“Only Mom calls him that,” Dalia said. “He’s always been Dare to everyone else. And especially ever since our dad—”
“Dalia.” Dax shook his head. He narrowed his eyes at me, their golden color identical to his sister’s, shades lighter than Dare’s. “How well do you actually know our brother?”
“Not well.” Not well at all.
“Are you dating?” he asked.
“No.” Definitely not. I didn’t date.
“Hmm...” His demeanor instantly changed. Turned more predatory. “Single, huh?”
Dalia jumped up on the counter and crossed her arms. “Are you screwing?”
Her blunt question caught me off guard. “Who?”
“My brother!” She laughed. “Who else?”
The right side of Dax’s mouth quirked up. “Nope, but hopefully soon enough.”
“God, not you, Dax!” She rolled her eyes at him, then turned back to me. “Are you and Dare doing it? He’s never brought a girl home before, so I’m trying to understand exactly who you are.”
“No, we’re not doing it.” I laughed. Holy crap. “Honestly…I’m no one important.”
Dax towered over me as he brought his face even closer. “So if you’re not dating or screwing my brother, I’ll take it that you’re single and looking for some fun, right?”
“How old are you?” I poked him in the chest and stepped back.
He swelled with pride. “Sixteen. Seventeen in a few months. I’m a junior.”
“Well, I’m a sophomore. In college.”
“So?” he said with an impish wink. “I happen to like older, more experienced women.” He reached out to brush my cheek. “They’re usually—”
“Hey!” Before I had a chance to push his hand away, Dare was between us. He grabbed Dax’s wrist, twisted his arm behind his back, and placed him in a chokehold. “Watch where you put those hands if you still wanna be able to throw a football tomorrow.” Releasing him, he playfully smacked Dax on the back of his head.
“I’m only six years younger than you.” Dax growled and jumped on Dare’s back, trying to take him down, but his ass met the floor when Dare tossed him. “And why do you care about my relationship with Reagan? She said she’s not with you.”
Dare’s gaze flitted over to me. “That doesn’t mean you’re allowed to have her.” His dark look and tone made my skin tingle and my cheeks heat. I kind of liked the idea of him staking claim to me, even if it was only to ward off his horndog brother.
I had to look away before spontaneously combusting. “Dalia, do you need help putting these groceries away?”
Dalia narrowed her eyes at me, then Dare. “Sure thing, Just Reagan. My spidey sense tells me there’s a little more to that ‘just’ than either of you are admitting.”
Dare grabbed her elbow as she passed by. “Listen, I gave Mom some money. Make sure she uses it on train tickets and to get the car fixed. Not on anything else, okay? She looks…tired.”
“She’s going to meetings, Dare. I swear.”
“I know.” His lips tightened and he seemed to shut down after that. We managed to put away most of the groceries before he finally spoke again. “School okay, guys?”
“Yeah,” Dalia said as Dax nodded. “Fine.”
“Any forms you need me to sign?”
They both shook their heads.
“But you better come to our homecoming game,” Dax said. “I’m starting QB this year. No junior in the history of our entire school has ever started at homecoming.”
“I guess all that food you’re inhaling is going to good use.” Dare laughed and mussed Dax’s hair.
Dax punched his shoulder. “So are you gonna come or what?”
“I’ll be there if I don’t have to work.” Dare crossed his arms over his chest and fixed his gaze on them. “Anything else you want to confess while I’m here?”
Dax turned to Dalia with a knowing smirk. “Dalia has a booooyfriend.”
Dalia gasped. “I do not!”
“Stephanie Matthews saw you making out with Tyler Rodn—”
“Oh, my god! DAX!” She smacked his arm hard. “That’s such a lie! Dare, he’s just making shit up, because I threatened to tell—”
“Shut it, Dalia! You promised you wouldn’t say anything to Dare.”
“Well, that was before you started on Tyler!”
“That’s because Tyler has fucked around with every single girl in our school. He’s Harrison High’s biggest player.”
“No, I’m pretty sure that sleazy title belongs to you!” Dalia yelled as she hurled a dishcloth at his chest.
I found myself grinning like a fool. There was something so warm and mesmerizing about their bickering. However chaotic, the exchange was bursting with affection and comfortable familiarity. When Pierce, Quinn, and I had fought, it was cold and calculated with pure intent to harm.
Dare’s whistle made me jump. “Alright, enough!”
“In all seriousness,” Dalia said, ignoring her brother’s warning looks, “I think Dare needs to know that—”
“NO!” Dax practically roared. “He doesn’t need to know shit about that asshole.”
“What asshole?” Dare straightened, his eyes darkening to shade I’d never seen in nature. “Dalia…is someone bothering you? Did someone hurt you?”
“It’s not that.” She shook her head, focused on a broken tile by her foot. “Some guy’s been hanging around…watching the house.”
“Dad,” Dare said, his face turning to stone.
Dax groaned. “God, why did you have to open your big, fat mouth?”
No. I was wrong. Dare’s eyes could get darker. “Someone you recognized?”
She didn’t look up. “No, but I’m scared, Dare. What if he—” She couldn’t finish the sentence.
Dare stood eerily still as silence filled the room. “Does Mom know?” he finally said.
“No.” Dalia shook her head. I noticed that her thin, bony shoulders were shaking.
“Good.” Dare nodded. “Don’t say anything to her. I mean it.”
“Are we going to have to move again?” Dax asked, looking defeated at the thought.
“I don’t know. Don’t worry about it. I’ll deal with it.” Dare ran a hand through his hair, his fingers yanking and tugging at the roots. “What else?”
Dax’s brow furrowed. “What else?”
“What else needs dealing with?” Dare’s tone was curt. “I have to get going, so what else?” His body hummed with tension. The playfulness from before was gone.
“Can you fix the sink in the bathroom?” Dalia said quietly. “It’s leaking again and Dax’s half-assed solution has been to keep putting more and more duct tape over the crack.”
Dare turned to me. “Do you mind waiting a few more minutes, Reagan? If you—”
“No.” I said a little too quickly. “Not at all. Go ahead.”
Truthfully, even given the turn in conversation, I wouldn’t have minded staying inside this house forever.
eleven
We drove back to Dare’s place in silence. Forty minutes of nothing but the radio and raindrops pounding the roof. Although he was trying not to show it, I could tell that he was worried. About what, I didn’t know, but I knew it had something to do with his father.
When I stopped in front of his place—a small, rundown warehouse-turned-studio-lofts—Dare said, “Thanks for today.”
I shook my head. “Trust me, you don’t owe me any thanks for anything. You have no car because of me.”
“Yeah, well...” He shrugged. “We’re even now.”
“We’re not. You need a car. The mechanic—”
“I don’t need your charity, Reagan,” he said, eyes blazing. “I can figure out my own shit. Get home safe and try not to kill anyone else, okay?” He opened the door and swung his legs out.
“Wait!” I grabbed his arm, not wanting him to leave, but not knowing how to ask for him to stay.
I didn’t do this.
“Reagan.” My name was a goodbye. “You just witnessed firsthand how fucked up my life is.” He held a hand out toward my red Mercedes, then up at his dilapidated building. “Go home.”
“Go home to my parents’ penthouse where I belong?” I shot back. “Is that what you mean?”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You didn’t have to.” He didn’t HAVE to speak the literal words. His tone made it perfectly clear.
“Thank you for the ride,” he repeated before turning to leave. “I really appreciate the gesture of goodwill. We’re square, Reagan. Really.”
I sat in the car and watched him walk away, then put it into gear. I started to inch it forward, but couldn’t do it. I couldn’t just drive away. So I pulled into a parking spot, got out, and stared at his building.
I stalked toward it. Then back to my car. Building again.
Shit.
There was nothing like standing in the pouring rain in front of a guy’s place. A guy your brain knew was wrong for you in every way even if, deep inside, he felt more right than anyone you’d ever met.
I wasn’t THAT girl. I didn’t do this. I never got attached, never stayed interested in someone. It was always just a drug-induced, mind-numbing tryst.
Except Dare didn’t numb my mind—he soothed it.
I stood there in the pouring rain on the sidewalk staring at his door.
Fuck. Why did he have to mess with my tried-and-true rules?
My blouse was soaked, my hair plastered to my face. I had to make a decision. Now. And preferably without thinking about it. I put my hand on the handle. The lock was broken.
Decision made.
3B. If I remembered correctly, he was in 3B.
I hardly breathed as I climbed the dingy stairs. In front of his door it took me a minute to work up the guts to press the buzzer. Just before my finger could connect with it, the door swung open, and Dare stood staring at me almost like he was relieved to see me.
“You might have a concussion,” I said. “I’m not leaving you alone tonight.”
He took in my drenched clothes and wet hair, reaching out to run his thumb over the moisture on my bottom lip.
I shivered at the contact. “Dare…”
“You’re shaking. Come in and dry off.” He slid his fingers between the buttons of my shirt and pulled me inside, crashing his mouth to mine, the kiss knocking the breath out of my lungs.
We made our way through the kitchen to the living room, our lips and tongues insatiable, the heat making me shiver with desire. What was it about this guy? How was it possible to want someone this much?
We came to a stop when we collided with the back of the couch. Dare was fisting my shirt, holding me tightly against his rock-hard body as his other hand pulled on my waist. He drew me even closer, intensifying the kiss until all I could feel was him. The pulsing, swirling licks of his tongue, the firmness of his muscles, the scent of fresh rain on his skin. I lost myself in him. Wanted to stay there forever. We needed each other.
He suddenly broke our kiss and pulled back. Entwining his fingers in my hair, he searched my face before saying, “My father is an asshole. He fucked up any chance my family had at normalcy.”
His beautiful face was twisted in so much pain it made my heart hurt. “You don’t have to say anything. You don’t have to explain.”
“No. You need to know what you’re getting into by being around me. My mother has been a junkie longer than she’s been clean, and my dad is a drug-dealing scumbag currently serving time at Rikers for manslaughter, though the bastard should have been charged with murder.”
“They’re not you,” I whispered. “Your parents are not you. You’re good.”
He shook his head. “But I wasn’t. For a long time, I was just as fucked up as my dad. I wasn’t good at all.”
“That was then. That’s not who you are now. I hardly know you and even I can see it.”
He laughed bitterly. “The jury is still out on that.”
“My father is an asshole, too,” I said. “He’s just rich and powerful enough to never have been convicted of any crime.” I paused, wondering if I should share the one thing that had been pressing on my mind all evening. Fuck it. “He’s killed before, too,” I whispered.
Four years ago he killed a piece of me.
“What about your mom?”
“She drinks. She takes all these pills.” She’d even started feeding them to me when I was fifteen because no one can tolerate hysterics, Reagan. “She’s also addicted to power. And money. And control.”
“So…” He kissed me. “We’re both…” He traced his lips over my throat. “Equally…” He grazed my collarbone with his teeth. “Screwed.”
I put both hands on his face and lifted, then kissed him on the lips. Hard.
“I doubt that,” I said. “I’m way more fucked up than you. Trust me.”
He ran his mouth down my jawbone to my pulse and sucked. First gently, then harder, forcing it to speed up as he tore open my shirt. Buttons clattered to the hardwood floor.
“That’s because you don’t know me,” he said as he yanked the silky material off and flung it to the floor.
“Nor you me.” My bra followed my shirt, freeing my breasts for his waiting hands. And mouth.
“Not true.” He squeezed, then took a nipple into his mouth. “I know you like when I do this.” Baring his teeth, he gave it a gentle bite.
Oh, god. The contact made me shiver and grind my hips into him.
“Yes.” I exhaled, digging my fingers into his bare back, forcing him closer. “I like that.” I was rewarded with another nip. Rougher and sharper this time. Instinctively, I raked my nails over his back.
Our breaths were coming in hard pants now. My blood heated and danced in my veins as a surge of liquid warmth rushed to the pulsing between my thighs.
“And you like when I do this, too.” His hand slipped down my bare back to palm my ass. He squeezed and the ache between my legs responded.
“Oh yes.”
“But I don’t know how you feel about this.” He buried his face between my breasts, then slowly got to his knees and licked his way down the middle of my body, over my stomach. “So?” he prompted as he hooked his fingers into the waistband of my skirt.
“Like.” Oh, god. “So much like.”
Placing both hands on my hips, he spun me around and tugged on the zipper at the back of my skirt. The thick material was so waterlogged it wouldn’t budge. Fuck.
“Rip it,” I said.
“It looks expensive.”
“So was my blouse. They’re not mine. Not me. Rip it off.”
He growled, stood back up, and with one hand on each side of the zipper, pulled my skirt down, tearing it in half. Then he slid his hands up my hips, grabbed my panties and ripped them off.
“Like,” I said as I stood there completely bare, my body throbbing in all the right places.
I leaned back into him, my ass rubbing against him. A husky, deep groan vibrated through his chest as I grazed the hard bulge in his jeans. He didn’t even wait for me to face him again before he bent me over the couch and slid his hand down my ass, cupping and squeezing my flesh until his fingers were hovering directly above my warm, wet entrance.
“If I remember correctly, you really like this,” he said, tracing his fingers along my folds, bringing them up to my clit, then slowly sliding them so deep into me the motion made me want to fall apart right then and there.
All I could do was moan.
He leaned over me and kissed my bare shoulder. “I’ll take that sweet little sound as a yes,” he said with a husky growl as I shuddered against him.
Fuck YES.
“Say my name.”
I shook my head, so overwhelmed with feeling I couldn’t speak. I didn’t do that. I didn’t ever say anyone’s name during sex.
He stopped moving and I whimpered.
“Say my name, Reagan. I want my name to be on your lips, on yo
ur mind, as you come.”
His fingers moved in a deliberately torturous pulsing motion, as his other arm gripped me tightly from behind. Ever so slowly, the palm of his unengaged hand slid up my stomach to cup my breast, his thumb and forefinger teasing my nipple to the rhythm of his strokes. My head spun. My body was on fire. I could feel him everywhere, the heat of his body keeping me warm as I stood bent over the couch, naked and dripping wet.
“Faster.” I crushed my hips into him, driving his fingers deeper. “More.”
“Say my name.”
He stilled again and I almost cried out. My body ached for him, was already singing his name in every cell. I needed the release only he could give me. It wasn’t going to hurt anything if I broke my own rule.
I nodded and pushed my hips into him again.
“Dare…” I said. “Please.”
He moved his hand again, increasing the tempo until I was gripping the back of the couch for support and seeing bright spots behind my eyes.
“Dare…” Suddenly it felt so right to be calling out his name.
“God, you’re so wet, Reagan.”
“It’s raining.” I turned my head to the side and wound my arms around the back of his neck, bringing his head down.
“It’s fucking storming,” he whispered in my ear right before colliding his mouth to mine.
His tongue and fingers took control of every inch of my body. He filled my mind, making his way through to my freaking soul. Moaning his name again, I bit down onto his bottom lip, sucking hard and fast as I let go completely. My heart hammered, my toes curled. I lost myself in the taste of him as I came undone, spilling my release all over him.
“Dare…oh, god, Dare!”
My legs buckled and my body folded as I collapsed against the back of the couch, lightheaded and filled with so much delight it was incomparable to even the hardest drug.
“Like,” I said, grinning.
“I know.” Ever so gently, Dare picked me up and swung me over the couch, lowering my still shaking body onto the cushions. Then he jumped over and lay down on top of me.
He completely enclosed my body, his knees on either side of my hips. I traced my hands over his pecs, raking my nails over the ridges of his abs. His skin was so smooth and tanned, glistening under the low light of a lone corner lamp.
Untamed (Untamed #1) Page 6