Double Dare You

Was the adventuring ski god of Aspen…jealous? He didn’t want her for himself, but didn’t want anyone else to have her?

“So? What about that dare?” His blue eyes never left hers. They were steady, serious.

She laughed again, but this time it came out sounding thin and a little nervous. “No,” she said and folded her arms across her chest.

“Why not?” Now he moved a beat closer. She could almost feel his body heat, and she’d forgotten how broad he was, and the nook they were in barely contained them. He was all muscle, and if he wanted that kiss, he could get it whether she wanted it or not. But that wasn’t Beck’s way. She knew it as well as he did. Besides, women in Aspen would line up for a chance to kiss Liam Beck, for a chance to do much more than that.

The worst part was that even though he’d discarded her just two months ago, her body didn’t seem to care. Right in that moment, all she wanted to do was reach on her tippy toes and kiss that man right here. After all, he was a phenomenal kisser. A man with that much practice couldn’t help but be.

“You know why,” she said, voice low. Because we had amazing sex and then you dropped off the face of the earth. Then I hear you think I’m boring. But Allie couldn’t get herself to say those things out loud.

“If you take that bartender home, but you’re still hung up on me, it’s not going to be good for you.”

White-hot anger rushed through her, warming her right through her toes. “It’s my mistake to make, then.” She could not believe this man. He ghosted her, then spread rumors she was a dud in bed, and now he was micromanaging her dating life?

“You don’t get to pick who I sleep with, Beck.”

“I know.” Beck glanced away, almost looking guilty. “I know that.”

The vulnerability he showed in that moment sliced through her. He seemed so lost…so untethered. For a second, she wondered if the breakup had hit him hard. Harder than she’d imagined. Here she thought he’d just resumed his life, no worse for wear, but the look of pain across his face told her a different story. Could it be that he had suffered, like she suffered?

It almost made her want to kiss him, just to make him feel better. She nearly laughed. She wanted to make him feel better? What was she thinking? She wasn’t. She never did when it came to Beck.

“Go ahead, then,” Beck said, sounding resigned. “Go back to him.”

She hated that in that moment of him dismissing her, it made her only want to stay. Why, she didn’t know. The more Beck pushed her away, the more she wanted to be with him. She hated that weakness in herself. She glanced over Beck’s shoulder and saw the bartender eyeing them from the bar. He’d come to her rescue if she signaled him, she thought. But part of her didn’t want to be rescued. She wanted to stay just where she was and that was what worried her.

“Maybe I will.”

Beck stared at her for a beat. “You’re not moving.”

No, she wasn’t. It felt like she was caught in Beck’s gravitational field, fixed like a moon in orbit.

“I don’t think you want to go,” Beck said at last. Damn him for reading her mind. She scooted a bit against the wall, but her elf boot hit the edge of a nearby mat, and she stumbled. He caught her, steadying her. His strong hands on her elbows made her remember how talented they were in exploring other parts of her body. How she felt so delicate, so little, in his arms. Allie froze then, the moment turning serious suddenly. He ran a finger down the outside of her upper arm. His touch felt hot. She watched his finger trail the seam of her sleeve, remembering how well his hands already knew her body. Despite all her logical misgivings, some part of her still burned for him. “I think you want to kiss me. I think you haven’t gotten enough of me.”

There was no boast in the words. It was true, after all. How could he read her so well?

She blinked fast. Her heart ticked up a notch. She wanted to kiss him, but she was scared. One kiss and she might be a slave to him again, a slave to her own passions, all logic and will gone. Beck moved forward, and she was in the dark corner of the alcove now, away from the bar, out of the line of vision of anyone there. The bartender wouldn’t be able to help her now, but she didn’t want anyone’s help.

She decided then and there, she wasn’t going to be afraid of Liam Beck. She could kiss him and not feel anything. She could do this and prove to him and herself that she was beyond him.

“I’ll kiss you, just to prove that weekend meant nothing,” she said. “I don’t feel anything for you, Liam Beck.”

Beck nodded, once. “Good. If that’s true, then I’ll leave you alone.”

She needed Liam Beck out of her life. And if kissing him one last time was the way to do it, then she’d do it. It’s just a kiss, she told herself. It would mean nothing. And then she’d be free of him.

“Fine.” She tilted her head up, lips ready. Beck wasted no time. His big palm sneaked behind her back, and he pulled her to him. In seconds, she was pressed flat against the massive muscles in his chest. He was so big, she felt tiny. She held a breath, her heart fighting like a rabbit trying to get out of its cage. Beck took his time. His eyes studying hers and then moving ever so slowly down her face to her lips. They parted on their own accord, already tingling in anticipation. It won’t mean anything. I won’t feel anything,she told herself.

He pressed his full lips against hers, tentatively at first. Gently. She kept her lips still. If I don’t move, then everything will be fine. But she knew already this wasn’t going to be a quick peck on the lips. Beck had something else in mind. The second his lips moved on hers, the entire last two months disappeared. It was as if they’d never spent a second apart and they were right back in that lodge.