Chapter Twenty-Eight #2
“I have told you several times now that I worked in a pub with drunk men all of the time. Of course someone made me play truth or dare more than once.” I laugh, but they don’t.
All of them tense, and I frown, wondering what I said that they didn’t like.
I shake my head at their weird antics, and I pull out the bottle’s cork, taking a sniff of the whiskey.
Damn, it’s strong. I drink only one mouthful, and I feel it burn a path down the back of my throat.
“You only drink if you don’t do the truth or dare, Mere,” Reed reminds me. I like when he calls me Mere. It’s better than little human.
I shrug. I’ve also learned that drinking means that you feel warm and confident, so it’s quite useful when I’m alone with three gorgeous heirs. “Who’s going first?”
“Me.” Reed jumps in before Blackfire or Orion can claim the first spin.
Reed spins the bottle with one hand, and it lands on me, of all people.
I tense, meeting Reed’s eyes. There’s a smirk on his handsome face.
If I didn’t know better, I’d think he somehow controlled that bottle to land on me. “Truth or dare, little human?”
“Truth.” I do not trust this man to dare me. I’m not sure what he would suggest, but the way he’s looking at me right now, I’m not taking any chances.
“Tell me about the men you’ve been with. Who did you play truth or dare with? Did you kiss them? Tell me everything that you’ve ever done with a man.” I blink in surprise, and the silence that stretches around us feels like a sizzling current.
My mind immediately goes to my monster and what we did.
I’m not telling them about my monster, because I suspect they won’t react well.
I’m strangely protective of my dream-orgasm friend.
My stomach flutters as I debate how to answer this question.
Reed raises his eyebrows and waits for an answer.
I could drink and not answer, but I don’t want to back down from an answer.
“There was one human I kissed a few times, but it never went further because…well, I don’t really let people get close to me, and I was focused on other things in my life.
Tannith mused that no one dared to ask me out because I gave off a hostile vibe.
I also ignored men when they spoke to me because… well, they are men.” I shrug again.
“Hostile vibes are a fun challenge. Humans are pussies,” Reed replies, and he looks so glad about my answer. He knows I’m a virgin; we discussed it when I woke up to him naked and pressed against me, so I don’t know why he cares who I kissed.
I drink anyway, needing some courage when I feel like they are ganging up against me at the moment. “I should ask you to list the women you’ve been with next.”
Orion and Blackfire burst into laughter, Reed looks away, and I don’t think I’ve heard either of them laugh like this. It’s nice if it weren’t directed at me. I spin the bottle to distract the assholes, and it lands on Orion. “Truth or dare?”
“Truth.” He leans back, his new shirt riding up his stomach and revealing a little of the toned V-dip of abs I’ve stared at a few times on the island. Okay, every day on the island. He might be my enemy and a total asshole, but I’m still a woman. He is still the most beautiful male I’ve ever seen.
“Hmm.” I look at him from head to toe, and I swear he squirms under my gaze. His eyes, as hateful as ever, lock onto mine. “What do you fear the most?”
It’s an easy question, a normal one, but something about my question makes his shoulders tense. “Losing what’s important to me,” he answers simply, not telling me what is important. Probably some female back in his pack. I don’t know. I can’t imagine what else would be important to him.
He spins the bottle before I can ask what’s important, and it lands on Blackfire, who drinks before even answering truth or dare. Spoil sport.
Blackfire spins. It lands on Reed, who pulls a similar move. I feel like I’m getting played as Reed spins the bottle and it lands on me. How is he doing that? “Truth or dare?”
I probably drank too much at this point because the word leaves my mouth before I’ve even thought about it. “Dare.”
Reed smiles in a way that tells me that was exactly what he wanted. “Kiss me. Right here and now. In front of my friends and show them why I’m obsessed with my little human.”
The room goes still, and heavy, sparking tension seems to rip into the air to suffocate me. I did not expect Reed to say that, and I’m speechless. I can barely move under the gaze of all three of them, and Orion breaks the silence. “She wouldn’t dare.”
Fuck him. I can do this, and I don’t care if he wants to watch.
I crawl over to Reed and climb onto his lap.
He watches me the entire time, his hands at his sides and clenched tightly like he’s holding back from reaching for me.
We have kissed before. The look in his pretty blue eyes is challenging, and it’s definitely the alcohol, but I’m not backing down.
I slam my lips onto his, and I realize my mistake straight away because kissing Reed isn’t simple.
He’s not just some human that I kissed when I was drunk for fun.
It’s Reed, and he annihilates me when he kisses me back.
The taste of him floods my senses—intoxicating like the ocean.
He is utterly consuming, like the depths of my soul recognize his, and my soul reacts.
Reed unleashes himself on me, and I take everything he offers.
His hands sink into my hair, and he pulls me to him, groaning into my mouth.
Heat pools in my lower stomach, going lower and deeper, and I want more.
I whimper as his tongue battles with mine, and each stroke is a claiming, sending pleasure racing down my spine, and I know they are watching us.
I can feel their eyes on us like a physical caress.
The gravity of their attention is making everything more intense.
I know I shouldn’t be crossing this line, but fuck the line.
My fingers clutch desperately at his hair; the soft locks are perfect.
I need him closer to me, and I want—I nearly whimper as Blackfire’s big, warm hands wrap around my waist, and his touch burns through the thin fabric of my clothes as he yanks me off Reed, throwing me back gently against the sofa.
The cushions give beneath me as I land in a breathless heap, my lips swollen and tingling.
He growls at us. “That is enough.” My heart beats faster at the look Blackfire gives me.
I don’t dare move an inch under his gaze, but my eyes do drift to Reed.
Reed looks thoroughly kissed. My hand slid into his hair and made it all messy.
His lips are puffy, and the tension in the room is a lot for anyone to handle.
I like Reed this way, his eyes wide and blown, his lips puffy like mine. Carefree.
Orion is downing his bottle, and he grabs another one to drink. Not sure where he got it from. I take his lead as Blackfire and Reed seem to have a silent conversation, and I pick up my bottle, pulling it to my still-tingling lips and drinking until I can ignore the feelings in my chest.
I look right at Reed. “Why is it enough? It’s just some fun when we are bored…right?”
Reed narrows his eyes at me before turning back to Blackfire.
This is why games always end badly. Blackfire eventually ends his stare down with Reed, and he takes his bottle with him, sits on the sofa next to where I’m sitting on the floor, and he doesn’t look at me.
I shake my head at all of them. Men. I don’t know how long it is before I’ve completely drunk all of my bottle.
When I try to stand up, the room tips and I fall straight forward.
Orion catches me before I faceplant on the floor and picks me up into his arms. Reed and Blackfire go to take me off Orion, but Orion’s hands tighten.
“You two need to sort yourselves out. I’ll take her up to bed. This game was a bad idea.”
“It wasn’t! Reed tastes so good! Like the sea and salty food,” I protest, clinging to Orion’s shoulders. He growls low at me. “I’m gonna be sick on you.”
“If you throw up on me, I’m going to hate you more than I already do,” he snaps.
“Then I’m really sorry because I’m definitely gonna throw up on you, and you’re not a good nurse, Ori-boy.” I hiccup. “Nurses are meant to be nice.”
“I’m not a nurse,” he complains. I half expect him to drop me on the floor outside my room, but he doesn’t. He uses his foot to kick the door open.
“Yes, you are.” I laugh wildly. “I can buy you a little nurse dress! It would be so fun and—”
“Stop arguing with me and please stop talking about playing dress-up.” No wonder he is grumpy, he has clearly never had fun.
“Stop giving me a reason to argue with you then, Mr Grumpy Man.” I touch his nose with my finger. “Boop.”
Orion looks at me in shock while my finger is still on his nose. I snort with laughter and boop his nose again. “You have a cute nose!”
My ass falls into my bed when he drops me in it. “You are trouble. Stay in bed and don’t choke on your sick or some shit that humans die from!” he orders, like I care or have control over any of that.
“Nope.” I try to stand up. “I want to climb on the roof and look at the stars!”
“Meredith.” He picks me up and puts me back into the bed again before I can get to the door. “Stay in your bed.”
I laugh. “Nope.” I try to roll myself out of the bed again. He growls and climbs into the bed with me, wrapping his arms around my waist and tugging my back to his chest. “If I stay in bed with you, will you give me the hidden ice cream?”
“Go to sleep,” he grumbles.
“I lied.” I yawn, and Orion stills next to me.
“What about?” he demands. So grumpy. “Humans lie constantly.”
“I do remember something before I was eight and left alone at the orphanage. I have one memory and I see it when I close my eyes. It’s a night sky with a million stars, and there are fireworks being set off.
They were a brilliant gold, and I felt nothing but pure joy.
I’ve never felt like that before or after.
” My eyes drift shut. “It’s not the night sky from the human district, so where is it?
I always look to the sky…because it’s all I have of my past. I only have the stars… ”
Orion never responds to my confession. I realize, moments later in the quiet, that Reed controls water and there was some in the bottle…
He made sure it landed on me. I’m going to kick him when I see him next.
Or kiss him again. Or kick him. He deserves both.
“Mere, sleep. Stop thinking and mumbling about kissing.”
“Yes, Mr Grumpy Man.” I sigh. “You smell the best, Ori-boy. I love maple syrup.” He tenses against me, but I don’t care, and it doesn’t take long before I’m falling straight to sleep in his arms, wondering why the hell he stayed when he hates me.