Truth or Dare - Danielle Allen Page 0,13
sat on the loveseat near the door that led to the balcony.
“We have to talk about what happened on the yacht,” I blurted out.
He scrubbed his face with his hands. “Yo! That’s why I’m here. What was that?”
“Right? I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it.”
“The fellas were giving me shit all night and it had me questioning what was real and what wasn’t,” he chuckled lightly.
Feeling a sense of relief, I giggled. “The same thing was happening in Chloe’s room! There’s a logical reason for what happened.”
“Well, I’d love to hear it because”—he lifted his hands up in surrender— “I’m lost.”
“We’re great kissers and we’re sexy as hell.” I shrugged nonchalantly. “That’s that.”
“That’s that, huh?” Amusement riddled his voice.
“Yes.” I tucked my legs underneath me. “Of course people were going to feel the heat between us. You got new muscles. I got a little ass now. They felt heat because we’re hot!”
“Yo!” He snickered and I immediately joined in.
But when the amusement faded away, we were just left staring at each other from across the room.
“I just wanted to make sure we’re still good though,” he said carefully.
“Yeah,” I said quickly. “Of course!”
He looked perplexed. “You sure? You were acting funny toward the end of the night.”
“No, I wasn’t.”
“Yeah, you were.”
“I promise you I wasn’t.” I waved it off. “I was just in my own head.”
He stared at me, but he said nothing.
“What?” I whispered.
“I thought maybe I scared you…” His sentence trailed off.
“Scared me?” My face twisted in confusion. “Scared me how?”
He rested his elbows on his knees and rubbed his hands together. “I feel like I should apologize or something.”
My brows furrowed. “Apologize for what?”
His chest rose and fell twice before he answered. “My dick.”
“What?” Just the mention of it made me squirm. I played it off by untucking my legs from under me and placing my feet on the floor. “What do you mean?”
“You’re my friend and that was my bad. I should’ve controlled my reaction to you,” he apologized earnestly.
I felt a myriad of things at once. He felt bad for getting hard, yet all I felt was turned on by it. The fact that we were on different pages reinforced my decision to ignore and deny my one-sided desires.
I shook my head. “Stop it. You don’t need to apologize for that. You didn’t do anything wrong!”
“I should’ve—”
“You had a biological reaction,” I interrupted.
“Yeah, but—”
“But nothing! We were drinking. We were on a yacht for the first time. We were playing Truth or Dare. We were enjoying a beautiful night. We were feeling all types of happy feelings and our endorphins were running amuck. That’s biology. That’s science! It’s nothing for you to apologize for.”
I was speaking so fast; it wasn’t clear if I was trying to convince him or myself.
He exhaled. “But—”
“But nothing, Kingston,” I interjected again. “It’s just science and alcohol. And it was the unpredictability of the game. It wasn’t anything more than that. You couldn’t help that you got hard just like I couldn’t help that I got wet. It’s just what happened. It’s not anyone’s fault.”
I tried to look away from him, but I couldn’t. The silence stretched between us.
He licked his lips. “You were wet.”
Realizing what I’d admitted in my rant, I felt the heat rising up my neck and flushing my face. “Yeah,” I answered softly.
“During the kiss or when you were doing your lap dance?”
I didn’t say anything at first, mulling over what would be the safest answer. I couldn’t decide, so I went with the truth. “Both.”
He inhaled deeply, adjusting his basketball shorts. “Okay.”
There was a knot coiling deep in my belly. “Okay.”
“Just science and alcohol,” he stated, watching me.
“And Truth or Dare,” I added.
His eyes skated down my body before meeting my gaze again. “That’s all it was?”
“Yeah.” My voice came out shakier than I intended. “Nothing to be worried about and definitely nothing to apologize for.”
He stood and it took everything in me not to check him out. But I held strong, maintaining eye contact the entire time. When he approached the bed, I instinctively stood. We were a foot apart and all of a sudden, it felt like all the air had left the room.
He searched my eyes. “What if that’s not all it was?”
“What do you mean?”
I knew exactly what he meant, but I needed to stall. There was a tingling sensation radiating from my core and confusing the feelings I had for my friend.
My friend!
He took a fraction of a