Bound to Happen. Alison Kent

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СКАЧАТЬ whiskey. “If I’m gonna get lucky tonight, I’m all for getting this show on the road.”

      Poe lifted a brow. “Weren’t you the one talking earlier about taking matters into your own hands?”

      Ray chuckled, shaking his head and reaching for his drink. He met Sydney’s gaze over the rim of the glass he lifted to his mouth. His eyes were bright, a beautiful green, his gaze sharp and intent in both focus and connection.

      Shivering, Sydney raised her glass. This was exactly what she wanted. This anticipation, this attraction. This slow, simmering arousal that was beginning to sweeten the stakes of the evening. She sipped her drink. The whiskey burned and she lifted her chin as she swallowed.

      The motion drew Ray’s attention. His eyes flashed and, as he lowered his glass to the table, he blew out a long, slow breath and briefly closed his eyes. Sydney blinked, but looked away as she lifted her lashes. As much as she wanted to hurry, she wanted to wait, to take her time and savor the seduction as much as she planned to savor plucking the forbidden fruit from the vine.

      She turned her attention back to Jess, who’d dislodged Kinsey from his lap and gotten to his feet. He placed both hands flat on the table and glanced around, making eye contact with everyone. “Here’s how we play. Whoever I choose to go first will pick someone of the opposite sex and ask that person a question. That person then decides whether he—or she—wants to answer truthfully or go for the dare.”

      “And we have to come up with the dares, too?” Lauren asked, and Jess nodded.

      Anton, slumped back in his chair with arms crossed, looked as if he’d swallowed a nastier alcohol than was ever stocked in the liquor cabinet on Coconut Caye. “What if the person answers, but someone else at the table knows for a fact that they’re telling a lie?”

      Sydney took a deep breath and held it, waiting for Lauren to jump down his throat. But it didn’t happen. Lauren only stared somberly at her drink. Her wounded expression tugged hard on Sydney’s girlfriend heartstrings. Why did relationships have to be so damned difficult?

      Anton’s question appeared to leave Jess stumped. Then he smiled, his dimples and his eyes flashing in that bad-boy way he had of looking at the world. “Then that person calls them on it, and they have to take the dare, anyway.”

      “Ouch. That’s cold,” Doug said.

      Poe reached over and patted his shoulder. “All in the name of good, honest fun.”

      “Hey.” Grabbing Poe’s hand where her fingers lightly gouged his muscles, Doug added, “I resent that remark.”

      “More like you resemble that remark,” Ray corrected.

      “Thanks for sticking by me, buddy.” At Doug’s grousing, Ray laughed.

      “Yeah, dude. This is supposed to be a battle of the sexes.” Jess dropped back into his chair. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”

      Ray splashed another shot of bourbon into his glass. “Let’s just say I’m doing all I can to keep my getting-lucky options open.”

      The other three men razzed him with loudly voiced hoots and hisses and snickering laughter. All Sydney could do was stare at the liquid in her glass, knowing the smile on her face was bound to give her away. She wasn’t sure she wanted everyone at the table to know of her plans before she’d had a chance to share her intentions with Ray. Before she’d shown him exactly what a lucky guy he was and done so in a more intimate setting, without an audience.

      Poe finally and effectively killed the locker-room atmosphere by drumming her hands on the table. “Yoo-hoo, Jess. I think we all understand your rules. Now are we going to play or what?”

      Jess turned his attention to Poe. “Yes, we’re going to play. And since you started this mess and put me in charge, I’ve decided you get to go first.”

      Shaking her head, Kinsey clucked her tongue in disappointment. “Put a man in charge and he still needs a woman to get things started.”

      “I hate to break it to you, Kinsey,” Doug said, sitting between Lauren and Poe and ignoring the threatening glares from both women. “But not only can we get things started without a woman, we can finish things off the same way.”

      Poe waved off his comeback. “Tell that to the centerfold sharing your special moment.”

      Every man in the room squirmed.

      “Imagination and touch are more important than visual stimulation to a woman,” Lauren added, directing a pointed glance at Doug. “Which is why we can start and finish with or without the help of a battery-operated boyfriend.”

      “Good ol’ B.O.B.” Kinsey sighed. “A fresh supply of batteries and he never lets a girl down.”

      Anton snorted and rolled his eyes before downing half his bourbon. Doug, on the other hand, stared at Kinsey in disbelief. “Are you telling me that you get off every time you, uh…take B.O.B. to bed?”

      Kinsey only smiled sweetly, tossing back her long blond hair. “Why don’t you ask me that when it’s your turn to play?”

      Doug shook his head and under his breath muttered, “Women. More trouble than they’re worth.”

      Poe dug an elbow into his ribs to shut him up. “You can get back at Kinsey and all of womankind later, after I get through getting back at Jess.”

      Jess groaned and thumped his forehead on the edge of the table before looking up and grimacing at Poe.

      Poe crossed her arms on the edge of the table and leaned forward, sparing a glance for Ray at her left, Doug at her right, then Anton across the table, before she settled her sights on Jess. “Now, Jess. Since we’re discussing sexy toys, my question is this. Have you ever done it with an inanimate object and, if so, with what?”

      Jess’s expression remained deadpan. “Such as?”

      “Oh, I don’t know. A blowup doll. An apple pie. That sort of thing.”

      “I think Poe has been watching a few too many movies,” Kinsey said, and Ray snickered. Then Doug snickered. Sydney couldn’t help herself and she snickered, too. Jess remained totally cool. She had to give him credit.

      “Are you talking all the way back to puberty?” he asked, leaning over the table toward her. “Or during my recent sex sabbatical?”

      Poe leaned even farther over the table, until her breasts threatened to spill out of her top. “I’m talking any time during your life, sweetie, though I’d really like to hear more about this sex sabbatical.”

      Jess leaned forward, too. “Well, then, sweetie. I take the dare.”

      Jess’s refusal to answer brought him everything from howls to sympathetic groans to hysterical laughter, the latter from Lauren, who Sydney was beginning to think had had too much to drink.

      Sitting back with a smugly satisfied smile, Poe laced her hands behind her head. “Since you dug yourself in deep with that one, I’ll make it easy on you. You have to kiss one of your dinner companions. Girl or guy, it doesn’t matter. The only caveat is that you have to look like you mean it.”

      “That’s СКАЧАТЬ