Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 109850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109850 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 549(@200wpm)___ 439(@250wpm)___ 366(@300wpm)
Initially, I’d been set on ignoring the attraction, determined to prove that I could. That resolve had lasted all of a week, at which point I’d felt it better to burn off the chemistry by pretty much fucking us both raw. The plan back then had been simple—enjoy a brief fling with Maya, work off the need she stirred in me, and then move on.
It hadn’t quite played out that way.
There’d been no working her out of my system. Being away from her for six months hadn’t helped. I still couldn’t look at her without wanting to slam her on the closest available surface and shove my cock inside her.
I wanted to hate her for it, but I couldn’t. I could, however, keep my distance. That had been my new plan. I was already deviating from it. And now, thanks to that little dare, I was paying for it. But … well, I’d missed her.
“Okay, Ryder, it’s your turn,” Ava announced. “Select your fate.”
And so we continued the game. Person after person took their turn—answering questions, completing dares, or shedding clothes to pay penalties.
When Maya again reached a point where she had a Dare card in her hand, I tensed. Fuck, no more fake orgasms.
She read the inscription aloud, “You have to sit on the lap of the person on your left for the rest of the game.”
I blinked. Yeah, that would be me. And there wasn’t a chance Maya would want to sit on my … I blinked again as she stood and turned to me.
“Sorry about this, Ryder, but there’s no way I’m stripping,” she said, to which Stuart complained.
Asshole.
Thankful my tee covered my hard-on, I pushed the chair backwards. Maya comfortably perched herself on my thigh, like she did it all the time. And fuck if she didn’t feel good there. Needing to touch her, I settled my hand on her hip. She didn’t tense for even a fraction of a second. Didn’t seem stiff or awkward, but I had no doubt she was cursing that Dare card to hell and back.
More truths and dares followed—some simple, some outrageous. And, feeling none-too-friendly toward the guy right now, I gained an awful lot of satisfaction from seeing Stuart reluctantly lay down on the floor and imitate a whale. Karma had my back tonight.
When I later found myself holding a Dare card, I felt my stomach roll as I read, “For ten seconds, you have to make out with the person on your right.”
Everyone went quiet. Because the person on my right … that was Maya, since she was sitting on my thigh.
Ava lifted a brow. “Well, Kingsley, dare or penalty?”
Well that was a no-brainer. “Dare.”
“Looks like you two are gonna be making out, then.”
I looked at Maya, expecting her to seem nervous or edgy. My mistake. I should have remembered that my girl and ‘awkwardness’ were pretty much strangers. She fucking straddled me, asking, “Who’s doing the countdown?”
“We’ll all do it,” said Ava. “Start now.”
It was no tentative meeting of tongues. I hooked Maya’s nape with my palm, pulled her close, and took her mouth like I’d wanted to do for months. I couldn’t help it. Not when I’d been inhaling her scent all night. Not when I’d missed that goddamn taste. Not when possessiveness pumped through my veins after hearing about her date with Coop, leaving me unable to shake the annoying feeling that someone was trespassing on my territory.
She kissed me back just as hard, digging her fingertips into my chest. There was catcalling and whistling and counting, and then … “Zero. You can stop.”
Maya broke the kiss, her eyes dazed, her cheeks flushed. She stared at me for a long moment, swallowing hard. “It would have been better if you hadn’t whispered Ava’s name,” she said.
“What?” growled Salem.
Reseating herself on my thigh, Maya burst out laughing. “I’m just yanking your chain, Salem.”
And how in the hell did she even have it in her to joke? I could barely gather my thoughts. It wasn’t at all flattering to know she wasn’t going through any such struggle. So when my next dare was to whisper a fantasy into someone’s ear, I took the opportunity to make things a little more balanced.
“I might as well use your ear,” I told her.
“Please do, I’m intrigued.”
She was fucking screwing with me was what she was doing.
I put my mouth to her ear and kept my voice too low to carry to the others as I murmured, “Right now, all I can think of doing is stripping you naked and planting you on my cock. I’d make you ride me so fucking hard. I’d keep my hand wrapped around your throat. And when you were close to coming, I’d sink my teeth into your breast and take all the blood I wanted.”