The Dare (The Bet 3)

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.

Chapter Sixteen

"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?

Beth was drop-dead gorgeous. With billowy lips, gorgeous thick brown hair, exotic eyes and a figure that started wars — it was no wonder that Brett had been an ass to her in high school. He'd been intimated, and that made me want to cause murder.

I was intimated and nothing intimidated me.

Was it so wrong to feel smug that, out of all the men in the world Beth could have asked to help her, she'd asked me? Granted, we were kind of stuck together, but still.

It was me.

And I didn't fail. Grandma and I had that in common.

I turned off the shower and wrapped a towel around my waist. When I opened the door to the bathroom, Beth had already brought our luggage in and was pulling out her own charger for her phone.

A moment of genius chose an opportune moment to make itself known. I swiped her phone and put it back in her suitcase. "No phones."

"How is that fair?" Beth tried to dig for her phone charger, but I held her hands hostage.

"It's fair because I won't use mine either."

She didn't look convinced. Her eyebrows shot up in shock. "Right, you're just going to refuse to answer your phone after the media portrayed you as a dirty rotten politician?"

"Rick will take care of it," I said evenly. "No phones. Just you and me. You want the fairytale. Pretty sure Prince Charming didn't have a Twitter account. We unplug. All week. Deal?"

Her eyes narrowed.