Noah Pearson.
Of all the people in all the world, how was it that Noah was Milly’s stepbrother? And how was it that he’d never once heard Noah’s name mentioned?
Oh, yeah. Because Dare had changed the subject every damn time.
Stupid.
“Stupid, stupid, stupid.”
“You okay?”
A firm hand landed on Dare’s back, causing him to bolt upright, turning to see Roan standing beside him.
“Never better, why?” Yep, he was fairly certain that was a squeak that had followed his response.
Roan smiled. “Yes, and you sound it, too.”
“Thanks.”
“Pre-wedding jitters?” Roan baited.
“Something like that.” More like he was tempted to jump off the side of the ship and take his chances in the water. Didn’t matter that the ship hadn’t left the port yet.
“Let me guess.” Roan leaned back against the rail and crossed his arms over his wide chest, giving Dare his full attention. “It has something to do with Milly’s stepbrother.”
Dare glanced over. “How’d you know?”
Roan smirked. “I didn’t. Not until now.”
Rolling his eyes, Dare couldn’t help but laugh. Leave it to Roan to turn the tables on him. It really was good to see his friend back to his normal self. For the longest time, Dare had thought they’d lost Roan’s sense of humor completely.
Didn’t look to be the case. Though it could use a little work.
“Spill.” Roan nodded, crossing one ankle over the other as though he was settling in for a long story. “How do you know him?”
“What makes you think I do?”
Roan cast him a sideways glance. “I’ve known you a long damn time, and never once have I seen you quite so shaken by a man.”
Yeah, well. Noah wasn’t just any man. He was only the man Dare had thought he would spend the rest of his life with.
Oh, how he’d been so wrong.
“Just a guy I dated.” Dare tried to sound nonchalant. At least he didn’t squeak.
Roan laughed again, and once more, Dare weighed the dangers of launching himself off the side of the ship. Since he doubted he would survive without breaking a few bones—or even his neck—he decided he had no choice but to suck it up.
Especially when the horn sounded, announcing their departure for sea.
Great.
Just. Great.
“I think I’m gonna go get unpacked,” Dare told Roan. “I’ll see you at dinner.”
Roan nodded. “If you need to talk…”
“I know.” Dare appreciated that his friend offered, but he wasn’t planning to do anything of the sort.
He was here to have fun.
That—along with pretending Noah didn’t exist—was the only thing he planned to do.
After watching Dare disappear, Noah had been tempted to follow him, though his common sense told him that wasn’t a wise idea. So, rather than make a fool of himself, he had remained right where he was.
At the bar.
With a drink.
Now he was on his second.
While he’d attempted to drink away the last half hour, he’d kept an eye on the people in the room, listened to them talk amongst themselves, everyone seemingly ecstatic about the upcoming wedding, but more so about the fact that Cam and Gannon had insisted on taking a cruise.
Yep, eight wonderful days on the open water, forced to be with the same people, unable to get away…
Suck it up, Pearson.
While everyone else was having a good time, the only thing Noah wanted to do was find Dare and confront him. About what, he didn’t know yet, but he was almost certain that by his third or fourth drink he would have a good idea.
So yes, two drinks in and he was feeling a little looser than before. His mind wandering to things better left alone. For example, the day—or rather, night—Dare had disappeared from his life without so much as a note. And okay, maybe Noah hadn’t been completely caught off guard because of the falling-out they’d had when Dare had suggested they take their relationship to the next level. But surely he had deserved some warning.
A good-bye would’ve been nice, too.
Seemed Noah had come full circle, right back in the presence of the man who had flipped his world on its axis, making him fear his future. Which was ironic in itself. At the time, Noah had been twenty-three and fearless, ready to conquer the world. Only, one man had proven him wrong.
His fear of a future with Dare hadn’t been because of any problems they’d been having. And not because he hadn’t thought that he and Dare would’ve had a good life, either. There had been a possibility. Their relationship had been solid, or so Noah had thought. But at the time, Dare had been nineteen. In Noah’s mind, that was far too young to be settling down.
Never had it occurred to him how serious Dare was at the time. The guy hadn’t exactly been known for his maturity. The Dare he knew wasn’t the responsible one, he was the jokester, the life of the party, the guy who was always pulling one prank after another. It’d been charming, but not something that had Noah thinking long-term thoughts.
And still, he’d thought about Dare frequently over the years, wondering what he was doing, where he’d gone. But not once had he set out to find him. After the initial anger had worn off and he’d stopped hating Dare for leaving him and for the subsequent events that had followed, Noah had hoped that Dare had done something with himself, found someone to settle down with, fall in love with…
Who said he hadn’t?
Okay, so that thought took Noah by surprise. Just because Dare had been shocked to see him certainly didn’t mean he was single and ripe for the picking.
The mere notion of Dare belonging to someone else did not sit well with Noah.
Great. Now it seemed the sea air was making him crazy.
He glared down at the empty glass in front of him. Yes, he would blame it on the drinks.
“So, Milly tells me you’re a firefighter.”
Noah turned to see Cam Strickland, the man he recognized from the wedding invitation picture as Gannon’s muscular, tattooed other half.
Smiling, he held out his hand to Cam. “Nice to officially meet you.”
“Same goes.” Cam shook Noah’s hand and grinned. “Can’t tell you how happy I was to hear Milly would have a chaperone on this trip.”
Noah chuckled. He could only imagine. “And yes, Austin Fire Department,” Noah explained.
Cam nodded. “Rumor has it you know Dare.”
“Rumor has it?” Noah chuckled. “Or Milly said?”
“Is there a difference?”
Cam had a point. “No, I guess there’s not.”
“Well, I’m glad you could make it, regardless.”
“You might be the only one.” Noah thought about his interaction with Dare.
“Who? Dare?” The lack of concern in Cam’s tone made Noah feel marginally better.
Cam leaned against the bar, his elbows on the scarred wood as he faced the room.
Noah turned to see what Cam was looking at. “If I had to guess, Dare’s currently plotting a way to shove me overboard. And make it look like an accident.”
“I wouldn’t doubt that.” Cam laughed. At least someone could. “But he’ll get over it. He doesn’t hold a grudge for long.”
Fifteen years is a long damn time. And clearly Dare was still holding one, or so it seemed.
The subtle shift beneath his feet told Noah that the boat was moving, which meant there was no turning back now. Unless he was planning to take a long swim or hijack a life raft, he was in it for the long haul.
“Shit,” Cam rumbled, standing up straight. “I better go find Gannon before he disappears. See you at dinner?”
“Definitely.” If he wasn’t passed out by then.
When Cam left him and the bartender asked if he needed another drink, Noah waved him off. The thought of getting shit-faced was appealing, but the last thin
g he needed to do was get drunk tonight. That wouldn’t go over well with anyone. And since he was still contemplating finding Dare and seeking some of the closure he’d been wanting for the past decade and a half, it was the safest thing to do.
Not that anything about this trip was safe.
Especially not with Dare Davis on board.
Rather than give in to the temptation, Noah pushed away from the bar and went in search of Milly. She’d met him on the ship when he’d arrived, and they’d stashed his suitcase in her cabin so she could introduce him to a few people. Now, he wanted a few minutes to get settled before dinner.
“Hey,” Milly greeted, turning away from a group of people when he approached. “Where’s Dare?”
Noah shrugged. “I need to get my suitcase out of your cabin so I can find mine and get unpacked.”
Milly nodded, then grabbed a key card out of the little clutch purse in her hand. Two key cards. “Here’s mine and here’s yours. You’re in 21218. Same floor as me.”
Noah took both key cards from her and repeated the number in his head. “Thanks.”
“Don’t be late for dinner,” he heard her call out as he sauntered off.
Was it him or was there a hint of mischief in her tone?
Fifteen minutes later, Noah had retrieved his suitcase from Milly’s cabin and was headed down the narrow corridor to his own. He counted down the numbers until he found 21218, as Milly had said.
He swiped the card and pushed open the door, only to come to a jarring halt when he saw…
“What the fuck?” a deep voice bellowed from inside the cabin.
Yeah, his thoughts exactly.
With the door open, Noah peered back at the number once more, just to make sure, although he already knew he was in the correct cabin because the key card had unlocked it.
“You have got to be kidding,” he muttered to himself, watching as Dare planted both fists on his hips and squared off with him from across the room, which was only a few feet away.
“No. No way,” Dare snapped. “One of us is in the wrong cabin.”
Noah smiled, unable to help himself. Rather than stand in the hall and argue with Dare, he stepped into the small cabin and allowed the door to close behind him.
When Dare grabbed his cell phone from the vanity counter, Noah knew he had to say something.
“What are you doing?” He moved farther into the room and parked his suitcase against one wall while he cast a cautious glance at Dare.
The space wasn’t very big, roughly one hundred and twenty square feet, which, for two people, felt like a shoe box. Especially when it was obvious that one of those two people was hostile.
“Calling Milly. She’s gonna have to get me another cabin.”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Noah crossed his arms over his chest and faced Dare. “What? You want to piss her off right before the wedding?”
Dare’s hazel gaze lifted to meet his. “And you’re okay with this?”
Noah glanced around. There were two twin beds, a narrow couch, what someone considered a desk, as well as a small bathroom and what he assumed was a closet. Yeah, it would be very close quarters for seven nights, but it was doable. Not like they had to sleep together or anything.
Heat curled low in his gut and his dick twitched.
They would not be sleeping together.
Noah cleared his throat, dropped his arms. “It’ll be fine.”
Dare shook his head. “I’ll bunk with Roan.”
“Suit yourself. You can be the one who makes a scene, not me.”
Dare dropped his phone on the counter with a loud clatter. “Fine,” he huffed. “If you’re good with it, I’m good with it.”
Yeah, he sounded like he was good with it.
Noah glanced up at the small window above the bed. They had a nice, albeit limited, view of the ocean, but it wasn’t the view he was looking at. He was trying to determine if Dare would be capable of shoving him out of that little round hole.
Not likely.
Noah sighed, then crossed his arms over his chest again. “Look—”
“Nope. No lectures. No way.”
Yep, hostile. Just like Noah had thought.
Another grin found its way on Noah’s face, but from the looks of it, that pissed Dare off. “Think of it this way”—Noah kept his eyes on Dare’s face—“it’s not like we’ll be in this room much.”
Only to sleep.
Together.
Shit.
This was not at all how he had envisioned this trip going.
Five
Dare saw this playing out one of two ways.
One, he called Milly up and told her to find him another cabin or put him in with Roan so that he wouldn’t have to endure spending even one extra minute alone with Noah. Or two, he sucked it up and pretended that Noah’s presence didn’t affect him.
The first way would make him look like a little bitch. The second … well, he feared that the second would definitely be the harder of the two. That was taking into account how upset Milly would be if he raised a stink about his accommodations, even though he was pretty damn sure she’d played a big part in this clusterfuck.
Shit.
He was so screwed.
But if Noah could do this, then so could he. Hell, he could do it better.
“Fine.” Dare glared at Noah, trying to sound unaffected by their sleeping arrangements. “Which bed do you want?”
“You were here first,” Noah responded immediately. “You pick.”
“Fine.” The single word popped out again, and Dare realized that was one word he needed to drop from his vocabulary. “The left.”
Noah nodded and moved to the twin bed on the right. Not that it really mattered which bed he chose. They would still be close enough to touch.
The thought sent a frisson of awareness coursing through him.
No. Not awareness. Dread. That was definitely dread.
Or not.
Dread didn’t usually make his dick hard.
Damn it.
Unable to look away, Dare watched as Noah easily lifted his suitcase and set it on the bed, unzipping it and then unpacking it with care, sliding his clothes into one of the drawers beneath the vanity, moving to the bathroom and stowing stuff in there, then returning to zip up the suitcase and put it away.
Before Dare knew what was happening, Noah was pulling off his shirt.
“Shit. What the hell are you doing?” Dare blurted, eyes locked on the hard muscles of Noah’s well-defined back.
Noah cast him a glance over his shoulder. “Changing. What does it look like I’m doing?”
Dare noticed the smirk.
Asshole.
Fine. Two could play that game. They hadn’t nicknamed him Double Dare for nothing.
Dare immediately pulled off his own shirt, dropped it on the floor.
Noah chuckled as he turned around.
And there they stood, both of them shirtless.
The first thing Dare noticed was that the man a few feet away from him did not look anything like the guy he’d once been in love with. This version of Noah was fucking ripped.
“Nipples pierced, huh?” Noah said, his dark eyes dropping to Dare’s chest.
Dare peered down at the silver rings piercing his nipples—his hard nipples. It was the metal that did that. Really.
He ignored his traitorous nipples and looked up at Noah again.
“Tattoo, huh?” Dare countered, admiring the fire department symbol that was tattooed on Noah’s left pec.
Noah glanced down, then back up to meet Dare’s eyes as his hands slid to the button on his jeans, beneath the dark trail of hair that led down, down, down.
Damn it.
Holding his breath, Dare prayed his face didn’t reflect the anticipation currently bottled up inside him. He noticed the minor twitch of Noah’s fingers as he flipped the button on his jeans loose. Dare matched his movement, unbuttoning his own jeans.
Noah pull
ed his zipper down; Dare did the same.
When Noah pushed his jeans down his hips a little bit, revealing navy blue boxers, Dare…
Stopped.
Shit. He’d gone commando today because he’d been in such a rush, grabbing underwear hadn’t been high on his priority list.
Suddenly this wasn’t a fair fight.
“Problem?” Noah goaded.
Dare narrowed his eyes, then pushed his jeans down slightly. “Not at all.”
His breath lodged in his throat when Noah’s eyes darted down to Dare’s waist, heat infusing the chocolate depths. When Noah’s eyes widened, Dare paused.
This wasn’t a game he was going to win, no matter how much he wanted to, so he decided to save face.
For both of them.
“Wouldn’t want to tempt you with something you can’t have,” Dare grumbled, preparing to pull up his zipper.
Noah didn’t flinch. “Not like I haven’t seen it before.”
Dare cocked his head to the side. “And I’m sure it took you a long damn time to forget about it, too.”
“Not that long,” Noah returned, but Dare suspected that was a lie.
Or maybe that was just wishful fucking thinking.
“Oh, it’s still long,” Dare countered. “And thick. Very, very thick.”
Noah rolled his eyes.
Dare smirked. “Fine. You think you can handle it?”
Noah’s Adam’s apple bobbed slowly, his eyes once more sliding down Dare’s chest, and he felt the heat like a physical caress.
Figuring what the hell, Dare shoved his jeans down his legs, letting them pool at his ankles. And there he stood, stark naked, except for the denim now trapping his feet and the damn shoes he’d forgotten to take off.
But instead of shoving his own jeans down, Noah grabbed his clothes from the bed and then spun around and went right for the bathroom, sliding the door closed behind him.
And somehow, Dare managed to breathe.
Right before he stumbled and fell flat on his naked ass.
Mother of all things holy. What the fuck had made him do that?
Taunting Dare?
Stupidest thing ever.
Unfortunately, Noah hadn’t had enough to drink to blame it on the alcohol.
Fearless (Pier 70 Book 2) Page 5