I had no idea how long it lasted, but eventually the sound of someone clearing her throat knocked us back to reality. We smiled like goofballs at each other when the kiss broke. I swiped my thumb over her bottom lip to fix her smeared lip gloss.
“Umm….do you two know each other or is this one of your stupid dares?”
Summer smiled. “Hunter here picked truth the first time I asked him. And actually, he has every time since.”
Her friend shook her head. “You and your tests. I’ll let you two go back to what you were doing. I’ll find us something other than cheap, gross beer to drink.”
“Okay. Thanks. We’ll meet you inside in a few.”
When her friend disappeared, I asked what she’d meant by you and your tests.
“When I was in eighth grade, a bunch of boys asked me to play truth or dare. Turned out that was their little trick to get girls to do stuff. Eventually one of us would pick dare because we wanted to sound cool, and then they’d dare us to kiss them. So I started using the game to weed out the boys who were only interested in one thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“If I think a guy is cute and has potential, I ask him to pick truth or dare. If he goes immediately for dare, it’s because he wants me to reciprocate and pick dare, and then he’ll dare me to do something with him or to him—shows he’s more interested in fooling around than us getting to know each other.”
Her logic was untraditional, but I suppose she sort of had a point. And shit, was I glad I’d picked truth that first day. “Do most guys pick dare?”
“Almost all of them. Well, not Gavin from my art conservation class. He picked truth. But I realized he didn’t really count a few days later when I met his boyfriend.” She tilted her head and smirked at me. “You’re not gay, are you?”
Her ass was still in my hands with her legs wrapped around my waist. I responded by grinding my hips into her so she could feel my erection. “What do you think?”
Summer giggled. The sound was damn awesome.
“What are you doing here anyway?” I asked. “I thought we were meeting up after you went to your party?”
“I was just going to ask you the same thing. Did you already hit your party?”
My brows drew down. I thumbed toward the house. “This is the party I was going to. This is the party you were going to, also?”
She smiled. “Yep. That’s so funny. You said you were going to a frat party, and I said I was going to an off-campus party. It didn’t dawn on me that we were both talking about an off-campus frat party.”
My eyes fell to her lips. “I want to get out of here. Take you…I don’t know…anywhere but here. But my brother wants me to meet someone.”
“I have to meet someone, too. Maybe we can sneak out right after.”
“Definitely.”
As much as I hated to, I lowered Summer to the ground. The house was too mobbed with drunk people to maneuver while carrying her. I took her hand. “Come on. Let me introduce you to Jayce. Maybe his girl is here by now.”
“That’s funny. The guy I’m meeting is named Jayce, too.”
Sometimes you just know. Like the first time Mom fell down. I helped her up and asked if she was okay. But something inside of me was certain she hadn’t just tripped, even though that’s what she’d said.
I knew the answer before I asked Summer.
“Any chance your middle name is Pearl?”
She wrinkled her little nose. “How did you know that?”
Chapter 15
Natalia
I could barely concentrate on the game. Sex, not love. Those were the exact same words that Anna had said to me about having a relationship with Hunter. The two of them made it sound so simple. Maybe it was. Maybe I was making it out to be more difficult than it needed to be. After all, it’s what I’d have with Marcus if I slept with him. Although, I wasn’t quite sure that was the way Marcus would see it. Not that I was so full of myself to think Marcus had fallen in love with me already, but my gut told me he was looking for a relationship. Of course, some men took you out to dinner a few times and pretended that’s what they wanted just to get in your pants. I could be wrong, but Marcus’s intentions seemed genuine.
The part of me that wanted to sleep with Hunter justified its cause. Sleeping with Marcus would be wrong—you’d be misleading him. The honest thing to do would be to break things off and have a purely sexual relationship with a man who has the same intentions. Yet the part of me that didn’t want to sleep with Hunter—my brain—knew this man could break my heart. I was attracted to him, sure. Who wouldn’t be? But it was more than just physical. I actually liked him. He was funny, smart, outdoorsy. Not to mention he’d bonded with Izzy—a guy has to be something special to combat teenage revulsion. Could I go in with my eyes wide open and keep feelings from growing?