“You’re insane,” I told her.

“I know,” she admitted, lifting a Cheshire grin my direction.

She faced the wind and screamed, making my adrenaline spike further than it already was.

“You’re burning my buzz,” I told her.

She turned to me but it was too quick a reaction for her drunk body, and she stumbled. She began to fall forward but did nothing to stop herself. Instead, she closed her eyes as if she sat at the top of a roller coaster, ready to drop.

I tossed her back and she fell on top of the chaise, unharmed.

But I lost my footing. My arms wound around, as if that could balance me. This is it, I thought. Poor mom. Poor Bridge.

My feet slipped from underneath me and I began the fall but at the last second, Piper pulled hard at my arm, drawing me back toward the villa decking. It wasn’t far enough and I caught the middle of the balcony solidly on my side.

My left arm dropped to my side, but I kept my right hand on the growing bruise. Oh my God, I thought. I could have died. I lifted trembling hands and ran them through my hair then down my face. I stared at my reflection, wondering if I kept it up if my poor mother would have to bury me in the family mausoleum before I even finished college.

I entered the shower and sat at the tiled seat, letting the steam swarm around me, hoping it would hide me away forever. My heart beat erratically in my chest, thinking back on what I’d barely survived. My skin blazed in anger thinking on the redhead, thinking on her whispers, her gentle coaxing. She was so convincing, so alluring, so persuasive.

“That one,” she said, pointing at the Bugatti.

My personal steward, a gentleman named Lawson, approached us as we lingered near the Bugatti. I took a deep breath to clear my head of the alcohol and ecstasy, hoping I could pull off the rental without a hitch.

“The Bugatti, sir?” he asked.

“Yes, thank you, Lawson.”

“Just sign here, sir,” he said, offering me the clipboard and the licensing agreement I signed every time I came here.

I took the board and pen and tried to steady my hand, but I wasn’t very convincing.

“Everything all right, sir?” Lawson asked, his brows furrowed.

“Of course,” I said, smiling. “Just tired, I guess. I’ll take it until Monday, Lawson.”

“Yes, sir,” he said, studying me for a moment longer, then taking the board from my hand.

He turned and walked behind a wall to wherever they kept their keys. Piper ran her hands down the side of the car with a gleam of satisfaction in her eyes.

“So pretty,” she whispered.

I placed my hands in my front pockets and leaned against the exterior. “It’s a Bugatti, Piper,” I told the wall.

She stopped and stood, narrowed her brows at me. “I know that!”

I sighed. “Calm down.”

She obeyed. “Can I drive it?”

“No.”

She walked the entire perimeter of the car running her hands along its length, coveting every inch. Pathetic, I thought.

“Your keys, Mister Blackwell,” Lawson said, appearing out of nowhere. He handed me the keys and I opened the door for Piper before getting into the driver’s side.

Lawson slid open the large glass accordion doors to allow me through. I placed the key in the ignition, then pressed the start button just underneath the stick shift. The engine rumbled low, but inside the cabin, the Bugatti had the distinct sound of being in a wind tunnel. The engine was that powerful. She purred so smoothly, I imagined it similar to laying on the belly of a content lion. She was beautiful.

I tentatively drove her out and onto the street. I could feel Lawson’s eyes on me. He would never dare question me further than he had, but I think he knew something was wrong. If he didn’t then, he definitely did later.

I shook my head, unable to remember anymore. “What happened?” I asked the thick, humid air in front of me. I searched and searched but couldn’t remember...but it felt like I should.

I stood, desperately trying to remember, and began to wash my hair, feeling overwhelmed, feeling like it was imperative I remembered what happened next.

I began to rinse and looked below toward my feet. The water ran red. What in the hell?

“Faster!” she yelled, and I felt powerless but to obey.

I punched the gas, earning me a fiendish, almost inhuman grin in return. She removed her belt and leaned into my neck, breathing me in deeply, making the hair there stand on end. She traced her red lacquered nails along the goosebumps there before running her tongue along the length. My eyes rolled back into my head.

I felt the car pull a little to the left and I whipped my head up then righted her despite my intoxicated, swimming head. Whoa, I thought. I turned to tell her to put her belt back on but was struck mute, distracted by her sliding onto my lap and threading her fingers around the back of my neck.

“What are you doing?” I smiled into her mouth, muddled by a combination of the liquor, the ecstasy and how unbelievably sexy she was.

Every single touch from her felt indescribable. She ran her fingers through my hair and I shuddered at the enlightened sensation. She breathed on my neck and I felt the muscles in my stomach tighten. She crushed a grip of hair at the back of my head in her hand and pulled down before kissing me.

The tingling in my lips exploded and my response to her was immediate as my hands abandoned the wheel

“Oh, God,” I breathed. “I love this.”

“Me too,” she whispered back before biting my earlobe. “Do you know what would make it even better?”

“What?” I asked, suddenly and carelessly willing to perform whatever she asked.

My eyes rolled into the back of my head again when she ran her lips up my throat.

“This,” she said, her eyes blowing wide and her smile growing serpent-like before her heel jammed into my foot on the gas.

I sucked in a breath as we surged forward. She brought her mouth in closer to mine and kissed me deeply, distracting me yet again and bit my lower lip hard, drawing blood. The iron coppery tinge filled my mouth and woke me up, reminding me to steer.

I tried to pull away from her venomous kiss, but she held fast, driving her lips more firmly against mine.

“Stop,” I spoke into her mouth but she continued to ignore me. “Stop,” I said again, more emphatically, but she refused to move.

I yanked her hair back, making her squeal in delight, and peered over her shoulder while attempting to get her heel off the top of my foot but it was too late.

“Oh, shit,” I breathed.

As if time stood still, Piper glanced over her shoulder, her hair whipping around with her to see the damage she’d done before turning back toward me and leaning into my neck. “Do you feel alive yet?” she whispered.

I breathed in sharply.

Time sped up once more and the car made purchase with something substantial throwing us forward then back. Glass spun around our heads in colorful jagged shards reflecting the lights of the Strip. I held onto her with everything I had, cradling her head against my chest, while our bodies lashed brutally toward the passenger side, then back toward the driver’s side window where the back of my head cracked the glass.

Blackout.

“Come on,” she whispered into my left ear.

I groaned, in terrible pain, wishing I would die and soon.

“Come on,” she insisted, dragging me by my arms out of sharp splintered piles of glass. “We have to go before the police come.”

“What?” I asked, still coming to.

Sirens split the perpetual horn blaring from the car. She helped me to my feet and wrapped an arm around my waist. We stumbled away from the crash, much to the confusion of onlookers.

I startled from the memory and shook my head, examining the top of my foot and noticing a deep gash where the heel of her stiletto had bore through. My hand went to the back of my head and I winced at the soft spot where my skull had met glass.

“Oh my God,” I said.

I watched red imbued water swirl around the drain and suddenly felt dizzy.

“What in the hell have I done?”

I sat back down and ran my hands down my face once more, once again recoiling from the ache in my bottom lip from where she’d bitten me.

“Spencer?” I heard her deceivingly angelic voice call out.

Fists clenched at my knees.

“Leave,” I ordered.

Her slim, blood-colored lacquered hands wiped away the condensation built on the glass shower door. Her smile was the first thing I saw, and I trembled at how disturbing I found it in the light. Her eyes burrowed into mine, and I noticed how soulless they looked now that I saw her for what she was.

“Leave,” I demanded again.

She moued her counterfeit pout and opened the shower door before stepping inside in her gown. She watched me and began to tug down one strap but I stopped her.

I snorted in disbelief. “Absolutely not. Get the hell out of here right now.”

“Oh, Spencer, I don’t think you want me to do that.”

“Like hell I don’t! You’re certifiably insane, you know that?”

She sighed and leaned against the shower wall as if she wasn’t wearing a satin gown. “It’s coming back to you then,” she stated rather than asked.

I gulped. “I remember it all.”

She studied me with furrowed brows. “All of it?” she asked. I watched her. “Even the money?”

My heart quickened. “What money?”

“So...not all of it.”

She seemed to get some sort of sick thrill out of knowing this part of the night I couldn’t recall.

“What happened?” I asked her.

She began to laugh, cackle really, and escaped the shower. I jumped up and tossed a towel around my waist. I followed the wet trails of her dress all the way into the bedroom but couldn’t find her.

“Piper,” I called out, searching the room. “Piper!” I called again, scouring the closet, but she wasn’t there.

I ran from the room, sprinting down the hall to the top of the stairs and peered over the edge. “Piper!” I shouted down, but she didn’t answer.

I descended the stairs and inspected the living area as well as the kitchen. She was gone. I threw open the villa doors and scanned the balcony, but no Piper. I ran back through the living and practically tossed the front door off its hinge.

“Piper!” I yelled into the empty hall.

I stumbled back into the room and closed the door, resting my back against its flat surface. “Where in the…”

My hands began to tremble as a thought came to the forefront of my mind. Slowly, ever so slowly, I walked back through the living room, hesitating to step over the threshold of the balcony. My breaths deepened.

“Oh, please, God. Please, God,” I prayed under my breath as I reached the balustrade.

I placed both my hands on the edge and leaned over.

“Come on,” she whispered. “It’ll be fun.”

She dragged me by my tie to the gambling floor, the private floor just for whales.

“I’m too drunk to gamble, Piper. Besides, my head hurts like a mother,” I slurred.

“Shh,” she quieted into my left ear, “you’ll do fine.”