Evelyn Vine Be Mine (54 page)

That’s how I ended up skipping dinner and spending the remainder of the evening on the bathroom floor…telling my mum about Stone.

***

To say my mother was overjoyed to hear about Stone was the understatement of the century. She thought he sounded incredible and demanded I send her a picture. I refused, knowing she’d send it to Zane and then the next thing you knew, Stone would have a contract on his head. I winced, hoping that mum would have moved on to the next sibling’s love life before she next talked to Zane. Even mentioning I had a lover could be disastrous. Zane probably wouldn’t even need a picture to track Stone down.

With a sigh, I said goodbye to my mum and rang Logan.

“Hey Evie,” his tired voice greeted on the third ring. I frowned into the darkness of my room, wondering why he was answering my calls and not the rest of the family’s.

“You need to call Mum,” I said softly, without offering a ‘hello’.

I heard his breath whoosh out in frustration, but I didn’t let him argue. “She’s really upset, Lo,” I said, raising my voice a little, “You’ve been ignoring everyone for nearly six months. She’s past curiosity. Now she’s just worried and hurt.”

There was a few beats of silence, before Logan finally asked, “How bad is it?”

“Bad,” I growled softly, “I had to tell her about Stone to cheer her up. You owe me.”

He laughed softly, though without humour, “Sorry.”

My own voice lowered to a whisper and I hesitated, before adding, “We’re all worried, Lo.”

“I know,” he said slowly, “I just need a little longer.”

“Are you at least going to come home with me for Christmas?” I demanded.

He paused, “I don’t know yet. We might have to go to Katherine.”

I took the we to mean him and Ivy. “So you and Ivy worked everything out?” I asked hopefully.

His groan was filled with frustration, exhaustion and pain. “No,” he said desperately, “I don’t know what to do Eve.”

“I can’t help unless you tell me what’s wrong!” I shouted, startled and distressed at my brother’s pain.

“You can’t help,” he said forcefully, “This is something I have to fix myself.”

Stone flung my door open and his eyes narrowed on me, taking in my tears as I sat in the darkness. I turned my back to him and whispered into the phone, “Please call Mum.”

Logan groaned, “I’m going to visit her next month, I promise.”

“You are?” I asked in surprise.

“Yeah,” he muttered.

Stone sat behind me on the bed and pulled me into his arms.

“I have to go,” I told my brother.

“I’m sorry Evie,” Logan said softly, “Please don’t cry over me…”

He chuckled a little, “The others will kick my ass.”

“I’ll kick your ass,” I said with a teary giggle.

“Bye sis.”

“Bye bro.”

I put my phone on the bedside table and snuggled into Stone. He gently pushed me backward though and wiped away a few tears. His stare was hard and penetrating – demanding to know what was wrong.

“My brother,” I said with a small shrug, “Family stuff.”

He nodded and lay down without asking anymore, pulling me into his arms and tucking us under the blanket fully clothed. Exhaustion caught up with me and I gratefully fell asleep.

***

“Holy fucking Christ,” I whispered, gaping at the reflection in the mirror. It was a Saturday night. The Saturday night. Halloween.

Briar had refused to let me see my finished costume until now. She’d gone so far as to blindfold me during fittings. I’d know it was going to be tight and revealing…but Oh. My. God!

The pair of ‘pants’ I was wearing was made from lycra. Cheetah-printed lycra that clung to every inch of my ass and legs like a second skin. You could see the separate globes of my ass cheeks! The waistband rested extremely low on my hips and the ‘leggings’ finished at my ankles. Strappy Gold heels were on my feet, matching the little gold clutch I carried.

My top…

Hell, it was a fixed halter-neck style (no ties) and dipped in a very low, cross-over neckline. Briar had inserted fitted cups into the chest area, so the top fit like a bra. It was made from the same lycra and ended just beneath my rib-cage. Both the pants and the top had been slashed with a sharp knife in several places, to give the appearance of claw marks.

Briar had made me go for a tan the night before and tonight she’d made me cover myself in shimmer moisturiser. My skin glowed – not insanely so – but prettily. I was a warm, shiny light gold and it matched the golds and black of my costume.

The front part of my hair was pinned up, leaving only a few soft tendrils around my face. My waves were turned to curls and Briar fussed for nearly half an hour as she tried to ensure the natural gold highlights in my chestnut hair were showing to their best. She’d placed a black headband on my head with little fabric ears attached, and then she’d tackled my face. Smokey-black cat eyes, very lightly drawn whiskers, and baby pink lips finished the costume and made my amber eyes seem brighter.

I blinked and soundlessly moved my mouth. I couldn’t believe that was me. I looked nothing like the scrawny, shy mouse that arrived at the beginning of the year. Sure, I was still very slim, but I had boobs now, and some curves, and some muscles tone…and WOW! Had my legs always been this long?

“Pretty sexy huh?” Briar called out proudly from where she was changing in the bathroom.

I blushed and bit my lip, realising that I’d actually have to go to the Uni Club like this.

Candy giggled excitedly, running over to me somewhat awkwardly (her pants were as tight as mine). “Stone is going to fall over when he sees you!” she squealed.

I winked at her, “Mason’s going to toss you over his shoulder as soon as he sees you.”

He probably would too. Clad only in a refashioned strapless bra and skin-tight pants, Candy was one stunning mermaid. Her candy-apple red hair had grown extremely fast during the year, and now spilled over her shoulder in soft waves, contrasting sharply with the crisp white of her shell bra and the deep ocean blue of her shiny spandex pants.

“How do I look?” Briar interrupted, striding out of the bathroom confidently. Candy wolf-whistled and I giggled as Bri did a full circle to show us the back as well. The tight, white, strapless leotard-thing she was wearing left little to the imagination. She’d packed some serious boning and padding into the chest area to lift her small breasts and they bounced cheerfully above the fabric when she moved. Her legs were covered only by black fishnet stocking and black stilettos. A white fluffy tail was pinned to her ass and she also wore a head band with white and pink bunny ears flopping from it. Her usually wild, spirally blonde curls had been straightened and the strands fell down her back to nearly twice the usual length, almost reaching the cottontail. Her big green eyes had been lined with black and she had also drawn gentle whisker lines on her cheeks. Her lips were pink like mine and she looked altogether pretty damn cute.

“Alec has no chance,” I said with a smile and Briar wiggled her hips with a wide smile of her own.

“Let’s go girls,” she said, “The boys are already there waiting and I so can’t wait to see their costumes!”

I felt my smile stretch until my face began to hurt and wondered whether Stone had worn his costume. My smile faded as I glanced at the time and realised I’d have to wait a little longer.

“Shit guys, I forgot about my brothers,” I said quickly, “It’s their seventeenth birthday and they allocated me the 1900 hour time slot for Skype.”

Briar raised an eyebrow, “They allocated you a time slot?”

I shrugged as I turned on my laptop and started setting up the camera, “Paul’s the only sibling there with them so the rest of us are going to talk to them on Skype. We’ve found it works out easier if we do it in groups and organise times. Cooper and the older triplets went on at 1800 hours, Charlie went on at 0700 hours and I think Zane managed to get on at 1600 hours. That leaves me and Logan at 1900. He should be here soon.”

Speak of the devil…

There was a knock on my door and Briar swung it open eagerly. Logan smiled at her, giving her a quick once over, before sauntering past to wrap me in a hug. He drew back and looked me up and down.

“Hot,” he said with a grin. He nodded his head toward the computer, “All set up?”

“Nearly,” I answered, giving the other two girls a push toward the door, “I’ll meet you guys there.”

“Awww, but we wanna see the sexy triplets,” Briar said with a pout.

I raised an eyebrow, “You better get your bunny butt over to the club before someone moves in on Alec.”

“Good point,” she said with a sigh, but quickly smiled again, shooting a flirty wave at Logan as she and Candy made for the door.

Logan sat down at my desk and pulled me down to perch on his knee as the screen came up with an image of our three little brothers.

“Happy birthday!” we shouted together.

Mike and Jake cheered and Luke grinned back at us. They were dressed as the three musketeers and I snickered at how unoriginal that was.

“Nice outfits,” Logan said before I could.

“Bite me,” Jake said with a laugh, even as Mike growled.

“Where the fuck have you been?” Mike snapped at Logan.

Logan shrugged with a smile, “I can leave if you want.”

“Lo,” I warned softly.

“What are you supposed to be Evie?” Luke asked suddenly, leaning closer to his screen as if to see me better.

“I’m a cheetah,” I said, standing up and moving back a pace so that they could see me properly.

“Logan!” they all shouted together and Logan bit his lip to stop the threatening laughter.

“Give Evie your shirt!” Jake ordered Logan, even as Mike demanded that I go and change.

I grabbed the tail Briar had added and waved it at them, “Don’t you like it?”

Logan couldn’t hold back the laughter this time and it was another ten minutes before I could calm the triplets down enough to say my goodbyes and log off.

“Get, you,” I said to Logan with a smile, “I’m late to meet my friends.”

“I’ll walk you to the club,” Logan said, taking my arm and guiding me from the room.

“That’s not necessary,” I said, but Logan shot me a no-nonsense look.

“Evie, I’m not letting you walk across the dark campus in that,” he said firmly, “Not alone.”

I sighed, but smiled happily, “Lead on then.”

***

I giggled as we approached the club. The university social club had obviously gone all out on decorations. The red-bricked building was covered in toilet paper and there were Jacko lanterns hanging from beneath the upstairs veranda. The veranda railings had been covered with spider webs and a variety of bats and massive spiders dangled from its roof. The bouncers were dressed as vampires and the front doors were closed, a warning sign taped to the front.

“Have fun tonight Evie,” Logan said with a broad smile, before kissing me on the cheek and walking away.

“Does Stone know about him?” one of the bouncers asked me with a small smile.

I blushed, but nodded my head, “That’s my older brother.”

The other bouncer laughed and swung the door open for me, winking at me as I held out my arm for the underage stamp and ushering me through without stamping me.

“Enjoy yourself kitty,” he said with a laugh. I gave him a smile of thanks, even though I’d already decided I wasn’t going to drink. Sure, Stone would be around, but the place was packed and I didn’t want to worry him.

The club was dark and lit sporadically with orange and red light. The strobe lights kicked in once every ten minutes or so and I hoped there was no epileptics in the crowd. It would be a bad time to have a fit in the almost dangerous crush of people.

The live band played horror-themed songs – everything from The Monster Mash to Thriller – and were dressed as mummies. There was a food table set up at one end, filled with all kinds of Halloween themed goodies. I headed that way, sure that if I wanted to find Stone the sweet table was the best place to look.