Now, when I get fluttery sexual feelings at the memory of that night, it’s with all their almost identical faces in my mind. Colby with the permanent furrow between his dark, serious brows. Micky with the small scar that runs along his chin and the soft look in his eyes. Seb with that quirk of a grin and his devilishly sexy dimple. I imagine them standing over me, Colby with his arms folded, Micky reaching out, and Seb leaning against the wall.
I can’t separate them, even in my fantasies.
“You’re thinking about them, aren’t you?”
“I was thinking I need to use the bathroom.”
Gabriella flashes me another knowing smile and grabs my hand. “Awesome. Me too. And on the way, we can say hello to your manly chiseled stepbrothers.”
“No…” I blurt, but as soon as it comes out of my mouth, I realize they’re now standing directly in the path to the lady’s room, and there’s no way to avoid them.
“Hey, Micky, Colby, and Seb,” Gabriella says smoothly. “Looking good.”
They know my friend, but they’re not exactly on super friendly terms, mostly because I’ve avoided hanging out in their vicinity whenever she’s come around.
“Hey,” Colby nods. I can see his brain working to remember her name.
“Hey, Gabriella,” Micky says. Of course, he’d be the one to remember.
Seb nods in my direction. “Ellie.”
“Hey.” The greeting sounds more like a squeak, and I blush, dying inside at how awkward this all is. “Nice dress,” he adds, his pretty eyes trailing down the full length of my body. I know I don’t imagine him folding in his bottom lip seductively, the same lip that teased my nipple.
My dress is nice. It’s emerald-green stretch cotton, almost the same color as the Townsend’s eyes, and it clings to every curve. Paired with my New Balance, it’s cute and comfortable. But I don’t want him to notice anything about what I’m wearing because when he does, it reminds me of how urgent their hands were in pushing up my dress in the closet and how easily they accessed all my most private places.
Gabriella is staring at me with the most annoying smug look on her annoying smug face.
“This was nice,” I say, stepping around Colby and dragging Gabriella with me.
“Nice,” she snorts as I push open the restroom door. “You are really uptight, my friend.”
“I am not uptight.”
“Soooo uptight,” she says. “So uptight, you’re almost ready to snap.”
Maybe she’d be less critical if she knew I came face to face with Micky’s perfect cock last night. Probably not. If I described it in all of its glory, she’d tell me I was a fool for not dropping to my knees right then and there.
We disappear into stalls, and as I relieve myself, I clasp my face in my hands, trying to regain my composure. Seb, Colby, and Micky don’t even need to touch me, and I’m an overheated mess of a person.
“You know what?” Gabriella shouts through the partition.
“What?”
“I dare you to fuck at least one of those sexy hunks of men. In fact, I don’t just dare you, I double dare you!”
“You can’t dare me to fuck someone,” I squeal, shoving my dress down over my hips, my eyes bugging out at the thought.
“Why not?” We open the doors simultaneously, and I stare at my friend in disbelief.
Dares are usually about fun and the lighthearted stuff. More alcohol, a fumble in a closet, a kiss with someone, maybe. That’s as far as anyone has ever gone. But sex is a totally different matter.
“A sex dare shouldn’t be a thing,” I say, already praying that Gabriella’s going to see the error of her ways and take back the dare.
“A sex dare should absolutely be a thing,” someone says from inside an occupied stall. “I wish someone would give me a sex dare.”
Gabriella claps her hands, her silver bangles jingling like bells at Christmas. “I’ll give you a sex dare,” she says. “Anything to help a girl out.”
“Gabriella,” I say. “This is a disaster!”
“I didn’t dare you to fuck them all,” she says, resting her hands on her hips. “Although that would be mind-blowing fun. Think about all those gorgeous muscles rippling and working to give you pleasure, all hot and sweaty with arousal.” She fans herself with her hand. “All I’m daring you to do is fuck just one of your sexy stepbrothers. Just to know what it’ll be like. I mean, they’re all identical. How different could they be in the sack?”
I could tell her right now what happened in the closet. I could tell her about the damage Dornan’s dare has already done, but I don’t because that’s not how dares work. And as much as I’m objecting, now she’s set the dare, there’s no getting out of it.
The last words my dad said to me ring in my ears.