Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 96046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96046 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 480(@200wpm)___ 384(@250wpm)___ 320(@300wpm)
“What was the dare that I missed, by the way?” I asked.
“You would’ve had to send a naughty text to someone in the room. Given that it’s just me here, I suppose I missed out.” He winked.
I wondered how I would’ve handled that. Would I have told him once and for all how much I wanted him and watched as he pretended I was kidding when I really wasn’t?
It was my turn to ask a question, and I reached for a card. “How many times a week do you pleasure yourself?”
“How many times a week or how many times a day?”
Okay, then. I let out a shaky breath. “I guess either?”
“What’s the dare?”
My heart began to race. “Slowly and seductively kiss someone in the room.”
Pick the kiss.
Pick the kiss.
Seconds passed, and this felt like the longest silence of my life. My heart pounded, my body begging for the right answer.
“I would say I do it about once a day,” he finally said.
Fuck.
I felt like I was a balloon and he’d just popped me, leaving me deflated. His response brought on a mix of emotions. On one hand, it felt like a slap in the face, since he’d clearly chosen not to kiss me. On the other hand, the visual of him pleasuring himself got me hot and bothered all over again.
I cleared my throat. “So, seven times a week.”
“Give or take. If I have a particularly stressful day, I might do it more than once.”
I needed this game to end—not only because I somehow felt rejected, but because I wanted to go relieve myself right now. He’d gotten me all worked up. I hadn’t been this aroused in as long as I could remember, my body aching to be kissed, licked, sucked.
But he’d made the decision to do none of those things.
Before I could excuse myself, though, Dorian made an announcement.
“We should really go upstairs.”
Wait.
What?
It aggravated me that I didn’t know whether he was propositioning me or explaining that he wanted to go to sleep.
I knew what I was hoping for—which was crazy. He and I lived together, for Christ’s sake. Crossing the friendship line would be a terrible idea. Maybe I was delusional about the possibility of a deeper meaning to go upstairs? But the way he’d said it…
I closed up the game and returned it with the rest of them to the pool house because I needed a breather.
After, we left the patio together, and I followed him upstairs, my heart pumping faster with each second that passed. The vibe was still unreadable.
I decided to take a chance, not immediately heading to my room, but stopping at his room when he did. The sight of Tallulah and Tess sleeping soundly at the foot of his bed caused me to smile despite my nerves.
“You weren’t kidding. Look how comfortable they are,” I said from the doorway.
He didn’t say anything, and the anticipation nearly killed me. I still had no idea what was happening here. Were we about to continue our evening together in a different way, or was that all in my head?
If you leave, you’ll never know.
Dorian slipped his hands into his pockets as he stood across from me.
Is he waiting for me to go? Or is he thinking about whether taking things further is a good idea?
I had heard him say we should go upstairs, right?
Never in my life had I made the first move. But also never in my life had I wanted someone as much as I wanted Dorian Vanderbilt right now. He’d gotten me so riled up tonight that I was apparently willing to risk humiliation for the chance to satisfy this unprecedented hunger inside me.
The words escaped me before I could think better of them.
“Would you…want to come to my room?”
His eyes widened as he stood there, mouth open.
Oh no.
I really needed to learn to read people because I was dead wrong about him being interested in more than just a game.
Shit.
“I can’t, Primrose,” he said.
Backtrack.
Backtrack.
“Of course! That was dumb.” I shook my head. “Goodnight.”
“Wait!” he called after me.
I fumbled over my words, continuing to hurry away. “You’re right. It’s late. Goodnight!”
After running down the hall to my room, I closed the door and leaned my back against it, trying to calm myself after the horror of the situation I’d put myself in.
Eventually I forced myself to crawl into bed, pulled the covers over my head, and prayed for sleep to claim my humiliation.
CHAPTER 11
* * *
For an entire week, I’d done nothing but go straight to my room after entering the house each day. I’d also been making sure Dorian’s car wasn’t in the garage and would bypass the kitchen altogether to avoid running into him. I’d pop in there to say hello to Benjamin or Patsy briefly, but that was only if I was absolutely sure Dorian wasn’t home. I hated being outside of my bedroom too long on the off-chance he came home unexpectedly.