Page 27 of Knot Your Basic B*tch

CHAPTER 16

SABIEN

Why didn’tKain warn me that our scent match was hot as fuck?

I felt all the thoughts in my head short-circuiting and going haywire as I looked into our scent match’s hazel eyes. She had the kind of eyes that shifted in the light. At first, I thought they were a deep blue with flecks of green. When Chloe stepped out into the sunlight, a second glance revealed that they were light green surrounding sweet honey brown.

She had rich auburn hair that fell past her shoulders in silky waves. I wanted to slip my fingers through her hair to see if it was as soft as it looked, and pull her close enough to kiss her senseless.

Then there was her scent. Pure sugary goodness that reminded me of velvety frosting. A perfect spiral of soft-serve ice cream on a hot day. She was the buttercream in the cake. A burst of sweetness that was exploding across my tongue. High fructose corn syrup surging through my veins.

She was the best of everything.

Decadent. Luxurious.

Vanilla.

Oh. I’d been staring at her like a complete idiot. My bad.

“Sorry for staring. You’re fucking gorgeous.” I told her.

My blunt statement startled a laugh out of her. The sound of her laughter was high and light, tinkling in the air like a delicate wind chime, and cut through the awkward first date tension. I wasn’t expecting her to laugh like that at all, when she first came in with a boss bitch expression on her face.

There was something about her energy that just resonated with me. It was unexpected, considering how she had gotten along so well with my brother, but the vibes between us were just right. “Do you want to check out the best burgers in New Oxford?”

“Burgers sound great. I’m starving.” Chloe smiled.

King’s burger shack was a hidden gem—a gem in a trash heap. No really, it was one of those places that looked sketchy, rough around the edges, with permanent cobwebs in the corner of the billboards that simply read ‘New Oxford’s Best Burgers.’ They probably should have named it anything else, considering how the exterior looked like a sketchy cockroach hotel. Not enough people gave it a chance, though the burgers here were out of this world.

Chloe ordered the number three with swiss cheese, bacon and avocado because my girl had that refined taste. She wasn’t a heathen like me who got the number eight, a burger that was slathered with barbeque sauce on top of old-fashioned cheddar and an onion ring.

She stared at her burger as if she was searching the meat and cheese for traces of poison. Eventually, she took a tentative bite.

“Oh, wow.” Her eyes lit up at the taste.

“I know right.”

K. N. O. B. B’s really did have New Oxford’s Best Burgers: juicy meat with a burst of flavors.

“I think that this might be the best burger I’ve had in mylife.” Chloe took a bigger chunk out of her burger, and chewed thoughtfully for a moment. “So this place looks a little rough, but did I really need protective clothing to eat burgers?”

I ducked my head, hiding a smirk. My girl was going to love the plans for the evening, even though she had no idea that she was going to love it. “No, we’re just getting started.”

The outside of Super Smash could have been any office. The walls were beige-painted brick, with a darker awning. There was nothing that identified it as a rage room. Even the little sign neatly printed on the window just had the store hours under the swirly typography of their trademark.

But just one step inside and it was clear that Super Smash was something different. The squares of protective padding stapled to the wall were a dead giveaway. Or maybe it was the array of weapons, baseball bats, golf clubs, crowbars, and hammers. If all that wasn’t clear enough, there was a rack of gear with helmets, goggles and jumpsuits lined up.

Chloe looked around with wide eyes as I stepped up to the front counter.

“Reservation for room four.” I pointed to the room that was marked simply by number.

The skinny attendant, with tattoos creeping up to his neck and the employee badge labeled “Ben,” nodded. Good ole’ Ben typed something onto his computer to confirm our appointment and register our waivers, before directing us over to the display of protective gear.

Chloe and I suited up and approached the weapons.

“Ladies first.” I stepped back, letting Chloe get the first crack at choosing her instrument of destruction.

Chloe approached the weapons cautiously, as if she was worried that one of them was going to get mad, come to life and start yelling at her. She trailed her hands a few inchesabove the various weapons as if afraid to touch them, before hovering over the golf club, and picking it up. She patted the blunt edge against her open palm, testing it.