The Dare (14 page)

"Anyway, we won't take any more of your time,
but if your better half or whatever shows up while we're all at the
pool, it would be cool to do a photo op."

"Why not now?" I found myself saying.

"But your girlfriend
—
"

I should have stopped talking. Instead, words
were coming out of my mouth without my permission, and my arm
wrapped protectively around Beth's shoulders. "She's right
here."

Paris's mouth dropped open, and Brett turned
bright red. Take that, sucker.

To add insult to injury, Beth chose that
exact moment to grab my face and kiss me so hard that my mouth
almost went numb from pleasure. When she pulled back, I tried to
kiss her again, but she laughed and hugged me instead. The Viagra
was still in full effect, and my body didn't understand that this
wasn't the most appropriate of times to attack her.

I shot a look to Brett that basically said,
That's right, bastard. She's mine. Be an asshole elsewhere.
We're full up here.

"Wow." Brett smirked. "I, uh, I wouldn't have
guessed."

"Why not?" I said smoothly. "Beth's one of
the leading chemists in the field of research and development for
GreenCom, she graduated with honors from Yale, and has more
schooling than both of you combined. I'd say it makes sense." I
pinched her ass.

She stomped my foot.

"Besides, she's sexy as hell."

"Well." Brett cleared his throat. "I guess we
should take that picture then?"

Beth elbowed me again.

I glared.

She pointed down.

I cursed.

"Something wrong?" Paris purred, her talons
resting on Brett's hairy chest.

Wasn't she afraid her fingers were going to
get trapped? She scratched a bit, some of the hair covered her pink
nails. I puked a bit in my mouth. And problem? Gone. Wow, and to
think all I needed was a Botoxed woman touching another man's chest
hair.

"Actually," Beth gripped my arm, "we were
just on our way back to the hut for a nap, but we'll be here all
week. I'm sure we'll see you later."

"Dinner," Brett said.

Would he never give up?

"Uh…" Beth looked to me for help.

"Sure," I answered without looking at Brett.
"But just so you don't think we're flaky, we haven't been eating
much. This trip is all about proper hydration so we can spend all
day and night in bed. This is the first daylight I've seen in
hours. And I intend on keeping this one…" I swept Beth up into my
arms and kissed her hard on the mouth, "…very, very busy."

"Geez, get a room," Brett said under his
breath.

"Oh, we have one." I smirked. "With a
California king and a plunge pool. See you later, Rhett."

"It's Brett!" he called.

"Okay, Rhett!" I ignored him and walked with
Beth in my arms all the way back to the edge of the pool. "Now we
make a run for it."

"Now?" Beth winked.

"Don't make me chase you."

"If you catch me, you get a prize," she
teased, lifting herself out of the pool and crooking her finger at
me.

"I like prizes." I lunged after her.

"Let's go over this again. Besides the drugs,
did you do anything else to harm the senator?"

Grandma rubbed her hands together as her eyes
darted around the room.

"Ma'am?"

"Oh, alright!" Grandma let out a heavy sigh.
"I may have helped them along in their relationship."

"Helped?"

"Lavender in the hut, fertility beads under
the mattress, a dreamcatcher by the plunge pool, oyster appetizers
every afternoon, and a Michael Bolton love mix."

"Michael Bolton?" the agent repeated.

"Don't knock it until you try it." Grandma
smirked.

Beth

I ran to our hut, thrust my body against the
door, and let myself in with the dangling key.

Jace was hot on my heels.

And I was out of breath.

But I wasn't sure if it was from excitement
or embarrassment.

My past was coming back to haunt me. But it's
not that it was a hard past where I'd done drugs or suffered from
anorexia or anything like that. It had everything to do with
insecurities, ones I'd never faced. And that was the crappy thing
about insecurities: they never actually went away until you dealt
with them. And I'd never dealt with mine. Ever.

And Brett? He'd just resurfaced every last
one of them…

"Boring Beth, Boring Breath, Boring Breasts!"
Some of Brett's friends chanted and then high fived one
another.

They all walked off. Every last once, except
JP.

"So, Beth." He smirked, and a piece of dark
hair fell across part of his face. "Now that you know Brett wants
nothing to do with you, considering you freaking plastered yourself
all over the star of a rival football team, like a total and
complete slut," he took a deep breath, "I figured you'd go out with
me."

"Go out with you?" I said in a small voice.
"Like on a date?"

JP smirked and then burst out laughing. "I'm
sorry I can't do this. The guys paid me ten bucks to ask you out,
but the look on your face was priceless. I have a girlfriend, she
puts out, why would I go for a virgin nerd with glasses who makes
guys run away screaming?"

My body crumpled against the floor. The cold
tile helped alleviate the massive heat stroke that had attacked my
body. I tried breathing in through my nose and out through my
mouth, when I felt strong arms wrap around me and pick me up.

I snuggled into Jace's embrace and closed my
eyes, angry at myself for allowing a bad high-school memory to
render me completely helpless.

Within seconds we were outside, and Jace held
me as he walked into the plunge pool and sat. I was in his lap,
arms wrapped around his neck.

"Thanks," I said in a small voice.

Jace's face was still, angry, tight. His jaw
clenched as he looked away from me and swore, slapping the water
with one of his free hands. "What the hell did that guy do to
you?"

"Nothing." I tried to squirm out of his lap,
but his arms tightened, just trapping me all the more against
him.

"Beth."

"It's so stupid." My voice caught. "I don't
think I've ever been so embarrassed. I'm sorry I freaked out. I
just
—
"

"Beth," Jace's hand traced my face, "you have
no reason to be embarrassed, but if you don't tell me what happened
within the next ten minutes, I'm going to get charged with murder,
and US senators don't do well in federal prison."

I gave him a weak smile. "It's a boring
story."

"I happen to like boring," he whispered.

If any other guy would have said that, I
would have taken it as a slam to my personality. But the way Jace
had said it? Well, he'd made it feel real, as if he'd been saying
that he liked me, had seen beyond what others had.

"Me and a few other nerds were his pity-date
at prom. I danced with him. He was really nice and then basically
told me I was cool for a nerd. I refused to kiss him goodnight, and
for some reason, it pissed him off that I wouldn't put out." I
didn't want to tell him the truth, but there really wasn't any
other way. "A few of his friends saw you and me kiss, and he was
angry that I'd kissed you, a lowly sophomore from another school,
and not him. He started a rumor that I'd hit on him, he'd rejected
me but felt sorry for me, and that I'd asked him to take my
virginity."

"Asshole," Jace hissed, rocking me back and
forth in his arms. "I never thought…" he sighed against my neck, "I
never thought my kiss would cause so many problems."

If he only truly knew how it had wrecked
me.

"The rest of the year was absolute hell." I
shrugged, ignoring the tiny voice inside that said I should tell
him exactly how much that kiss had affected me, how much it had
altered my view of dating and waiting for the right one. "Notes in
my locker from random people calling me a slut, whore, bitch,
goody-two shoes. It was like I couldn't win. I suddenly didn't fit
in anywhere. My smart friends were afraid it was true because Brett
was so popular. And the popular people just thought it was
pathetic. My freedom came when I graduated and went to
college."

"Beth," Jace's thumb grazed my lower lip,
"tell me what you want."

"Huh?"

"One," Jace continued tracing my lips, "I
could go kill him and go to jail, but I think we've established
that as only a last resort."

I laughed.

"Two, I can run for president some day then
have the CIA handcuff him to a bed with stuffed animals and a few
pornographic magazines ending his political career for good."

"And three?" I leaned into his warmth.

"Three's my favorite one," Jace whispered.
"Care to know why?"

I nodded, drunk off his scent.

"Because it involves you and me, lots of
kissing, possible drugging, and a hell of a good time. What do you
say?"

I kissed his cheek. "I say it may be a good
thing we have Grandma here, since she seems to be her own
pharmacy."

"Excellent," Jace whispered, his gaze roaming
my face then resting on my lips. "I'm going to kiss you now."

"You don't have to." I leaned in anyway. The
draw he had on my body should have been illegal. Either that, or
they should somehow bottle it up and sell it to single women.

"That's the problem, Beth." His lips grazed
mine. "I don't have to, but I really, really want to."

"Oh." That was all that escaped my mouth
before our tongues tangled together. I gripped his long hair in my
hands and jerked his body closer to mine as he growled low in his
throat, his hands fumbling with the wet linen shirt that was still
plastered to my body after being pulled into the pool.

I wrapped my legs around his body and hovered
over him as he pulled my wet shirt off and threw it onto the
ground, attacking my lips with renewed fervor.

"You're beautiful, Beth."

"Jace, just kiss me. You don't have to
compliment me and
—
"

He reared back his eyes, nearly black with
desire. "Don't tell me what to say or what to do. If I pay you a
compliment, you say thank you. I don't do that often to women. I do
it enough in day-to-day life. Hell, it's my job to make people feel
good. But you? It's not my job to make you like me. It's my job to
make you like yourself, and damn if I'm not going to try to get you
to see how gorgeous of a person you are inside and out before these
six days are up."

He threw off his own shirt and grabbed me by
the waist, lifting me up onto the side of the pool. His lips met my
neck and then my shoulder as he pulled down my bra strap and kissed
the skin near my collarbone. His kisses were a mixture of sweet
softness and urgency. I couldn't get enough of the way his lips
felt against my skin and decided that even if I only had
twenty-four hours with this man, I'd take it. Id' take it all, and
I wouldn't regret it.

How could you regret something you've been
dreaming about your whole life?

His hands moved to my thighs as he pulled me
closer to his body, grabbing my legs and wrapping them around his
waist as he rocked against me.

"Yoohoo!" A voice yelled.

Jace swore and reared back.

"Knock, knock!" the voice repeated.

"Dr. Z." Jace's eyes narrowed. "If we ignore
her, she'll leave."

"Right," I said breathless as Jace kissed me
again.

The knocking stopped and then suddenly a form
appeared on the other side of the privacy-fence by the plunge
pool.

"There you are!" Dr. Z's head bobbed up and
down in relief. "I have your luggage!"

"From Grandma?"

"Grandma?" she repeated, sounding confused as
her eyebrows pinched together. "No, this luggage is from a Travis
Titus?"

"Ass!" Jace splashed the water with his hand
again.

I laughed. "Thanks, Dr. Z. Just leave it at
the door, and we'll grab it."

"Alright, and perhaps you should make use of
the bathing suits rather than your undergarments." She winked and
disappeared.

I looked down. My purple bra shone like a
beacon in the pool.

"Whoops." I said out loud.

"Please." Jace's teeth grazed my shoulder as
he kissed me again. "Like this was a whoops."

"Stop." I laughed, pushing against him.

"That's not a word I hear often." He winked
then lifted himself out of the pool, but not before dropping his
linen pants into a heap on the floor, leaving him oh-so-gloriously
naked. "Whoops," he called as he padded all the way to the bathroom
and shut the door.

I chose that moment to reflect by dunking my
entire person into the cold water.

"Romance aside, what happens if your little
love plan doesn't work?"

Grandma's smile fell as she placed her hands
on the table and rose to her full height. "I don't fail."

"But surely you've thought of the
possibility that
—
"

"Listen, Gus." Grandma's penciled brows
furrowed together. "I've been doing this for a long time. I've got
moles older than you, so don't get your panties in a twist, son. My
ways may be…" she waved flippantly into the air, "unique. But I
always make my match. Always."

Jace

Cold shower? Not working.

Cold shower. Grandma? Hairy chested men named
Brett?

Working.

Definitely working.

I leaned against the tiled wall and focused
on evening out my breathing. I'd set out to make Beth feel better
and where had that left me? Sexually frustrated enough to want to
scream.

Or maybe I just wanted her to scream? My body
seemed to be confused, because at that point I had to keep telling
myself that in five days I was walking away. Until then, all bets
were off because I hadn't realized until that moment how much Beth
needed the chance to see how spectacular she could be. Hell, I'd
only known her for days, and even I could see it. How was it
possible that when a person looked in the mirror all they saw was
what they'd been told by other people their entire lives?