Page 17 of Impromptu Match

I snorted, shoving at his arm. “No you did not.”

“Uh, yeah I did. And your nice mouth. And your eyes are really pretty. Honestly, if we weren’t both totally wasted right now, I’d be hitting on you for sure.”

I snorted again. “You would not. Look at you. You’re, like… flawless.”

“Ugh, oh my god, I so am not. And yes, I totally would be. And that’s saying something, because I’ve never had sex with a human before, but I’d totally bang you, Taylor.”

“Oh right, yeah.” I chuckled, rolling my head on the couch to look at him. “What are you again?”

“An empyn.”

“That’s it.” I paused. “Kinda sounds like imp. Impin’. Like what an imp would say they’re doing if you asked them. ‘Just impin’.’”

Holt burst out laughing even though it wasn’t really funny, weakly shoving my shoulder before enthusiastically stabbing his spoon back into the half-melted rocky road. “God, this ice cream is amazing. Except now I keep thinking about what my dick would look like covered in it.”

I snorted, eating a spoonful of salted caramel, then looked over at him. “We should totally do it.”

“Do what?”

“Put the ice cream on our dicks.”

Holt’s head swung around, his eyes unfocused but his expression telling me he thought it was the best idea he’d ever heard. “We totally should. Just to see what it looks like.”

“I’m too drunk to get hard, though.” I was already shuffling unsteadily onto my knees.

“Me too.” Holt was doing the same. “It’s fine. We’ll just… hold our dicks aloft.”

Just as we both began unzipping our pants, the door swung open. Larkin stared down at us in stunned silence.

Slowly, Holt did his zipper back up and cleared his throat. “Yes?”

“I was knocking for ages.” He glanced at me, then back at Holt, before licking his lips nervously. “There’s, um… a tiny hiccup.”

“What?” Holt was trying to get to his feet. “Has something happened in the show?”

“No, the show’s fine. All the matches are going fine. That’s all great,” Larkin said hastily. “Business is going great, boss. That’s the thing to remember. Business is booming.”

“Okaaay,” Holt said slowly, “so what’s the hiccup?”

“It’s just, um, just a little… Axel’s on a cruise,” Larkin rushed out, then glanced at me fearfully again. “He won’t be back for three more weeks. He’s in the Bahamas with his girlfriend right now. It sounds really nice. He said they went snorkelling the other—”

“He’s what? Where?” Holt swung around wildly to stare down at me. “Do we know any other ailyns?”

“Um, well, no.” Larkin shifted on his feet, then brightly added, “But I’ll go look!”

He hurriedly shut the door before Holt could say anything else. Licking the remnants of rocky road from my lips, I unsteadily got to my feet. Suddenly, the ice cream—and rum—was sitting uncomfortably in my stomach.

We’d told each other all those deep and embarrassing secrets because Holt said neither of us would remember in the morning. Except now, Axel the memory-wiper wasn’t coming.

“Well.” Holt looked around his office, down at the ice cream, then back at me. “This is awkward.”

Chapter Seven

Wait, What Happened

Was I dying?

Was this the end? I couldn’t feel my legs. My mouth tasted like death. The moment I opened my eyes, it felt like someone had my head in a crushing vice and was drilling into my skull.

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