Page 45 of Riot Rules
He licks me clean, and I shudder and shiver against him while he does it.
19
DASH
On a scaleof one to ten, how stupid are you?
I wake with my bare back pressed up against the freezing cold wall of Carrie’s bedroom. Her bed’s tiny, so there isn’t much room. She’s small, though, curled up against me, her head resting on my arm, the curve of her naked ass nestled right up against my morning wood.
On a scale of one to ten, how much shit are you in right now?
My breath stirs her hair. It’s been tickling my chin and my mouth for the past hour, but I haven’t moved a muscle. The arm that she’s lying on went dead somewhere around dawn, but again, I haven’t even twitched.
If you were to rate your level of ‘screwed’ on a scale of one through five, one being totally not screwed at all, five being so screwed that you’ll be dealing with the consequences of last night until the end of time, how would you rate your current situation?
I did my best to deny it, but come on. Who was I fucking kidding? This was always going to happen. It was only a matter of time. Despite all of the shit that I tried to convince myself—I’m totally in control; I’m not interested in her; Carrie Mendoza is nothing more than a thorn in my side—I was fully aware that Iwasgoing to wind up in this position eventually. Okay, maybe not thisexactposition. I figured we’d wind up sleeping in my bed, which is way more comfortable than a goddamn single, but whatever. Iknew.
So why, then, is this turn of events so fucking surprising? Why, listening to the hushed in-and-out of Carrie’s shallow breathing, am I totally non-fucking-plussed by how this came about?
On a scale of one to ten, how unbearable will your friends be when they discover that you not only slept with the girl you claimed you didn’t care about, but that you have, in actual fact, developed some hardcorefeelingsfor her?
It must be close to seven in the morning. There has been movement out in the hallway for a while now—other girls on the floor, heading for the bathroom, bustling along the corridor, and talking. Carrie’s slept through it all. I’ll wake her soon. I’ll have to wait until all of the other students go down to class before I can sneak out of here. I’ll probably roll in late, but not—
Carina’s bedroom door flies open and a girl with flaming red hair charges in.
There’s no time to duck and hide. No time to do anything. Carrie wakes up instantly, scrambling for the sheets. Luckily, she was already covered up—it’s fuckingfreezingin here. I made sure she was warm, even though it meant that I wasn’t—and none of her was on show. “Presley! Fuck. Shut the fucking door!” she cries.
The redhead, Presley, looks like she’s just come face-to-face with an alien. Her eyes bug out of her head, her mouth yawning open. And…Christ, she’s wearing nothing but a towel, for fuck’s sake. She uses her foot to kick the door closed behind her. Her eyes dart from Carina to me, then back to Carina. Slowly, they drift down, at which point her cheeks turn bright red and she starts stammering. “Uh…oh. This is embarrassing, but…uh…I can see Dashiell Lovett’s balls right now…and…uh…”
“God, turn around, Presley!” Carrie sounds horrified. Personally, I think this whole thing’s turning out to be kind of entertaining.
Presley turns forty-five degrees to face the window, opening and closing her mouth, blinking like she has sand in her eyes. “Uh…I just came to tell you that, well, that everyone’s talking about it.”
Carrie leaps out of bed, grabbing up her nightshirt, and fights her way inside it. Doesn’t bother buttoning it. She wraps the nightshirt around herself and then throws my clothes at me in a very unladylike fashion. “Talking aboutwhat?”
“Fitz. Fitz’s room,” she says, still blinking. “Uh…his room was broken into last night and a bunch of his furniture was destroyed. Or something.” Presley shrugs, which is a mistake on her part. The action loosens her towel, and she has to grab for it before it falls to the floor. I chuckle quietly.
Carrie spins on me, glaring.
“What?” I pop my hips up so I can pull up my boxers. “Sorry. I just never thought I’d find myself in this wing of the academy with two half-naked girls.”
She punches me in the arm. Actuallypunchesme. “Someone broke into Fitz’s room last night?And smashed the place up?”
“Oh. Oh yeah. Wow. Who would have done such a thing?”
“Are you really trying to pretend that you had nothing to do with that?”
“Wouldn’t dream of it. But I’m not one to confess my sins in front of strangers.” I jerk my head in Presley’s direction. “You know how shy I can be.”
“Hah! Shy?Shy?You’re insane. Pre—Presley! Oh my god,stop!”
I look over at the girl in time to catch her staring at me. At my naked torso in particular. Thankfully I’ve already put my pants on, otherwise my balls would have been the least of her worries. She’d have been copping an eyeful of the hard-on that’s currently trying to escape my underwear. Carrie’s friend is crimson when her eyes flit up to meet mine.
“Sorry—I uh—I’m just not sure where I’m supposed to look.”
“Maybe you should go and get dressed?” Carina suggests. “Head back to your room. I’ll come by and we can go down to class together in a minute.”
Presley nods. “Yeah. Of course. Sure.” She slips out of the door, clutching at her towel, leaving Carina and I alone again.
