Author: Alison Tyler; photo by Riendo

About: "Some Like It Hot" originally appeared in Playing With Fire. Marina St. Claire said, In "Alison Tyler's own 'Some Like It Hot' - She likes a good boy and a bad boy. Someone's gonna get burned."

Excerpt:

You get heat in the summer time. You get heat in front of a blazing fire. You get heat when the furnace breaks with the knob stuck in the ON position. And you get heat when the two boys you're dating show up at the same time, and the same place.

Although not the type of inferno you might expect.

Because first there was Jarred, with his tousled good looks, and his full-lipped mouth—a Cupid's mouth, a girl's mouth. When we met, he gazed at me as if I'd answered every dream, every prayer, every fantasy he'd ever had. How could I turn down a look so sweet? How could I deny the request in his gray-blue eyes, the destiny he said that only I could fulfill?

And then there was Marlon, with his dark hair, and his black eyes, and the way he confessed the mind games he played on the girls he dated, making me think that I was different. Making me feel like a partner in crime. Marlon's specialty was twisting and turning every subtle emotion until he got what he wanted. His looks didn't hurt, either. Ever embracing the dark, he made a uniform out of black jeans, black jackets, black long-sleeved shirts still hot from the iron.

Some, as they say, like it hot.