Chapter 1

 

 

It was the most anticipated event of the college year - by invitation only - and Charlize and Sarah were invited. It was tradition that each year the college fraternity would host a Halloween costume party, but there was a twist. All party guests were required to wear masks and no party guest was permitted to remove the mask, unless they were in the exclusive company of their partner for the night.

Their partner wasn't necessarily their significant other. In fact, it was never their significant other. That was the whole idea behind the party and the game. Each female attending the Halloween bash would be given a random name for the night. Throughout the night the fraternity members would draw the women's names out of a bowl - which was normally a plastic pumpkin treat bucket. The woman whose name was drawn would be the entertainment for that lucky guy for the night. It was similar in concept to the teenagers' game of 'ten minutes in heaven'. However, the couple would head to a bedroom, instead of a closet, and sex was involved, instead of simple kissing with the occasional petting session if the boy got really lucky.

"So what about this one?" Charlize asked holding a mermaid costume up against her body as she turned toward her friend, Sarah.

"It has no mask and masks are required. You know that," Sarah reminded her. Turning her attention back to the rack of costumes, she continued to flip through them.

Charlize held the costume out at arm's length, looking it over. There had to be a way she could make it work. She was already head over heels in love with it. The forest green sequined skirt, with fins was absolutely stunning. The costume also came with an adorable mock-seaweed bra top. It was perfect.

She pulled her t-shirt up and examined her abs in the full length mirror in front of her. A perfect six pack of finely defined muscle. She'd worked damned hard on her abs over the summer months and she was adamant about showing them off.

"What about this?" Sarah asked, turning back to Charlize holding a Cinderella costume out to show her friend.

"It's too fairy tale. Instead of saying I'm a sexy goddess, devour me. It says, make sure you have me home by 10 pm, or my daddy will be really angry," Charlize replied giving her a shrug, "but do what you want. I know the only reason you're going is because Trent is making you."

Sarah placed the costume back in its place on the rack and continued the search. "He's not making me go Charlize. We made the decision, as a couple, that we'd attend. A one-time, one-night thing. That's all."

"Mm-hmm," was Charlize's only reply. Trent was making her and Charlize had no idea why he wanted Sarah to attend so badly. He was protective of her, overly protective. He didn't even like a man looking in Sarah's general direction. If a man's eyes lingered on her for any longer than a brief second, Trent would be in that guy's face, mouthing off. On a couple of occasions it had actually progressed to physical violence. Sure all his frat brothers would be in attendance, and it was more or less mandatory of the fraternity members to be in attendance, but still... It didn't smell right to her.

He on the other hand was an entirely different story. It was common knowledge that he would screw anything that let him. It just didn't make sense that he'd let her fuck another man, just so he could screw another woman, when he was doing that already. There was more to his decision, she just knew it.

Charlize just wished Sarah would leave him and be done with it. Sarah was just too trusting to realize what he was doing behind her back. Charlize had long since stopped trying to show her the truth. She just hoped one day Sarah would come to her senses and leave the asshole.

"Charlize. He's not making me go. I wish you would stop this vendetta you have against him. It's not like you and Luke have the best relationship," Sarah quipped. She stopped searching the racks, turned to look at Charlize and waited for a response.

Groaning inwardly, Charlize glanced over at her friend. "Luke and I have an open relationship. I'm fine with that, it's not like I'm interested in settling down right away anyhow. You on the other hand expect an exclusive relationship and do want to settle down. I just don't think Trent has gotten that memo."

Frowning, Sarah continued to stare at Charlize. "If you must know, I was the one who told him to have the guys send us invitations. I think it would be a good experience for us. It'll help to get it out of his system."

Sweetie, he's been getting it out of his system for the entire year you've been together, I don't think a Halloween party will change that, she thought to herself, but what she said to Sarah out loud was: "Well if you really think so, then I support your decision."

"Well, thank you," Sarah smiled, satisfied her friend was seeing things her way and went back to looking for the perfect costume.

Charlize brought the mermaid costume up to herself once more. If only she could find a mask that would work with the costume... She glanced around the small costume shop until her eyes landed on a rack of feathered eye masks. Draping the mermaid costume over her arm she went to the rack to get a better view of the selections. A gold one with a large yellow feather sticking out of the top caught her attention. It was beautiful.

Setting the costume on the chair beside her, she lifted the mask from the rack and raised it to her face, examining how it would look on her in the small mirror on the wall. Dark brown eyes peered back at her, from behind the mask. The yellow mixed well with her dark eyes and long, straight brown hair. A nice bonus was that the green of the costume, matched the yellow of the mask beautifully.

Charlize nodded to herself. She'd found it. The perfect costume. Looking over at Sarah still flipping through the racks, she sighed deciding to give her friend a hand. Friends didn't let friends wear tacky costumes. For all the bullshit her friend put up with because of Trent, she deserved a night of passionate sex with a hot mystery man and Charlize was going to find her a costume that would make that happen.

She looked Sarah over from head to toe, taking into consideration her friend's long golden curls, bright blue eyes and tall, lean body and realized she just might have the perfect costume for her. She snatched up a silver mask, with a large white feather attached, much like her own, brushed past Sarah and went directly to the rack on which she had found the mermaid costume.

Quickly flipping through the costumes, she finally came to the one she was confident would be perfect for sweet, sensual Sarah. "I have it. The perfect one for you," she announced.

Sarah turned, her eyes alighting on the costume, and smiled. What Charlize held in her hands was the most exquisite angel costume she'd ever seen. Well... considering the excessively short skirt and, low dipping bust line, she supposed 'naughty' angel might be a better description for it. Sarah stroked the long white feathers on one of the wings which were soft and smooth.

"So," Charlize prompted, her brown eyes gleaming with excitement, "what do you think?"

"It's perfect," Sarah announced, with a quick nod of her blonde head.