Free Spin Devil by Red Garnier

Chapter One
     
    It had been four years.
    The six friends had parted ways after college with a last
night of drinks, dancing and sex. Cleo Sonterra remembered the night full well,
for it was the night she and David had made love after months of flirting,
taunting and teasing. He’d made love to her in his dorm room, in a small
rumpled bed, with the lights turned off. Cleo had expected him to be thorough
and tender, but in reality he’d been shaky, clumsy and too drunk to think
coherently. Her lack of enthusiasm hadn’t helped matters much, and that was
only because she’d been thinking of someone else entirely—someone she shouldn ’ t have been thinking of at that moment.
    It was the first time Cleo and David had sex—and the last.
    It had been a night such as this, friends gathered out on
the beach with a bonfire that blazed high and mighty toward the dark skies.
Tonight there was no massive fire except for the flames blazing in the six
pairs of eyes present, and that was merely a reflection of the flickering
orange lights from the dozens of steel lanterns scattered over the sand.
    They sat in a circle on thick old blankets strewn around the
sand, the lulling sound of the ocean’s waves crashing against the shore a very
distant second to the loud sounds of their laughter. Several yards behind them
stood the two-story contemporary beachfront house where Jason now lived. His
home encompassed a good stretch of beach on the east coast of Florida.
    The six friends were playing an old college game, this time
with a plush red devil—complete with pitchfork and tail—that Luella had brought
from Los Angeles. It was a strange little toy, covered in smooth, shiny red
satin and a bit too heavy for its size, with dark, beady eyes that seemed to
stare right through you. Despite the toy’s strangely unsettling appearance, all
of the friends had been more than willing to give it a spin.
    So the devil had replaced the bottle, and the truths and
dares had become extreme and, yes, devilishly sinful. This was no longer a game
played by college students. It was a game played by consenting adults who were
very drunk…and maybe just a little horny.
    Personally, Cleo had had her reservations about attending
the reunion. First and foremost because she had no desire to see their group
“leader”, a man with absolutely no affection for her—and one with no scruples,
either. Sebastian Russo cheated at cards, lied at his leisure, stole to prove
that he could, smoked, drank, cursed and whored to his liking. He had always
teased and taunted Cleo mercilessly for being what he considered a “damned
prude”—as if he were an authority on the subject, when he had zero principles
to speak of. He clearly couldn’t comprehend why Cleo preferred to cuddle at
home with a book rather than get drunk every single day—like he usually
did. And although her friends, Luella and Haley, didn’t drink that often
either, Sebastian would only tease Cleo about it.
    Yet no matter how much she dreaded facing him, Cleo missed
her friends as much as she missed her college years. Every moment they’d
shared—the tender, the wild, the sad, the first and the last. Luella and Haley
had even threatened to fly up to Seattle and haul her down to Florida if she
didn’t get her butt down here to their reunion.
    “You have to come. We all want to see you, we really
miss you, sweetie,” Luella had said on the phone a few weeks ago. “Even all the
guys have been wanting to know if you’re coming…well, except Bas, but you know
how he is.”
    Of course Cleo knew how he was, and just knowing he probably
didn’t want her to go, because to him she was just a “damned prude” who
would only spoil his fun, Cleo decided she had to go. She couldn’t—and
wouldn’t—let the fear of facing one man keep her from enjoying a lovely reunion
with the rest of her friends.
    When Cleo first arrived at Jason’s place, she’d felt awkward
and shy, noting how each of her