Page 77 of Darkness Defined

“Not like this, I don’t.” If he didn’t stop touching me, we were going to have bigger problems than his lack of self-esteem.

“Would you just get on with it?”

“Alright.” The flash in his eye was positively wicked. He grabbed a lime and squeezed it enough to get the juice out, then rubbed it on my abdomen. It seemed unnecessarily low to me, but then I didn’t really know what this was supposed to entail. “Lean back a bit,” he ordered.

“Why?”

“So, the salt doesn’t just go on the floor.” Curious about what he meant, I did it. He sprinkled salt where he had rubbed the lime and reached back to grab the shot he’d already poured.

Oh, no. Please don’t do what I think you’re going to do. Please no.

It was all wishful thinking. In one expert move, Matt tossed back the shot and then licked the salt right off of me. My eyes rolled into the back of my head and I prayed my knees wouldn’t buckle.

Of all the things to dare him to do…

When I wasn’t afraid I’d simply fall over, I looked down at him. He was sitting, just finishing the lime, and he still had that look in his eye. “You did that on purpose,” I accused.

“You’re the one who chose the dare. If it’s any consolation, you would’ve liked the other version even less.” The cushions puffed out air as he flung himself back, clearly unconcerned about what he’d put me through. “Truth or dare,” he asked.

“Truth,” I said by rote, almost instantly regretting the choice.

Please don’t ask me what that was like.

“Have you ever cheated on anyone?”

“Absolutely not,” I replied heatedly, then promptly knocked back another shot to settle my nerves.

“Have you ever been cheated on?” he followed up, no doubt registering my anger.

“That is technically a different question, but I’ll give it to you. Yes, my ex cheated on me. It’s one of the many reasons we broke up… again,” I added belatedly. “Your turn. Truth or dare.”

“Truth.” He was definitely throwing me a bone.

“Where are you from?”

He only hesitated a moment. “Nebraska mostly. Ask another, it’s only fair.”

I thought for a moment. The answer didn’t really give me what I’d hoped for, but I wasn’t about to waste another question on it. “Tell me something you don’t want me to know.”

“The drawing isn’t a self-portrait. Truth or dare?”

My head spun. If it wasn’t a picture of him, then who was it supposed to be? He smacked my leg. “Fine, dare, since I technically had two truths.”

There was nothing remotely sweet or innocent about the grin he gave me. “I dare you to do a body shot.”

“You can’t be serious. Choose something else.” I scrambled for any way to stop this. “Isn’t daring someone to repeat a previous dare against the rules or something?”

He shook his head. “Nope. A dare is a dare. Let’s see if you were paying attention.”

I snatched a lime off of the table and the salt shaker while he poured the shot. “You’re one sick pup. Give me your arm.” He looked skeptical, but did it. Faster than he could stop me, I repeated the process on his forearm. The lime was worse than the tequila. “There, happy?”

“That’s not how you do it.” To his credit, he looked properly scandalized.

“Body, by definition, includes the arm.”

“There is a spirit of intent that you’ve violated. You can either do it right or your next dare is going to be worse. And don’t think you can avoid it altogether by just choosing truth. By your own rules, you’ll eventually have to choose dare.”

I had zero desire to find out what his obviously demented mind could come up with that was worse than what he’d already dared me to do. “Matt, I can’t,” I pleaded.