Apparently, this was the place to find it.
Mark was in the corner, eyes mere slits, getting lost in his own isolated world. In the old recliner inclined to the right of the couch, Sebastian was already nodding out from the poison he’d pumped in his veins, and his kid brother Austin was sitting on the floor, nose pressed to the TV so he could hear above the disorder while he played a video game.
No doubt this wasn’t the best atmosphere for him, witnessing shit no thirteen-year-old kid should see. Wasn’t the worst, either. Had to be better than him getting knocked around by the asshole who was supposed to be his father, anyway.
Right in front of me was the coffee table. Lined up on top of it in a perfect row were five shots the color of licorice.
Beside them were three fat lines of coke.
I was just getting started.
I barely looked up with the knock at the door and the turn of the knob, the lift of voices as a new group of people piled in. Ash was all welcome and hospitality as he shook a couple hands and patted a few backs.
But it was a tingly awareness that had me lifting my head.
Brown eyes peered back at me.
Wide and curious.
Both shameless and shy.
They wandered my face, over my guitar, down to the shit littered on the coffee table, back up to me.
Whole time, I just stared.
Maybe it was the high getting the best of me.
That rush of adrenaline beating my heart like the roll of a drum, just waiting to propel me on to something great.
But there was no question I had to have this girl.
Her friend touched her arm to get her attention, and reluctantly, she dropped her gaze and followed her into the kitchen. Ash slung his arm around her friend’s shoulders, no doubt whispering something saccharine obscene.
Clearly, Ash had done the inviting.
But I was all too happy to participate in the taking.
She accepted a drink Ash poured. They filed back into the living room and grabbed a seat. And I could feel her edging in closer, just like I felt compelled to move her direction.
The night moved on, a blur of shots and lines and shouted voices, the music nonstop.
Still the girl remained my focus. My eyes drawn. Dick hard.
Wanting her more and more with every glimpse of brown eyes below those dark, dark lashes. Her tight little body begging to be devoured, skinny jeans and a ripped-up black T-shirt tied at the back where she constantly teased me with flashes of her milky-white skin.
Ash kept plying her with drinks, and I smiled when she was suddenly sitting next to me, sidling closer with each shot we took. I shared one with her. Wiped the droplet of liquor that clung to the edge of her upper lip. I licked it from my thumb. Then my mouth was on hers, and she was straddling my lap.
Kissing me and kissing me, my hands in her hair, her nails in my skin.
I climbed to my feet, taking her with me, never breaking that kiss.
Swore to God, I’d never tasted anything so sweet.
It was a high unlike anything I’d known.
I carried her to my room, set her on her feet, kicked the door shut behind us. Darkness swam through the room. But this girl was all I could see. A shadowy angel striking like the best kind of sin in the hazy light filtering in from the window.
For a beat, we both just stared, panting, before I edged forward. She gazed up at me with those big brown eyes as she lifted my shirt. Fingers explored across the skin of my stomach, almost cautious, and damn if that wasn’t the hottest damn thing I’d ever seen. Then she went to work on the fly of my jeans, and I was kicking off my shoes while ridding her of that top and her plain white bra.
I picked her up and tossed her on my bed.
The remnants of my morning high were sitting on a tray on the nightstand. I swiped my finger through the powder and crawled onto the bed, hovered over her as I licked my lips.
She seemed almost reluctant, those brown eyes wild when I dipped it into her mouth, before she was sucking with a moan and I was kissing her again.
And I felt like a king.
So damned powerful.
Like nothing in this world could touch me.
Nothing but this girl.
Disoriented, I blinked against muted beams of morning light slanting in through the window. A dizzy glaze of glitter tossed what looked like translucent daggers into my room. I blinked, trying to find the source of what’d pulled me from sleep. The sleep I really didn’t want to let go of, considering I was pretty sure it couldn’t have been more than half an hour since I’d fallen asleep.
Tangled with a girl.
The girl.
That fucking hypnotizing girl from last night.
She was standing at the side of my bed, peering down, looking at me like she was memorizing a secret she was forever gonna keep. Brown eyes intent but confused and a little bit scared.
God.
In the daylight, she was pretty. All lit up in the shimmery haze that danced around her mussed-up hair and cherubic face.
Really fucking pretty.