Page 30 of Double or Nothing

I care enough that my butterflies notch up and I clench my own thighs together. Crazy, but true.

Jack palms Bryce’s cock through his suit trousers in my clear view, and I see how swollen it makes him. I take a swig of champagne, trying to disguise the blush on my cheeks.

Jack’s eyes burn me into me as I do it.

He can see my blush whether I like it or not.

His eyes trail down to my thighs, and it only makes me clench them tighter.

“What’s your opinion, Alice?” he asks me. “Take a look around and tell me, do we have a crowd of spectators gathering, armed with pitchforks?”

“No,” I manage to say.

“No. Because nobody gives a toss, and that’s great, because it means I can do this just as easily.” He takes his hand from Bryce’s swollen crotch and wraps it around the back of Bryce’s neck to pull him closer.

“Jack, what–” Bryce begins, but doesn’t get the chance to finish before Jack lands his smiling lips on his.

I expect Bryce to pull away in a flash of horror, but he doesn’t. Jack’s tongue sweeps across Bryce’s lips, and Bryce breathes back against his mouth, his body responding.

Needing.

I watch the unfathomable, up close and personal. I must look like a deer in headlights as I watch Bryce making out with the enigmatic man between us.

It’s me who’s shuffling now, because I can’t tear my eyes away. The seconds slow down to minutes, and I’m transfixed. Consumed. My breaths are as shallow as theirs are by the time they break the kiss.

And then Jack holds his hands up, giving a hearty shrug.

“And there we have it. Like I said. Nobody gives a toss.”

He’s correct. The bar is still bustling the same as it was, people still engaged in conversation the same as they were. Nobody is staring. Nobody is sneering. Nobody is chiding.

But I’m not the same as I was. Not after that show. There are butterflies in my ribcage as well as my stomach now as I meet Jack’s mischievous eyes.

“Did you give a toss, Alice?” he asks me. “Did it make you want to grab a pitchfork and yell in my face?” He pauses, with his deep blue eyes scouring mine. “Or did it make you want to do the opposite? Did you want a go yourself? I know where I’d hedge my bets on that one.”

“Jack! You’re pushing your luck now!” Bryce says, but Jack doesn’t look away from me. He reads me – that much is obvious. He’s a puppet master holding the strings in this rendezvous, and I can’t hold on to my pent-up persona. It’s too much. The artist in me is screaming, wanting to burst free. My imagination is running wild, and hungry for more.

I let it run faster. Fuck the consequences.

“Who knows? Maybe I could’ve been tempted,” I laugh, then down the rest of my champagne and hold out my glass for another.

CHAPTER TEN

JACK

Itop up Alice’s glass and give her a wink.

She grins back at me before downing the lot and holding her glass out for another.

“Steady on,” Bryce says as I top up her glass.

“Don’t listen to him,” I say. “Live in the now!”

“In the now!” Alice says, raising her glass and taking a sip.

I hold the bottle out to Bryce and he relents, offering me his glass to top up.

Eli always claims the golden rule. Go big, or go home. Everything else is boring. Pointless, he says. If you don’t have enough steel to play hard, someone else will claim the gold, is his mantra.