The Big A.S.S. Party (Zodiac Academy, #5.5)

by Caroline Peckham

"Oh, sweet huckleberry you really are a well-hung seahorse,"

"Save your silken words, you beastly boy, I know you wish to ruin me but I intend to own you first,"

Damn that beastly boy with his roguish scent and his hot chocolate skin that made my Lady Petunia want to bloom and welcome his proboscis in to pollenate her all night long.

"Oh my cherry tips in a can of whoopass, I cannot cope. It offends my eyes. I cannot look at it directly. Please, someone take it away!" I wailed, stumbling backwards as I came over weak and Maxy boy steadied me. Seth sniggered and Caleb pressed his face into a pillow, obviously overcome with emotion for how terrible a job he had done here.

"No one fucks with my girl on her birthday."

Why he would call me a starfish, I had no idea. Starfish were the devils of the sea with conniving little minds.

I just hoped that we really could find a way to get them a second shot at this, because I wasn't sure how I could spend my entire life feeling the ache of pain coming from him, knowing he'd never once been truly happy in his lifetime.

Darius was practically fucking glowing with her undivided attention on

He looked like he was fighting against the urge to drag her into his arms with everything he had as he watched her too, his fists clenched at his sides.

I wanted to rewrite the stars for my brother and if that just so happened to mean I got closer to Gerry at the same time then I certainly wasn't going to be complaining about it.

Oh, what barbarous things I could do to this terrible terrier, this lamentable Labrador, this heinous husky.

"Fate is a funny friend and a heartless enemy," I told her. "I don't know what your future holds, my lady, but I am sure it is something marvellous. How could it not be?"

I acted on instinct alone, throwing out my hand and casting an illusion over Seth Capella, turning him into a six foot turnip with beady eyes and a tiny mouth. Then I slapped him across his turnip face and he yelped in surprise.

Geraldine Grus was all mine.

I couldn't get enough of this girl, I felt like she'd wormed her way under my skin like a splinter I never wanted to remove. I just wanted her to keep working her way deeper and deeper until she pierced my heart and stayed lodged there forever.

"My tempting trout, you don't know how hard it is to say no to you," she breathed as I looked down at her, panting and frowning as a single tear slipped from her eye and ran down to soak into the pillow.

I stalked towards it but stopped on the threshold as the thought of walking out on her like this tore me in two.

"So give me that time," I said. "Two years. Two years of you and me to fuck and fight and fall in love and be all the things we won't be able to be once you walk down that aisle. Give me that time to try and convince you that that life isn't what you really want. We don't ever have to talk politics, we don't even have to tell anyone if you don't want to. Just let it be me and you, at least for a little while."

Either that or I was setting myself up to have my heart ripped from my chest and crushed before my eyes. But she was worth the risk. So I was going to take it.