Page 123 of Shade
What happens when you get a city girl out in the hills of California with three adrenaline junkies, a full bar with no supervision and a pool?
Madness is what happens. That’s the only way to explain how two hours into the night we’re on the roof of the house and I’m showing her the rope swing we frequently use to jump into our pool. If you land in the deep end of the pool, which is ideal, it’s something like fifteen feet deep, and your landing is nice.
If you land in the shallow end, three feet deep, you’re going to the hospital with a broken ass or arm. Or both. You don’t know how many times I’ve overshot the landing on this one and ended up on the rocks next to the pool. Also not ideal. I was picking cactus out of my leg for a month.
“Dude, is that a rope swing?” she asks giddy.
“Yep.” I laugh. “You wanna try it?”
Scarlet’s eyes widen and she tosses her drink aside. Literally. It splashes all over Auden’s feet. He looks at me like, don’t let her do this.
Do I listen?
Nope.
She’s drunk and shouldn’t be doing this but who am I to deny her a good time? I have a feeling she’s never partied like we have, and after the disaster of her first couple days with us, I kinda feel the need to show her a good time.
I hand her the end of the rope. She takes it. Smiling. “Here’s the thing.” I pause and motion to the end of the flat roof. “You have to run the length of the roof and then swing out Tarzan style. If you don’t, you die. Ask Taco.”
She stares at me, then Auden, the only ounce of fear she’s shown all night present. “Who’s Taco?”
“Precisely.”
“A-a-are you serious?” She’s trying to search my face when she huffs out a breath. “Take your goddamn sunglasses off. I can’t tell if you’re serious.”
Tipping my head to the side, I slide my sunglasses down my nose a little, looking at her over the top of them. My wet hair beading drops of water onto them. “Yep,” I draw out slowly, winking.
I’m full of shit and she knows it.
Just then Taco comes out of the house with Tiller and ruins it for me when he yells up, “Shade!” or in his version of my name, “Sihan!”
It means King in Arabic, so you know, I went with it.
“Who’s that?” Scarlet asks, brow drawn together, and then she looks at the red cup next to Auden. “Dude, you spilled my drink you jerk!”
I laugh and capture her burnt cheeks between my palms. “Are you going to do this or not?”
Her lips pucker together like fish lips, and I want them on mine. Right now. I even think about it. Until Auden yells down, “Taco, move!” as he’s standing in the direct path Scarlet’s going to take.
Though she’s intoxicated, Scarlet catches on. “That’s Taco?”
I nod, letting go of her cheeks. “Yep. Now show him how it’s done. He creamed the side of the house. I know you can make it. So what are you going to do?”
“Well. . . .” She breathes in, one quick breath. “I think I want to vomit so I should go.”
I slap her ass. “I knew I hired you for the right reason.”
“Do it!” Tiller shouts, his shirt gone now and what looks to be lipstick on his chest. I’m thinking it says something, but I’m not sure who wrote it because you can’t make out any of the words. “Don’t be a pussy!”
He knows calling her a pussy will get her to do pretty much anything, other than fucking me. I’ve tried that line, remember? She slapped me across the face with a hot dog. Emasculating as fuck, yet strangely sexy.
Scarlet looks at me one last time and takes the rope in hand. She looks really fucking nervous. “I can’t believe this is the shit you do for fun.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Really, youcan’t believeit?”
“No, actually I can.”
How do you think this is going to go?
