I Dare You (The Hook Up 1)

She’s wearing a flowing red skirt and a pale blue sweater with a deep V-neck that clings to every curve. I’m trying not to stare at her full breasts, but I’m a Neanderthal and can’t help it.

She waves a hand in front of my face. “Hello, is anyone listening?”

“Right. Back to your twenty questions,” I say teasingly.

She stabs one of the fries on her plate. “If you didn’t want to play, you should have just said so. I just thought it would be a good way to get to know each other.”

I grin. “I can think of a few other ways.”

She blushes furiously.

We’ve shared a lot since she came to my dorm room that morning, but I still haven’t told her the particulars of the fight or the fact that I’m training for the next one at Carson’s Gym every night after football practice.

I cock my head, thinking. “Okay, my pet peeve is when you’re watching a horror movie and that one person breaks off from the group to go search. Right then you know that’s the next one who’s going to end up dead. Why are people so stupid?”

She laughs. “Right! Why don’t they just get in their car and go to Starbucks? At least then they wouldn’t die.” She takes a sip of soda, her red lips curving around the straw. “What’s your favorite color?”

“Your sweater color…whatever that is.” My gaze lingers on her tits.

She glances down. “Yeah, you can’t seem to take your eyes off of it. It’s pale blue, by the way.”

“In my defense, it’s pretty tight,” I point out. My voice lowers. “And you look fucking hot in it.”

She rolls her eyes. “Okay, if your life is a movie, what’s the soundtrack?”

“Star Wars theme song.”

She frowns. “But there’s no words in it. Are you just saying that to get on my good side?”

I arch my brows. “I’ve already seen your good side, and it’s amazing.”

She just shakes her head and bites her lip. I’ve been flirting with her constantly for the past half hour, and I really do only have one thing on my mind: getting her alone. Between class, football, boxing, and Raven, I’ve barely seen her.

I laugh. “Fine. My theme song would be…” I drum my hands on the table for dramatic effect. “We are the Champions by Queen. It’s old school but spot-on.”

“Why that one?”

I shrug. “I’m a small-town boy, but I’m going places, and I’ve never stopped fighting to get ahead. Nothing’s going to hold me back, and I’ll do whatever it takes to get where I want to go. I want to win a football championship next year, and then I want to have a stellar career in the NFL.”

She takes that in, absorbing my words. “Football’s everything to you.”

I nod. “What’s your song?” I ask.

“Definitely Beautiful Day by U2. It’s about life giving you lemons but you still find the good. I try to do that, especially after Nana passed. I came to Magnolia and try to live a life she’d be proud of.”

I look at her, feeling emotion shifting inside my chest. Like me, she’s experienced death, but being with her and talking with her, I’ve never been happier.

I jump into the question game. “What’s your favorite…position?”

She pushes her glasses up while her top teeth nibble on her bottom lip. “What do you mean?”

I lean forward. “Don’t be coy. You know.” I set my napkin down on the table. “Mine is any position with you. I want you so bad right now that I can’t even focus on anything else.”

A telltale blush steals up her neck to her lovely face.

God. She’s everything I want, and I spend most of my time thinking about her.

But, dread tugs at me. I’m worried she’ll discover what I’m doing and be disappointed.

I tried a while back, rather feebly, to push her away at the baseball party, but once I saw her crying at the gym because Han was gone, all that went out the window.

She toys with the straw in her drink. “Oh, I know exactly what you meant. I just wanted the question to be clear before I answered it.”

“Well?” I picture her back in my bed with my head between her legs while she moans my name out.

“My favorite position is linebacker, of course.” She giggles.

I lean forward again, my voice low and husky. “I’ve just spent the last hour with you pressed up against me trying my damnedest to do some Latin dance because I like you, and now you’re just teasing me.”

She lets out a shaky breath. “You’re bossy.”

“You like it.”

“I love it,” she whispers, her chest heaving. Her tongue darts out and licks her bottom lip. “Does that even make sense?”

Heat fires through my body. “It does when it’s the right person.”

Her eyes hold mine. “How’s this for a little tease? I have a skirt on so you have easy access. What are you going to do about it?”

Clearly, she is past being nervous with me.

My cock hardens even more and I stifle down a groan. I look around the restaurant, my head spinning. We’re sitting in a booth toward the back, but it’s definitely not private, and with what I want, I need privacy. I exhale slowly…and have an idea.

I catch her hand. “I dare you to go to the last stall in the ladies’ room and wait for me.”

“Now?” She blinks. “Why?”

“You know why.” I cup her face. “And have your underwear off or there’ll be hell to pay, Buttercup.”

Her chest rises rapidly, the color in her cheeks flaming. She thinks for a moment then stands rather shakily, gives me a final lingering look, and heads down the darkened hallway that leads to the restrooms.

I give her five minutes before I pull out a couple twenties that more than cover the bill. Rising up, I’m barely able to walk in my tightened jeans, but I manage to make it over there without anyone glaring at the obvious tent in my pants. At this rate, I’m going to bust a button off my britches.

Damn. I’m halfway in love with this girl.

Delaney

Why am I standing in a bathroom stall, you ask?

Because I want Maverick more than I want air.

My head spins with heat and pure need. He is a rollercoaster, dangerous and exhilarating; my brain is telling me to jump off and save myself, but my heart yearns to ride it to the end to see if I live or die.

I hear the door open and the lock slide into place. My heart pounds. The stall I’m in is hot, my skin is hot, and I just might pass out before he—

The door swings open and it’s him.

A quivering breath slips out of me.

I breathe in his masculine scent as he stalks forward and laces his fingers through my hair. His shoulders are broad and taut, as if he’s coiled like a tiger and ready to pounce. I know that feeling well. I’ve been on a tight wire all week, wanting him, worrying about him. For now I lock that away, promising myself I’ll come back to it later.

He doesn’t speak, just runs his eyes over my face before drifting down to my chest then lingering on my legs. I hold up my purple lace underwear, and he takes them from me with a smoldering look then tucks them in the front pocket of his jeans.

“Good girl.”

His eyes come back and capture mine, and I feel weak at the desire I see there. We haven’t even kissed and I feel like I’m going to come apart.