Chapter 10 Who knew there was an entire stash of games in the pool house? Everything from old board games to various decks of cards. Candace had brought out a pile for us to choose from. The four of us ended up playing Pictionary, which was innocent enough. There was another game in the bunch, though, that seemed anything but innocent. And while we'd all gotten a good laugh about it, we'd steered clear of that one. After Candace and Chandler left, though, Dorian and I stayed out by the pool. It was dark now, the moon casting a glow over the patio. And the rainbow lights that lit up the pool at night created a sexy vibe. "Who do you think is responsible for the sex card game?" I asked, gesturing to the box on the table. It was called Toe the Line, a truth-or-dare-like game of sexually provocative questions. We had joked earlier about who it might've belonged to, but no one seemed to know. Dorian stretched his legs out on the lounge chair. "What's your guess?" "I'm gonna say it had to be Christina's." "Maybe. Although I can't picture my father playing that game." "But they had to have played it together. Who else would it belong to?" "Maybe it's Benjamin's," Dorian suggested. We both cracked up at the idea of straight-laced Benjamin stashing this game away. I'd read the rules. You had to ask your opponent a sex-related question, and if they didn't want to answer, they were required to do a dare, one I assumed had to be sexual in nature. I reached over and opened the box. "I must've had a little too much to drink because I would totally play this right now." Dorian shifted in his seat. "I'm not sure that'd be a good idea." "It would be a terrible idea," I agreed. He looked up at the dark sky. "How bad do you think the questions are?" "I guess there's only one way to find out." I took out the cards. Flipping over the first one, I read it in silence. "This isn't that bad," I said. "It's dumb, actually." "What is it?" I read from the card. "What's your favorite sexual position and why?" He stared out toward the pool. "That's predictable and lame." "Right?" I let out a breath and waited, looking over at him. He turned to me. "Are you asking me to answer it?" "Only if you want to play." "What's the dare option?" I laughed a little as I read it. "Try to turn someone on just by looking at them." "So...stare at you like Zoolander and expect you to get hot and bothered?" "Basically." "I'll answer the question." "Thanks for sparing me." He scratched his chin. "My favorite sexual position is holding a woman up with her legs wrapped around me, one hand around her ass, and the other pulling her hair while I fuck her." Holy crap. Hearing those words exit his mouth-particularly "fuck her"-made the muscles between my legs tighten. If I'd thought I was hot and bothered before, now I was a goner. I swallowed. "That's...nice." "What about you?" he asked. Your favorite position sounds pretty damn good to me. "That's not how the game works," I replied. "You answer the question, and you get a point. I don't answer the same question. Now you pick a different card for me to answer." "All right, then." He sat up, reaching for a card. "This one is even lamer." I sat up. "Oh good. I'm counting on lame." "You cannot get any lamer than this one," he said before reading it. "Name three things that turn you on that have nothing to do with sex." How did I get so lucky? I giggled. "I don't need to know the dare. This is easy." "I'm listening." He threw the card aside. "One is...men reading," I said. Flashing me a look of disbelief, he crossed his arms. "Really..." "Oh my God, yes. There's something so sexy about it. Related to that, men in glasses." I shivered. "That's number two. And number three is...libraries." "I'm sensing a theme here. But the library? Doesn't exactly scream sex to me." I sighed deeply. "There's something about a library. The echo. The windows. The smell of the books. It reminds me of sex, even though it has nothing to do with sex. I have this fantasy where I'm browsing the book aisle in an empty library, and a man comes up behind me, pulls my hair, and kisses me. Then we...you know...up against the bookshelves." "Very interesting." "You don't think that's weird?" "No. I don't judge anyone for what gets them off. We can't help what we like. It's nature." "Do you want to keep playing?" "I never said I wanted to play in the first place." "Okay, hardass. I'll put the game away." I stacked the cards to put them back into the box. "But actually, I'm enjoying it. So let's keep going," he said. "Okay." My skin tingled as I took one of the cards. Oh boy. I felt my face blush as I read the sentence aloud. "What did you think about the last time you masturbated?" He rubbed between his brows. I assumed he was pondering the answer. But instead, he asked, "What's the dare?" Feeling my pulse race, I gulped as I looked down at the dare section. Oh my. "Do a body shot off of your opponent." "I see." His jaw tightened. He didn't say anything else. Adrenaline coursed through my veins with every second that went by. I cleared my throat. "Well?" "The body shot is not exactly my decision to make. You'd have to consent to that. If you're okay with it, I'd like to take the dare." All the blood in my body rushed to my vagina. "Yeah, I don't care," I said nonchalantly, trying my best to keep calm at the prospect of Dorian's mouth coming anywhere near me, let alone on me. "Hope you'll join me for a shot, though. Tequila or vodka?" "Tequila. Always." He stood from his lounge chair and went to the small bar at the corner of the pool area. A mild evening breeze blew through my hair as I waited, my body brimming with excitement. Dorian returned, carrying a few items. He handed me a shot glass filled with tequila blanco. I downed it and handed it back. He then filled it again. "Lie down," he commanded. "No hands. That's the rule," I teased. "I know how to do it," he assured me. Goose bumps covered my body as I did as he said, lying back on the lounge chair. Dorian placed a lime wedge in my mouth, which I held between my teeth. My chest heaved as I waited for what was to come. Next, he sprinkled salt along my neck. It tickled. Is he really gonna lick me? Dorian then poured a shot of tequila in a slow stream into my belly button. The alcohol stung my skin. But the feeling was nothing compared to the arousal building in me at the thought of what he might do. He knelt beside my lounge chair. Desire pooled between my legs as his mouth lowered to my neck. I flinched at the first contact. Dorian ran his tongue along the nape where he'd placed the salt, the heat of his breath practically lighting me on fire. Oh. My. God. The feel of his tongue on my skin was indescribable. Yearning to pull on his inky black hair, I closed my eyes, relishing every second of the electrifying feeling. When I'd watched people taking body shots before, everything seemed to move a lot faster than this. But Dorian was taking his time. And I didn't mind one bit. I opened my eyes and watched him lick his lips as he moved away from my neck. The wait for something else felt like torture. But I knew nothing yet. Because a moment later, he lowered his mouth to my stomach. The sensation of his tongue lapping up the tequila in my navel was next-level arousing. He sucked my skin to sop it all up, then licked the last remnants with his tongue. I writhed, wishing he'd go lower, even if that certainly wasn't part of the task at hand. His breathing grew faster as he moved off my stomach and brought his face to mine, lowering his mouth to my lips and gently sinking his teeth into the lime. Somehow, he managed not to even graze my lips. Was he intentionally torturing me? My loins quivered as I watched him suck on the lime, my body desperate for more. Then he tossed the lime aside and suddenly stepped away. It seemed we'd reached the end. Except my body hadn't gotten the message. My nipples were stiff, alert, and waiting for more. My bikini bottom was soaked. I'd never wished harder for someone to go down on me. But Dorian returned to his seat as if nothing had happened-as if he hadn't just rocked my world. He deserved an award for bouncing back into a composed state. I wanted to continue lying there, but I forced myself to sit up. Trying to seem unaffected, I cleared my throat. "Are we done with the game?" He licked his lips. "I could keep going." This might kill me. "Your turn to ask a question, then." He reached for a card. "Have you ever had a fantasy about an inappropriate person?" Another easy one for me. "My high school teacher, Mr. Eaton. I used to fantasize about him. He wore sweater vests and glasses." I tilted my head. "What about you?" "You're forgetting the game doesn't work that way. I don't need to answer that." He grinned. "I'm kidding. I don't care. It was my friend Evan's mother, actually." "Really. She was hot?" "Very. I fantasized about her a lot when I was a teenager." My cheeks burned with jealousy. I wanted him to want me, not "Evan's mother," and I was more confused than ever right now. I knew he thought I was attractive, but this man could likely have any woman he wanted and had given me no reason to believe he'd ever try anything outside of this game. As erotic as that body shot had been, he'd stuck to the rules when he very easily could've taken advantage of me. Lord knows, I'd hoped he would. "What was the dare that I missed, by the way?" I asked. "You would've had to send a naughty text to someone in the room. Given that it's just me here, I suppose I missed out." He winked. I wondered how I would've handled that. Would I have told him once and for all how much I wanted him and watched as he pretended I was kidding when I really wasn't? It was my turn to ask a question, and I reached for a card. "How many times a week do you pleasure yourself?" "How many times a week or how many times a day?" Okay, then. I let out a shaky breath. "I guess either?" "What's the dare?" My heart began to race. "Slowly and seductively kiss someone in the room." Pick the kiss. Pick the kiss. Seconds passed, and this felt like the longest silence of my life. My heart pounded, my body begging for the right answer. "I would say I do it about once a day," he finally said. Fuck. I felt like I was a balloon and he'd just popped me, leaving me deflated. His response brought on a mix of emotions. On one hand, it felt like a slap in the face, since he'd clearly chosen not to kiss me. On the other hand, the visual of him pleasuring himself got me hot and bothered all over again. I cleared my throat. "So, seven times a week." "Give or take. If I have a particularly stressful day, I might do it more than once." I needed this game to end-not only because I somehow felt rejected, but because I wanted to go relieve myself right now. He'd gotten me all worked up. I hadn't been this aroused in as long as I could remember, my body aching to be kissed, licked, sucked. But he'd made the decision to do none of those things. Before I could excuse myself, though, Dorian made an announcement. "We should really go upstairs." Wait. What? It aggravated me that I didn't know whether he was propositioning me or explaining that he wanted to go to sleep. I knew what I was hoping for-which was crazy. He and I lived together, for Christ's sake. Crossing the friendship line would be a terrible idea. Maybe I was delusional about the possibility of a deeper meaning to go upstairs? But the way he'd said it... I closed up the game and returned it with the rest of them to the pool house because I needed a breather. After, we left the patio together, and I followed him upstairs, my heart pumping faster with each second that passed. The vibe was still unreadable. I decided to take a chance, not immediately heading to my room, but stopping at his room when he did. The sight of Tallulah and Tess sleeping soundly at the foot of his bed caused me to smile despite my nerves. "You weren't kidding. Look how comfortable they are," I said from the doorway. He didn't say anything, and the anticipation nearly killed me. I still had no idea what was happening here. Were we about to continue our evening together in a different way, or was that all in my head? If you leave, you'll never know. Dorian slipped his hands into his pockets as he stood across from me. Is he waiting for me to go? Or is he thinking about whether taking things further is a good idea? I had heard him say we should go upstairs, right? Never in my life had I made the first move. But also never in my life had I wanted someone as much as I wanted Dorian Vanderbilt right now. He'd gotten me so riled up tonight that I was apparently willing to risk humiliation for the chance to satisfy this unprecedented hunger inside me. The words escaped me before I could think better of them. "Would you...want to come to my room?" His eyes widened as he stood there, mouth open. Oh no. I really needed to learn to read people because I was dead wrong about him being interested in more than just a game. Shit. "I can't, Primrose," he said. Backtrack. Backtrack. "Of course! That was dumb." I shook my head. "Goodnight." "Wait!" he called after me. I fumbled over my words, continuing to hurry away. "You're right. It's late. Goodnight!" After running down the hall to my room, I closed the door and leaned my back against it, trying to calm myself after the horror of the situation I'd put myself in. Eventually I forced myself to crawl into bed, pulled the covers over my head, and prayed for sleep to claim my humiliation. In a romance-themed observation show, several participants undergo a series of interactions and conflicts filled with love, misunderstandings, and power struggles. In the end, one couple rises to over...