Page 141 of Shade
He shrugs, the light of his head lamp blinding me. “I don’t like glasses. I wear contacts. Sometimes. But I’m not now because my eyes were burning fromyoutelling me 151 would clear my vision. How do you not remember any of this?”
Fuck. I don’t recall doing that. But it explains the burning in mine today. I just thought it was from lack of sleep. Apparently not.
I let out a whoosh of breath. “Now what do we do?”
Just then, Shade walks in with Roan, the two of them completely oblivious until they see me, my jeans around my ankles and Tiller on his knees. With a headlight lamp on. No shirt and a grin. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think he’s performing a gynecology exam on me.
“It’s not what it looks like,” I admit, my cheeks heating.
“It’s totally what it looks like,” Tiller goads. “Get the fuck out.”
I slap him across the face. “You, shut up.”
I slap him hard too. And all that gets me is him biting my thigh. “Turn around so we can finish this.”
I don’t, at least not right away. I’m too focused on Shade’s face. Do you see the way his brow furrows in confusion? Or the way his jaw tightens, the muscles in his arms bulging when his fists clench. He’s pissed off. Look at this situation, and then compare it to where we were twenty minutes ago in the driveway.
Couldn’t have looked much worse.
“What exactly are you doing?” Roan asks, staring at me with a grin.
“I have a cactus spine stuck in my ass cheek. It hurts. And I don’t have medical insurance so it’s not like I can go to the doctor and get it out.”
Roan looks to Shade, then laughs. “I can help.”
And that, my friends, is how three guys attempt to get a cactus spine out of my ass. It’s all fun and games and dirty jokes to them, and epic levels of embarrassment for me. At some point, I press my forehead into the felt and let them have their fun staring at my ass and acting like they’re getting it out.
“Come on, guys,” I finally snap when I have three sets of hands on my ass, “seriously!”
They laugh again. Though I can see from the corner of my eye, Shade isn’t impressed by any of this despite the laugh. He looks. . . pissed?
“We should call Auden’s dad,” Roan notes, a flashlight in hand.
I would’ve been better off going to the ER. “No, you shouldn’t! Just pull it out.”
“That’s a new one,” Tiller adds. “Usually chicks are screaming harder.”
“Just shut the fuck up and get it out. It hurts.”
Shade watches Tiller for a moment, then shakes his head. “You’re doing it wrong. You’re going to push it in deeper if you do it that way.”
“How do you know?”
He takes a roll of duct tape in his hand. “I’ve cuddled that same cactus. Just use this. It’s too small to grab with the teasers.”
“That’s what she said,” I bark out, hoping it offends the fuckers.
It doesn’t. They laugh.
I’ll save you some time here. Shade gets it out. Only after Auden shows up.
So what started out withoneof them seeing my ass went to all of them and Auden.
At least the cactus spine is out. Now I have a date with Aloe Vera, and maybe I’ll start looking for a new job.
