“Asshole,” I grumbled, swimming over to the edge and hoisting myself up out of the water. Then, I stood there and stretched, letting droplets of water cascade down my body. I could feel Wes’s eyes on me even without looking at him. So I sauntered over to the towels and grabbed one, taking my time to dry off, putting on a good show for Wes.
Then, I looked over at him and winked. “Better hope your father doesn’t catch you with that,” I teased, seeing a very visible tent in his wet clothes. “Otherwise, you’re going to have a lot of explaining to do.”
Without another word, I sauntered back inside, leaving Wes to groan. One of these days, he’d learn I could give just as well as I took.
Chapter 5
“You’re not serious,” Wes said with a frown. He stared at the massive stuffed duck hanging above the prize counter in horror. Bright yellow, the thing stood at least five feet tall, plump with stuffing. “Will that even fit in the car?”
I shrugged. I was sure it would. It wasn’t much bigger than Sebastian, and if we could fit him in the backseat, we could fit the duck in there, I figured. Getting it home wasn’t the hard part. Wes winning it for me was going to be the hard part. It cost an astronomical amount of tickets, and Wes would either have to get very, very lucky on the right games, or spend a small fortune buying tokens.
But even since Wes had called me a tease after dumping me in the pool, I was taking great pleasure in actually teasing him. It’d been a week since then, a week that seemed to have gone by in the blink of an eye, but I still hadn’t finished torturing the poor guy.
But I told him I would give him a break and stop being so mean if he won me that giant stuffed duck.
Jaxson and Hunter started cackling, smirking at their best friend. Even Adrian, standing between the two, was giggling. Sebastian and Todd had run off together somewhere, agreeing to meet back up with us around sunset. There was supposed to be a giant party down on the beach tonight, and we’d all agreed to come early to spend some time on the pier.
Wes looked over at me one more time, and I just grinned at him. He groaned, then reached for his wallet and headed over to the little machine that would turn his money into shiny little tokens. “This better be worth it,” he grumbled under his breath.
Standing on my toes, I leaned over to whisper right into his ear. “You know I’m worth it.”
The shiver that went through his body made me grin even broader. It was so easy to tease him, which was actually kind of surprising. Since he had a reputation for sleeping his way through the school, I figured it’d have been more of a challenge. But simple looks and light touches were enough to drive him bonkers.
When I turned to look at Adrian, I winked at her, and she laughed. Returning my grin, she started nodding. There was a mischievous fire in her eyes now. “I think you’ve got the right idea.” Lips pursed in thought, she turned and surveyed the amassed collection of prizes the arcade had displayed. Then, her eyes locked onto two massive stuffed monkeys, one in neon green, and the other in bright blue. “I think the two of you better get busy.”
Hunter and Jaxson exchanged looks of horror. When Adrian just kept smiling at them, they groaned simultaneously and trudged over to the machine for their turn at cashing in their money.
“You’ve got those boys whipped,” I whispered to Adrian, proud of how quickly she’d tamed not just one man-whore, but two. “The girls at school aren’t going to know what to do with a sudden lack of horny men that’ll drop their pants at the drop of a hat.”
Adrian and I burst into laughter, and then went to get ourselves some sodas and french fries while the boys got to work. It was going to take them quite a while to earn those prizes, and we were going to need snacks to enjoy the show with!
Adrian and I giggled as the poor arcade attendant stared at the three massive piles of tickets the guys had just dumped onto the counter in front of him. Pretty much the entire arcade was staring too. Little kids had circled around in awe, watching the totals add up as the guy fed the tickets into his little counting machine.
He had to empty it twice before it’d finished counting all the tickets. Each of them had indeed earned enough for the massive stuffed animals hanging on the wall. The sigh of resignation that came from the clerk when they all pointed out which prizes they wanted made me feel a bit guilty for him.
The idea had been to punish Wes a little more, not the kid who was probably making minimum wage at this place. But he went to the back and retrieved a ladder, then dutifully climbed up it to unhook the stuffed animals before presenting them to the guys.
Who, of course, sauntered over to us with their hard-earned prizes in hand. Well, not so much hard-earned as hard paid for. I hadn’t kept track of how much money each of them had fed into the machine throughout the afternoon, but I was sure it was far more than those stuffed animals were worth.
I scowled as Wes stood there smirking, the big yellow duck in his arms. Even held up against his hulking frame, the thing really was massive. And while I was glad Wes had been able to win it for me, I could’ve done without his ego and cockiness that had come along with it. He was just a bit too proud of himself, especially since it’d been Lucas’s money he’d spent dollar after dollar.
He still had a cup half full of tokens; along with the remaining tickets he’d had leftover. I grinned at him, then walked over and kissed him on the cheek. “Congratulations,” I told him, batting my eyelashes. “You’re going to look so manly carrying that around with you for the rest of the night!”
Before he could respond, I plucked the cup out of his hands and walked away. I had to fight the urge to giggle as she started sputtering behind me.
There was a little girl, maybe seven or eight years old, in a wheelchair who’d been watching in amazement as the guys had their tickets counted and collected their prizes. So I went over to her and squatted down until we were eye level. “Since I got the prize I wanted, I figured you could make better use of these than we could,” I said as I handed her the cup.
The girl squealed with delight, and she threw her arms around me in a hug. The way her eyes lit up with excitement was well worth having to put up with Wes and the other’s doing their macho men routine for the rest of the night.
“Are... are you sure?” the man behind her wheelchair asked. His eyes were wide as he stared into the cup of tokens, no doubt knowing just how much money all those tokens had cost. I wasn’t quite sure myself, but I had a feeling it was more than he could’ve afforded to spend on his daughter in one outing.
I smiled at him and nodded. “Have some fun with them for me, okay? And win yourself a good prize. Maybe one day, when you’re older, you’ll find someone special who will win you the biggest stuffy they have, too.”
After both the father and daughter thanked me profusely, I went back over to Wes, who was looking at me with pink cheeks. I kissed him again, and then hooked arms with him. “You didn’t need those, did you?” I asked in a light, airy tone.
Wes chuckled and rolled his eyes. He knew better than to argue with me over something like that. Besides, he really hadn’t needed the tokens anymore. And it may have been a small fortune to that girl and her father, but it was still just pocket change to Wes. “Nope, not at all,” he said before kissing me on the cheek. “And that was very sweet of you. I’m sure you just made that little girl’s day.”