The Bet (The Bet 1)

“Let me guess.” Kacey leaned over the counter. “Raspberry pie?”

“How’d you know?” He smirked, his voice was hoarse.

“It was the only pie your grandma taught you how to make, and if I remember correctly, you made it for your senior prom date.”

“Ugh.” Travis carefully cut it into eighths. “If I remember correctly she spilled it on her dress and blamed me for making raspberries red.”

“She always was such a charmer. What was her name again?”

Travis chuckled. “Oh no you don’t. That’s just what I need. You digging up my past girlfriends and making fun of them. Besides, I don’t date girls anymore. I date women.” He eyed her up and down before slowly licking the fork.

Kacey averted her eyes, mainly because the picture of him licking that fork was so erotic she nearly jumped across the table and assaulted him. Apparently this is what happens when you don’t have boyfriends, and the closest relationship you’ve had in the past year has been with your e-reader and a fictional duke named Henry.

“So…” Kacey nudged him a bit with her arm. “Women, hmm? What women are you dating? I don’t see any of them here for family dinner night.”

“There are no women.”

Kacey’s heart hammered in her chest.

“If you must know, there is one woman. One being the keyword.”

She clenched her fist and cursed herself for bringing the subject up. “What’s her name?”

“Oh no you don’t!” Travis placed the knife on the plate and grabbed Kacey by the shoulders. “That’s just what I need, you stalking the one woman I’m interested in.”

Did he say he was only interested in one? Damn the man. Be unattractive! She wanted to yell. “C’mon Trav, you know me. What harm could I possibly cause?”

“Junior year—” he began.

“Forget I asked.”

“—Junior year.” He held his finger into the air as he was making his point. “Somehow you discovered I had a crush on Ashley Willis. I still don’t know how, considering I’m a guy and I don’t keep a diary.”

“No.” Kacey dipped a fork into the pie and licked the tangy berries off of it. “But you did moan her name one time in your sleep. But carry on.”

He glared. “You told her.”

“Okay, Trav, come on. I did nothing of the sort. I merely hinted that you had a tiny bit of a crush on her.”

“Kace, making a poster with my face on it and heart stickers is a hell of a lot more than hinting. God, I don’t even think you know the meaning of the word discreet.”

“Do to!” she argued.

He walked around the table and pulled her into a tight headlock. “Do not!” She fought against him but was helpless. “Do you give?” he whispered into her hair.

His hard-muscled chest was heaving behind her. Did she give? Oh God, what she wouldn’t give for something, anything.

Ah! Red alert! What was she thinking? It’s Travis, Travis!

“Travis!” she screamed, totally unintentionally. He released her and winked.

“Come on, let’s take the pie in before they think you stabbed me or something.”

“Close,” Kacey grumbled, though stabbing wasn’t necessarily what she had in mind. Rubbing his body down with berries and licking it off? Yes. Violence? Only that of a sexual nature.

She needed to trip and hit her head or something to shake Travis’s smile and scent out of it before she lost her mind.

“There you two are!” Grandma winked as they rejoined the family and began to enjoy the pie. “I thought maybe Travis was having a little encounter in there with you, little girl.” Grandma winked again. Unfortunately, at that exact moment, Kacey had taken a ginormous bite of pie, enough to begin to choke.