Page 42 of Tainted Romance

“It’s called the Dunk Of Shame.” He gestured a hand down to me which I took, and he pulled me up off the couch.

“So why am I getting the feeling this isn’t something I’m going to like?”

“Well, we’d had a few too many to drink one night, and well, you see, Jake lost at poker to Ryder, and as punishment, he had to jump in the creek so we called it the Dunk Of Shame, and now whenever one of us loses, we take the Dunk Of Shame.”

“That is cruel!” I exclaimed, and then threw a hand into Ryder’s chest. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me we had to jump into a freezing cold creek if we lost? I would have handed that controller over!”

“I told you we couldn’t lose.” The corner of his lips twitched up into this kind of adorable and alluring smirk; and there it goes, I skip a heartbeat.

I groaned when Cassie grabbed my hand, slid the porch door open, and dragged me down to the creek, while Jake was taunting Ryder the entire time about how cold the water was and how ‘unimpressed’ I was going to be when he got out. Boys - so vain.

While you might think a man that takes a video game seriously wouldn’t be attractive, you would be wrong when it came to Ryder Harris.

He was tall, but aren’t all the attractive males?

He had styled midnight brown hair with a bit of a side fringe. He looked like a member of a boy band, and boy did he dress good.

I was paying attention to his choice of wardrobe as he slowly undressed. Darn, I gulped twice and was sure my cheeks flushed red. Thank God for the night sky.

“So, are you going in dressed?” Cassie nudged my shoulder. “Trust me; it is harder to climb back up with wet clothes on.”

I looked down at the creek. There was a drop of a few meters. The water looked as cold as the air and was a deep black color.

I glanced at Ryder; he was currently pulling his pants off while Jake was nattering on about the water.

I wasn’t embarrassed about my body. I took great pride in it. I worked hard and worked out harder. While I might not be embarrassed about my body, that didn’t mean I liked showing it off or revealing it in general. I liked being covered; what was wrong with that?

So right now, as I reached for the hem of my jumper and pulled it off, it was a big thing. My heartbeat increased dramatically as I pushed my jeans down.

Ryder was standing there in his boxers.

I had just pulled my t-shirt off when I finally had the guts to look at him. To my utter surprise, his eyes weren’t running up and down me. Instead, they were planted solely on my eyes.

“Ready to jump, Miss Won’t Back Down.” He extended a hand to me.

“Sure.” I grabbed his hand and looked down at the creek.

“Well, we’re in this together.”

How could such a simple sentence like that cause every vessel within me to twist and curve? I gulped and nodded my head. “Yeah, I guess so.”

“Ok, on the count of three.”

“Don’t freeze to death, you two.” Jake chuckled behind us.

“One.” Ryder and I moved closer to the edge.

“Two.” He smiled at me, then we both bent our knees.

“Don’t let go.” My eyes widened and darted to Ryder’s. He nodded his head.

“Three.”

Our hands didn’t break. Not when we were in the air and not when we hit the water. His hand tightened around mine as the freezing water engulfed my body.

Before I went any deeper into the water, I felt an arm snake around my body and force me back up to the surface.

I gulped in the air as soon as my head popped above the surface.

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