Read Double Blind for Free Online Page B

as he stared at the phone, then glanced up at Ethan and regarded him critically—“midnight, I think.”
     
    He was drunk, Ethan decided. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He tried to sound dismissive, but his heart was hammering from the scrutiny of Randy’s gaze.
     
    “I propose,” Randy said, “that by midnight tonight I will have wooed you.”
     
    Ethan startled, then glared. “No.”
     
    Randy looked pleased. “Excellent. We have a bet. Terms?”
     
    “I’m not betting with you,” Ethan replied tartly. “Especially not about wooing. ”
     
    “I propose ,” Randy said, ignoring him, “that we say that by midnight I will have…. Hmm. Now this will take some thinking.” He ran his fingers over his lips as he narrowed his eyes. Ethan moved his own gaze deliberately down and ended up staring at Randy’s fingers. The tips of two of them were tucked inside his lips, making them part. Ethan had noticed them before, and he noted it again—Randy’s fingers were stained, lined with… grease?
     
    “Engines,” Randy said, and Ethan blinked and looked up.
     
    “What?”
     
    “Engines,” Randy said again, and waggled his fingers. “My fingers are stained because I work with diesel engines all day. Also motorcycles. My hands are clean, for the record. They’re just stained.”
     
    “I don’t care,” Ethan said, then winced inwardly at how prim he’d sounded.
     
    Randy’s mouth turned up at the corners, and his sharp eyes twinkled. “By midnight I’ll have kissed you, Ethan. That’s the bet.”
     
    “You won’t have,” Ethan said, “because I won’t let you.”
     
    Randy’s smile turned dangerous. “Scratch that. By midnight, Slick, you will kiss me. ”
     
    Ethan said nothing, deciding the way out of this was not to dignify Randy’s idiocy with a reply.
     
    “And if you manage not to,” Randy went on, “you’ll get one thousand dollars.”
     
    Ethan’s smile fell. “You’re insane.”
     
    Now Randy laughed. “The hell I am. When I win, you remember that’s how badly you wanted to kiss me, enough to give up a thousand dollars.”
     
    Ethan shook his head and turned to the bartender for help, but to his surprise, the bartender was looking intently at Randy.
     
    “Side bet?” he asked. Randy shrugged. Scully held up the fifty dollar chip Randy had given him. “I’m bettin’ on you, Jansen.”
     
    Randy lifted an eyebrow. “You expect me to bet against myself ?”
     
    “You think I will kiss him?” Ethan glared at Scully.
     
    “Come on,” Scully pleaded. “This is a sure thing.” He looked to Ethan. “ You bet me, then.”
     
    “He doesn’t have any money,” Randy pointed out.
     
    “You could put up my ring,” Ethan said, even as part of his brain told him to shut up.
     
    Randy gave him a wicked look. “Have you forgotten? It’s my ring now.”
     
    Ethan felt his cheeks color, but he kept his chin level. “It hardly matters. I’m not taking this bet.”
     
    “How can you not?” Randy asked, his voice silky. “All you have to do to get one thousand dollars is resist me until midnight. Easiest money you’ll ever make.”
     
    Scully fished in his pocket and brought out several other chips and thrust them at Randy. “An even hundred. Please .”
     
    Ethan’s head was spinning from more than just gin. There was nothing encouraging about the way Scully was so sure he would lose, but at the same time, there was no way he was kissing this arrogant asshole.
     
    You shouldn’t do this at all, a scolding voice admonished him. You should turn on your heel and walk away from him, right now.
     
    But a deep, empty wave of cold swept in on the thought’s wake. And if I do, where will I go? What will I do if I leave now?
     
    The thought of how he had intended this evening to end, of the surreal space that had opened before him until Randy had come down and slapped his hand over Nick’s ring—the thought of that vacuum coming