Read Dare To Love Series: Dreaming Up a Dare (Kindle Worlds Novella) for Free Online Page B

nothing more.
    “So I guess you didn’t quite climb me when I kissed you,” he said, winking. “This time. We can save that for next time.”
    “That’s assuming there’s going to be a next time.” Which there couldn’t be. We’d have to be more than just drunk to take this any further than we already had.
    “What makes you think there won’t be?” Jackson finally released his grip on my hair, teasing his fingers through the length of it to work out the tangles he’d created.
    The longer we stayed as we were, the heavier reality hit me. I tried to shift myself off his lap, but he put his arm around my waist, anchoring me in place.
    “Where are you going?” he asked.
    I shook my head, letting out a huff of frustration. “We both know this was a big mistake. We knew it before we ever did it, and we wouldn’t have done anything at all if we hadn’t been drinking.”
    With his hand still on my waist, he curled in his fingers. Softly. Possessively. It was such a simple thing, but it brought up a sense of longing and a fresh wave of lust that I would have a hell of a time tamping down again.
    “Maybe it’s a good thing we were drinking, then,” he said.
    “I think you’ll be singing a different tune in the morning.”
    “It’s not morning yet. And maybe you’ll be the one changing your tune.”
    I scowled to let him know I doubted that would happen.
    “Fine. Maybe you won’t be.” He finally loosened his grip on me, and I scurried off his lap to put as much distance between us as I could without escaping to another room.
    “Promise me something,” I said, grabbing another throw pillow and holding it to my belly, like it could protect me from the thousands of horrible scenarios playing out in my head.
    “Anything.” His response was too quick. Too certain. Like he’d give me anything I asked for, no matter what it might be. But there were still things he couldn’t give me. I knew it, even if he didn’t.
    “Promise me that we won’t let this come between us. That no matter what happens, we’re still going to be friends just like we always have been.”
    “What if I don’t want us to be friends anymore?” he asked.
    My stomach lurched. I knew we shouldn’t have done this. I should never have kissed him or let him kiss me. I should have kept it all to myself. The idea of me and Jackson ever being anything more than friends was nothing more than a fantasy.
    And now, I might even lose him as my friend.
    “ Just friends, I mean,” he said. “I want more.”
    “Friends with benefits?” I joked.
    He shook his head, as serious as a heart attack. “Benefits are good, but no. That’s not what I mean, and I think you know it.”
    “What I know is that none of this would be happening if I hadn’t had too much to drink.”
    “Point taken. You might recall I tried to get you to stop. Or at least to slow down.”
    I shot him a glare.
    He sighed and scraped a hand down his face. “Look, we can’t go back in time and un-kiss. All we can do is move forward.”
    “And promise we won’t let it change anything.”
    “You’re full of shit if you honestly think we can stop things from changing between us now.”
    He was right. And I knew it. But I didn’t want to admit it. The thought that we were going to lose what we’d always had, that everything was going to be different between us now, was more than I could take in.
    I wrapped my arms tighter around the throw pillow, holding it to me like it would protect me from the blow.
    But it was too late.
    “Let’s not think about it anymore tonight,” Jackson said. He smiled again, the same way as always. “Let’s just play some more Truth or Dare, and we can sort all of this out tomorrow. When we’re sober and we’ve had time to sleep on it.”
    Something told me the light of a new day wouldn’t make anything better, but unless I intended to spend the whole night as miserable as I felt at the moment, there wasn’t anything else to do.
    I