Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 70955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70955 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
“No excuses!” cried one of Maria’s friends from college.
“Yeah, pick a dare!” the others chimed in.
“Fine,” I huffed. “Dare.”
Maria’s eyes lit up, and she rubbed her hands together in excitement. “I want you to kiss a guy before we get back to the suite.”
Kiss a guy?! I figured whatever she’d dare me to do was going to be outside my comfort zone, but I hadn’t expected her to tell me to accost a stranger. Especially when she knew darn well that I was a virgin. Not that she was daring me to have sex with some guy I picked up off the street, but still. Maria knew me well enough to know how weird I’d feel going up to some guy and laying a kiss on him. Then I brightened as I had an idea—maybe if I kept the kiss PG, I wouldn’t die of embarrassment.
Maria crushed my hopes when she added, “And it has to be a real kiss on the lips with tongue.”
I wrinkled my nose and heaved a deep sigh, my shoulders dropping as I trudged along with Maria and the rest of her bridal party. The next six blocks were torture. My feet were killing me, and the girls pointed out about a dozen guys they thought I should kiss. By the time we were less than a block away from our hotel, I was starting to seriously worry about how much they’d all had to drink because their picks were terrible. The last one had been walking into an attorney’s office whose awning advertised quickie divorces. He’d been wearing a tux, and the woman with him was still in her bridal gown. Presumably, the guy had gotten married last night and already regretted the decision. Kissing him in front of the woman he was about to divorce was out of the question because I definitely didn’t need that kind of drama in my life.
“There’s no way she’s going to do it,” one of the bridesmaids mumbled.
“Probably not,” Maria agreed before lifting the bottle of the one hundred and ninety-two proof Polish vodka she’d snagged at the ice bar we’d hit up before calling it a night. “But I’m cool with that too because then she’ll have to take a shot in a forfeit. That will be almost as funny because Amelia isn’t much of a drinker, and this stuff is like jet fuel.”
I grimaced, reminding myself that my cousin really did love me even if she wasn’t showing it in the best way at the moment. She’d had more than her fair share of that vodka, along with several other drinks tonight. Blaming her teasing on the alcohol, I was almost ready to call off her harebrained dare and take a swig from the bottle when I spotted him—the only man I could picture myself kissing tonight...or any night, for that matter.
He strode out of the hotel and casino directly next door to the one where we were staying. He was wearing a black suit that looked as though it had been tailored to fit his tall body. His dark hair was overdue for a cut, and my fingers itched to run through it, and I could practically feel the scruff on his face scraping against my soft skin. Something about this man had my dormant libido roaring to life.
As his head turned in our direction and his dark eyes met mine, I whispered, “I’m not going to need the vodka.”
“Huh? What’d you say?” Maria asked, her brow wrinkling in confusion.
“You’re not going to get the chance to see me drinking that jet fuel.” I sped up my pace, stepping as carefully as I could in the shoes that were bound to land me in the emergency room if she made me wear them again. Glancing over my shoulder, I added, “I accepted the dare, and I’m going to go through with it.”
Maria came to a sudden halt, her jaw going slack in shock at my announcement. Her friends stopped with her, and they all watched as I approached the man I planned to kiss. His gaze swept down my body, and as I got closer, I was able to see the male appreciation in his dark eyes. Knowing the attraction was reciprocated helped settle most of my nerves at doing something so out of character.
My newly discovered confidence took a nosedive when I stumbled and crashed into his chest, but I wasn’t going to allow that to stop me. With his strong hands wrapped around my upper arms—conveniently holding me steady—I rose as high as I could go on my toes and pressed my lips against his. I felt his fingers tighten as a deep groan rumbled up his chest. Emboldened by his response, I gently stroked my tongue across his bottom lip. I figured that would be enough to satisfy the dare, but when his lips parted, I took the kiss further. My heart raced as my tongue swept inside his mouth to tangle with his. When I heard my cousin and her friends hooting and hollering, I reluctantly pulled away from my mystery man.