A Tempting Dare

by Cathryn Fox

  With her computer poised on her lap, she flicked on her television for background noise while she went over some work files. Thunder’s season opener was on at the Miami stadium. She flicked it off, not wanting anything more to do with football, or those associated with the team. She buried herself in her work, and when her doorbell rang, she nearly jumped out of her seat.

  She put her laptop on her coffee table and padded to her door. She wasn’t expecting company and was dressed in her sweats. She peaked through the hole, and when she saw Sebastian standing there, her heart went into her throat.

  “What do you want?” she asked.

  “We need to talk.”

  “I have nothing to say to you, Sebastian.”

  “Fine, I’ll do the talking.”

  “Tonight is the season opener. Aren’t you going to get fired for not being there?”

  “Probably, but what I have to say is more important.” She folded her arms and glared at the door. “Kat, open up. I’m not leaving until you hear what I have to say.”

  “Sebastian—”

  “I have a key. I don’t want to use it, but I will if I have to. I’ll also tie you to your bed if I have to, but I’m not leaving here until you hear me out.”

  “Fine.” She opened her door, and the second he entered her apartment, everything she felt for him washed over her in a flood. Her heart crashed against her chest, and her legs went weak. Her gaze settled on his face, and when she saw his bruised eye, she gasped. She reached out to touch it, but he captured her hand. “What happened?” she asked.

  Instead of answering, he said, “Do you have any idea why I slept around all these years?”

  She pulled her hand back. “Because you’re a jerk.”

  “Kat, Jesus. I’m crazy about you. I’ve been in love with you since your sweet sixteenth. I couldn’t do anything about it. Danny was my best friend, and you were…well, you were Kitty Kat. So I buried my feelings in other women, needing to get my mind off you.”

  “Oh,” she said for lack of anything else. “Just like you were burying your,” she stopped to do air quotes “‘feelings’—in Zoe last week.”

  “Fuck no. She showed up at my office. I was as surprised as you were. Nothing happened. Nothing could happen.”

  “Couldn’t get it up, huh?” she shot back.

  “Never even tried. Never wanted to. It couldn’t happen because the second I took you in my arms that night at the house, the second I tasted you, I lost my appetite for any other woman.”

  Her heart stopped beating. “Sebastian,” she breathed out, her legs a little unstable. God, was he saying what she thought he was saying?

  “I asked for two weeks thinking we could get this out of our system. But it wasn’t enough. It will never be enough. ”

  Hope flared inside her, but she was too afraid to give in to it. “What are you saying, Sebastian?”

  “I wanted to come to you right away after you saw me with Zoe. I knew you were hurt, and I hated leaving you like that, but when I saw the jealousy, the pain in your eyes, I knew then and there that you loved me as much as I loved you. Up until then, I wasn’t sure, and I didn’t want to overstep boundaries, didn’t want to ruin what we had or scare you off.” He stepped up to her and she didn’t retreat. He put his hands on her arms. “Once I knew for certain that you were in love with me, too, I needed to step up and be the man you needed me to be.”

  “I don’t understand. Why didn’t you come to me then? I was hurting, Sebastian.”

  “I know and I’m sorry, but I needed to talk to your brother first.”

  She looked over his black eye. “You…you risked everything to be with me?” she whispered.

  “Yes.”

  “And Danny…” She winced at the swelling. “He did this?”

  “Yeah.”

  She shook her head. “He shouldn’t have done that. I’m a grown up and can sleep with whoever I want.”

  “It’s okay. Danny is fully aware of my reputation, and he didn’t want me adding you to the list. He was just protecting you, Kat. You can’t fault him for that. But once I proved to him that I loved you, he forgave me, and we’re good now.”

  He loves me.

  She sucked in a quick breath, working to get oxygen back in her lungs. “How did you prove it?

  He leaned in, his breath warm on her face. “I showed him something.”

  “What?”

  He captured one of her hands. “Come with me.”

  She smoothed her other hand over her mess of hair. “Sebastian—”

  “Kat, you look beautiful, now come with me.”

  She followed him outside, and he opened his car door for her. She slid in, buckled up, and stared at him as he crossed the front.

  He slipped in beside her. “Good?”

  “Yeah.” He pulled into traffic. “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see when we get there.”

  A short while later, they pulled into the stadium. She shook her head. “Why are we here?”

  Instead of answering, he slipped out from the car, walked around to her side, and helped her out. Hand-in-hand, he led her to the field. He glanced at his watch. “Just in time.”

  She shook her head. What was going on? If he was going back to work, why did he drag her here? “Time for what?”

  They reached the field, just as half time was starting. “Sebastian, what’s going on? I thought you were going to show me what you showed Danny.”

  “I am.”

  She shook her head and glanced around. “You showed him the stadium?”

  “No Kat, I showed him this.” He pulled a box from his pocket and went down on one knee. Someone came running up to them with a camera. She glanced up and saw them on the jumbotron.

  “Ohmigod, is this happening?”

  “It’s happening,” he said. “And I want the whole world to know I’m in love with you.”

  He wanted the world to know. Her heart squeezed as cameras flashed like mad.

  He opened the box, and when she saw the ring, she started to cry.

  “I love you, Kat. I’ve loved you for ten long years, maybe longer.”

  “Same,” she managed to get out.

  “Say yes. Say yes, and make me the happiest man in the world.”

  “Yes,” she murmured.

  He scooped her up planted a warm, loving kiss on her mouth, and pointed to the camera. “Now wave to your Mom, Dad, Danny, and Emery. They’re all watching.”

  “You set this all up?”

  “Of course, and Emery has a message for you.”

  “She does?”

  “Yeah, she said, ‘See, fairy tales really do come true’.”

  She laughed and put her arms around his neck. “I can’t believe this.”

  “You’d better believe it, and get used to me spoiling you.” He gestured toward the football players who were cheering for him. “I have to be here for the second half, but then I’m taking you home so we can start practicing for our honeymoon.”

  Cheers erupted around them and she cringed. His face fell. “What, you don’t like that idea?”

  “Oh, I do. But my family is watching. The world is watching. They don’t have to know everything.”

  He laughed. “You’re right. They only need to know that I’m a committed man with eyes for one woman and one woman only.” He dropped a sweet, loving kiss onto her mouth. “I love you, Kitty Kat.”

  A sound rumbled in her throat, and she was pretty certain it resembled a purr. “I love you, too, Sebastian.”

  THANK YOU!

  Thank you so much for reading, A Tempting Dare, part of Carly Phillips Dare world. I hope you enjoyed Kat and Sebastian’s story as much as I loved writing it. If you’re interested in reading more of my work, check out some boxed sets I put together. Firefighter Heat, Stone Cliff Series, and YOURS: Billionaire CEO Romance! Be sure to read on for a sneak peak of Crashing Down from the Stone Cliff Series.

  Interested in leaving a revi
ew? Please do! Reviews help readers connect with books that work for them. I appreciate all reviews, whether positive or negative.

  Happy Reading,

  Cathryn

  About Cathryn:

  New York Times and USA today Bestselling author, Cathryn is a wife, mom, sister, daughter, and friend. She loves dogs, sunny weather, anything chocolate (she never says no to a brownie) pizza and red wine. She has two teenagers who keep her busy with their never ending activities, and a husband who is convinced he can turn her into a mixed martial arts fan. Cathryn can never find balance in her life, is always trying to find time to go to the gym, can never keep up with emails, Facebook or Twitter and tries to write page-turning books that her readers will love.

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  Crashing Down

  “You reek of sex.”

  Noah Ryan grinned at his buddy Jared, a guy he’d gotten to know over the last couple of years while living and working at Stone Cliff Resort in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Taking his friend’s ribbing in stride, Noah scrubbed his hands through his disheveled hair, and sank down onto the driftwood next to him, setting his motorcycle helmet at his feet. He let his glance surf over the crowd gathered around the nightly, beachside bonfire. He zeroed in on a cute blonde with big tits and gave Jared a wry smirk. “Not yet I don’t.”

  Jared reached into the cooler, pulled out a cold brew, and handed it to Noah. “Yeah, well that’s a matter of opinion.”

  “Fuck you.” Noah laughed and twisted off the cap, the taste of weed and smoke scratching his dry throat like coarse sandpaper. “How the hell can I reek of sex when I just crawled out of bed, alone?”

  Jared shrugged. “Well your bed smells like sex, then.”

  Okay, so that was probably true. His bed likely did smell like sex. Sometimes a hard, mindless fuck chased away the chills that had taken up residency inside him since the accident a little over three years ago. Then again, sometimes it didn’t. Sometimes the demons managed to tunnel their way past the wall he’d built despite a warm body lying next to him.

  Noah took a long pull from the bottle, and washed the grit from his throat. Too bad the alcohol did little to drown the pain that blackened his soul. Then again, did he really deserve for it to?

  He worked to push all dark thoughts aside, and tried to keep things light. He nudged his friend with his elbow. “Ah, come on, Jared. Don’t be jealous ’cause I’m getting all the play and you’re not.”

  Jared waved to Ryan and Bobbie, a couple of locals who had just rolled in, before he flicked his beer cap at Noah. “Yeah, well, fuck you. I get all the play I need, or I would be if you weren’t always hovering around.” Two well-built, dark-haired hotties moved in front of them, smiling flirtatiously at Noah. “Christ, Noah, what the hell is it about you?” He clucked his tongue and added, “You’re like nectar to the honey bee, my man.”

  Laughing, Noah took another swig from the bottle as the cute blonde he’d been eying glanced his way. He caught the mischief in her gaze and pegged her as a local, a rich townie who’d just returned home from university. He knew her type all too well. She’d spend her days lounging on the water with her friends and her nights here at the beach, otherwise known as the Cave, where many of the resort staff and locals alike gathered for a little action. Not that he was judging her. He wasn’t. After all, unlike him she was getting an education and going places.

  With exhaustion pulling at him, Noah stretched his arms over his head and stifled a yawn. He hadn’t planned on hanging out with Jared tonight, but since he couldn’t take staring at his ceiling for one more minute, he’d decided if he couldn’t sleep, he might as well get laid. The little townie gave him a look that said, come get some and his cock twitched, but before he made his move on the blonde, he shifted closer to his friend. He pulled an envelope from his back pocket and slipped it to him, wanting to do this exchange off resort and away from their manager, Donald Brake’s, watchful eye.

  “Noah...” Jared looked down at the envelope and shook his head. “Shit.” He stole a quick glance around before he shoved the bills into his pocket. “But you were saving...you can’t afford—”

  “And you can’t afford not to.” He looked pointedly at the swelling beneath Jared’s bruised eye. Even though he claimed the injury had happened when he fell off the raft during yesterday’s rough, white-water ride down Canyon Run, Noah knew better. Noah pitched his voice low, his words for Jared’s ears only. “You keep fucking with these guys and you’ll lose more than just your job. You know that, right?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know,” Jared said gravely, dark eyes cast downward in worry as he rubbed his temples with his thumbs. “Christ, I had a straight flush. I never thought I could lose.” He fisted his short-cropped hair and gave a tug. “I mean come on, what are the fucking odds that the other guy beat me with a royal flush?”

  “A trillion to one,” Noah said. He didn’t need to do the mental math that came so easily to him as he finished off his beer and reached for another, handing one to Jared as well. Even though Jared was as big a fuck up as he was, the guy was a damn hard worker, and in a few short years had climbed his way up from bellboy to concierge. That job was his life, and Noah wasn’t about to stand around and see it get taken from him.

  It was Jared’s job to get to know the guests and see that their needs were being met. What he wasn’t supposed to do was socialize with those guests, or get himself invited to the after-hours poker game that the resort’s management turned a blind eye to. The high-rolling businessmen, who came to town for the annual weeklong event, weren’t the kind of guys who took kindly to getting stiffed. You owed them money, you paid your debt. One way or another.

  Noah’s glance shot to the blonde. Then again, who was he too lecture about rules, considering he was about to break one himself? Even when off duty, the staff wasn’t supposed to do anything to bring negative attention to the resort, which meant that picking up a local for a quick fuck on the rocks was pretty much all kinds of wrong.

  “I’ll pay you back,” Jared said.

  The blonde gave Noah a once over and a satisfied grin. “You just keep yourself out of trouble.”

  Jared followed the direction of Noah’s gaze, and when he glimpsed the girl Noah had his sights set on, he shook his head. “You’re one to talk. That girl has trouble written all over her.”

  “Good,” Noah said, smirking.

  “She’s got a boyfriend, Noah,” Jared warned. “And he’s a big bastard.”

  “I think you’re mistaken.” Ignoring Jared’s warning, Noah stood and shoved one hand into his pocket, pulling his worn and faded jeans lower on his hips, a not so subtle invitation that brought the blonde’s attention right where he wanted it. “I think she’s looking for a little play.”

  Jared gave him a look that suggested he was either crazy, or had a death wish, or possibly both. Maybe he was right.

  “Yeah? What makes you say that?” Jared asked.

  “She wouldn’t be wearing a shirt that showed off her tits if she didn’t want me to look.”

  While Jared cursed under his breath, Noah moved through the throng of people. Seconds before he reached blondie, some douche bag stepped in front of him to block his path. Noah nudged him with his shoulder, shoving him out of the way. With single-minded determination he moved past him, but when the guy said, “Is there a problem here, pal?” it stopped Noah dead in his tracks.

  He turned and sized up the steroid-induced mouth breather and shrugged. “Listen dude,” Noah began. “As far as I can tell the only problem here is that you’re standing between me,” he paused to pok
e his finger in the direction of the girl watching him with big, curious eyes, “and her.”

  The guy grabbed Noah’s arm, his nostrils flaring as he yanked Noah closer. Even at six feet, Noah had to lift his chin to meet the guy’s eyes. The ogre gripped him tighter, his sausage fingers digging into Noah’s biceps.

  Like a wire stretched tight, Noah snapped. “Get the fuck off me.” His skin came alive as he jerked his arm free. Christ, he didn’t like to be touched. Touching made him feel...well, it made him feel.

  Old, blood-soaked memories clawed their way to the surface, and visions of his best friend clutching his arm like it was his lifeline swamped him. But Noah hadn’t been Jonny’s lifeline. Oh no, not at all. Noah was a fuck up, and the sole reason Jonny was dead.

  “...Noah.”

  He heard Jared saying something, pleading with him, but the words were lost in the foggy haze clouding his mind, riding circles around his brain on the pain that came with remembering.

  “Maybe you should listen to your boyfriend,” the ogre said.

  Noah laughed in his face. “Maybe you should suck my dick.”

  The mouth breather fisted his hands and drew his arm back. Heart racing, Noah stood there, his body braced as he prepared for the pain. Welcomed it.

  Deserved it.

  Like a hard fuck, sometimes a good punch in the face sent the demons scurrying. For a little while, anyway.

  The hit came sure and swift, and Noah’s teeth clashed as he flew backwards toward the water. The damp sandy shore padded his fall, but the cold waves crashing over his body snapped his groggy senses back to life faster than a broken condom. He jumped to his feet and spit a mouth full of blood onto the sand as the primate came at him again, his knuckles practically dragging on the ground.

  “Stop it, Alex,” a shrill voice cried out, and Noah’s heart sank as the girl he’d been stalking halted the fight. Jesus, he’d wanted that next blow. Craved it. Noah wiped his mouth with the back of his hand as blondie pounded her fists into Alex’s chest.