The Dare Collection April 2020

‘W-What question?’ I asked, stammering for no good reason other than the heat of his fingertips on my skin was making every thought in my head fray and shred like wet paper.

‘Do I make you nervous?’

‘No, of course not.’ My response was automatic and also a complete lie, because yes, he was making me nervous. He was making me very nervous indeed. ‘I mean, come on, E. You’re you. I’ve known you since you were ten years old and you’d cry when you missed a hoop—’

Unexpectedly, his thumb pressed down over my mouth, shutting me up.

I blinked, momentarily stunned silent.

‘You talk a lot when you’re nervous,’ he said. ‘You turn everything into a big joke, because that’s easier than being afraid, right? So what are you afraid of, Little? Tell me.’

Afraid? Ha! As if. At least not of him. But I didn’t want to tell him all about the stuff I was afraid of. Such as how I was worried that there was truly something wrong with me. That the reason I couldn’t come had something to do with a defect in me. Because I was supposed to be fine with myself the way I was. I was supposed not to care.

So, in lieu of answering, I opened my mouth and bit his thumb instead.

At least, I tried to. Because the second I was about to bite down, he murmured, ‘Uh-uh. Little girls who bite don’t get what they want.’

It was honestly so stupid that I should have laughed. Little girls who bite? Come on. Yet I’d never felt less like laughing in my entire life.

I was very conscious that the tip of his thumb was in my mouth and that he tasted salty, the flavour of his skin on my tongue making me both hungry and thirsty for something I didn’t know how to ask for.

‘Good girl,’ he said, when it became obvious to both him and me that I wasn’t going to bite down. He removed his thumb. ‘Now, answer the question. What are you nervous about?’ There was no doubt he expected to be obeyed. No doubt at all.

And instead of laughing, of telling him what a dick he was being, I heard myself say, ‘That I can’t do this.’

He didn’t laugh. He didn’t even smile. He only frowned slightly. ‘Why would you think that?’

I didn’t want to go any deeper into all the insecurities I’d thought I’d shrugged off over the years, that were all apparently still there, so all I said was, ‘We’re in a hallway and there are people around. And it’s not even like I can get naked or anything.’ I let out a breath, suddenly miserable. ‘It’s not going to work.’

Everett arched one blond brow, as if he’d never heard anything so stupid in all his life. ‘First, you’re assuming you have to get naked to come. And second, you’re assuming that I don’t know what I’m doing. And I do.’

Man, he could be arrogant sometimes.

‘Oh, yeah?’ I didn’t hide my scepticism, because this was all starting to feel a little ridiculous. ‘How?’

He tapped me lightly on the forehead. ‘You use this.’

I scowled. ‘Hate to break it to you, E, but my clit is not in my forehead.’

Ignoring my joke, he only gave me the most intense, stern look, that made me want to squirm. Then, very lightly, he trailed his finger from my forehead down the centre of my nose to the tip, and then further down, pressing gently in the dip at the top of my lip, before brushing over the curve of my bottom lip, a brief touch on my chin, and then away.

I froze, my heartbeat roaring in my ears like it did after a particularly hard workout at the gym.

It felt like he’d drawn a stripe of fire right down the centre of my face. Like he’d picked up one of the arc welders I had in my garage and turned it on my skin, searing me. My skin burned, my mouth incredibly sensitive.

What the hell had he done? With a single touch. Other guys had touched me before, but it had never felt like that. As if I’d been burned. It was almost too much, too intense. Like if he kept going, kept touching me, I’d break apart or collapse in a puddle of liquid metal at his feet.

‘Oh, yeah,’ he said, nothing but utter certainty in his eyes. ‘This is going to work.’

I swallowed, weirdly unable to look at him. Sure, I’d always had the hots for Everett Calhoun, but I hadn’t expected to respond this strongly to him and I didn’t understand it.

It made me want to shove him away and go back to the hotel, and then maybe get the next plane out. Run straight back to Texas and retreat into my garage, hide under the Maserati someone had brought in last week, lose myself in fiddling with engines. They, at least, were simple.

I couldn’t do that, though. I might have opened a can of worms with this dumb orgasm idea, but closing it now was pointless. Especially since all the worms had escaped.

‘What was that for?’ My voice had gone oddly husky.

Fascinating sparks of green glittered in his blue eyes. ‘Reconnaissance.’

I reached for another joke, trying to put some distance between me and my weird reactions. ‘Well, you know, I’ve been calling this Operation Orgasm in my head so I guess reconnaissance works. I’m kind of on a mission, right?’ I tried to grin. ‘You gotta plan strategy and tactics, that kind of stuff.’

‘Uh-huh,’ Everett said.

A silence fell, yet all I could hear was my voice echoing around the hallway, saying stupid things and trying to be funny. Trying to cover the fact that I was deeply unsure, and failing. And Everett only stood there, an implacable wall in front of me, staring at me, the tension around us getting more intense and electric.

I flushed and tried not to squirm under the pressure of that stare, my head filling up with all kinds of stuff I should say to make the moment less intense. To make myself feel less embarrassed and exposed. To make myself feel less vulnerable. Which was odd when I’d never felt this way around him before.

But my mouth wouldn’t work. He was so…big. His hands had come to rest on my hips again, and they were so hot. And I could smell the familiar scent of his aftershave, fresh and outdoorsy, like a forest on the edge of the sea. I’d always liked the way he smelled. It was sexy and familiar, and it made me feel good.

Except, the kind of good it was making me feel now was almost overwhelming. My heart was beating even faster, a heavy feeling between my thighs.

You’re getting hot for him. Way too hot.

Yeah and getting way too hot for him had never been part of the plan.

‘Dude, looking at me isn’t going to get this orgasm show on the road.’ I tried to sound casual and not at all like I was on the verge of a panic attack. ‘You have to actually do something.’

His stern gaze didn’t even flicker. ‘You’re talking too much again. Which is a good sign. Because if you weren’t nervous, I’d be worried.’

‘Yeah, I don’t think nervousness is a good thing when it comes to coming, if you know what I mean.’ I pushed playfully at his chest. ‘Come on, you’re crowding me here.’

He didn’t move.

‘E.’ I pushed at him again, but it was like trying to move a mountain. A huge, hot mountain. ‘Dude, seriously. I need some air.’

Again, he didn’t move, that intense stare burning right through me. ‘No, you don’t.’

‘Yes, I do. There’s—’

‘Plenty of air. You only feel like there isn’t because you’re breathing very fast.’

‘Yeah, because you’re standing right there and I don’t like—’

‘You do like it.’ He cut me off, his gaze on mine like a searchlight, shining into all the dark corners of my mind that I never went to. ‘You’re turned on by it. And you don’t want to be turned on, do you?’

‘Wow, who knew there’d be this much talking?’ I tried for yet another joke, desperately uncomfortable with the turn of the conversation. ‘Geez, E. Can’t you just go for my clit like a normal man?’

He completely ignored me. ‘You’re fighting it. Why?’

‘I’m not.’

‘You are.’ He shifted and my entire attention was caught by the way his big body moved, the pull of his tux across his shoulders, the stretch of the cotton over his muscular chest. ‘Why don’t you want to be turned on, Little? Is it me? Is it the situation? What?’

I glanced away. The intensity of his gaze was too much, so I tried concentrating on a spot just over one of his powerful shoulders. ‘I told you, I’m a challenge.’

He shifted again and then one of those big, hot hands slid down between my thighs, coming to rest directly over my pussy through my dress.

I went utterly still, shocked. Not so much at how he was touching me, but at my own intense reaction. I stared at him, trembling. Hard.

His thumb moved, exerting a slight pressure on my clit.

‘Holy shit,’ I choked out, the words coming out of me before I could stop them. Because I had no idea what the hell was happening. I was hot, burning up, all the heat concentrated where his hand was, where his thumb was, and on the pressure that was way too much and yet not enough.

‘A challenge?’ Everett murmured, his blue gaze gone turquoise as it searched my face. ‘No, Little. Far from it. You’re seconds from coming already.’

‘I’m not.’ The denial was automatic, because it couldn’t be true. It normally took ages for me to feel good with a guy and I’d usually turn my attentions on him, since that was easier. Sometimes, I could get myself to at least enjoying the proceedings, but I’d never, never got to trembling point at one touch, not like this.

‘Yeah, you are.’ Everett’s gaze was like a laser and I knew he could see my shock, my disbelief. ‘And you thought you were a tough nut to crack, hmm? Too easy, Little. Too easy. So, I’m going to make it harder.’ His focus intensified, making it harder to breathe, my pulse getting faster and faster. ‘You’re not allowed to come, okay?’

I couldn’t move and I couldn’t look away. It was like his stare was a tractor beam, holding me completely immobile. ‘B-But,’ I stuttered, my voice thick and hoarse. ‘Isn’t that the whole point?’

‘Don’t argue. Just do as you’re told.’

‘E—’ I broke off, gasping as his thumb shifted minutely between my thighs, the slight pressure on my clit sending the purest, most exquisite bolt of pleasure radiating through my entire body.

‘Don’t come.’ He virtually growled the order out, shifting again, moving closer so he was almost pressing against me, surrounding me with his heat. ‘If you do, I’ll be very disappointed.’

I barely heard him, too shocked at how my body was reacting and so turned on I could hardly speak. Because he was right. I was seconds away from coming right here in the hallway. All he’d have to do was move his thumb again, and that would be it. I’d be gone.

How was this happening? What was it that was making me feel this way?

Not what. Who.

I stared up at him, unable to do anything else, looking into his fierce blue-green eyes. It was him, wasn’t it? It was him, Everett, making me feel this way. With his height and his power. With that stern Viking stare. With the weird electricity that was crackling between us.

I’d always known I was attracted to him. I’d just never guessed that he would have this effect on me. And if I had…

You would never have come to him for help.

The thought arrowed through me at the same time as voices echoed down the hallway as a group of people came out of the gallery.

I tensed, but Everett didn’t move and neither did that maddening hand between my thighs. ‘E…’ I said shakily. ‘There are people coming.’

‘So?’

‘But I—’

‘Eyes on me, Little.’ He moved even closer as the voices got nearer, not looking away from me, shielding me with his body. And then his thumb moved again, a light touch, sending another bolt of pleasure pulsing along every nerve ending I had.

I bit down on the desperate sound that threatened to break free, trembling harder, going hot, then cold, then breaking out into a sweat. There was a thudding ache between my thighs and a tension coiling right down low inside me.

The group of people was moving past us, but I barely paid attention. The entire world was made up of Everett’s blue eyes looking down into mine, the heat of his body radiating into me, and his hand pressing lightly between my thighs, driving me half out of my mind by doing nothing more than just resting there.

‘E…’ I whispered, not even sure what I was asking for. ‘E, please.’

‘What do you want?’ His thumb moved again, and I shuddered helplessly against the wall. ‘Because if it’s to come, then I’m sorry but the answer is no.’

‘But I…’ I was panting and I must have lifted my hands to his chest at some point because my fingers had curled into the white cotton of his shirt, holding on as if I was about to fall down.

‘No,’ he repeated, iron in his deep voice, a hard glint in his eyes. ‘Don’t you dare make this easy for me.’ And then the bastard moved his thumb once more.

I shuddered, white-hot pleasure almost blinding me. This was insane. I’d spent years trying to get off with guys and now, here I was, in a hallway with my best friend’s hand between my thighs and all I could think about was not coming. Because I wanted to do what he said. I wanted to please him.

‘S-Stop touching me then,’ I stammered.

The green in his eyes glittered like sparks of emerald in a churning blue sea. ‘Try harder.’

But his thumb was pressing down and the pleasure was building, and it becoming impossible to resist. Telling me not to come was like telling a starving woman not to fall face first into a chocolate cake.

I couldn’t drag my gaze away from his, couldn’t stop myself from moving restlessly against the wall, every part of me wanting to press against him, relieve the relentless ache that was building higher and higher. ‘I… I…’ I began.

Everett leaned in, his mouth near my ear, his breath warm on my sensitive skin. ‘Naughty, Little. You can’t stop yourself, can you?’ Then he pressed his thumb down firmly on my clit.

A lightning bolt of pure sensation hit me, sizzling down through my head, along my spine and out through my feet, and my mouth opened, a scream of raw ecstasy trying to escape as the climax hit me, ripping me apart.

But Everett turned and put his lips on mine, capturing my scream, silencing it. And his arms came around me, holding me as I burned to the ground where I stood.

CHAPTER FOUR

Everett

I HAD FREYA pressed up against the wall, her entire body shaking, her scream vibrating against my mouth. Dimly, I could hear the people who’d passed us still talking as they made their way down the other end of the corridor—they hadn’t heard a thing. Not that they were important right now.

What was important right now was that I didn’t flip up Freya’s pretty green dress, rip her panties off and sink my cock inside her. Or, alternatively, force her to her knees and order her to suck me off.

I was hard. Seriously fucking hard. And on edge in a way I hadn’t been in years. And I didn’t know what the hell was wrong with me.

Getting Freya off should have been simple, and in the end it had been. She was the most responsive woman I’d ever touched so whatever guys she’d been sleeping with, they must have been the stupidest assholes ever to walk the earth. A few easy questions would have been enough to figure out that she had major performance issues, and those could have been solved easily enough.

Hell, I’d solved them within a couple of minutes. And after that…

My groin ached and the heat of her mouth was insanely distracting. She tasted of the margarita she’d had earlier, sweet, with a bite to it, and something else, something delicious that I wanted more of. The scent of Freya and aroused woman was heady in the air around me, and it was a major turn-on. In fact, everything about this was a major turn-on and it shouldn’t have been.

Giving an orgasm was no problem. But getting hard myself? Almost getting lost in the way her eyes widened and darkened when I told her what to do? When I saw how nervous she was with me? And how turned on I’d made her?

No, I hadn’t expected that. At all. Not a problem in the normal run of things, but this was not the normal run of things. This was Freya, one of my closest friends. The person who knew me best, better even than Ulysses and Damian. And I couldn’t afford to get myself on edge around her.

No, so you’d better take a fucking step back, hadn’t you?

Yeah, that was an issue. She was still trembling and I still had my hand on her pussy, my thumb on her clit. The silky fabric of her dress was thin, and I could feel her heat against my palm. I wanted to keep it there, play with her more, see how far I could push her. Maybe give her another orgasm right here and now. She was so responsive, it wouldn’t be difficult.

Yeah, and what would she think about all the orders you’ve been giving her? What would she think if you told her to suck you off?

A cold feeling trickled like ice water down my back. Dominance games were all well and good in the club. But I didn’t play them outside it. And I definitely wasn’t going to play them with her.

I had some of my dad’s darkness in me, some of his potential for violence, and when I got on edge it showed. Easier to deal with that edge in a club, with a stranger. With someone I wasn’t connected to on the same level as I was connected to Freya. Someone who didn’t matter as much to me.

So. Get. The. Fuck. Away.

It took far more willpower than it should have to lift my head and shove myself back from her. She stood pressed to the wall, her jade-green eyes almost black, her cheeks deeply flushed. Her mouth was all full and red, and I could taste her… Fuck, she was delicious. But this whole thing had been nothing but a mistake.

I expected her to say something light and funny the way she normally did, to normalise everything, but she didn’t. In fact, for the first time in the history of our friendship, she only looked at me and said nothing at all.

You’ve fucked up, friend.

My chest tightened. ‘Are you okay?’ I asked, the words coming out harsher than I wanted them to.

She nodded, but again didn’t say a word.

The silence thickened around us, full of a tension that had never been there before.

Christ, I needed to get out of her vicinity. And fast.

‘The auction is in ten,’ I said shortly. ‘Meet me at the entrance to the museum after.’

I didn’t wait for her to respond. I simply turned and strode back out into the gallery.

It seemed as if a decade had passed out there in the hallway, while back in here everything was the same. The crowds were doing what they’d been doing before I’d pulled Freya outside, and I swear the music—some classical shit—was exactly the same piece that had been playing before.

I couldn’t get my head around how everything here was going on as normal, and yet my entire personal universe felt like it had tilted on its axis.

So you got hard for your friend? Big fucking deal. Handle it.

Yeah, shit, I was turning this into something it shouldn’t be. Making a rookie error in thinking that a simple fucking orgasm would change things.

So, I’d made Freya come and it had been pretty good for her. And I’d gotten hard in the process. So what? Where was the issue? Well, there wasn’t one, not if I didn’t want there to be, and I didn’t want there to be.

I would treat it like I treated sex in general, which was as a release valve that helped me get on with the important shit in my life.

Such as managing this auction.

Shoving away the inappropriate sexual thoughts that were lingering in my head, I made a point of checking on my staff, dotted here and there amongst the knots of people. Then I went over the security plan in my head yet again, concentrating on the details to keep from thinking about how much Freya had liked me standing over her and holding her chin. How nervous she’d been of me, and how that had turned her on, because, oh, yes, it had. And how, in the end, she’d tried to hold off that orgasm just because I’d told her to—

‘Everything in place for the auction?’ Ulysses’ cold voice came from behind me, mercifully derailing my thoughts.

I didn’t look around. Instead, I shoved my hands in my pockets and stared grimly out at the crowd, trying to get my dick under control. ‘Yeah, should be.’

‘Damian’s wondering if the security team is in place.’

I glanced down at my watch to check the time. Right on target. ‘Any minute…now.’

As soon as I said it, the members of my security team in the crowd began to move, gathering people to urge them down to where a podium had been set up for the auction. The secure van containing the jewels from Damian’s collection that were to be auctioned off tonight would be pulling up now too, with more security to keep the jewels safe as they were taken into the museum.

Which reminded me…

I scanned the crowds, checking out where Damian’s date—the sneaky little thief who’d managed to breach my security in Hong Kong—was. But I couldn’t see her.

‘Looking for Morgan?’ Ulysses asked, obviously thinking of other things. ‘She’s dealing with—’

‘No,’ I said curtly, conscious that my temper was showing. ‘I’m looking for Damian’s date.’

Ulysses shrugged, noticing neither my tone nor, apparently, caring very much about Damian’s date. But that was Ulysses all up. He didn’t do people. Patterns and tech and money were his thing, which made it kind of incredible that he’d managed to befriend Damian and me. We’d met online as teenagers, connecting with each other over shitty childhood experiences.

Then Ulysses, one of the most driven men I’d ever met, had had some cryptocurrency success, and he’d roped Damian and me into it, and before we knew it we were the proud owners of a multi-billion-dollar company.

Give or take ten years of hard fucking work, of course, since making money required drive, determination and a certain amount of arrogance. Which we all had. In spades.

I glanced at Ulysses, but he wasn’t looking at me. His gaze was firmly pinned on the pretty little woman with long black hair who was down near the podium, holding a tablet in her hands and directing people. Morgan, Damian’s little sister and Ulysses’ PA.

Interesting. Did Damian know his friend was watching his sister like that? Since Ulysses obviously still had his head attached to his body, I was thinking that probably Damian didn’t.

‘Five minutes,’ Ulysses said, then abruptly strode off in the direction of the podium, the crowds parting around him like the Red Sea before Moses.

‘So,’ another, more feminine voice said hesitantly from behind me. ‘Are you going to tell me what that was all about or am I going to have to guess?’

A heat I definitely didn’t need or want shot through me as I caught a hint of her scent, sweet and feminine and musky.

Freya.

Fuck. I didn’t want to talk to her right now, not when I had to be on deck with this goddamn launch. And definitely not when I was still as hard as a teenage boy looking at Playboy for the first time.

‘The auction is starting.’ I tried to be less curt with her than I had been with Ulysses and failed. ‘We’ll have to continue that later.’

There was a small silence, then she said, ‘Um…was it me? Did I freak you out?’

Something tight shifted in my chest—the memory of her voice, all small and uncertain, telling me that she was nervous because she thought she couldn’t do it. As if not being able to come was somehow her fault and not the clearly fucking awful men she’d been sleeping with.

I might be an asshole, but I didn’t want to be one of those men. I didn’t want to be an asshole to her.

So I turned.

She was standing at my elbow, her eyes dark, her usual sunny smile absent.

You bastard. Did you even think about what walking away so suddenly might mean for her?

Of course I damn well hadn’t. I’d just wanted to get away from her before I did something stupid, like put my hand around her throat and take everything I wanted from her mouth.