Page 76 of Sinful Temptations

He must’ve seen my confusion because he leaned in. “You can choose between uppers or downers, or flavored or plain. What do you want?”

I glared at him like he’d just suggested I tear off my clothes and streak through the teahouse. “How should I know?”

I turned back to the board. The item at the top of the list was Snakes Alive. It was listed as ninety percent upper and ten percent downer. In contrast, the one at the bottom of the list called Purple Possum, was eighty percent downer.

I leaned in to Roman, and despite the potent dope cloud engulfing us, I could still smell his fabulous cologne. “Why would anyone want a downer?”

He shrugged. “Some people like to zone out.”

“Ahhh.” I nodded as if understanding. But for the life of me, I had absolutely zero comprehension of why anyone would want to take a drug that zoned you out. The ceiling and walls were draped in a multitude of Turkish-style rugs, giving the room an eclectic bohemian theme.

Each corner had couples or groups of people sitting around tables topped with bongs or joints that were all adding to the growing smoke cloud. Just as many people were giggling as there were staring blankly at nothing.

“I’m going to have the Dancing Terminator.” Roman’s announcement had me spinning to the board. His choice was an apple-flavored leaf that promised seventy percent upper and thirty percent downer. “What about you?”

I shrugged. “I’ll have the same.”

“Oh, no you don’t. If you don’t like it, you’ll blame me.”

I rolled my eyes with such exaggeration it hurt. “If I don’t like what I chose I’ll blame you anyway.”

“That’s true. But pick a different one. Then we can swap and share.”

Scanning the board again, I read each one like I was deciding on a dish at one of Europe’s finest restaurants.

He pointed at the board. “You like cherries. What about Popping my Cherry? Seems very appropriate, don’t you think?”

I shot him a glance that could melt ice then scanned the board for Popping my Cherry. It was eighty percent upper and promised a wild cherry flavor.Hmmm, yummy.

“All right then. Go on.”

ChapterSixteen

The woman behind the counter rolled her hooded eyes toward Roman and I wasn’t sure if she was going to serve him or vomit on him.

Unfazed, Roman placed our pot order. Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be party to that.

With our paper bag of goodies in hand, we wove through the abundant lounges and chairs until we found a couple of padded stools that looked like miniature, stuffed wine barrels at the back of the room. While Roman opened the bag and prepared our order, I wriggled my stool around so I could take in all the sights.

A young man to my right, who looked like he should be in senior school, was staring at his hand like he had a tarantula crawling on it. The woman beside him, with a ring through her nose big enough to lead a brahman bull, released a cloud of smoke from her mouth and flopped back to watch it float up to the ceiling.

Music filtered through the hum of the crowd. It was an awkward twangy beat that would suit any tacky Indianrestaurant. Worse still, however, was that it shot me back seventeen years to a time in my life I’d rather forget.

“Hey, are you okay?”

Being the kind of telepathic sorcerer that he was, Roman somehow knew when one of my dreadful memories plagued me. I nodded a little too enthusiastically and immediately regretted that mistake.

He glided his padded stool over and draped his arm over my shoulder. “If you don’t want to do this, we can walk out right now.”

“I don’t want to do this.”

“Okay, fine. But let’s talk about it first.” He eased back, and the look on his face had my heart melting. “Want to tell me what you’re thinking?”

In that very instant, I saw another level of what it meant to have a true friend. Roman really did care for me. What happened to me affected him. That had to be the meaning of true friendship.

I was the luckiest woman in the world.

“Dais, I don’t know what’s upsetting you, but I want to. You can share anything with me.”

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