Chapter 20
“Let’s play Truth or Dare,” Annica says, opening her drink. We’re all seated in the large hot tub situated in the back of
the house, where we have a picturesque view of the mountains.
I laugh. “I feel like we’re too old for—”
“Charlie, truth or dare?” Jake says, cutting me off. I guess we’re playing, then.
Charlie claps his hands together. “Oh, dare, for sure.”
Jake looks around, thinking of a dare. “I dare you to dip your balls into the snow for five seconds.”
“Or it’s five shots of whiskey if you don’t complete the dare,” Annica adds. We’re already off to an insane start. Five shots
of whiskey if you don’t want to do something? I’ll be vomiting everywhere.
“Fuck,” Charlie says, but he gets out of the hot tub and goes over to the snow-covered area that isn’t part of the heated
stone flooring. Facing away from us so we just see his ass, he drops his trunks and does a squat. I look away as he lets them
drop and lets out a howl. The group cheers him on. Jake counts to five, very slowly, and when the time is up Charlie sprints
back to the tub.
“All right.” Charlie looks around at us for his victim. “Annica, since this was your dumb idea, truth or dare?”
“Truth,” she says.
“If you could sleep with any of the boys in this hot tub, who would it be?”
“Sam.” She says it quick before turning to me, preparing to ask me a question, but the group is stunned. It can’t be just
me that thought she’d say Wes. “Sloane, truth or dare?”
“Whoa, back up.” Jake shakes his head like he’s trying to comprehend her answer. “Sam? Why him?”
“Because ninety percent of the time you’re a drunk idiot, and the other ten percent you’re just an idiot,” Annica tells Jake
as she goes down the line. “Charlie and Dani are together.”
“I wouldn’t say together,” Dani corrects her.
Annica continues. “Asher is one of the worst people I’ve ever met.”
“Right back at you,” he grumbles.
“Wes has been one of my best friends since we were kids—he’s like a brother to me at this point. So, if I had to pick one
of you it would be Sam. Happy? Now, Sloane, truth or dare?”
I feel like she only started this childish game to bait me into answering a question. She thinks I’ll pick truth and there’s
clearly something she wants to know about me and Asher.
“Dare,” I say with a smile.
She only smiles back, and I know I’ve chosen wrong. “I dare you to make out with Asher right here in front of all of us.”
I clench my jaw. I do not want to do that in front of Wes. Not at all. “Or you can do the five shots of whiskey. But it would
be weird to choose that over your boyfriend.”
My heart races as I look over at Asher, who sets down his drink.
He’s leaned back on one of the lounge seats in the hot tub, while I took the bench-style seat next to it.
With Wes on the other side of me. I consider the whiskey.
She never said what kind of whiskey, and I did see peach Crown in there, which might not be so bad.
But the choice is made for me when Asher leans over and puts his hands on my waist, lifting me onto his lap so that I’m straddling him.
The only thing between us is the fabric of our bathing suits.
We practiced a kiss but we didn’t practice making out and now I’m overthinking this.
Should I go in leaning left or right? Is he going to use his tongue?
Should I? How long should it last? We should’ve practiced this too.
I look into his eyes and they only have pure amusement in them. He raises an eyebrow as if to ask if I’m ready as one of his
hands snakes up my back, the other gripping my backside, sliding me closer to him. I follow his lead, sliding my own hands
up his chest and around his neck to pull him in. When his mouth is on mine it’s not the same gentle kiss from two weeks ago;
it’s hungrier. Another kiss and my mouth parts for him. His hand on my ass grips me tighter, and his tongue slides over mine.
Our mouths move faster, exploring, needing to taste each other, and I forget we’re sitting in a hot tub with our friends.
This time when he pulls me against him I moan into his mouth and we both pause, catching ourselves.
Well, shit.
“Okay, that’s enough, thank you,” Annica says with a hint of disappointment.
I take my hands from his hair and try to scoot back. Asher just repositions me so I’m still sitting on him but my back is on his chest. I clear my throat, trying to regain my bearings. I swear this hot tub is a million degrees. I sneak a glance at Wesley but he’s leaning over the side on his phone.
“I’m going inside to call Marissa,” Wes announces, getting up and leaving the hot tub.
“Um, Jake, truth or dare?” I say, a little breathless.
“Dare.”
“I dare you to suck one of Annica’s toes.”
“Ew, what?!” she squeals. That’ll teach her.
He does it and the rest of them continue to go around. I remember what we discussed about being too stiff so I lean my head
back. I can feel Asher breathing and he whispers in my ear.
“Want to play a game called Nervous?”
“Never heard of it,” I reply. I feel his hand on my thigh start to move inward.
“It’s easy. I ask if you’re nervous and you just say yes or no.”
“Sounds like a dumb game.” But then his hand starts to move, a few inches past my knee.
“Nervous?” he asks.
I guess we’re playing his dumb game. “No.”
The group is cheering on Dani doing push-ups in the snow as Asher continues to whisper to me. His hand stops halfway up my
inner thigh. “Nervous?”
What is he doing? Where exactly does the Nervous game end? “No.”
His fingers swirl around my inner thigh and land almost at the lining of my bathing suit. “Nervous?”
My legs instinctively open for him as if they have a mind of their own. “No.” I breathe the word because there’s nowhere else to go. His hand moves up and over my lower stomach, toying with the top lining of my bottoms; he puts two fingers in the seam and stops himself.
“Nervous?” I ask him. What. Am. I. Doing. And what is he doing? Our friends are still playing the game, no one is paying attention to us, and Wes is gone. There’s no one to fool,
just ourselves.
“I’m never nervous,” he says into my ear as he slides his fingers down. I suck in a breath and I start to feel like I should
yell nervous, nervous, nervous! That’s when Sam asks Asher truth or dare and I grab his wrist under the water, snapping my legs shut.
“Whatever the hell you two are doing under the water, please wait until you get to the bedroom to finish it, ugh.” Annica
shields her eyes.
“Truth,” Asher says, wrapping his arms around my middle.
“Have you slept with the bartender at the resort? The hot one with the big boobs,” Sam clarifies, though we all know which
one.
“I have,” Asher answers matter-of-factly.
“Recently?” Sam asks. And I know Sam is asking out of spite. He’s still mad at us. I hold my breath waiting for Asher’s answer.
I don’t know why, because I know the answer. But I don’t want to hear it.
Asher leans his head on my shoulder and puts his lips to my skin. “You only had one question, Sam.”
He continues the trail of light kisses from my shoulder up to my neck, and even in the hot water it gives me goose bumps.
When he reaches the nape of my neck my head lolls to the side, inviting him in for more, and god, what is happening right now?
Every touch, every feeling of his lips on my skin, I feel like I need more of it .
. . and it scares me. I mean, he just admitted to sleeping with another girl to everyone while holding me.
Wouldn’t a girlfriend be annoyed about that? But I’m not his girlfriend.
“I’m over this game,” Annica says, getting up from the hot tub. “And I’m over watching whatever is happening in the corner.”
She waves her hand over at us, and if my face wasn’t already flushed from the hot tub, I would blush. “Dani, let’s go watch
a movie,” she says to Danielle, who gets up after her.
“Sloane, come join us after . . . that.” Dani wags her eyebrows at us.
“You guys wanna play pool in the basement?” Jake asks the rest of the guys. Sam and Charlie get up with him, and then it’s
just me and Asher.
When we hear the door shut for the last time Asher says, “I don’t think Annica will be bothering us anymore about whether
or not we’re together.” Then he hoists me up, practically shoving me off him. My knee collides with the other seat and water
splashes up into my face.
“Ow?” I say. “A simple ‘Can you get up?’ would have sufficed.” But he’s already getting out of the hot tub.
“I have more business at the resort tonight, so don’t wait up.”
It takes my brain a moment to catch up and come back to reality. The one where all of that was for show, and the way he was
touching me is a lie. “Wait, what? You’re leaving again? After I told you there’s a potentially dangerous serial killer here?”
Asher points around the house. “Security cameras. Everywhere.”
I scoff. “It’s not even late. What am I supposed to tell everyone else?”
“Make something up. Say my dad wanted to meet me there or whatever.” He grabs a towel and heads inside, leaving me alone in the hot tub, which now feels much, much colder.
Back in the house I can hear the clacking pool balls from the basement as I trudge down the hall and toward the stairs. Maybe
I’ll join Dani and Annica for their movie. Or maybe . . . Wesley’s door is open just a crack as I stop before it.
“I know, I miss you too,” I hear him say from inside and I roll my eyes. “Why would you even ask that? She’s in Asher’s room . . .
Yes . . . No . . . I’m not having this conversation again, Ris.”
I back away from his door and tiptoe to my room. So Marissa does have an idea about me and him, which means she would have
a motive.
After a hot shower I get in the bed, too large for just one person, still wrapped in a towel and thinking about what happened
in the hot tub. The way his hands gripped me, his mouth on my neck, his fingers dipping between my thighs. I wonder if we