Page 7 of Wrapped Up In You
“Truth or Dare? What are we? Twelve?” I just wanted to read my book. Read and put the sight of him sprawled out on the couch this morning, toned chest on display, out of my mind. I didn’t want to think about his built-by-pilates body at all. Or how hard I’d come in the shower this morning after tossing and turning for hours before finally giving in and jacking off to thoughts of him. I just wanted all of that to go away. I didn’t need these intrusive thoughts and the havoc they had the potential to wreak on my life. I’d had enough upheaval in the last year, and I’d be damn sure I didn’t bring any more of that shit with me into the new year.
It was Hayden’s turn to roll his eyes. “Didn’t you ever play in college?”
“Absolutely not.” Total lie. I’d been in a fraternity. We did all sorts of dumb shit like that, but Hayden didn’t need to know that. Some experiences were best left in distant memory. Or better yet, forgotten entirely.
“Come oooonnn…” He bounced up and down, stretching out the word like a toddler begging for a piece of candy despite being told no.
God, he could be so annoying. “Fine,” I bit out, knowing he was only going to drive me crazier if I didn’t give in. “But I’m putting a time limit on this nonsense. You have one hour.”
“Yes!” He leaped out of the chair, raced into the kitchen, and started pulling open cabinets.
“What are you looking for?”
“Alcohol.”
“It’s ten in the morning.”
“Right.” He finally found the cabinet that held the alcohol and pulled several bottles down, lining them up on the breakfast bar. He looked at me, brows lifted. “Pick your poison.”
“I’m not drinking at ten a.m.”
“Why not?”
“What do you mean, ‘why not?’ Did you not hear the part about it being ten in themorning?”
“So? It’s not like we have any place to be. Let’s do a little day drinking!” He waggled his eyebrows and turned to grab two glasses from the cabinet. “If you don’t pick, I’m going to pick for you…”
Good lord. This kid—adult, he was a goddamnedadult—was going to be the death of me. How had he gone from a concerned caretaker who’d shared a moment of earnest vulnerability and depth with his music last night to this…frat boy?
Exasperated, I let out a harsh sigh. “Whiskey.” I’d killed the bourbon last night, but I was pretty sure we had at least one bottle of whiskey in the mix.
“Jameson or Johnny Walker Black?”
“Jameson is fine. How are we going to play this with alcohol?”
“It’s just like Truth or Dare, but you have a third option to take a shot.” He set the glasses in front of us, pouring a finger of whiskey in mine and a shot of vodka in his. “If you don’t like the question for truth or the challenge for dare, you can take a shot instead.”
Lord. I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like this. Not one fucking bit.
* * *
The first couple of questions were easy softballs. I chose truth first, and Hayden asked me my middle name. Easy. I told him Lucius, which I actually kind of liked, but he immediately started calling me Lucy, so now that was something I was going to have to live with for the rest of my life. I asked him the same question, but his middle name was Alan, so nothing too interesting there.
We continued at an easy pace, feeling each other out, neither wanting to ask anything too challenging for fear of retaliation. It was like a very sedate game of chicken. In the fourth round, Hayden chose dare, and it took me forever to come up with something that wasn’t wildly inappropriate. I was not the creative sort, but I didn’t think challenging my stepbrother to jerk off in front of me was the best move. I finally challenged him to stand outside in the snow in his underwear for three minutes.
Terrible idea.
I’d intended it to be more about him standing out in the cold and freezing his nuts off, but when he flashed a wide grin, then stood and performed a strip tease, I realized I’d grossly miscalculated. He pulled up his crew neck slowly, revealing each individual ab muscle, one by one. The light had been dim when I’d caught sight of him this morning, but now, in full daylight, with the sun streaming in through the windows, I could see every perfectly defined muscle in his torso. I swallowed hard as he pulled the shirt over his head, shaking his hair and winking at me—fuckingwinking—before turning around. I openly gaped at the sight of his strong back but damn near swallowed my tongue when he slowly lowered his joggers, revealing a perfectly rounded ass, clad only in tight navy briefs adorned with snowflakes. The sight of those snowflakes should have been ridiculous, but I was so lost in the beauty ofhimthat I barely noticed. He dropped the pants to the floor, then stepped out of them, turning back around to face me. He stood wide, hands held out in a ‘what do you think?’ gesture, his erection proudly on display.
Good god. He was hard. If not at full mast, at least halfway there. Was this turning him on? It was one thing for me to be attracted to him. I could keep it locked down. It was quite another if it was reciprocated. I’d already seen how relentless he could be when he latched on to something. I’d just have to make sure he nevereverknew how he affected me.
I schooled my features, doing my best to revert to the same impassive expression I wore most of the time. “Your time doesn’t start until you get outside.”
He turned and strode—no,sauntered,cocky as fuck—toward the door. He pulled it open, letting in a gust of cold air that did nothing to dissipate the heat Hayden had stirred in me with his little strip tease. He waggled his eyebrowsagain,then stepped outside.
I barely had the presence of mind to start the timer, and then I downed my whiskey, hoping it would settle my frayed nerves. I poured a generous two fingers and drained my glass again. Hayden had a way of getting under my skin and turning everything on its head. Ihatedthat feeling. Hated feeling out of control. I liked my life to be orderly and predictable, and Hayden was the exact opposite.
Last night, he’d taken me completely by surprise with the way he’d tenderly bandaged my hand and then cooked dinner. I hadn’t bought ingredients for fancy meals, thinking it would just be me out here at the cabin, but Hayden had still managed to make a decent meal without burning anything down. Then he’d gotten out his guitar, and my world tilted again. That smooth, sultry voice. The vulnerability in the way he’d played. I’d begun to see him in a new light.
