Shaky memories flickered through the pain. Me, grabbing a whisky bottle from Dorien, giddily ballroom dancing with Ivan while Dorien thumped out a waltz on the piano, breaking onto the second-floor balcony to howl at the moon, running naked across the overgrown lawn to jump into the freezing mountain stream at the bottom of the garden, sitting on Dorien’s shoulders while we drunkenly tried to untangle my torn panties from the chandelier, more whisky… so much whisky…
Oh shit.
I bolted upright, gasping for breath as the memories solidified into a disturbing, terrifying, andverynaked picture.
What have I done?
I slept with two guys.Two guys.
Two guys who had bullied me ever since I arrived at Manderley.
They fucked me on the bench. And then… and then Ivan on the chaise lounge, and Dorien bending me over the piano keys, and again beside the stream…
My cheeks burned.
I had… a threesome. Like I was a porn star or one of their groupies instead of the dowdy and not-at-all-sexually-deviant Faye de Winter.
I mean, wasn’t there supposed to be a step between losing your virginity and group sex? The first and only time I had sex was with a guy named Henry at music camp in southern Maine. I may have been a geek with no friends at school, but music camp was where geeks like me went to get laid. Stick a hundred ostracized teenagers in dorms together with minimal supervision, and you’ve got one long sex party.
Henry Oxshott traveled to camp every year from his British boarding school, and we always hung out together. He wore wool sweaters and had an adorable accent and a face full of zits. We bonded over our shared love of Mexican food and absent fathers. Two summers ago, we decided it was time. Neither of us knew what to do, but Henry held me and whispered sweet things into my hair and it was nice, if not underwhelming. I came back from camp feeling older and wiser. I told my mom what had happened and that I didn’t get what all the fuss was about.
NowI got it.
Sound the fucktrumpets. Dorien Valencourt gave me my first orgasm, and Ivan Nicolescu could make me come practically just by whispering evil things in my ear.
I wanted many, many more.
All the orgasms for me.
Only, not now.I moaned, clutching my head in some vain attempt to stop my brain leaking out my eyeballs.Now I wanted to die.
Fuck, why did I drink so much Scotch?
Beside the bed, my phone beeped, reminding me it was time to get up and start my chores. After a few blind tries, my fingers circled the phone. My whole body screamed as I dragged my arm back and tossed it at the wall.CRASH. THUMP. It clattered to the floor. That seemed to shut it up.
Beside me, something moaned.
Fucking ghost.
Wait, hold the poltergeist.My brain fog parted just long enough for a sliver of fear to slice through my skull.Seriously, what is that noise?
The ghost moaned again. I sat up, fumbling for the light, my heart hammering so fast it churned up the bile in my delicate stomach. As I struggled to open my eyes, something moved in the bed beside me.
“Morning, Sprite,” the ghost murmured from beneath the sheets.
“Fuck!” I leaped from the bed, tugging the sheets over my breasts. The ghost rolled over as I revealed it to the light, and Dorien’s sleepy face peered up at me with wry amusement. “What are you doing in my bed?”
“You mean she’s already forgotten us?” Ivan sat up, his white-blond hair piled on one side of his head.
“Arrrrgh!” I yanked the rest of the sheet off and staggered back until I crashed into the wall. My hand flew to my churning stomach – my weakened disposition couldn’t deal with two very hot andverynaked Muses entangled together in my bed.
I died in my sleep. That’s the only logical explanation. I’ve died and gone to some weird version of heaven. Or hell.
Definitely hell. Because the fact they both look that good after how much whisky we drank is downrightsinful.
“I can’t deal with this right now.” I slumped against the wall, pressing my fingers to my temples. “Why are you here? You have much larger and less crowded beds downstairs.”
“The company down there wasn’t as good.” Ivan yawned. “Besides, you were the one who dragged us up here.”
