I Dare You (Wilder #4)

Prologue

Eleven Years Ago

The house was quiet as I lay in my bed. My first night as a legal adult, although I didn’t feel any different from the way I did yesterday. I still felt like a child. The little girl who lost her mom, even though that was over five years ago.

Dad had been doing his best. For my eighteenth birthday, he got me an emergency kit for my car and a boatload of makeup in my favorite brands and shades. I only felt mildly annoyed that he, or one of my three brothers, had rummaged through my things to make sure he got all the right stuff.

There was supposed to be a bonfire down the beach tonight, and I thought about asking my dad for an exception to the curfew for my birthday, but that was for the hot girls who had guys fawning all over them.

Not girls like me, with my jet-black hair and leather choker necklace.

Hence the reason I wasn’t actually invited to it in the first place.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

My ears perked up at the noise as I strained to listen for it again.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Someone was tapping at my window from outside. I got up, not bothering to cover myself any more than the sleep tank and underwear were currently covering, and threw the curtains wide open, ready to confront whoever thought they could attack me in the middle of the night.

Or at 10:30 p.m., as the alarm clock on my dresser showed.

Sebastian Devereux’s eyes rounded, and he pulled back a step at my abrupt arrival. I opened the window, letting in the salty, warm May air.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“Can I come in?” His honey-brown eyes pleaded with me.

“Through the window? Who does that?” I whisper-hissed as I pried open the insect screen and stepped back to let him in. “Where’s Luke?”

Sebastian was my brother Luke’s best friend.

They had been inseparable for years, and I always liked Seb.

He let me hang out with them, even when Luke would complain or roll his eyes at his dumb little sister tagging along.

But lately, it’d been different. My palms would sweat when he came around.

My pulse would quicken, tripping over itself, just from hearing his voice.

“He’s with Nina,” Seb grunted lowly, hauling himself over the windowsill.

Luke and his girlfriends. Nina was the latest, and that might sound like Luke went through women, but it was typically the other way around.

Luke fell hard and fast, every time. One day, maybe he would learn not to trust so easily, but that day hadn’t come yet.

But who knew, maybe Nina Ashen was “the one.”

“If Luke’s not here, why are you here?” I went back to my bed, sitting cross-legged on the mattress while Seb closed the screen on the window and lowered the pane, keeping it open an inch or two to let in the air.

“Maybe I’m here for you.”

My heart galloped out of my chest at his words. Internally, I berated myself for taking off my makeup before bed as I ran my fingers through my hair, trying to get it to not look like a rat’s nest.

Sebastian turned from the window and eyed my panties, my legs splayed open in the cross-legged position. He immediately looked away—eyes up, to the side, down at his shoes… anywhere and everywhere but at me. I hurried to fix my legs, deciding to fold them under me so I could sit on them instead.

“Har har,” I deadpanned. Seb’s disinterest was clear, and a sense of embarrassment washed over me. Usually, I was the one doing the rejecting. And I did a lot of rejecting to the stupid, hormonal teenagers of Calla Bay. I had no problem putting each and every one of those horny kids in their place.

Maybe that was why I was still a virgin at eighteen.

Probably the only high school senior who would be graduating from school before graduating into real adulthood.

But it was better than giving it all away to someone I didn’t even like.

I wasn’t picky. I had standards. And so far, no one had made the cut. Not even close.

“A couple of us had a bonfire down the beach. There may have been alcohol involved. You should have come,” he said, making his way around my room, looking at the pictures and products on my vanity.

“I wasn’t invited,” I shot back.

He cringed his adorable nose and looked away guiltily.

“Anyway… if I go home with booze on my breath again, my mom will kill me. She was pretty pissed after last time. Although, in my defense, I didn’t know my keys were in my hand when I pounded on the door for them to let me in the house in the middle of the night. ”

I shook my head, a smile trying to break free. “What made you leave the bonfire if you aren’t ready to go home?”

He shrugged noncommittally, still looking through my things like he was cataloging everything. He was giving off a weird energy, but that was probably the alcohol.

“So, you needed to kill time, and you decided to come here? To my room?” A skeptical brow rose as I waited for his response. He finally moved away from my vanity and came to sit on the bed beside me.

“Maybe you’re just better company,” he smirked.

There went my heartbeat again. I swallowed down the strange feelings he was making me feel and whacked him with my pillow.

“Enough with the fake flirty talk,” I laughed. I knew Sebastian Devereux’s MO by now. He was like that with everyone. The charmer. “It isn’t nice to do to a lady, especially not on her birthday.”

“Oh, shit.” His face fell like he was actually upset. “I’m sorry, Lydia. I completely forgot it was your birthday today. I didn’t get you anything.”

“It’s fine. I didn’t expect you to.” My laugh sounded strangled.

The air felt thicker, heavier, somehow. Sebastian was studying my face with an intensity I didn’t know what to do with.

I wet my lip with my tongue instinctively.

His gaze homed in on the movement before slowly lifting to my eyes again.

“I should still give you something.” His voice was lower than usual, the sound of it resonating with my lady parts.

Thank God I had my legs closed tight and wasn’t sitting cross-legged now, otherwise he would be able to see the physical effect he had on me.

“Maybe a birthday kiss?” His eyes danced with humor, and something else. Something I couldn’t name.

God, could he hear my heartbeat from there?

Play it cool. It’s Seb Devereux—he’s probably going to psych you out anyway. What would he even see in his best friend’s little sister?

A small smile tugged at his lips, a challenge lighting up his whiskey eyes.

I rolled my eyes. “I mean, if it’ll make you feel better about not getting me something, sure. Why not?”

His hand gripped my chin lightly, turning my face to meet his. He inched forward so, so slowly. I couldn’t tell if he was giving me time to pull away or psyching himself up to kiss the emo-punk freak.

His lips touched mine. A featherlight, barely there pressure. Still, when he pulled his face back, I followed him, trying to keep the contact for just a moment longer. If this was my one and only chance to kiss him, I didn’t want to waste it.

“Don’t do that, Lydia,” he basically growled into my mouth, our lips only centimeters apart.

“You call that a birthday kiss? Maybe if you were my grandma,” I baited him.

I could feel the smirk pull at his lips. “You’ve got issues.”

“I just want my present,” I said, feigning confidence. My voice was too breathy, coming too quickly, for it to be believable. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see if he would actually kiss me or pull away. Nerves raked my body in the space of a half second as I waited for his rejection.

Seb captured my lips with his, the urgency of it making me gasp. He took my parted lips as an invitation for his tongue to tangle with mine.

I may have been a virgin, but this was by no means my first kiss. I knew what a kiss felt like. But it had never felt like this. Like he was breathing me into his lungs. Like I was the only thing keeping him alive.

I lay back on the bed, Seb holding his body over mine. His hand snaked across my midriff. Goose bumps pebbled my skin under his touch. I didn’t know what was happening right now, but I knew I didn’t want it to end.

He caressed my skin, his fingers moving higher and higher under my tank until they touched the underswell of my breasts.

A moan pulled deep from the back of my throat, and I gripped his shirt in my fist. Seb broke the kiss to rip his shirt over his head. His body had changed so much from the husky kid he was when he and Luke became friends to the sculpted man who was before me.

Heat blazed in his eyes as he looked at me. I could see the wheels spinning behind his gaze. Fear that he was going to pull back sank low in my gut. I didn’t want it to stop. I wanted him to keep kissing me, touching me. I pulled my tank up and over my head, exposing my breasts to him.

“Fuck,” Seb groaned, his breathing heavy.

He didn’t pull away though. He drank me in, in nothing but my underwear.

I wrapped my hands around the base of his neck and dragged him toward me for another kiss.

His slanted mouth took our kiss from amazing to unbelievable.

My legs parted on impulse, letting his bulky frame fall between my knees.

His kisses trailed down my neck as one hand cupped my breast, pulling at my nipple. With his other hand, he swiped a finger across the fabric of my panties, right along my folds.

All coherent thoughts scattered. My focus was solely fixated on the man above me and the way he made me feel.

I arched my back at the sensation, pulling in as much air as I could with my gasp.

“Do that again,” I whispered. And he obliged.

I was already panting before I felt his hardened dick push against my thigh.

I made quick work of the button on his jeans, lowering his zipper to find him just as affected by this as I was.

“Christ,” he hissed through gritted teeth when I fisted his shaft in my hand and tugged. “Is this a good idea, Lydia?”