Chapter 41
“What the fuck is it with you and armpits, Cruz?!” Daniel all but exploded, but I couldn’t stop staring at the chit that held my execution sentencing.
Rina tapped my thigh, and when I looked at her, she signed, Are you okay?
I blinked at her. “Am I a cult sacrifice?” I asked.
“Was today just a ploy to get me here and offer me up to some demon you guys worship? How did you rope Taron and Tori into helping you? Was that blowjob you gave me earlier your way of saying sorry to me because you’re going to gut me and eat my intestines in order to achieve immortality? ”
Rina searched my face for a beat too long, and I knew she was fighting back a smile with the way she kept pursing her lips every other second. But, after a while, she regained herself, then signed, I’ll get the wax, before getting to her feet and running up to her bedroom.
The universe was playing with me. Or maybe it was the Illuminati…
Satan? Yeah, maybe he was behind all of this.
I honestly couldn’t tell.
“Applying some talcum powder on the area that’s to be waxed makes the process more bearable,” Cruz said.
I took my eyes off the chit so that I could glare at him proper. “I thought you were a saint,” I all but hissed at him. “But even geniuses can be wrong, so I only have myself to blame for falling for your saccharine act of companionship.”
Cruz frowned. “Sorry, man. I really wasn’t expecting you to get the dare. I was hoping that this idiot,” he pointed at Daniel, “would be the one to pick up my chits.”
Daniel acted offended. “Ex-squeeze me?! My armpits are hairless and innocent, thank you very much.” He clicked his tongue. “Serves you right for trying to get unnecessary revenge on me when all I’ve wanted us to do today is have fun.”
Before Cruz could fire back a response, Rina came bounding down the stairs with actual, literal glee on her face, and a small, pink box clutched in her right hand.
God, I’d accidentally fallen irreversibly in love with a real-life Harley Quinn.
Fuck me twelve ways to Easter.
She came to a stop in front of me, a little out of breath, then signed, Take off your jacket and shirt.
“Absolutely not,” I told her. I was still sitting cross-legged on the floor, so I had to crane my neck a little in order to look at her.
She placed her hands on her hips and huffed, then turned to Cruz with a silent command on her face. She then gave another kind of scary look to my brother, and I watched, dumbfounded, as both the giants in the room rose to their feet.
No.
N?o.
Non.
Níl.
óxi.
“Stay. The fuck. Away. From me.” I dragged myself away from the two towering heaps of muscles, but they continued to advance toward me. “Fucking stop!”
“Don’t make this hard, bro,” Taron said. “It’ll be over in seconds; just co-operate.”
“EASY FOR YOU TO SAY!” I yelled, and slid back more. My bitten ass was burning, but that’s the least I had to bear in order to save my life.
“Calm down, man,” added Cruz. “It’s just wax.”
“You…” I pointed a finger at him. “Fuck you.”
“I deserve it,” he agreed. “But you’re being a damn baby about this. You’re a constructor, for Christ’s sake. Surely you’ve had injuries in the past that hurt far more than wax ever will.”
“That’s beside the point,” I told him. “Those were necessary injuries; this – this is TORTURE.”
“Look…” Cruz started, but stopped abruptly and grabbed my legs. Before I even knew what was happening, two large arms hooked themselves under mine and lifted me, and then, Cruz and Taron were carrying me over to the center of the gathered circle.
“STOP!” I screamed helplessly. “SOMEONE HELP ME! PLEASE, HELP ME!”
The giants placed me back on the ground, and when I tried to get up, Rina came next to me, pushed me down, and straddled me.
“Babe…” I swallowed. “Come on, we don’t have to do this. I love you, and you love me. Is that not enough?!”
She clicked her tongue and again signed for me to take off my jacket and t-shirt.
I gave her my best Puss-in-Boots eyes, but when she didn’t budge, I sighed and did what she wanted me to, then lied on the floor like the sacrificial lamb I knew I was.
“Dear God, look at those abs,” I heard Daniel say. “I could mold cookies shaped as them.”
“Ugh, you’re so weird,” Simran told him, and everyone muttered their agreement to her statement.
Taron and Cruz headed back to their places, and Rina opened the pink box she was holding before pulling a flat strip from inside it.
Nooooo.
Ohgod, ohgod, OHGOD.
She briefly rubbed the strip between her palms, then gestured for me to raise an arm.
“Baby, I–”
She glared at me, so I quickly obeyed her order.
She slowly pulled the strip apart, handed a piece of it to Ash, then leaned in before slapping the other one right over the smattering of hair on my right pit.
My heart was in my damn throat as I watched her press the strip onto my skin. She rubbed it continuously for a few seconds, and once she was satisfied, she looked at me and signed, Ready?
I nodded, because really, there was nothing else I could do. It was too late; the damage had already been done.
Rina grabbed an edge of the strip, pulled down my skin, and then – then she ripped.
R I P P E D.
And oh, man, did it hurt.
It hurt so bad that my eyes began to sting, my jaw started to tingle, and my mouth all but dried out because I was sucking in air in anticipation of the incoming pain.
And the burning sensation I was feeling? Yeah, that was 250 times more intense than that ass-bite.
“FUCK!” I all but howled, and my hips arched on their own accord, making Rina jump a little.
She chuckled, and I knew why.
I’d felt her heat on my crotch, and she’d most definitely felt my cock between her thighs.
At least there was that little thing going on below my belt to keep me sane, shameless as I am to admit it.
Rina shifted, and I met her gaze. Raise, she signed, then pointed at my left arm.
I swallowed and did just that, and as she repeated the process of placing the strip on my skin and then rubbing it, I puffed out air through my lips and waited for darkness to take over.
And Lord, it did.
My hands clenched into fists; my vision turned spotty and hazy. My breath left me in a whoosh, and my chest tightened as I shrieked, “FUCK YOU ALL, YOU DEMON-WORSHIPPING CULTISTS!”
Another fresh hell of pain zapped through my body post that pull, so I closed my eyes and thought to myself: This is how you’re gonna die, dipshit – with a chunk of your ass bitten out, and two swollen, blood-red, freshly-waxed armpits.
What a way to go…
“Alright, it’s game-over, everyone!” Daniel hollered, then cleared his throat. “Uh, Pizza! Who wants pizza?! Everyone wants some pizza, right? Right???”
Everyone said ‘Yes’ in unison, and when I opened my eyes, he looked at me with a wobbly, almost grimace-like smile on his face. “Do you have a topping preference?” he asked softly.
I sniffed and sat up, then groaned as I brought my arms down.
Rina, who was still straddling me, pursed her lips as she fixed my hair, then signed, I’m sorry.
“No, you’re not,” I told her immediately.
She fought back a smile, to which I rolled my eyes.
“You’re evil, woman,” I said. “Pure evil.”
She grinned, gave me a long kiss on the lips, and grabbed something from inside the wax box before waving it in front of my face.
I took it from her and read the packaging:
Aftercare oil with aloe and almond. Massage over waxed skin to ease any irritation or swelling. Do not wash after application.
I handed the packet back to her and arched a brow. “You have better be using that all over my armpits in the next minute or so, or else I’m banning sex for at least an entire month.” The burning sensation in my pits had turned into a constant throb, which made me clench my jaw against it.
Rina’s mouth formed an ‘O’ as she stared at me over my threat to her, so I just gave her a grin and looked at Daniel.
“Extra cheese, olives, slightly burnt pineapples, and fresh basil,” I told him, and when he blinked at me, I added, “My pizza topping preference.”
“Right.” He nodded. “Of course.”
I turned to Rina again and smirked at her. “Now, then; how about that armpit massage, huh, babe?”