The Dare

She winced as Dr. Z examined the rest of the papers. "Alright, I'll just schedule the rest of your week and slip the paper under you door this evening. Your first session is with one of our newer therapists. She's absolutely lovely."

The sound of Dr. Z's heels clicking against the tile floor felt like a noose getting tighter around my neck.

"Tattoo?" I tilted my head. "You think you're fu

"You weren't paying attention."

"I was." Sort of. If watching her mouth move was paying attention, and memorizing her scent was my pop quiz. Yeah, I was paying attention.

"No, you weren't. We shook on it. Six days. I don't want you ignoring me, I don't want you texting. I want the fantasy. God knows, it's only six days." Her face fell a bit before she smiled to cover up her disappointment.

Shit.

"You're right." I reached for her hand. "I'll do better. It's just been a long day." And if she kept saying six, I was going to six the hell out of her in a public forum.

"I know." Beth stared down at our hands.

I should have pulled back. I should have run. Instead, I placed my other hand on top of hers and whispered, "Why don't we go back to the room. I'll draw you a bath and romance the hell out of you."

Which also meant I was going to be rewarded with sainthood for not trying to seduce her the minute we were alone.

"I thought you were gifted with words?"

"Exhaustion. It's set in. Plus, I'm cursed. Don't expect perfection."

"Who said I wanted perfection?" She winked. "I just want the fairytale."

"Didn't we already have this talk? They're the same thing."

"No," Beth stood, "they aren't. And that's why you're so bitter. Some things aren't always black and white, Mr. Senator. Now romance me."

"Day one." I smirked.

"Day one." She agreed.

I held her hand the entire way to the hut.

****

"Sure, I'll dance with you." She put her hand in mine. I walked her to the dance floor, unable to take my eyes off her glistening dress or pretty brown hair. My cousin was going to kill me if I bailed on her, but the pull was too strong.

"You're really pretty." I pulled her into my arms and tried act smooth, even though I was pretty sure my hands were shaking. "What's your name?"

"Beth." Her head tilted back, enough for me to see her crazy green eyes. "What's yours?"

"Jace." My voice cracked at the end. Great, I'd just give away my age. No doubt she was a senior and thought I was about as cute as seventh grader with a cold.

"Thanks."

She leaned her head on my shoulder. At least I had my height going for me.

"For what?"

"The rescue." She laughed. And a part of me that had been dormant for a lifetime flared to life. God, she was beautiful.

"I'll rescue you anytime. Day or night."

"Is that a promise?"

Her smile was deadly. It made me want to kiss her, and the last thing I needed to be seen doing was kissing a girl from another school while I got my ass handed to me by the defensive line of the football team. It was their territory, not mine.

But I couldn't stop the words from coming. "Of course."

My head descended; she met me halfway. Our lips touched, and I kissed her hard. Harder than I'd ever kissed a girl before in my entire life. It was a hello and a goodbye kiss, because I knew it wasn't something I'd be repeating. She was way out of my league. As it was, I was playing with fire even kissing what I'm sure was the quarterback's girlfriend. But I couldn't help myself.

"Brevik," a male voice sneered from behind.

I pulled away from Beth and slowly turned to face, who I was sure, would be the largest kid in school.

Instead, it was the coach from the football team. Aw, hell. He only knew me because I'd unintentionally put one of his players out of commission for the rest of the season.

"Who are you here with?"

"My cousin." I swallowed nervously.

He peered around me at Beth and chuckled. "She doesn't look like your cousin."

"Not her." I ground my teeth together. "She's just… a friend."

Behind him, my cousin waved frantically.

"Look, I gotta run. My date needs me." Geez, it wasn't like I was getting secret plays from Beth or anything. I turned and gave her hand a quick squeeze. "It was fun."

She gave me a sad nod, and I walked away.

When I looked back, she was gone.

The sound of the alarm jolted me out of the dream. Why the hell was I dreaming about that now? I smacked the alarm clock with my hand and peeked over at Beth. She was sleeping like the dead, too beautiful for her own good, and I was horny as hell from that damn dream. I shouldn't have walked away. I should have gotten her number. Not that it would have changed a damn thing. People didn't date in high school and then get married right away anymore. At the time, I'd still believed in love at first sight. Hell, I'd thought it had been love; the rest of the memory was painful as hell. My therapist said my mind had somehow pushed the rest of the night out of my consciousness; he'd said accidents had a way of doing that. I was protecting myself. But from what? I wasn't sure.

When I'd woken up in the hospital, I was changed — everything had changed. My parents had said I wasn't the same, but I had no idea why. It had made me even more paranoid about pleasing them, about getting things right. Getting my career right.

Speaking of careers, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and was rewarded with a low-battery signal. I got up to grab my bag then remembered that I didn't have a bag. The same checked bag that had yet to appear.

My guess was that Grandma was holding it hostage. Or maybe Jake and Travis. Those bastards must have known. And how the hell did the woman have this pla

A light bulb flickered on in the darkness of my brain.

I'd said yes.

That's where I'd gone wrong. I should have stayed far, far away.

Russia. I should have moved to Russia.

"Beth." I nudged her a bit.

She was lying on her stomach, wearing the outfit from the night before. She stretched, her shirt inching up on her body, exposing her flat stomach and a slight scar where her appendix had obviously been.

She moaned again and lifted her arms high above her head.

The shirt followed.

So did my eyes.

I blinked a few times, fascinated with how smooth her skin looked. I wanted to touch it — to hell with that, I wanted to lick it. Had I licked it the other night?

"Jace.

Her voice was low, sexy as hell, raspy. Shit, I was in trouble.

"What?"

"Do we have to go to couples' therapy?"

"Aw, sweetheart, backing out already? Where's your balls?"

"I don't want balls." She yawned. "I just want a damn charge. I have girl parts. I talk a big game. I use big words. Right now, I want a big-ass coffee and a big sleep."

"Stop saying big."

My body was responding to that word in a very big way, and I was already struggling after watching her yawn and stretch and mew all over the place.

"Fine. Large. I want a large coffee, a large—"