I Dare You

by Shantel Tessier

  I let go of her hair, grab her thighs, and lift her off the floor. Spinning us around, I set her ass on the kitchen island. I hear the faint sound of bottles being knocked over, but neither one of us pays attention to them. Both of my hands return to fisting her hair. I yank her head back as she lets out a whimper, and then my lips are on hers. She opens for me, and I dive in. My lips on hers aggressively. My tongue in her mouth with determination, and she tastes like cinnamon.

  So fucking good!

  I growl into her mouth, and she moans into mine. Her hips grind into me, and I know she can feel how hard I am for her. ’Cause she pulls her lips from mine and pants. “Fuck me, Cole.”

  AUSTIN

  My heart pounds in my chest, and I try to suck in a calming breath. I just asked him to fuck me.

  I’m so dead. And so drunk.

  But I want him. Why do I want him? He’s done nothing but try to get me arrested. Blackmailed me. Over and over yet I just asked him to fuck me.

  Is it the danger? The way he touches me? The way he speaks to me? I wasn’t lying when I told him I’m not a virgin. But that doesn’t mean I have a lot of experience either.

  He pulls away from me, causing my legs to fall from around his waist. His blue eyes look me up and down, and then he turns, giving me his back, and walks out of the packed kitchen. Denying me.

  Shame washes over me at what I just did. He wants me dead. Not for sex.

  “Whoa,” Becky says, fanning herself as she sidles up beside me. “That was intense.”

  I jump off the island and grab the bottle of Fireball. I take a gulp and then shove kids out of way who stare at me like I’m some kind of joke. I push a couple making out in the hall and make my way toward the back door.

  I need some fresh air.

  I stumble my way out to a gazebo. The night air hits my face, and I take another drink.

  I plop down and look over the large backyard. An Olympic-size swimming pool sits to my left, and I wonder why Cole and Lilly were over at my father’s house swimming today when he has his own. Looking at my right, I see tennis courts lit up and kids drinking from kegs.

  “There you are,” Becky says, coming out the back door.

  I blow the hair out of my face. I just wanna be alone.

  “Mind if I join you?”

  “Not at all,” I lie.

  She plops down beside me. “Wanna hit?” She offers me a joint.

  “Thanks,” I say and put it to my lips. I take a long drag. The smoke fills my lungs, and I lean my head back, holding my breath. Then let it out. And hand it back to her.

  “So you and Cole … I get it now.”

  “I hate him,” I say without thought. My body doesn’t understand that.

  She laughs and takes a long drag from the joint and passes it back to me. “You guys weren’t fooling anyone, honey.”

  I take a drag. “What do you mean you guys?”

  “Cole doesn’t kiss and tell. Well, he doesn’t kiss and show either.” I arch a brow. “He’s a manwhore, don’t get me wrong, but he is very discreet about who he takes to bed. I thought he was going to lay you down on the island and do you right then and there for all of us to watch.” She chuckles.

  “Me too,” I say honestly.

  “Not gonna lie. I wouldn’t have looked away.”

  I throw my head back, laughing. “Well, you told me to take advantage of it while I can.” I take another hit of the joint. “I intended to do just that.”

  “I didn’t mean right then.” She laughs. “But I’m sure everyone enjoyed the show.”

  “That wasn’t a show. That was pathetic,” I say, and she chuckles. I take another hit.

  “Hey, girls,” a man says as he enters the gazebo. He’s got blond spiky hair and a set of soft brown eyes. His black long-sleeve t-shirt and dark faded jeans show off his large, muscular size.

  “Hey, Bryan,” Becky greets him.

  He offers us a Solo cup. “I brought you girls a drink.”

  “No thanks,” I say, holding up the joint between my fingers.

  But Becky takes a drink and then passes it to me. “Vodka,” she says.

  “Okay, one drink.” Vodka is my favorite. My mother’s boyfriend always had it at the house, and when you’re in the mood to get drunk, you drink what is available.

  “Becky, Christopher is looking for you. Something about you owing him a shot for some bet you guys made.” She rolls her eyes but jumps up and walks off with a wave of her hand, leaving me alone with the new stranger.

  He takes her seat next to me. “Where’s Cole?”

  “Why the hell would I know?” I ask, wishing the weed would kick in. So I lean back against the wood, relaxing.

  “Isn’t he your boyfriend?”

  “No,” I say quickly.

  “That’s not what it looked like.”

  I let out a sigh. “Why does everyone care what we were doing minutes ago?”

  “Because I thought you would want to start your year out right by being on the arm of the hottest guy in school.”

  I refrain from rolling my eyes. Cole may be a dick, but he doesn’t say corny lines like that. No. He just tries to blackmail you for murder. “And who is that?” I indulge him.

  “Me.” He grabs the Solo cup from my hand and takes a drink of the vodka. He goes to hand it back to me but drops it.

  I stand quickly, gasping as the cold liquid spills all over my lap.

  “I’m so sorry,” He jumps up. And then his hands are on me. I go to move backward, but my knees hit the bench.

  “It’s okay,’” I say, but he pushes into me, causing me to fall back down onto my ass. My head even with the zipper on his jeans.

  He stands over me, and he leans in and sniffs my hair. “What the …?”

  “Bryan!”

  His voice interrupts what I was about to say.

  Bryan sighs heavily and turns around to face Cole but blocks me so I can’t get up from the bench.

  “Just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Cole demands.

  “What you didn’t have the balls to do earlier,” Bryan answers, crossing his arms over his chest.

  Cole gives me a quick once-over before his narrowed eyes go back to Bryan as he storms across the backyard toward us.

  I look away from him. I don’t need him to save me. I reach up and shove Bryan out of my way. When I stand, Bryan turns to face me. “Let’s go.” He grabs my arm.

  “I’m not …”

  “Let her go!” Cole growls at him and yanks him forward. Bryan pulls me in the process, and we all fall down the two stairs at the entrance to the gazebo.

  I roll onto my back as I look up and see Cole punch Bryan in the face.

  “Austin? Are you okay?” Becky asks as she runs over to me.

  “Fine,” I snap, getting up. She reaches up to pull the grass out of my hair, but I shake her off as I turn to face the guys.

  The backyard starts to fill with people. Deke and Shane run out the back door.

  Cole is straddling Bryan, punching him in the face. Bryan manages to block it and then land a punch to Cole’s chin, knocking him off.

  Bryan goes to hit him while he’s down, but Cole lifts his right leg, kicking him in the stomach. Bryan stumbles back, and Cole jumps up in time to hit him in the face. Blood runs from Bryan’s mouth, and then Cole hits him again. Bryan stumbles back. Before he can recover, Cole hits him again. When Bryan falls to the ground this time, he doesn’t get back up.

  People gather around the backyard with their phones out, recording the fight. Deke and Shane both just stand there, looking at their friend but waiting for I don’t know what. They let him beat Jeff almost to death. Maybe they don’t get in his way until the job is almost done. I shake my head as I walk past them toward the house. It’s time for me to go.

  I’ve already got my phone out of my pocket and ordering an Uber when Becky comes up beside me. “I’m going home,” I tell her. “Wanna share an Uber?” I know she is just as d
runk as I am. And she smoked too.

  “Absolutely,” she says.

  I walk into the house just to be pulled back. I spin around to see who placed their hands on me and come face to face with Cole. His chest is heaving, and his forehead is covered in a thin layer of sweat. He has a cut on his upper lip.

  “Where are you going?” he demands.

  “Home.” I spin around, giving him my back, but he yanks me back again.

  I turn around and shove him backward. He doesn’t budge. “Stop putting your hands on me, Cole,” I yell.

  “Austin …”

  “You had your chance. You passed.” I throw his same words back at him.

  His jaw sharpens, but this time when I turn around, he doesn’t try to stop me.

  CHAPTER TEN

  COLE

  I pull up to Bruce Lowes’s house in Austin’s car that she left at my father’s house last night.

  Deke pulls up behind me in his Range Rover. “Dude, you know she’s still gonna be pissed at you, right?”

  “Yep.”

  He snorts. “What are you gonna do about it?”

  “Nothing.”

  He jogs to catch up to me as I climb their front steps. “Seriously? We need her.”

  “She doesn’t have to be happy with me to do what I say. She’s hated me up until this point, and I’ve still managed to …”

  “Blackmail her,” he finishes.

  I don’t respond.

  “Don’t you think it would be easier to have her compliant?” he asks, and I turn to face him as we stand at the front door. He runs his hand through his disheveled hair. His blue eyes bloodshot from all the drinks we had last night. After she left, he and I locked ourselves in the game room and drank until we woke up this morning with pounding headaches. “I mean, she’s already afraid of us. Especially me.” He gives me a cruel smile. “But last night, that was a different side of her. A side you can work with. Fear is a good motivator but so is seduction.” He shrugs. “And it’s not like it would be hard for you to fuck her. She’s hot.”

  My jaw clenches, and I turn to face the door. This conversation is over. I knock on the door, and Celeste answers in a yellow sundress and a smile on her face. “Hey, boys. Please, come in.”

  “Celeste.” Deke greets her.

  “Where’s Lilly?” I ask, wanting to get the hell out of here.

  She frowns. “She’s in the media room with Austin. They are watching Cinderella.”

  My hands fist. I don’t like Lilly getting close to Austin. Because she isn’t gonna be here long. “Austin’s car is in the driveway,” I say and then toss her the keys. I hear them hit the tile because Celeste was not quick enough to catch them as I walk off. And me too big of a dick just to hand them to her.

  I walk up the stairs and pass Austin’s bedroom, continuing to the end of the hall, and open the door to the media room.

  The only light comes from the big screen on the wall. I don’t see them, but I hear Lilly’s voice. “Do fairy tales exist?”

  “Depends on what you consider a fairy tale,” Austin tells her.

  “What do you mean?”

  I walk around the circular couch and stand in the shadows as they lie on the fluffy cushions. A bowl of popcorn sits between Austin’s legs. Lilly’s head on Austin’s chest. They both look straight ahead at the big screen.

  “Well, not all girls are princesses in need of a knight to save them,” Austin tells her. “Some save themselves.”

  “Belle didn’t have a prince. She had a beast.”

  Austin smiles. “She did.”

  “But in the end, he turned back into a prince. I liked him better as the beast,” Lilly says.

  Austin chuckles. “Me too. He was much more appealing. She didn’t love him for his looks. She was in love with how he made her feel. Special.”

  “Has anyone ever made you feel special?” Lilly asks her.

  Austin tilts her head to the side. “No.”

  “I’m sorry,” Lilly says softly.

  Austin just laughs it off. “You don’t need a man to make you feel special, Lilly. You are already special. All on your own. Don’t forget that.”

  Lilly sighs heavily, and they both stare straight ahead at the movie. “What about Frozen?” Lilly asks, unable to stay quiet.

  “Easy. There was no love story between princess and prince. Only sister love. And it still had a fantastic ending. It also proved that love could be deceiving.”

  “What is deceiving?” Lilly draws out the word, sounding it out.

  “It means he lied to her to get what he wanted.”

  She nods as if she understands.

  Austin pops a piece of popcorn into her mouth. And I find myself backing out of the room to let them finish their movie. Deke’s words run through my mind. Fear is a good motivator but so is seduction.

  _________________________________

  Deke and I stand in the kitchen with Celeste. They’re talking about his sister, Shelby, when Lilly enters. “Where’s Austin?” I ask her.

  She smiles up at me, not catching my tone. I have a don’t fuck with me attitude today that I can’t hide even if I wanted to. “Upstairs in her room.”

  Before anyone can stop me, I make my way back up the stairs, and like last time, I don’t stop to knock. I barge right on in. She sits on her bed but jumps up as I enter. “Jesus Christ, Cole. Don’t you ever knock?”

  I round the bed, and she takes a step back. We both stand there, staring at one another. My heart pounds in my chest, and my mind wanders to her and me. And what we could be doing if I wasn’t so fucked up. If I didn’t hate her father so much.

  “What do you want, Cole?” she demands. Her face is free of makeup. Her hair down and over her shoulders. She wears a white t-shirt and cotton shorts. She looks like she just rolled out of bed, and I hate that it wasn’t with me. “Cole …”

  I take her face in my hands, and I press my lips to hers. Taking what I fucking want as I have always done.

  She shoves me away as I knew she would. Now that she is no longer drunk, things are back to normal. That’s why I didn’t take her up on her offer last night. “What do you want from me?” she yells, her anger rising as easily as mine does.

  “Isn’t it obvious?”

  “No,” she snaps.

  “Everything.”

  She lifts her right arm. “You want me to bleed for you? You want me to go to jail for you? You want me to fucking kill for you? Jesus, Cole.”

  “I want all of those things. And more,” I say with a nod, and her eyes narrow on me like I’m playing some sick game. She’s not wrong. “Don’t you see, Austin? I’m that guy who wants to take everything from you. I want to destroy you. I want to hurt you.”

  “You already have,” she says through gritted teeth.

  I smile. She’s referring to her stitches from where I cut her. I could make her bleed to death for me without a fucking knife. “You have no idea what I can do to you. You have no idea what I’m capable of. I could make you nothing.” The thought of destroying her and putting her pieces back as crooked as mine is so fucking strong.

  Her jaw sharpens, and then she slaps me.

  My hands fist down by my sides at the sting on my face. I hate that I like it. I’ve been raised to love a fight. “I dare you to slap me again,” I growl. Testing her.

  I expect her to laugh. To call me fucked up but she doesn’t. Instead, she does what I say. It was harder than the first, and I find myself pushing her backward, my fists hitting the wall on either side of her head, but she doesn’t back down. Not her. She has so much fight in her that it makes her dark green eyes shine. And I love it.

  “I’ll hit you as many times as you want,” she growls, breathing heavily.

  “I wanna hit you back.” I lie. I don’t want to hurt her. Not in the way she thinks. I wanna break her from the inside.

  She lifts her chin. “Go ahead. I can take a hit.”

  “I wanna punish you for burning Jef
f’s body. I wanna punish you for fucking up my car. And I wanna punish you for how much you make me want you,” I tell her. My dick is still hard from that kiss we shared in my kitchen. The thought of fucking her is so strong that it’s hard to think about anything else.

  “Why?” she asks, her chest rising and falling fast with each breath.

  “I told you, sweetheart. I like destroying pretty, innocent things.”

  Her eyes look up into mine. She searches as if she’s trying to decipher my words, but they were honest. There was no hidden meaning.

  “Why?” she asks again, and her voice wavers. That fear creeping back into her features.

  “Because perfect things don’t belong in a fucked-up world.” It’s that simple.

  She swallows. “I’m not perfect.”

  I lean in, my lips almost touching hers, and her breath hitches. “You are to me.” I’ve never said anything more true to a woman. She is just like me. The fight. The anger. The hate. I see the way she fists her hands when I force her to do something. I see how she rises to every challenge I throw at her. With no warning. And I love that she refuses to back down. Give up. She’ll go head to head with me, and in her mind, she feels she has a chance to win. It turns me on so much. She was built for a man like me—a savage.

  “Cole,” she whispers.

  I remove my right hand from the wall and cup her face. She whimpers, and it fuels my desire to make her mine. “I wanna watch tears roll down your beautiful face because I think you’re gorgeous when you cry. I wanna see blood on your flawless skin because you look like a priceless work of art. And I wanna look down at you while you’re on your knees because you want to please me.” My thumb runs over her trembling bottom lip. “I wanna make you a beautiful, broken doll, Austin.” Her eyes widen at my confession. “All mine to play with.” I look at her parted lips while licking my own. “All mine to fuck.” She moans. “All mine to destroy.”

  She just stares up at me. Her eyes searching mine. When they fall to my lips, I close the small space and kiss her. She doesn’t pull away or push me back. Instead, she opens up for me, and I tilt her head, deepening the kiss, stealing her breath away.

  I wanna take everything from her. And I know it won’t take much to get it. I pull away, and she slowly opens her eyes. “I’ll be here to pick you up at seven thirty on Thursday morning.”