Page 14 of Riding the Sugar High

Her lips part, and I open the door. “Wait here. I’ll clean up.” My boots crunch on the glass as I turn on the light. I walk the corridor to the entryway closet, and when I return with the broom, Primrose is leaning against the doorframe, her naked legs crossed in front of her. All the way to her knees, her skin is scratched and dirty with blood and mud, and her hair is ruffled on the back of her head. As her eyes burn into mine, I have to remind myself the nearly naked woman in front of me is only wearing my shirt because of the stupidest turn of events in history.

“What?” she asks, her head barely lifting.

“Nothing.”

“I’ll go get my dress, then I’ll call a cab and be out of your hair.”

Brows screwing tight over my eyes, I shake my head. “You what? You can’t leave. You just told Josie we’re together, and she’ll be back in the morning, trust me.”

“Oh. So...do I need to sleep here?”

“Afraid so.”

She hesitates as I sweep around her. “Are you...are you a criminal?”

“No more than you.”

She seems to want to disagree but stops before saying a single thing.

“If I’m going to sleep here, I need to know I can trust you,” she murmurs.

I clean some more shards off the tiles, her eyes on me, and I’m not sure what she’s expecting.Shetold the cops we’re in love, and now I have to prove myself to her? “You know, you hit me with your car. Andyou’rethe arsonist. I’ll be lucky if I don’t wake up with smoke down my lungs, so maybe you should be the one to prove you’re not dangerous.”

“I am not an arsonist.” She points up and down her body. “Look at me.”

Yes, she looks ridiculous.

Yet shit went up in flames.

“Fine,” I say as I drop the broom on one side. “You want me to prove I’m honest?” I shrug. “Iwasstaring at your underwear.”

“I knew it!”

“Yeah, give me a break. If there’s a half-naked woman in front of me, I’m going to look. Okay? It’s biology.”

“Yeah. Perv biology,” she mumbles as she looks away.

Fucking unbelievable.

“No, not perv biology. The same biology that makes you grind against a man you’re fleeing a crime scene with.” I shoot my brows up my forehead. “Because biology works like that. If I kiss your neck a certain way, I end up feeling your nipples against my chest.”

She opens and closes her mouth a bunch, her cheeks turning redder by the second, until I walk into the corridor and open the first door to the right. “Guest bedroom. Bathroom’s the next door. Good night, and don’t touch the matches.”

“I amnotan arsonist, you dick,” she calls after me.

Turning around, I say, “It brings out the pink in your hair, you know?”

She narrows her eyes. “What?”

I wink. “Your green underwear.”

make me feel better after a bad dream

Primrose

This is officiallythe worst night of my life.

The events of the last few hours keep running through my head, each more unrealistic than the next. Why did I rent that car? I never drive. I’ve also kissed three people in my life, and tonight let a stranger grope me. And why—whydid I decide to pick up smoking?