Chapter nine

Natural High
or
What Happened

Stephanie could walk quite straight when she decided to head back to her room around half past three that night. This was something very good, as it meant she could sneak back without disturbing anyone. She amused herself with imagining all the things she could have accidentally knocked over on her way back had she been more drunk.

Those paintings, she thought, would totally be on the floor right now if it wasn't for my soberness.

She walked up the stairs, passed a small marble bust of some famous old philosopher.

You're one lucky man; you'd be in a thousand pieces right now if I couldn't hold my liquor.

She smiled for herself and headed further down the hallway.

Soon she was in front of the entrance to her living area and congratulated herself on her excellent walking skills. She had gone all the way without waking one single person up. That was just impressive.

Perhaps she was too pleased to think about keeping the noise down once she was back in her living area, and that's why he got up. But probably he had already been up, he never seemed to be much of a sleeper.

She went inside, got a can of cola from the fridge and decided to watch some TV. She went over to the coffee table, put down her coke and started skimming through the TV magazine laying there for some decent show. She had difficulties making out the text in the dark and this was the simple reason for her hovering over the open magazine for several minutes.

"Why not jus' turn on th' lights?" came a voice from behind her, and she turned around quickly to find herself only inches from Toad.

In retrospect it was probably more old habit than real feeling behind this certain sneak of his. Stephanie still reacted the same way she always did; she became utterly startled, gasped and backed away.

She hit the hollows of her knees hard in the edge of the coffee table and was about to fall backwards when he caught her. She grasped his neck for support.

"You a bit tipsy?" Toad chuckled, with yellow eyes gleaming in the darkness as he pulled her up to her feet.

She realized she still had her arms around his neck just about the same time he did, and he looked at them and then at her.

Stephanie tried to tell herself afterwards she wasn't sure who had initiated the kiss. But she knew; it had been her.

There hadn't been a moment of silence when they'd inched closer to each other, shifting glances between each other's lips and each other's eyes to make sure the other one was in on it, no; she had instantly – and quite brutally - smashed her lips onto his.

At first he hadn't responded, lips motionless in surprise. Still, within seconds he was kissing her back with the same ferocity. She clasped her arms closer around his neck, amazed over how good it was feeling and wondering why she'd never thought of it before.

Suddenly he had become all she ever wanted and the wash of heat coming over her was wonderful.

She started tugging at the bottom of his t-shirt, managing to get it over his head in between kisses. His body was hard and his skin hot under her touch, and she couldn't get enough of it.

She ran her hands up his back and felt the muscles tightening underneath her fingers when he pulled her closer. He slid his hands down to her ass and lifted her up, causing her to give away a small noise of surprise and clasp her legs around his waist.

He carried her toward his room this way and his lips travelled down her jaw line.

When they passed the threshold to his room Stephanie had nothing on her mind except the feeling of his lips against her neck and the moan that was about to escape hers.

"Oh, fuck me."

"I believe I jus' have, love."

Stephanie snarled at him and almost fell out of his bed in her rush to get out of it. She found her panties next to the bed and pulled them on – her subconscious went well, at least I wore lace but she chose to ignore it.

"Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck," she kept going while she threw her bra on and clasped it behind her back.

The rest of her clothes were strewn evenly all over the floor and she ran around collecting them in her arms.

Toad had eased himself up to lean his back against the bed frame. He put his forehead in his hands for a couple of seconds, contemplating, and then let go with a sigh.

"Well, ye think I'm happy 'bout this?"

She had finally found her jeans and forced them on – involuntarily remembering the night before when Toad had had such problems getting them off her. It had seemed hilarious at the time.

"You're…? I-I was drunk!"

She froze with the zip of her jeans only half-closed and looked at him wide-eyed.

"You took advantage of me! That's it! I was drunk!"

This caused him to laugh.

"Advantage? Gimme a break, ya practically threw yourself on me!"

Stephanie almost whined.

"Well couldn't you have just thrown me off then?"

He threw his head back into the bed frame and stared at the ceiling.

"I wish I had. Believe me, puppet, there are so much more things I'd rather be regrettin' right now."

This time a whining noise did escape her lips.

"Well fuck, she stated."

She finally got her shirt on and hurried towards the door. She stopped in the door frame and turned to him, zipping up her jeans all the way and buttoning.

"This – she made a motion towards the bed with her hand – this never happened. Never ever."

"Preachin' to the choir, Toad muttered."