Chapter 16
Jessica
“Hey, that’s not fair!” I yell at Charlie from across the table.
“Sorry, that’s the game.” He shrugs one bare shoulder.
We’re in the throes of a heated game of King’s Cup. Maddie made a rule: break a rule, lose an article of clothing. So when Charlie forgot to stand up when he drank, he ended up shirtless.
And I ended up forced to stare at his bare chest.
We’ve been playing for a while and have grown rowdy and inappropriate, especially since all the rules seem to be designed to push Charlie and me together.
It has taken over three hours.
The first thirty minutes, we avoided talking to each other.
At the hour mark, the alcohol kicked in, and we were able to ask each other to pass the salt.
Over dessert, I forgot to be on guard and called him out for taking the cupcake I wanted right out of my hands. We proceeded to have a ten-minute argument that released some of the pent-up frustrated tension and amped up some of our pent-up sexual tension.
Once we’d moved next door to the Rileys’ house so they could put their daughter to bed, the drinking games started. Slowly, over the course of the last two hours, we’ve gone back to being the two people we’d been when we’d met in the bar.
Now Charlie is insisting I have to strip off my shirt because I forgot the rule that if you draw a face card, you must speak in an Australian accent.
I puff up my chest in righteous indignation. “I didn’t forget. That’s my Aussie accent, and there’s no rule that says it has to be a good accent.”
“You’re such a lawyer.” His voice is chastising and hot.
“Thank you for pointing out how well-reasoned and factual my argument is. That’s big of you, Charlie.” I give him my most practiced, judicial smile.
Mitch laughs. “If city hall doesn’t work out, you should come work for us at State.”
“That’s very sweet of you, Mitch. I’ll keep that in mind,” I say.
“Hmm…” Charlie scrubs his palm over his jaw. “Weird how it sounded just like your regular voice.”
“It does not.” I throw up my hands. “When have I ever used the word ‘mate’?”
“Australian vernacular is not an accent.” His lips are curved in an evil smirk I’d really love to slap off him.
I mimic in the voice of a teenager mocking her father. “Australian vernacular is not an accent.”
Harmony, sitting there in a black bralette so pretty it’s almost as if she knew she’d be getting naked, giggles and hiccups. “Oh, excuse me.”
Next to her, Sam is also shirtless, looking angelic.
I wave in his direction. “What is your deal?”
The smile that comes to his lips is almost holy. “Deal?”
“Yeah, the whole choirboy thing?”
He laughs. “I have never claimed to be anything of the sort.”
Harmony points at him. “Oh my god, see? I told you.”
“I’m sitting here minding my own business.” He gently shoves Harmony’s shoulder, so she sways on the chair. “You pointed.”
She lets out a screech, stands up, slams down half her drink, then drops her slouchy cotton pants, stepping out of them before stomping one foot. “Well, I’m not taking off my bra. You can forget it.”
Sam smirks at her. “Stop breaking the rules, and you won’t have to.”
She narrows her blue eyes fringed with thick dark lashes. “You know, sometimes I dream about wrapping my fingers around your neck and squeezing.”
“It’s not my fault you decided to break a rule in the middle of someone else breaking the rules,” Sam says.
I rise and bang my hand on the table like I’m in an episode of Suits. “I did not break the rules.”
“All right, all right.” Charlie waves his drink around the table, and it sloshes a little onto the surface, because we’re all pretty drunk at this point. “If you’re determined to be difficult, let’s take it to the jury. Who here thinks Jessica was speaking in an accent?”
Not one of them raises their hand.
I scowl pointedly at all the women. “You traitors.”
Harmony shrugs a shoulder. “You’re the only person who hasn’t lost any clothing yet.”
“Yeah!” Gracie exclaims with enthusiasm. Her amazing, awe-inspiring cleavage spills from the top of a red satin longline bra. “You can’t be the only one not in their underwear.”
“Look, just because I’m able to keep track of the rules, regardless of how much I drink, doesn’t mean you all have to gang up on me.” I gesture wildly and drunkenly in the air. “It’s not my fault I’m super smart and really good at remembering things.”
“Super modest, too,” Sam says.
I cross my arms over my chest. “Excuse me, but I’m explaining I didn’t forget, you just don’t understand the subtleties of the Australian tongue.”
Charlie rolls his eyes. “Stop stalling and strip.”
“This is bullshit, man.” I whip my top over my head and drop it to the floor. “If someone warned me, I’d have worn more clothes.”
Charlie smirks. “That’s what you get for showing off.”
“You can fuck right off.” I stick out my tongue at him.
“Such a filthy mouth,” Charlie says, his accent more on display the drunker he gets.
At least I have on a good bra; it’s pink and lacy and cute. I mean, I wasn’t necessarily planning on him seeing it, and certainly not in this way, but I couldn’t completely knock it off the table either.
In my heart, I’m an optimist.
From across the table, his eyes roam all over me before meeting mine.
I get lost in the heat of his midnight gaze, unable to break away until Gracie rudely yells, “Rule break! Eye contact.”
I growl, clenching my hands into fists. “Now look what you’ve done. I’m losing two pieces of clothing at once.”
“Don’t worry. We don’t get completely naked,” Gracie says, her blond curls bouncing. “There are siblings here and we’re not that perverted, but we’ve all seen one another in bathing suits, so it falls under the rules of decorum.”
I glower at Charlie. “Obviously, this one’s on you.”
“You always think that,” he says.
“I speak the truth.”
“Shut up and take off your pants.” Since he also broke the eye contact rule, he has to lose his clothes, but he doesn’t protest like me. He stands, unbuttoning his jeans, and they drop to the floor.
Do not look at his cock. I do a pretty good job, covering up any covert looking as I take off my shorts, letting them fall to my feet before kicking the denim away.
Charlie sits down on the chair, giving me an evil villain smile before crooking a finger to beckon me over.
He is seriously the hottest man on the face of the planet.
I walk over, letting my hips sway, reveling in finally having his eyes on me. And while I might be exactly where I want, I put on a good show of pretending I’m indignant. “I’ll have you know I’m against this objectification.”
“Yeah, right.” He splays his knees.
I step between them and lean my ass against the table, crossing one ankle over the other.
I flip my hair so it tumbles down my back.
“I can’t help thinking the guys sitting like kings and the girls standing like objects really enforces the misogyny in our culture, James. I expected better from a professor.”
From my left, James chuckles. “That was your mistake right there.”
I rest my palms on the table and focus my attention on the man in front of me. It’s only a matter of time before I feel his hands on me, and I am so, so here for it.
I cock a brow. “You ready?”
Our gazes lock in on each other.
“Ready.” His midnight eyes bore into me.
When the eye contact rule is broken, a staring contest proceeds in this ridiculous fashion. A rule I’m sure was designed for exactly the position we’re in right now.
I lean farther back, really making sure to accent my body to maximum benefit. “That’s your problem. You always underestimate me.”
“Do I?” His voice shivers over me, all intimate and revealing.
“Yes.”
“Or maybe you’re projecting, and it’s you who underestimates me.”
I have to talk through this whole ordeal. I can’t just stare into his eyes. The intimacy alone will kill me. “Projecting, such a big word.”
“Almost like I’m not a total idiot.”
“Don’t worry, you are.” The directness of his stare is becoming unnerving. I can’t help remembering the way he forced me to look at him when he’d been inside me.
I lick my lips, hoping to distract him, but it doesn’t work.
He doesn’t even flicker.
I frantically think of something to say, but my mind is blank.
His deep, fathomless gaze is hypnotizing me. I need to escape before I do something stupid like beg him to take me. I go with bravado. “You’re not going to win this battle.”
He doesn’t miss a beat or look away. “Has it ever occurred to you that we’re not at war?”
My nipples pull tight as his voice wraps around me, and I’m so surprised by his words I break eye contact.
Shit. I lost.
But before Charlie can gloat, Maddie starts laughing, slips off Mitch’s knee, and tumbles to the floor.
We all turn and look at her.
Her red hair spreads out like a flame as she rolls back and forth in hysterics.
Mitch looks down at his feet. “She can’t stop laughing when she falls. It’s a weird quirk of hers.”
From the floor, she gasps, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
Then just goes to pieces again.
I look back at Charlie and find he’s standing over me. While everyone’s attention is diverted to Maddie, he’s closer than he’s been since the night in the car.
He leans down to whisper in my ear, “I’m done playing games with you. You’re going to talk to me.”
“Okay,” I gasp out.
He slides his hand between my legs, cupping my sex. “This pussy is mine.”
The shock of it sends my body into instant overdrive. “Yes.”
“Don’t come without me.” He lifts his head, his gaze boring into me.
“Okay,” I pant out, no longer able to do anything but speak in one-word sentences.
“Good girl.” He gives me a hard squeeze, then releases me and steps back.
I might have an orgasm on the spot.
Gracie sighs. “Maddie’s down. That means the game is officially over.”
Charlie and I glance at each other.
All that’s left to do is get out of here and go to bed.
Then a male voice I recognize all too well bellows, “What in the hell is going on here? Why are you all naked?”