Newcomb Hollow Beach. It takes us a little over two hours to reach the inn, and we manage to avoid the Thursday-afternoon rush hour traffic to make it just in time for dinner and a few glasses of wine before we crash out in our rooms. In typical Solar fashion, she's got an outing planned for first thing in the morning, a scenic sunrise hike along the Sand Cliffs before we're back at the hotel for lunch and afternoon yoga, which I'm terrible at. Surprisingly, Anna is even worse, and we spend most of the time trying to hold our shit together and not disrupt Solar's laser focus. We spend the evening eating and drinking and laughing. Laughing so much more than I thought I could.

Saturday is a full-on spa day, much more my speed than the yoga. It starts with a sauna session. Facials. A full-body scrub. And before lunch, a massage session with the girls in a room with a view of the beach.

"You should come back here before the wedding," Solar says as the masseuse works on my shoulder where the muscles are still tight from the fall at Harvey's house in Texas. "Get all the kinks worked out."

Anna snorts. "Work them in during the evening, out during the morning."

"Dragon onesie," Solar and I say in unison with a round of giggles.

"Have you settled on a location for the wedding?" Anna asks, her voice muffled where her face is pressed into the hole of the massage table.

"Not yet."

"This could be a good spot. Nice and chill. Quiet."

"Your dress fits the vibe too," Solar chimes in. As soon as I told her that Lisa had proposed, she dragged me to her aunt Ethel's house to lay claim to what she announced was a "gold-star-tits dress." And she was right. Ethel's vintage lace dress had been lovingly stored away in her enormous, museum-like home and was in near-perfect condition. Ethel herself made the minor repairs and adjustments within two days of our visit, but it already fit every curve on my body as if it had been made for me.

"True," I reply. "You might be on to something. I do really like it here."

Solar senses the hesitation in the way my voice grows quieter with my final words. "But …?"

"But the guest list is really stressing me out. And like, all the other shit. Flowers and music and blah blah blah. And if my parents come, they're so particular, you know? I don't know if it would fit their tastes."

"Does it fit yours?"

Yeah, it really does. The thought of something intimate and small at a comfortable, boutique beach inn sounds perfect. But every time I remember how Lisa shone as bright as a star at the Best of Boston gala, surrounded by friends and acquaintances, the doubts creep in. Maybe she would prefer something big, something grand. Maybe she wouldn't want something small and intimate at all.

I don't answer Solar as these thoughts tumble through my mind.

"I'll be right back, girls," Anna says after we slip into a long silence. "Need a quick bathroom break."

"Ooh, me too, I'll come with," Solar says.

I don't move as they leave and the door closes behind them with a quiet snick, too absorbed in the feeling of tight muscles finally releasing beneath the masseuse's expert touch.

"How's the pressure?" a voice says.

A familiar voice. One that is definitely not my masseuse.

I shriek and roll off the table, the towel clutched to my body as I come face-to-face with my not-masseuse.

Lisa Manoban.

"What in the ever-loving fuck."

"Hey, Blackbird."

I stare at her, mouth agape, before I dart a wary glance around the room. The massage therapists are gone. My friends are clearly in on whatever the fuck this is. It's just me and the smirking Irishman, looking hot as fuck in a leather jacket, a motorcycle helmet laying on the table where Solar was a few moments ago.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" I ask.

Lisa hops up onto the table next to her helmet as she rubs her chin. She casts her gaze to the windows, trying and failing to conceal the delight in her eyes. A nonplussed shrug is her first response as she keeps her attention trained to the sea.

"I dunno, I just thought maybe you'd like to get married this weekend. Kinda seemed like a nice spot."

Words refuse to make it from my brain to my tongue. Only one is able to make it out alive. "What …?"

"You know, that ceremony where we say some vows and exchange rings and you look smoking hot in a beautiful dress and I look pretty dapper in a fancy suit. Then we eat cake, have a little dance, a bit of a craic, take bets on whether Solar and Sehun will hook up, go back to our room to have some mind-blowing post-wedding sex, and then you're stuck with me forever. That kind of thing."

"… What …?" A sudden ache chokes up my throat as pieces start snapping into place. She arranged this whole spa thing with Solar as an engagement present. When I asked her about her work schedule for the weekend, she seemed to skirt around the details, though I didn't think much of it at the time. Then there was that whole lingering sense that she was scheming. "Skullduggery."

"Maybe a little bit."

"But you said I was way off course."

"You were."

"You said you were only scheming to get into my pants."

"No lies spoken."

"Then what the fuck is this?"

"Clearly, additional skullduggery. Minus the parrot."

I have so many questions that they seem to short-circuit my brain entirely. All I can manage is to shake my head and try to swallow the burning fist that closes around my throat. And Lisa can see it. Her eyes soften as they flow across my face.

She slides off the table and approaches as though closing in on a wild creature, moving with careful and slow steps until she's able to grasp my elbows as I keep the towel clutched to my chest. "Love," she says with a faint smile. "I know you're freaking out a bit about the whole planning part. So, I thought if we just did it, right here and now, we won't have to overcomplicate things. We do it the way we want, with our close friends and family and that's it. Nobody else. Just small. Everything is here if you want it. And if you don't, that is fine too."

My voice sounds small when I ask, "The dress is here?"

"Yep."

"What about Jay, and Sehun, and—"

"And Rose, and auntie Ethel, someone for hair and makeup, and everything else we need, it's all here."

"But who—"

"Conor can do the ceremony. Sehun can walk you down the aisle. He said he'd be honored to escort the spider lady."

My eyes well with tears. I bite down on my lip to keep it from wobbling, but it's impossible when Lisa traces it with her thumb, tugging it free from the grip of my teeth.

"The weather is supposed to be perfect. We can do it at sunrise, if you want. Right out at the water. Or we can do it another day. Plan it another way. I just thought …" Lisa's gaze drops from mine, as though she can't hold the connection between us. She shuffles her feet. Crinkles her nose. When she meets my gaze, her eyes shine. "I just want to marry you. I want to do it without you torturing yourself over what anybody else wants. I just care about you and me."

This woman. Sometimes it feels as if she'll never stop cracking my heart to fit more of herself inside.

Her features grow hazy beyond the watery film that covers the world when I blink. "For real?"

The first thread of hope and relief weaves into Lisa's expression. "Yeah, Blackbird. For real. Only if you really want to."

I don't even let her finish her sentence before I've caught Lisa in a desperate hug. "Yes," I whisper. "Yes, I really want to."

"Oh, thank fuck," she says as she lays her chin on my shoulder and wraps me in her arms. "I was having another ring-in-the-eye-socket moment of doubt there. You're sure?"

I nod my head against her chest.

"Extra sure?"

"Lisa—"

"Okay, great, well, on that note, gotta go."

In a flash of movement, Lisa has released me to grab her motorcycle helmet and stride toward the door.

"What the fuck?" I ask.

"Bad luck the day before the wedding," she says as she tosses me a cheeky smile when she pauses on the threshold. "Love you, Peaches. See you tomorrow."

The door is shut before I've even managed to move from my place in the center of the room, but I still call out after her. "I'll cut you."

"Empty threats," she calls back as her footfalls stride away down the hall.

By the time Anna and Solar return with champagne and giddy smiles and laughter, I feel as if I've been struck by a hurricane.

And that feeling sticks with me all the way through the rest of the day and into the night and straight through to the next morning. Like I'm caught in a storm. And it's frightening, but maybe exciting too. Like I can't wait to see what it looks like on the other side, how the world might change in its wake. Maybe I'll be swept away by the winds and land someplace new, somewhere I never expected to be.

As the minutes tick down, and my hair and makeup is done and the dress is on, that storm concentrates in the depths of my heart, and it lives there in every beat as I take Sehun's offered arm and wait by his side for the doors to open. Once they do, we'll walk out to the deck that's bathed in the morning light. We'll take the stone path to where Lisa waits on the sand cliffs overlooking the sea, and then I'll marry my best friend. The love of my life.

Sehun keeps my hand pressed tight to his side in a way that makes my heart ache as he jerks a nod toward the doors ahead. "You sure you want to marry that eejit? There's no escaping her if you do."

"There was never any escaping Lisa Manoban. I didn't want there to be," I say as I turn my smile to Sehun.

Sehun lets out a low and thoughtful hum. His dark blue eyes seem a little lighter than usual. A little softer. "You're kind of all right, Spider Lady."

"You're not so bad either. Most of the time, anyway," I reply as I turn my attention ahead. "Kind of a dick to my best friend, though."

"Feckin' Christ. I helped her move. Have you seen the size of her couch? You said she didn't have much stuff—"

"Still a dick. Sort it out."

Sehun grunts and shuffles his feet. "For a methodical, reclusive serial killer, you're pretty feckin' brazen."

"It's my wedding day. What if I just embrace it? Boss around my brothers-in-law, marry the Boston Butcher, eat some cake. Sounds pretty great, actually. So, yeah. You need to dance with Solar. Bride's orders."

"Then I hope you enjoy watching me hate every minute of it."

"Sehun Manoban, you're just like your sister," I say as I turn a beaming, lethal grin toward him. "Always threatening me with a good time."

Sehun scoffs but turns his gaze away too slowly to hide the little glint of delight in his eyes. "Yeah, Spider Lady … You're kind of all right."

The music starts up. The doors open. Sehun's other hand lays over mine.

I take one breath.

And then I walk from the shadows and into the sun.

THE END ...