Undeniably Asher (The Colloway Brothers Book 2)(28)

After pouring myself a flute of bubbly, I head into the bathroom, run a bath, and a few minutes later I’m sinking into the pool of heated goodness with a sigh. Leaning back, I take a sip of the smooth, fruity wine and remember the side bet Asher and I made during the most competitive game of laser tag I’m sure was ever played by a group of twenty-nine and thirty-year-old men.

“We betting the same thing?” Conn asks, smugly. I’m not sure I’ve seen another look on him besides cocky. I wonder how many women he’s both sucked in and turned off with that arrogance.

“Always,” Asher responds. “Gray, you in?” he yells across the small room where we were all putting on vests of some sort. I can’t get mine figured out, so Asher turns to help me.

“Hell yes,” Gray replies. Even Livia is playing. She’s paired up with Gray, as I am with Asher, but she clearly knows how to use these things that I imagine might feel like a bulletproof vest.

“What about you, Luke? You game?” Asher asks, turning to his older brother.

“You’re going down, little brother.” Luke smirks, his dark, unruly hair tucked behind his ears. God, Luke is sexy with his brow piercing and tats. Every time I look around at these men who are the epitome of raw masculinity and sexuality, it’s as if I’ve been dropped into some type of erotic fantasy. The only thing that could be better is if they all ran around shirtless. Or naked. I don’t judge.

“I don’t think so,” Asher coos.

As they trash talk, I can’t help but smile at their excitement. They’re like a bunch of ten-year-olds getting ready to skim through their first Playboy. It’s hilarious, actually.

“What’s the bet?” I ask, looking up into Asher’s face, which is now so close I could reach up on my tiptoes and capture his mouth with mine. I mentally clip the wings of the butterflies in my stomach so they’ll settle down.

“We have a family house on Mackinac Island. Whoever wins gets it over New Year’s Eve.”

“Isn’t it big enough for all of you to go?”

“Yeah, but…”

“Ah, say no more.” I laugh. Privacy and all that.

“It’s a great place to be. No matter the weather, Main Street is always hopping and, of course, they have their famous Great Turtle Drop at midnight. When we were kids, we used to go there almost every single year.” He smiles and gets a faraway look in his eyes, as though he’s recalling a particular happy memory.

“What’s the Great Turtle Drop?”

“It’s like the ball drop in Times Square, just with an ugly lighted turtle instead. Not a real one, of course. Very popular with the tourists.”

“Sounds fun,” I reply quietly. My melancholy returns with a vengeance. I wish I had good memories like that. Sadly, the only vacation I took as a child was the one time we went to Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, Ohio when I was nine. I got sick on a rickety wooden roller coaster and we had to come home early.

He finally has me all buckled in when he pulls me close, smashing the little plastic thingies on the front of our vests together. Those damn butterflies take flight again, the clipping apparently failing. Leaning down, he asks quietly, “Wanna make a side bet?”

I’m breathless. “Like what?”

“Yes or no, Alyse?” Oh my God, his bossiness zips straight to my pussy every single time.

“Okay.”

He palms my neck, pulling my ear to his mouth. “When we win, you’ll let me do anything I want to that sexy body. Whenever. Wherever.”

Oh. My. “That…” I swallow thickly. “…leaves things pretty wide open.” My mind is racing a hundred miles an hour trying to picture the carnal ways he’ll play my body when I least expect it.

“Anticipation heightens the senses, Alyse.” His lips graze the sensitive skin underneath my ear as he speaks. He could get me to do anything when he does that and I think he already knows it. I’ve decided there must be a yes button implanted along the column of my throat, the secret switch only responds to him. Dull teeth nip my lobe and I suck in a breath. “Say yes.”

I’m weak. Oh so very weak.

“Okay. But we won’t win. Conn has beat you five years in a row and now you’re stuck with dead weight.” Why does it disappoint me to think that Asher won’t have the chance to make good on his promise?

Pulling back, I see the smugness has now spread from Conn to Asher like a virus. “Oh, we’ll win, baby. I’ve never had so much incentive in my entire fucking life as I do this year.” He winks, kissing me quickly on the lips.