Game Read online

  GAME

  Copyright © 2016 by Ashley Love

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof

  may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever

  without the express written permission of the publisher

  except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Table of Contents

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

  1

  "Truth or dare, Blaire?"

  "Come on you guys, don't you think we're a little bit too old for this game?" I rolled my eyes and topped off my wine glass.

  "Hell no. You're never too old for Truth or Dare." Kayla drained her glass and held it out to me for a refill, but I only filled it halfway. She pouted and continued to hold the glass out. "I live two blocks away. I'm walking home."

  "Fine," I said, filling Kayla's glass. "But you know I hate Truth or Dare."

  "Still? God, that was so long ago."

  "And yet it remains one of the most mortifying moments of my life."

  "Oh come on, lighten up. It's just a game."

  "Truth," Blaire interrupted, tossing her long blonde hair over her shoulder.

  "God, y'all are so boring." Kayla's voice had taken on that whiney, belligerent tone that meant she was on the verge of getting obnoxiously drunk and I sighed to myself as I refilled Blaire's glass and settled back into the couch between my two oldest friends. I missed them like crazy while we were all away at school, but it was funny how quickly we fell back into our old tired roles when we got together. Last week we'd all been so busy with Christmas that this was our first chance to really hang out and now I was questioning the wisdom of opening a bottle of wine for the occasion.

  "Dares aren't as much fun when there aren't any guys around. We might as well catch up on girl talk." Blaire poked me with her bare toes and winked at me sympathetically.

  "Well, I beg to differ. My new roommate this semester showed me a thing or two about the kind of fun you can have when there are no boys around. But if you guys aren't up for some real fun, then fine. Blaire, here's your question: did you screw that English professor you were crushing on?"

  Blaire laughed and shook her head. "No, he's still sexy as hell in his little tweed jacket, but I spared him the full force of my feminine wiles. I'm about to declare an English major and it would make for some awkward advisor meetings. Truth or dare, Kayla?"

  "No one ever accused me of being boring. I'll take a dare."

  "I dare you to take your panties off and wear them on your head."

  Me and Blaire dissolved into giggles and Kayla heaved a sigh as she stood and reached under her short denim skirt to work her underwear down.

  "Oh my God, what are we, twelve? This is not what I meant when I said I learned a thing or two." She may have complained, but Kayla couldn't keep her giggles entirely under wraps as she pulled her short brown ponytail up through the leg hole of her red thong, sat primly down on the couch and turned to me with exaggerated dignity. "Truth or dare?"

  "Truth."

  "Of course. Do you have a vibrator?"

  "Oh my God! No, I don't have a vibrator. Gross, Kayla."

  "It's not gross, you prude, it's a necessity. Maybe I'll return that silk shirt and get you one of those for Christmas instead. You look like you need to loosen up a little. Something's got you more stressed out than usual."

  "No, I love that shirt. And I'm not stressed out. Please, I'm begging you. Do not get me a vibrator. Help me out here, Blaire."

  "Sorry Cass, I'm gonna have to go with Kayla on this one. I love mine. Both of them. Sometimes at the same time."

  "That's what I'm talking about!"

  Kayla and Blaire high fived over my head and I tried to force my blush back into hiding. This was one of those times I wondered if I was the weird one or if my friends were. The thought of owning a vibrator, let alone getting one from someone else as a gift was enough to make me beet red, but my best friends didn't seem to find it embarrassing in the least. In fact, they were currently comparing their sex toys' sizes and features, casual as could be, as if they had been using them for years. Heck, maybe they had.

  I took another long sip of wine, determined to loosen up a little and have fun while I could. Despite my denial, the truth was that I was stressed out. Maybe it had something to do with my sixteen course hours, ten hours a week of work study, mandatory workouts at five in the morning so I could keep my dance team scholarship, and trying to fit in time for my new boyfriend. Now that I had a few weeks off with absolutely nothing to do and nowhere to be, I wanted to take full advantage. Even being away from Trey was something of a relief, though it made me feel guilty to admit it.

  After a liter bottle of wine and nearly an hour later, the increasingly silly game of Truth or Dare was interrupted when headlights swept up the driveway and all three of us turned to the window to watch an old gold Honda pull into the garage. I hurriedly took my bra off the outside of my thin sweater, the result of accepting a dare from Blaire, and shoved it under a couch cushion, hoping that it wasn't too obvious that my nipples were enjoying the soft tickle of the cashmere a little more than they should.

  "I thought you said your parents left already," Kayla accused.

  "Their cruise left this morning, they won't be back until New Year's Day. That's just Aaron. His car's full of crap from his apartment so he took Stephanie to dinner in Dad's car."

  "Who's Stephanie?"

  "His girlfriend. Sorry, Blaire. She showed up this morning, supposedly to help Aaron move."

  Blaire shrugged and gave me a smile that was only mildly disappointed. "I'm not worried. We'll be in the same city now. One of these days I'm gonna run into him when he's single and he'll realize I'm the woman he's been waiting for all his life."

  "Keep dreaming, that guy is never single. But in the meantime there's always Bob," Kayla snickered.

  "Who's Bob? Have you been holding out on me?" I turned to Blaire, shocked and a little hurt that she'd share news of a new guy with Kayla and not me.

  "Battery operated boyfriend, Cass. B-O-B."

  "Oh, right. The vibrator."

  The garage door opened and the kitchen filled with deep male voices, halting our conversation. My stomach did a flip-flop as I recognized a familiar voice that didn't belong to my brother.

  "Oh boy, The Dick is here. This night just got a lot more interesting."

  "Shut up, Kayla. He'll hear you," I hissed. "Damn it. Aaron didn't tell me Jax was coming over or I'd have—"

  "Dressed nicer?" Kayla asked.

  "Put on some makeup?" Blaire offered.

  "Brought the wine to Kayla's house. Good grief." I rolled my eyes at my friends and tried to ignore the blush I could feel welling up from my chest.

  "Well hello, ladies!" In walked a taller, more masculine version of me with the same wide smile, dark red hair, and deep chocolate eyes ringed with long auburn lashes. But where my features were pretty, delicate, almost bird-like, my brother Aaron had a rugged handsomeness that no one would venture to call pretty. Not since he was about fifteen and earned his black belt, at any rate. An Atlanta Braves baseball cap held his curly hair back out of his face but didn't hide the twinkle in his eyes at the sight of me and my friends drinking in the living room.

  "Kayla, Blaire, nice to see you. Hope you had a Merry Christmas. Stephanie, these are Cass's friends, or as I like to call them, bad influences. Ladies, this is Stephanie."

  Aaron left the petite blonde sulking in the doorway and swooped down to plant a kiss on each girl's cheek. He paused to look curiously at Kayla's head-wear while
Kayla grinned back at him, completely unabashed. "Now I know you girls can't be drunk, since not a-one of you are old enough to be drinking."

  "Delinquents, all of them. Call the law, bro."

  The laugh died on my lips and I felt the burn of the blush creeping up my neck. I folded my arms over my braless chest and tried not to watch as Aaron's best friend Jax loped into the room and flopped into the recliner, stretching his long legs out in front of him. His dark brown hair wasn't quite long enough for the ponytail he was trying to pull off and strands fell messily in his face, giving the impression he'd just climbed out of bed. He rolled a toothpick back and forth across his lips with his tongue as he smirked at us on the couch.

  "Cute hat, Kayla. Very festive."

  "Thanks. We're playing Truth or Dare. Y'all want to join us?"

  "No!" me and Stephanie both exclaimed then looked at each other in surprise.

  Aaron ignored both of our outbursts and shook his head. "Nah, we're gonna take the new Playstation for a test run."

  "I can't believe Mom and Dad got you that."

  "Don't be jealous sis, green doesn't suit you."

  "I can't help it. These don't quite compare to a state of the art gaming system." I unfolded my legs and stuck my feet in the air to show off a pair of red knee high socks decorated with snowflakes. Little red pom poms dangled against my knees and when Aaron leaned over and flicked one, it tinkled.

  "Mine was a combo Christmas, graduation, and house warming present. And don't look a gift horse in the mouth, I bet you'll be the only girl in your dorm with jingling socks. Plus, aren't Mom and Dad funding all your dance stuff this year?"

  I wasn't really jealous of my brother. We were all proud of Aaron for finishing his degree early and getting in to the masters program at Emory, but I heaved a dramatic sigh and feigned envy just to tease him. "Yeah, they are. And Mom's knitting is getting better so I guess I can't complain too much. The ones she made last year would have fit a sasquatch."

  "Well if the sock fits..."

  I flipped Jax the bird without looking at him, eliciting an irritatingly amused chuckle from him.

  "What? I'm just saying. It's not like your feet could be called dainty."

  "Jealous much?" I looked up at him with an arched eyebrow. "I know you must be sensitive about your tiny...feet."

  "My feet are plenty big. I've never heard any complaints."

  "Not that you stick around long enough to listen to them," Aaron said with a crooked grin.

  "Fuck off, Aaron."

  "Don't you guys have princesses you need to save or something?" I asked in a bored tone.

  "Yeah, come on man. Let's go fire that bad boy up." My brother rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

  "Aaron, sweetie, I thought we were gonna spend tonight together. I'm only in town for a few days, you know." Stephanie's whine was like fingernails on a chalkboard and I wasn't the only person in the room cringing.

  "We are gonna spend tonight together. In my room. Playing Call of Duty with Jax. Who I haven't seen in months."

  "Stephanie, you're welcome to hang out down here with us and the wine." I smiled at my brother's new girlfriend, ignoring the annoyed huffs from either side of me on the couch. I'd been privy to enough video game nights over the years to not wish that fate on any woman, no matter how annoying her voice was.

  "Uh, no. I don't think so." Stephanie's voice could, apparently, get more obnoxious, especially when she was trying to sound condescending. "But thanks," she added unconvincingly after a glare from Aaron.

  "Come on, then. Let's leave these three to whatever the hell it was they were doing before we so rudely interrupted." Aaron turned Stephanie away and nudged her toward stairs, slapping her ass as she went. "You girls don't get too rowdy or I'll have to come confiscate your contraband."

  "I'd like to see you try. Three against one, I think we can take you." Blaire shot Aaron a challenging smirk, bolder now that the competition was out of the room.

  "Ah, but I've got Jax on my side and we're both black belts so I'm pretty sure if it came down to a brawl we'd have the advantage," Aaron said, turning his brilliant grin on Blaire.

  "One flash of boob and Jax would switch sides in a heartbeat," Kayla said with a wink at Jax.

  "Sorry man, she speaks the truth. Boobs are very persuasive."

  Before Aaron could answer, Stephanie's voice penetrated the laughter. "Aaron, sweetie, are you COMING?"

  Aaron rolled his eyes and glanced over his shoulder. "You can see my boobs any time, bro. All you gotta do is ask." With a grin and a pinch of his nipple, Aaron turned and left the room.

  Jax sighed as he watched his friend walk away. "I love your brother Cassie, but his taste in women is highly questionable."

  "It's Cass."

  "What?"

  "My name is Cass. Catch up, genius. No one's called me Cassie since I was fourteen." In my peripheral vision I could see Blaire and Kayla gazing casually around the room as if they didn't notice the awkward moment.

  "Okay. Cass. Well, like I was saying, I've only known her for half an hour and I'm ready to puncture my own eardrums. I can't imagine what Aaron sees in her."

  "Maybe she sucks dick like a pro."

  The stunned look on his face as well as the faces of my two best friends was extremely gratifying until I realized what I'd just said. And to whom. God, there was a good reason I didn't drink very often.

  2

  Jax walked downstairs having given the excuse of needing another beer, shaking his head at the idea that there was anyone in the world annoying enough to run him off when Call of Duty was available. Knowing his friend as well as he did, he doubted this girl was going to be around much longer. It was clear that Aaron was already irritated with her when they'd picked him up after dinner and Jax suspected it was only his ingrained southern hospitality that kept him from going off on her after she'd been so rude to Cassie. Cass. Whatever.

  Just as his foot hit the bottom stair he heard something that immediately snapped his thoughts away from his best friend's woman problems. If he didn't know better he'd be sure he'd just heard someone say the word orgasm. Damn, those girls must be pretty drunk by now. They'd been well on their way to toasted earlier this evening. Even Cassie seemed to have cut loose. Shit. Cass.

  Well, loose for her, which wasn't actually saying a whole lot since she was usually pretty uptight. He couldn't even remember the last time she'd joked with him like she had tonight. Coming from someone like Kayla that sucking dick comment would have just made him laugh. But there was something about those words falling from Cassie's sweet, innocent-looking lips that knocked the breath out of him and made his mouth go dry. The sudden mental image of those same lips sucking his dick like a pro hadn't helped the situation any.

  He chuckled remembering how he'd stammered an unintelligible response and rushed from the room before his dick got too hard to risk standing up. Fortunately thirty seconds in a room with Aaron's future ex-girlfriend had gotten rid of that little problem for him. But now it seemed he might be up for more trouble. Without even realizing what he was doing he moved closer to the living room door to see if he could hear what they were saying.

  "...not like I'm a freak or anything, stop looking at me like that."

  His lips twitched into an unconscious smile when he heard Cassie's voice sounding husky and slightly slurred. Cass. Fuck it; she'd always be Cassie to him. If it bothered her, tough shit.

  "But you've been going out with Trey for like three months, haven't you?"

  Interesting. Cassie had a boyfriend.

  "Yeah, almost."

  "And in all that time he hasn't hit the right buttons, not even once?"

  "Nope."

  Hold on, were they talking about what he thought they were talking about?

  "You guys are actually fucking, right?" Kayla's sarcastic voice was twice as loud as the other two.

  Maybe he shouldn't be hearing this. No, he definitely shouldn't be hearing this, but no
way was he walking away now. Not until she answered that question, anyway.

  "Well, I did make him wait for it, but if you look in your messages under October 24th I'm sure you'll find the text I sent you like ten minutes after we consummated our relationship."

  He heard Blaire's musical giggle. "It was all caps and had like fifteen exclamation points. I just assumed it must have been good if you were that excited."

  "Just because I didn't...you know...doesn't mean it wasn't good."

  "Yeah, it does," both the other girls said in unison.

  Jax couldn't help but agree with them.

  "I'm having a really hard time with this," Kayla continued. "The idea of fucking a guy for almost two months and never once having an orgasm just does not compute for me. What's the point?"

  "It's not like sex is the most important part of a relationship."

  "It ranks pretty damn high on the list. And it's kind of like a test for the rest of your relationship, you know? Like, if he doesn't care enough to make the effort to get you there, what the fuck kind of man is he?"

  Kayla might be trashed, but she was making perfect sense to Jax.

  "Maybe it's not him that's the problem. Maybe there's just something wrong with me."

  Oh fuck no. He looked down in surprise when he noticed his fists were clenched. This was protectiveness, right? Cassie was like a little sister to him and she sounded dejected. This had to be what any guy would feel like hearing his little sister sound so down on herself because of some selfish asshole.

  "Of course there's nothing wrong with you," Blaire assured her. "I mean, you've been with other guys. It's never been a problem before, right?"

  The room was silent for a minute and Jax had to tamp down the urge to crane his head around to take a peek.

  "Are you fucking kidding me?" Kayla's abrasive voice finally broke the silence.

  "No, that's why I think it's just me. I mean, in high school I got close a few times when Greg went down on me, but every time I thought it was about to happen he'd stop and tell me to quit wiggling and keep it down. Brian had never heard the word foreplay and couldn't last longer than a couple minutes so I never even got close. I was just really hoping things would be different with Trey."