Double Dare

You certainly are. How bloody ironic. He hadn't wanted their real lives to intrude on this weekend, but the discussion had led them there. With an effort, he smiled. He had to get her off that topic though, lest he feel tempted to confess his hidden role in her life, and have her storm out on him as a result. This was their time. He didn't want to ruin it now, not this soon. "Is there anything else about you that I should know?"

She frowned, thoughtfully. "No."

He felt relief.

"Oh, no wait, there is something."

His chest tightened.

She grinned. "I dare myself to do things." Her eyes twinkled.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when I can't decide whether to go for something, or I need to pull together more confidence, I dare myself. Like when you gave me the card to The Hub, I really wanted to go but I wasn't sure. I wanted to see you again, so I dared myself to go."

"I see. Maybe I should try it myself sometime."

"What daring me to do something or daring yourself?" She chuckled.

He was going to have to dare himself to walk into Robertson's, on Monday. "Maybe both."

She lolled back on the bed, resting on one elbow, nursing her wine glass, her hair spilling onto the quilt like molten lava.

He reached over to stroke it. "Do you always go through with it, when you dare yourself to do something?"

She nodded. "I like to respond to a challenge." She touched his face, smiling. "Deep down I wonder what the ultimate dare would be, one that I really would have a hard time deciding over."

"What, like a double dare?" He flickered his eyebrows at her.

"Why does that sound like you're thinking devious thoughts?"

"Now that I know your trick, I'm wondering how far I can push my luck."

She laughed. "Oh, I imagine I'd do just about anything you dared me to, even if it was a double dare."

He shook his head. "You do trust too readily."

"I told you, I like a challenge." Amusement twinkled in her eyes.

So she thought of him as a challenge. She certainly was, for him. "Apparently I do too."

"In that case I dare you to tell me something about yourself that I don't already know - maybe something you've never told anyone."

"Hmm. Something I haven't told anyone." Strangely enough, his mind didn't automatically leap back to the big secret between them. It went to something else first. A matter of the heart that he thought he'd left behind long ago. As he turned it over in his mind, she prodded him in the chest with one finger.

"You're such a mystery man."

"I am?"

"Yes, but that's why I was so attracted to you in the first place."

Oh, the irony. "In that case maybe I should stay a mystery. Maybe you won't want me any more if you know everything about me." Never a truer word spoken in jest.

"I think it's too late for that," she said, quite seriously. "Remember, it's some sort of an addiction now."

He reached for her, cupping her cheek with his hand. She rested her hand over his, searching for some deep truth in his eyes.

"I think you're going to learn quite a lot about me soon, Abby. But the thing that sprang to mind when you dared me was about another woman."