Paul's turn

The kiss barely lasted for a fraction of a second. Then Mina withdrew, and Izzy felt like she'd been hit by a truck. Confusion tangled up with the blood racing in her veins, and she didn't know what to do, or what to say. A little sound came out of her lips, but it wasn't a word. She didn't know what it was. On her part, Mina giggled. "Sorry! Felt like the right thing to do in the moment," she said. Izzy wanted to apologize too.

"It's okay," she said, not that it was an accurate rendition of her feelings. That made it sound like she had tolerated the kiss, but actually...

What the hell was she thinking? She blinked, shivered, tried to come back to herself. There were people watching them. Paul's eyes and Ward's made for a weird accompaniment. She didn't know them at all, though she didn't think it would feel more normal if two men her own age, men she knew, watched her very beautiful friend kiss her. Stop thinking like that, she chided. It wasn't her place to think about Mina in those terms. She was just a free spirit. A kiss meant nothing. But her mouth was watering. She decided to believe it was the cocaine, since she didn't have any frame of reference for how she was supposed to feel on the ****.

"You want a go?" Mina asked, extended the hand holding the bill out to Paul.

"Thought you'd never ask," he said, getting up from where he sat on the sofa opposite them. He made a shoo-ing motion with his hands, and both Izzy and Mina crawled over a few feet to give him better access to the lines remaining on the table. There were more than two. Izzy couldn't imagine doing another one, but maybe that seemed like nothing to seasoned veterans like she was dealing with. He crouched down and put the bill to his nose. The motion didn't look half as pretty as when Mina did it, but Paul wasn't half as pretty as her, not even a quarter, so Izzy knew she shouldn't be surprised. Like her, as soon as he'd taken his medicine, Paul's head snapped back. It was so violent Izzy was afraid for just a second his neck was going to break, or his head would fly off. "Shit!" he roared, hands bunching into fists. The bill was swallowed up in his palm.

"It's good stuff!" Mina laughed.

Paul shone, looking down at her. His hand graced the top of her head for a second. "You don't think I'd bring you some second rate shit, did you, honey?" he said. Honey. What a familiar word. There was a lump in Izzy's throat. It was always possible that doing coke with family friends was normal in circles like these, but she couldn't quite believe it. The fire in his eyes was anything but innocent.

"God, I always get so fucking turned on when I do coke," Paul rumbled.