There were people standing around in groups holding various sorts of drinks in their hands. There were some people dancing. Some were already engaged in some serious heavy-petting. And most everyone was smiling and laughing.
“Well, hey,” a guy said as he stopped in front of us. “Welcome to our fine establishment. Can I assist you beautiful ladies tonight?”
Before Mia had a chance to open her mouth, I said, “Are you Sam?”
He shook his head. “Nah. Hen.”
“Hen?” I clarified.
“Well, Henry. But no one’s called me that in years.”
I nodded and looked him over. He was your typical teenage guy in jeans, a t-shirt and sneakers. The house lights were dim, but his hair looked a nondescript shade of brown.
“You know Sam?” he pressed when I didn’t say anything.
I shook my head. “Bash Baker invited us.”
Hen grinned widely. “Three for the price of one.” He shook his head. “Casanova fucking strikes again.”
I gave him a slightly chastising look. “Have you seen him?”
Hen was still grinning like he knew something we didn’t and he was very much looking forward to us finding it out. He pointed over the crowd of people through to a lounge room. “Last I saw, he was over there.”
I nodded. “Thanks.”
“Bye Henry,” Mia said wistfully.
“Yeah, thanks,” Georgie said quickly as she started pushing Mia and I along. “Can we wait until we get inside before you spread your legs, babe?” she laughed to Mia.
Mia nodded. “Yeah. Good point. He did seem keen on you though.”
Unlike a party where everyone knew us, the crowd didn’t move to let us through. We had to squeeze our way around and between people nice and awkwardly.
“And if I see no better prospects, I will go and follow through on that,” Georgie answered and I heard the smile in her voice as I looked for Bash. “But it’s probably a good idea to check out the rest of the offerings. Shop around rather than settling.”
I laughed and, as someone moved, I saw Bash sitting on a couch with Jendo and Rufio. They all had drinks in their hands and were smiling as Rufio waved his hands around while he talked. And they all looked rather gorgeous. To not have noticed, I must have never seen them outside of school, or at least not any time recently.
Rufio looked adorable in black jeans, white sneakers, and a white t-shirt with some writing on it that was obscured by an undone light grey linen waistcoat. His dark brown hair looked like it had seen a brush for once and even some product as it was swept to the side, opening up his face.
Jendo was rocking the dark jeans, white and black sneakers, white tee, and unbuttoned black and white shirt over the top with his sleeves pushed up a little. He wore a watch on one wrist and some bands on the other. His light brown hair looked much the same as usual.
And Casanova himself, Bash Baker, was looking utterly effortlessly handsome in the laziest possible way. He wore ripped blue jeans, white sneakers – obviously a dress code he’d neglected to clue us in on – and a grey t-shirt. His black hair was styled up. It wasn’t quite as excessive as an anime character, but it was definitely ‘I spent ages making it look this artfully messy’. He wore a band on his left wrist and a chunky silver ring on the first finger of that hand, that tapped against his beer bottle as he listened to Rufio.
The girls and I took a step forward and Bash looked up. I want to say my breath didn’t catch for a moment as those pale blue eyes found me, but I was all caught up in a moment of excited expectation and anticipation, and the obvious appreciation that lit his face at the sight of me had me forgetting it was all just a bet for a moment.
Rufio followed Bash’s gaze and a great big warm smile broke across his face when he saw us. He waved us over just as Bash stood up.
“Plan?” Georgie asked.
“You girls go over. I’ll start working on Bash,” I answered.
Mia squealed in excitement. “Good luck!”
“Go get him,” Georgie said, smacking me on the arse as she walked away.
Bash obviously saw and grinned at her as they passed each other. Then he was standing in front of me. “Hey.”
“Hi.”
“I half expected you’d pike out.”
I smiled. “Just notoriously slow at getting ready.”
He nodded slowly as he looked me over again. “You stuck to the plan.”
“I did.”
“Drink?”
“Is that my prize for good behaviour?”
His eyes flew to mine and I saw the approving humour there. “You want to start a system for rewarding good behaviour, I’m all there, princess. But I don’t think you’re ready for what I’d want to award.”
I refused to let my cheeks heat. “Challenge accepted, Casanova.”
Bash watched me calculatingly for a moment, then I could see he was impressed. “All right. Shall we say a drink’s your first?”
“I’d love a drink.”
“Come with me, then.” I followed him through the people to the kitchen. “Hard or soft?” he asked.
“Hard.”
“All right,” Bash said with a grin as turned to a couple of eskies, “we’ve got Ruskis, red UDLs, and Bundy and Coke. Pick your poison.”
“Are they the girl drinks?” I asked and he paused with his beer to his lips.
“What?”
I nodded to his beer. “You think girls don’t drink beer?”
He scoffed. “Girls want maximum alcohol, lowest calories, and lowest volume.”
I raised my eyebrow. “Do they?” I challenged.
His face furrowed for a moment in confusion. “Don’t they?”
I grinned. “UDL, thanks.”
He nodded as though he’d expected it. “No worries.” He picked one up, shook the condensation off it, cracked it open, and passed it to me. Then we headed back to the living room.
Georgie and Mia gave me questioning glances and I gave them my most surreptitious thumbs up. They both returned them, then made a show of paying attention again to Rufio while Jendo watched over everything almost disconcertingly closely.
As we stopped near them again, I took a sip of my drink and had almost forgotten how sweet they were. I felt my face visibly contort.
“You good?” he asked and I nodded.
“Just been a while since I had one of these.”
“You don’t usually drink?”
I shrugged. “Sometimes. Last few parties, I’ve been designated driver.” I was also not going to tell him that I usually drank beer by choice, but that didn’t really live up to the great fantasy that was Paige Nicholls.
He nodded. “Cool.” He lifted his drink. “I’m planning on crashing here, so I don’t have to play designated tonight.”
“Yeah, Georgie’s ours tonight. Are you all staying?”
Bash paused, then shrugged. “Maybe. Roof might get his mum to pick him up. If he does, Jendo’ll probably get a ride.”
I nodded and we stood a little awkwardly for a bit as someone called out to turn the music up and up it went. We sipped our drinks while we looked around the party and I tried to think of something to say to him.
“So, Sam doesn’t go to our school,” I said to him, having no problem with needing to reach up to keep my lips near his ear for him to hear me.
“Running for dux now, Miss Head Prefect?” he replied and I heard the smile in his voice as he dipped his head to mine.
“I was expecting you’d tell me how you knew him.”
I felt him nod. “Junior School.”
“And you’ve stayed friends?”
His chuckle rumbled through his body. “Nah. I just like crashing his parties.”
He pulled away from me, a look of total mischief on his face, and drained his beer before putting it down on a table nearby. I followed suit, then leant up to him again.
“Do you dance?�
�� I asked, looking over at the few people who were dancing in the middle of the room – the reason for the increased volume.
“If you’re expecting me to lead a waltz, no.” Bash put his hand on my bare waist, sliding his hand under my cardigan. “If you wanted to get your body close to mine? I can probably manage.”
I smiled at him, took his hand off my waist and led him closer to the other dancing bodies. I turned back to him and he put my hand on his shoulder before letting go and moving his hand back to my waist. I lifted my other hand and clasped my hands behind his neck, drawing him closer to me.
Bash got that mischievous look in his eyes again as he looked down at me. He leant his lips closer to my ear and said, “It’s almost like you’ve played this game before.”
“I think you’ll find, Bash, that I’ve played almost every game you have.”
His arms tightened around my waist. “Almost,” he agreed and I heard the smile in his voice again, but it was somehow softer this time.
Our bodies moved against each other and I let myself enjoy it. I mean, I was allowed to enjoy him while I was trying to get him to fall in love with me. Otherwise it was only half the fun.
Bash’s arms were strong and secure and warm. I felt a weird sense of comfort and ease there in his arms. It didn’t hurt that his chest was hard under that t-shirt and emanated a warmth I wanted to sink into. He smelled sweet and spicy with a hint of something citrus. It made me almost shove my nose into him to try to work out exactly what it was, but I refrained. Still, the whole thing put together made for a pretty enticing package.
When I reminded myself that this was Bash Baker, I felt myself pull back just enough to look at him.
In a move so suave I had to give him points, he gently brushed a strand of hair off my face then left his hand lingering on my cheek. I was going to call him out. I was going to say something pointed. But instead I helped him close the gap and I kissed him.
And I did not regret it one bit.
There was nothing hesitant about Bash’s kiss. He went in there knowing what he wanted and he went straight for it. No dilly-dallying, no testing the waters, he went straight to giving me something designed to make my knees go weak.
Only I had slightly more restraint than that and I knew how to give back as good as I got.
What had started out as a simple dance pretty quickly turned into a heavy make out session.
As much as I was in this for a bet, my heart still thudded erratically in my chest, I got a little somersault-fluttery feeling in my stomach and I wanted more of him. I felt my skin tingling where his hands were gripping my waist tightly. My hands were in his hair and around his neck, and I only remembered we were in a room full of people when someone bumped into us.
We pulled apart and I was thankfully not the only one breathing heavily. Bash took my cheeks in his hands and looked me over with a smile.
“You want to go somewhere quieter?” he asked and I nodded.
“Sure,” I told him and bit my lip for good measure.
He licked his lip quickly and nodded before looking around the room. “Right…” he muttered, then took my hand and pulled me through the room.
People parted like the Red Sea to let Bash through, sparing him a warm smile and a greeting. He nodded back to them, but seemed like a man on a mission. And I was pretty sure I knew what that mission was – he’d been chosen for the bet for good reason – but he was going to be shit out of luck. I could still give him a little though. In the spirit of keeping him interested anyway.
Bash dragged me up some stairs and along a landing. He paused to look in a few rooms that were already occupied with couples obviously thinking along the same lines as him. But must have finally decided enough was enough when he came to a certain door.
He knocked on the door loudly. “Adams!” he said. “Out.”
The guy looked at him but it was the girl who grinned. “Need the room?”
Bash looked at her commandingly. “Go kick Coop out of Sissy’s room.”
She pulled her top back on and nodded as she got up. “All right. Keep your pants on, Baker. At least until I’m out.” She grabbed the guy and pulled him after her.
“Try locking a door once in a while,” he called to her retreating back.
Then he had me in the room, the door closed and locked, and me pressed up against the door with his lips on mine again. Another rush ran through me and I started pushing him towards the bed. He slid my cardigan off my shoulders and I let it drop to the floor as I reached for the hem of his t-shirt. It was off and discarded with my cardigan in moment, and my hands trailed down his taught body.
When his legs hit the bed, I pushed him hard and he fell onto his back, looking up at me in very pleasant surprise. My eyes were fixated on his face and that expression. The expression I’d put there.
“I picked you for a sub, princess.”
“You picked wrong, Casanova,” I replied as I climbed on top of him and kissed him again.
His hands were tight on my waist again and there was something about it that felt hot. Slowly he ran one hand up my body, trailed his fingers down my arm, back up my body, over my hair. It was a turn on and no mistake. It was another reason I could see why girls gave it up to him so often. He certainly had a singular knack for making me want to rip my clothes off and beg him to do the honours.
But even if I did decide to give it up to Bash – which was proving possible given how tempting he currently was – I knew I couldn’t until he was more invested or I’d lose him, and thus lose the bet. I needed to get him interested in me as a person as well as interested in me as a lay. The only problem with that was that all I wanted to do was keep kissing him.
In one swift move, he rolled us over so he had one leg between mine but his arm propped his body up so we touched but he wasn’t crushing me. He looked down at me with a very arrogant humour in his eyes as his hand trailed down my body slowly. Those two things combined to ignite my skin and the catch in my breath was impossible to hide.
Bash leant down to kiss me as his hand skimmed over my hip and down my leg. And just as slowly, he started bring it up the inside of my leg again. My other leg hugged his hip as I kissed him hungrily. I had never felt like that with any other guy: I had never felt so close to utter abandon.
But I wasn’t so far gone that when his hand ran between my legs – making me ignite in a whole different way – and was making a beeline for my jeans button, I was going to let him continue.
“Uh-uh,” I said, taking hold of his hand gently.
“I’d heard you were a tease, princess,” he replied, but I felt him smile against my lips and his hand moved to my waist of its own volition.
As his lips moved down my cheek to my neck, I asked, “I’m a tease because I have rules about how much of my clothes come off on a first date?”
“Don’t both parties need to know it’s a date?” he asked between kisses. I was pretty sure I felt the nip of his teeth against my skin occasionally, but it just sent one of those pleasant jolts through me each time.
I shook my head, my hand going to his hair. “I don’t think that’s a rule.” My body arched into his and I breathed out deeply. “It just helps if they’re both informed at some point.”
“You considering me properly informed, then?”
“You going to deny it’s a date?”
He pulled back to look at me and he wore a devilish smirk. “I’m not saying it’s not a date, but I sure as hell won’t admit it is.”
I took his face in my hands and wrapped my leg tighter around his hip. “Not a bad start.”
He grinned down at me. “You going to be a pain in my arse, princess?” he asked ruefully.
I smiled at him. “Only when you deserve it, Casanova.”
He laughed, then leant down to kiss me again.
I had intended to do more talking than kissing, but I was more than happy to change the plans. Especially if he
didn’t expect to get in my pants that night, and, while his hand ran between my legs a few times that night, there was a noticeable avoidance of my buttons and zips.
Chapter 9: Bash
For a guy who most definitively did not get laid the night before, I was still smiling an awful lot the next afternoon.
Paige and I had gone no further than over the clothes all night – minus the ones we’d removed – and yet we’d spent a long time in Sam’s room. I’d had no idea how long we’d actually been in there but, when someone had knocked on the door wanting the room, Paige had suggested we vacate and I’d felt like that was a good idea. I’d been ready to blow and really didn’t feel like jizzing my pants like a fourteen-year-old unable to control himself.
We’d spent the rest of the night mostly hanging out on a couch, sometimes joined by the boys and sometimes by the girls – although I noticed Georgie disappear with Hen for a while and noticed her lipstick looked freshly applied when she returned. We’d danced a little more, had a couple more drinks, and shared plenty more kisses.
I’d been surprised how sweet Paige tasted. And I don’t mean the fact she still had the taste of Raspberry UDL on her lips. There was something about the way she kissed that had been electrifying. She was just as confident physically as she was any other way. And it had been fucking hot. It had been so hot that I’d had her firmly in mind twice in the wee hours of the morning when I went to the bathroom. Sure, it wasn’t as satisfying, but I considered the night a victory nonetheless and I was sure the wait would be worth it when I finally had her.
“Bash!” I heard Leo call and pulled myself out of my daydreams.
“Yeah?” I replied, leaning back on my desk chair and realising it was a terrible time for a personal moment to relive Paige’s body against mine.
I’d dropped a half asleep Jendo and a hungover Rufio back at their respective houses earlier in the afternoon and cruised home to find Mum leaving for work and Leo busy with his stories. So, I’d jogged upstairs, had a shower and put on some clean clothes. But even Leo could only be distracted for so long without checking in.
“Ba-ash?” he called again, getting closer, then popped his head around my door.
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