Logan let his eyes run down over him, one of his eyebrows winging up. “Hardly fair considering I’d be the one doing all the dares.”
“Not necessarily,” Tate disagreed. “Who said a dare has to be something you do. It could be something said, something promised in the future… You’re smart. You get the idea.”
Logan’s full lips came together as he mulled it over. Then the usual spark that filled his eyes was back. “Okay, I’m game.”
“I’m glad. I would’ve been disappointed if you’d said no.”
“How disappointed?”
“You’ll never know. But since I thought of this, it’s only fair that I go first.”
Logan scoffed at his deductive reasoning, but then he raised his hand and crooked his fingers in a gesture that screamed, Bring it.
“Truth or dare?” Tate asked.
Of course, the first choice out of Logan’s mouth was, “Dare.”
Tate wondered what Logan thought he would ask. Probably something outrageous, maybe something sexual. “I dare you to stop thinking about how I looked weeks ago and start looking at me standing here and now.”
* * *
Well, okay, then, Logan thought as Tate’s words penetrated his brain. Not what I expected. “And how am I looking at you?”
“Like I’m still hooked up to—”
“Two breathing machines, a heart monitor, and around ten different IVs?” As Logan relayed the picture that would forever be imprinted in his mind, he took a step closer to Tate so their bare toes were touching.
“Yes,” Tate said. “Exactly like that.”
Logan reached for the buckle of the strap holding Tate’s shoulder brace secure. After he gently unfastened it and slipped it from his arm, he placed it on the sink beside him and then fingered the red shirt Tate was wearing. “I don’t know that I can do that.”
Tate’s hand covered his as he started to undo the top button. “I dare you to try.”
Logan’s lips curved at Tate’s choice of words. “Talk about coming full circle.”
“Mhmm. Come to think of it, I seem to remember a time in your bathroom just like this.”
“Ahh, yes,” Logan said with a sigh, slipping the first two buttons free. “But I was a lot more naked, and you were a lot more nervous.”
“That’s because I wasn’t sure about you.”
“And now?” he asked, and when he stopped what he was doing and waited for his answer, Tate looked surprised.
“Truth?”
Logan tugged on his shirt and gave a mock glare. “Of course. That’s the game, isn’t it?”
When Tate captured his lips, Logan’s automatically parted. The feel and taste of Tate made him moan softly as Tate traced his tongue along his lower lip.
He said, “I’ve never been more sure of another person in all my life.”
Logan’s hands clutched Tate’s shirt as he whispered his name reverently, and while they stood there in silence, the understanding of just how much they meant to one another was solidified.
“It’s your turn,” Tate said against his lips, finally breaking the connection.
Logan walked around behind him and helped him remove his shirt, and when he dropped it on the counter, he said in Tate’s ear, “Dare.”
Tate glanced back at him and gave that pearly grin he’d fallen for. “I dare you to get in the bath with me and smell like a lavender field for the next twenty-four hours.”
Logan laughed at that, looking down at the tub before returning his gaze to Tate’s. “I don’t know. Do you think you can behave yourself?”
“Me?” Tate asked like he thought the question was absurd.
“Yes, you,” he stressed, enjoying Tate’s incredulity. He came around in front of him to undo the button of Tate’s jeans, and as he slid the zipper down, he continued to talk. “The doctor said there was to be no…” When his words trailed off, Tate the tease came out to play.
“No?”
Logan narrowed his eyes on him and ended with, “No strenuous activity until you pass all the tests at your follow-up appointment and all the boxes are ticked.”
The amusement stamped over Tate’s face had Logan wondering how he’d managed to turn the tables on him. No one ever got the better of him—well, no one except for Tate.
Rolling his shoulders, Logan heard himself asking in a much more irked voice than he’d intended, “Is something amusing you?”
Tate clamped his lips shut and shook his head. “Nope. You going to take my pants off now, or do you think I should keep them on so I’m not tempted to do anything…strenuous?”