The Dare

Chapter Twelve

"This ship captain, did you pay him to curse the senator?"

"Of course not!" Grandma shook her head. "No money exchanged hands."

The agent took a long sip of coffee.

"However," Grandma paused, "there are other ways for payment."

The agent choked. "Ma'am, prostitution is illegal."

"I would never sell my body." Grandma shook her head vehemently "Besides, the captain's already tasted the goods. Past lover, you understand. He was only too happy to… aid me in my quest."

"Your quest for love?" The agent's eyebrows narrowed.

"Yes. Let's call it that. It has a certain ring to it!"

Jace

I'd just made a deal with the devil. I'd signed the contract in blood, and now all I had to do was live through the next six days. The good news? I could save my career. And Beth was right. She was the answer. I'd send a text to Rick as soon as I could.

As for giving her six days of a fairytale? I imagined it would be like babysitting, more or less. Lavish her with gifts, feed her, give her enormous amounts of wine, and wait for her to fall asleep at night. Okay, so maybe if I wanted to get arrested, it would be like babysitting. I just needed to keep her happy, repeat for six days, and home free. How hard could it be? To woo a woman? I wooed people on a twenty-four-seven basis. Then again, most people I wooed weren't ones I'd been pining for since I'd gone to my first dance.

The other issue would be that damn curse. I wasn't an idiot. I didn't believe in curses, but the man had been right. Thirty-two minutes ago we'd gotten to the island. And for thirty-two minutes, I'd done nothing but stare at Beth's mouth, watched her hands as she gripped her silverware, and closed my eyes when the breeze carried her scent into my personal space.

Shit.

Six days.

Less than a week.

I could do anything for a week.

"Jace." Beth's soft voice carried across the table. At least she didn't sound pissed anymore. "Did you hear anything I just said?"

"Sure." I sipped my wine.

"So you agree?"

"Absolutely."

"On the neck, don't you think?"

"Uh…" Well hell, that's where daydreaming got a person. "The neck is perfect."

"How long should it be?"

"Long enough." I was the king of vague. I could field questions all day long without actually giving an answer. Point, Jace.

"And color?"

"I think bright colors are the best." I nodded. "They seem to… attract attention." I gave her my best politician smile.

"Hmm, maybe you're right." She looked down at the paper in her hands and started scribbling. "Tomorrow good?"

"Sure." I leaned over to see what she was writing down. But she jerked the sheet back. "I need you to sign."

"What am I signing?" I asked, giving her another polite smile.

"You said you were paying attention." She handed me the pen.

"I was. I am."

"Good. Sign here."

I was ashamed to admit I signed, only because I didn't want to look like an ass.

Dr. Z approached the table. "I take it you filled out the information?"

"We did." Beth grinned.

"Fantastic." Dr. Z took the folder and pulled out the sheet I'd signed. Her eyes widened slightly. "How very brave of you two!"

"We thought so." Beth reached for my hand.

I had a bad feeling.

"A twin dragon tattoo! And on your necks! How lovely! The dragon is the symbol of being connected. It's rare for couples to be so committed upon arrival!"

"That's us," I said in a dry voice. How the hell was I going to talk myself out of that one? I'd signed the damn document. "Committed." I kicked Beth under the table.

She winced as Dr. Z examined the rest of the papers. "Alright, I'll just schedule the rest of your week and slip the paper under you door this evening. Your first session is with one of our newer therapists. She's absolutely lovely."

The sound of Dr. Z's heels clicking against the tile floor felt like a noose getting tighter around my neck.

"Tattoo?" I tilted my head. "You think you're funny, don't you?"

"You weren't paying attention."

"I was." Sort of. If watching her mouth move was paying attention, and memorizing her scent was my pop quiz. Yeah, I was paying attention.

"No, you weren't. We shook on it. Six days. I don't want you ignoring me, I don't want you texting. I want the fantasy. God knows, it's only six days." Her face fell a bit before she smiled to cover up her disappointment.

Shit.

"You're right." I reached for her hand. "I'll do better. It's just been a long day." And if she kept saying six, I was going to six the hell out of her in a public forum.

"I know." Beth stared down at our hands.

I should have pulled back. I should have run. Instead, I placed my other hand on top of hers and whispered, "Why don't we go back to the room. I'll draw you a bath and romance the hell out of you."

Which also meant I was going to be rewarded with sainthood for not trying to seduce her the minute we were alone.

"I thought you were gifted with words?"

"Exhaustion. It's set in. Plus, I'm cursed. Don't expect perfection."

"Who said I wanted perfection?" She winked. "I just want the fairytale."

"Didn't we already have this talk? They're the same thing."

"No," Beth stood, "they aren't. And that's why you're so bitter. Some things aren't always black and white, Mr. Senator. Now romance me."

"Day one." I smirked.

"Day one." She agreed.

I held her hand the entire way to the hut.

****

"Sure, I'll dance with you." She put her hand in mine. I walked her to the dance floor, unable to take my eyes off her glistening dress or pretty brown hair. My cousin was going to kill me if I bailed on her, but the pull was too strong.

"You're really pretty." I pulled her into my arms and tried act smooth, even though I was pretty sure my hands were shaking. "What's your name?"

"Beth." Her head tilted back, enough for me to see her crazy green eyes. "What's yours?"

"Jace." My voice cracked at the end. Great, I'd just give away my age. No doubt she was a senior and thought I was about as cute as seventh grader with a cold.

"Thanks."

She leaned her head on my shoulder. At least I had my height going for me.

"For what?"

"The rescue." She laughed. And a part of me that had been dormant for a lifetime flared to life. God, she was beautiful.

"I'll rescue you anytime. Day or night."

"Is that a promise?"

Her smile was deadly. It made me want to kiss her, and the last thing I needed to be seen doing was kissing a girl from another school while I got my ass handed to me by the defensive line of the football team. It was their territory, not mine.

But I couldn't stop the words from coming. "Of course."

My head descended; she met me halfway. Our lips touched, and I kissed her hard. Harder than I'd ever kissed a girl before in my entire life. It was a hello and a goodbye kiss, because I knew it wasn't something I'd be repeating. She was way out of my league. As it was, I was playing with fire even kissing what I'm sure was the quarterback's girlfriend. But I couldn't help myself.

"Brevik," a male voice sneered from behind.

I pulled away from Beth and slowly turned to face, who I was sure, would be the largest kid in school.

Instead, it was the coach from the football team. Aw, hell. He only knew me because I'd unintentionally put one of his players out of commission for the rest of the season.

"Who are you here with?"

"My cousin." I swallowed nervously.

He peered around me at Beth and chuckled. "She doesn't look like your cousin."

"Not her." I ground my teeth together. "She's just… a friend."

Behind him, my cousin waved frantically.

"Look, I gotta run. My date needs me." Geez, it wasn't like I was getting secret plays from Beth or anything. I turned and gave her hand a quick squeeze. "It was fun."

She gave me a sad nod, and I walked away.

When I looked back, she was gone.

The sound of the alarm jolted me out of the dream. Why the hell was I dreaming about that now? I smacked the alarm clock with my hand and peeked over at Beth. She was sleeping like the dead, too beautiful for her own good, and I was horny as hell from that damn dream. I shouldn't have walked away. I should have gotten her number. Not that it would have changed a damn thing. People didn't date in high school and then get married right away anymore. At the time, I'd still believed in love at first sight. Hell, I'd thought it had been love; the rest of the memory was painful as hell. My therapist said my mind had somehow pushed the rest of the night out of my consciousness; he'd said accidents had a way of doing that. I was protecting myself. But from what? I wasn't sure.

When I'd woken up in the hospital, I was changed — everything had changed. My parents had said I wasn't the same, but I had no idea why. It had made me even more paranoid about pleasing them, about getting things right. Getting my career right.

Speaking of careers, I grabbed my phone from the nightstand and was rewarded with a low-battery signal. I got up to grab my bag then remembered that I didn't have a bag. The same checked bag that had yet to appear.

My guess was that Grandma was holding it hostage. Or maybe Jake and Travis. Those bastards must have known. And how the hell did the woman have this planned a month ahead of time? A month ago I was saying yes to her scheme with Char and Jake.

A light bulb flickered on in the darkness of my brain.

I'd said yes.

That's where I'd gone wrong. I should have stayed far, far away.

Russia. I should have moved to Russia.

"Beth." I nudged her a bit.

She was lying on her stomach, wearing the outfit from the night before. She stretched, her shirt inching up on her body, exposing her flat stomach and a slight scar where her appendix had obviously been.

She moaned again and lifted her arms high above her head.

The shirt followed.

So did my eyes.

I blinked a few times, fascinated with how smooth her skin looked. I wanted to touch it — to hell with that, I wanted to lick it. Had I licked it the other night?

"Jace.

Her voice was low, sexy as hell, raspy. Shit, I was in trouble.

"What?"

"Do we have to go to couples' therapy?"

"Aw, sweetheart, backing out already? Where's your balls?"

"I don't want balls." She yawned. "I just want a damn charge. I have girl parts. I talk a big game. I use big words. Right now, I want a big-ass coffee and a big sleep."

"Stop saying big."

My body was responding to that word in a very big way, and I was already struggling after watching her yawn and stretch and mew all over the place.

"Fine. Large. I want a large coffee, a large—"

I covered her mouth with my hand. "Let's establish mornings as quiet time. A time of reflection, and thinking, and—"

She bit my damn hand.

"Coffee."

"Bite marks." I showed her my hand.

"Woo me."

She fell back onto the bed in a heap, and I had to admit I liked the bossy attitude. I got up and started fumbling with the Keurig.

The shower turned on.

"I'm so proud!" I yelled without turning around. "You turned it on all by yourself."

And I turned myself on by saying turn on. Damn curse! I gave myself a little shake and placed the cup under the spout.

"Aghhh… mother of—"

Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.

Absolute silence then an ear splintering, "Jace!"

I ran toward the bathroom.

"So big!" Beth yelled.

The shower was one of those walk-in ones, where there was no curtain or door or anything to hide any scratch of your body.

Beth was standing in the corner with a shampoo bottle in her hands, pointing at the opposite corner.

The first thing I noticed was her nakedness, but it was quickly trumped by another shout and a shampoo bottle flying by my head, causing another thump.

"Get him!"

A spider that looked a hell of a lot like a shrunken MMA fighter barreled toward me. Now, I wasn't a fan of spiders. I didn't hate them, but that didn't mean I particularly enjoyed the idea of something hairy sinking its fangs into me. So I did what any logical man would do.

I looked for a gun.

And when I realized I wasn't James Bond nor did I live in a spy novel, I grabbed the next best thing.

The hair dryer.

It wasn't plugged in, but it was big enough for combat. I smashed the hell out of the spider until all that was left were tufts of legs and pieces of hair.

"Did you get him?" Beth came up behind me, shivering.

"Yeah" I wiped my brow with my arm, "it was a battle. Lots of lives lost. Blood shed. But… I got him."

"My hero," she whispered, wrapping her arms around me from behind.

I froze.

Not because she was calling me her hero. Please, I wasn't that narcissistic. It was because she was naked. And she had forgotten about her nakedness at a very fortunate time.

Men everywhere: Applaud. I didn't even react. Not one gasp or shudder. I simply basked.

Basking: Another word for utter stillness when a lady is pressing against you in such an erotic way all you can do is close your eyes and smile. See also: Euphoria.

"I'm naked." Beth released her hold. My body immediately tightened in all the wrong places, and I'm ashamed to admit, I let out a pathetic whine. Or maybe it was a growl, because the next thing I knew, I was turning around and pushing her into the shower, up against the wall, and taking her like a—

Great, so not only had I frozen in a euphoric state, but I had resorted to daydreaming.

"Thanks." I saw movement out of the corner of my eye as Beth leaned back under the shower and closed her eyes.

It was like watching my own personal Pantene Pro-V commercial, only the girl was hotter and available.

But not to me.

Not in reality.

"Are you going to watch me, or are you going to get ready?" Beth said, water dripping from her face.

"Do I get a choice?" I half-pleaded.

"No, but you'll get a knee to your balls if you don't leave in five seconds. The spider's gone, you've saved the world, now take your hammer and go."

"Uh, hammer?"

"Hammer, hair dryer — same thing. Go, Thor. Go get your cape on. We have therapy."

Men. We're easy. No really, we are. She'd basically called me an Avenger, which, in my book, meant I was like two steps ahead of Iron Man, and a hell-of-a-lot better-looking.

I sported a smug grin the entire time I got ready.

****

Thanks to the water-stealing princess, I wasn't able to shower in time. And Doctor Z had specifically said that we needed to be on time. Not wanting to start off therapy on a bad foot, I took one for the team.

"It's only an hour, and then we have what the schedule states as Couple Fun Time by the pool." Beth checked her watch and handed me the map of the place.

I locked the door to our hut and turned the map sideways.

"North," I said, examining the red circle that said Serenity Circle.

"I don't like that name." Beth snorted. "It sounds like a place to get high."

"If they have drugs, just say no." I stuffed the paper into front pocket of my lame-ass linen shirt and grabbed her hand.

"What are you doing?" She tried to pull away.

I held tighter. "What does it look like I'm doing?"

"Holding my hand." She squeezed back, and then a girlish smile appeared, all sense of hostility evaporating instantly.

"That I am." I pulled her closer and inhaled. Damn, her shampoo smelled good. "You said you wanted six days of a fairytale. I thought holding hands was a good place to start."

"Oh."

Her face turned crimson, and I instantly felt it in my gut as if someone had taken a baseball bat and beat me crapless.

She'd never had her hand held.

I'd bet money on it.

Girls didn't blush over things like that. Most girls didn't give a rat's ass. What type of man wouldn't hold her hand? What type of man wouldn't first at least try to woo the shit out of her?

Wrong wording. One should not woo shit out of anyone, but I digress.

Sighing, we walked hand-in-hand toward the building, and I made myself a promise. One I knew I would most likely regret this time next week.

I was going to actually try. I was going to leave my baggage at the door, check into the happy romance hotel, and make her feel wanted.

And when it was time to leave, I'd do so without looking back. But I'd also do so without any regrets, and that was reason enough to take the leap.