Chapter Thirteen - That Boy is a Monster (Teaser #2)

“Hey!” I shouted, wrapping my arm around Corinne’s shoulder to help her recover. “Watch it!”

“Or you’ll be trying what, Tink?” Corinne and I both stiffened. Royce.

“Bella, just leave it,” she mumbled, straining to move away from him. I held my ground though, and pushed her behind me as I took a step towards him, only to have Rosalie move to stand between us, dressed in a pink ballerina costume.

“Baby, calm down,” she soothed, pressing her hands against Royce’s chest.

“I’m not gonna fuckin’ calm down,” he spat, pointing drunkenly at Corinne. “She fuckin’ bumped into me.”

“It’s just a misunderstanding,” I quickly interjected, not wanting things to get too out of hand.

“Isabella? That you?” Royce gasped, then smiled widely before taking an unsteady step towards me.

“Hi, Royce,” I mumbled, awkwardly accepting his hand and allowing him to kiss my knuckles.

“You look… Wow. Where’s Eddie?”

Rosalie shot me a warning glance and shook her head slightly, warning me to be wary of my answer.

“He said he’d join us in a sec,” I told him with a smile. Right on cue, I saw Edward approaching us from behind Royce with a concerned expression on his face. He couldn’t have had better timing. “Oh! Here he is now!”

Chapter Thirteen - That Boy is a Monster (Teaser)

“Baby, you look…” He trailed off, shaking his head, then reached for my hand as he came to a stop a couple of feet away from me. He lifted our hands in the air, then turned me in a circle so he could look at my entire outfit.

“Do you like it?” I asked worriedly, then shivered slightly as he reached out and gently gripped my waist with both hands. “I mean, I can always just-”

“You look… incredibly beautiful right now, Bella,” he said softly, sounding almost awed. “I’m assuming you went for the sexed-up Tinkerbell look?”

“Tinkerbella,” I corrected, trying my hardest not to blush. “Didyme thought it would be a good idea to go as the Absinthe fairy, but I thought Tinkerbell fit better.”

“I like it,” he murmured, smiling widely. “But I have one question… Where are your wings?”

“In there,” I told him, pointing to one of the bags on the floor. “I couldn’t put them on until the bodice was done up since they hook into the back.”

“I see,” he replied, still smiling as I moved my hands from the bodice and slipped my arms around his neck. “And that’s where I come in, right?”

“Yep,” I murmured, then inhaled sharply as his hands slid up my waist to cup my barely covered breasts, pushing the bodice against my skin.

“Mmm…” His thumbs brushed over my nipples through the fabric as he took a step closer, his eyes locked on mine. “But what if I don’t want to do it up?”