LITMIR.BIZ

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whistled, shuddered, then thumped the crystal against the table. “Fine. I’m in.”

      “All right,” Doug said, and clapped his hands together. “I think we might just have ourselves a party.”

      At that, Anton grabbed his own glass and, not bothering with water or ice, downed the shot he poured. “Hell. If the subject is sex, count me in.”

      “Then sex it is.” Poe pulled the stopper from the decanter of water and gave Sydney a quick wink. Sydney mentally crossed her fingers, hoping Poe hadn’t gone too far. The last thing she wanted was for this game to backfire.

      What she wanted, in fact, was for this game to rid the room of inhibitions. To rid Ray, in particular, of any hang-ups he might have that would prevent him from being open to her advances. Judging by the look in his eyes, however, judging by the way his gaze fairly simmered with uninhibited invitation, hang-ups weren’t going to be a problem.

      “So, Poe. Does your version of this game have rules? Or do we make it up as we go along?” Jess added two cubes of ice to two separate glasses, splashed both with bourbon and passed one to Kinsey. “I’ve got as good an imagination as the next guy but—”

      “But like the next guy, you need direction. You just hate having to stop and ask.” Smiling brightly, Kinsey toasted the other women with her drink and a round of high fives.

      The men sat back, glowered and glared. Sydney had a feeling they were only biding their time. She’d yet to know a single man who didn’t get a kick out of delivering a slam dunk comeuppance—especially to a woman.

      “Hey, I asked. I asked.” Jess tossed up his hands in exaggerated exasperation. “And like the next guy, I can’t seem to get a straight answer, which is what I expected with a woman in charge.”

      This time it was the men exchanging the loud whooping endorsement of Jess’s commentary on the female game plan. So, Poe did what any self-respecting woman would do when faced with a group of male chauvinists.

      Leaning across the table, she beckoned him closer with the crook of one finger, running a fingertip over his lower lip when he met her halfway. “Why don’t you put your money where your mouth is?”

      Jess frowned, obviously confused by the switch in Poe’s gears. “I don’t get it.”

      “Since you seem to think I don’t know what I’m doing, you figure out how this game should go down.” She eased back into her chair. “Unlike you men, we women don’t mind a bit when a man tells us what he wants us to do.”

      “I agree with Poe. Having a man in charge makes things run so much more smoothly.” Kinsey scooted around in her chair and got comfy, having a whole lot of fun at Jess’s expense as she stretched out her legs and crossed her ankles in his lap. “I just don’t know what we’d do without you.”

      Jess ignored the batting of Kinsey’s lashes, and smiling to herself, Sydney finally started to relax. Maybe a good time was about to be had by all. Poe’s leap into the center of the tension was certainly proving a lot more effective than the eggshell route. Even Lauren had a grin on her face.

      Jess rubbed his hands together, then he rubbed them from Kinsey’s ankles to her knees. His brown eyes glittered and he lifted one dark brow. “Now this is more like it. Getting drunk, talking about sex, a man in charge and a woman in his lap. Doesn’t get any better, does it, boys?”

      His enthusiasm earned him a cuff to the back of the head from Kinsey. “You’re forgetting one thing, mister. And that is paybacks are hell.”

      Jess thrust out his chin, tapped it with one finger. “C’mon, then. Your best shot. Right here.”

      Kinsey drew back a fist. Anton, sitting on her other side, caught her hand from behind. Sydney, in the chair next to Anton, leaned across and pried his fingers from Kinsey’s, and when he turned to protest, she stuck out her tongue.

      At the other end of the table, Lauren poured herself another drink. “Enough, you people.” She used her glass as a gavel. “Let Jess explain his rules.”

      “No kidding.” Doug refilled his own glass, going for more water than whiskey. “If I’m gonna get lucky tonight, I’m all for getting this show on the road.”

      Poe lifted a brow. “Weren’t you the one talking earlier about taking matters into your own hands?”

      Ray chuckled, shaking his head and reaching for his drink. He met Sydney’s gaze over the rim of the glass he lifted to his mouth. His eyes were bright, a beautiful green, his gaze sharp and intent in both focus and connection.

      Shivering, Sydney raised her glass. This was exactly what she wanted. This anticipation, this attraction. This slow, simmering arousal that was beginning to sweeten the stakes of the evening. She sipped her drink. The whiskey burned and she lifted her chin as she swallowed.

      The motion drew Ray’s attention. His eyes flashed and, as he lowered his glass to the table, he blew out a long, slow breath and briefly closed his eyes. Sydney blinked, but looked away as she lifted her lashes. As much as she wanted to hurry, she wanted to wait, to take her time and savor the seduction as much as she planned to savor plucking the forbidden fruit from the vine.

      She turned her attention back to Jess, who’d dislodged Kinsey from his lap and gotten to his feet. He placed both hands flat on the table and glanced around, making eye contact with everyone. “Here’s how we play. Whoever I choose to go first will pick someone of the opposite sex and ask that person a question. That person then decides whether he—or she—wants to answer truthfully or go for the dare.”

      “And we have to come up with the dares, too?” Lauren asked, and Jess nodded.

      Anton, slumped back in his chair with arms crossed, looked as if he’d swallowed a nastier alcohol than was ever stocked in the liquor cabinet on Coconut Caye. “What if the person answers, but someone else at the table knows for a fact that they’re telling a lie?”

      Sydney took a deep breath and held it, waiting for Lauren to jump down his throat. But it didn’t happen. Lauren only stared somberly at her drink. Her wounded expression tugged hard on Sydney’s girlfriend heartstrings. Why did relationships have to be so damned difficult?

      Anton’s question appeared to leave Jess stumped. Then he smiled, his dimples and his eyes flashing in that bad-boy way he had of looking at the world. “Then that person calls them on it, and they have to take the dare, anyway.”

      “Ouch. That’s cold,” Doug said.

      Poe reached over and patted his shoulder. “All in the name of good, honest fun.”

      “Hey.” Grabbing Poe’s hand where her fingers lightly gouged his muscles, Doug added, “I resent that remark.”

      “More like you resemble that remark,” Ray corrected.

      “Thanks for sticking by me, buddy.” At Doug’s grousing, Ray laughed.

      “Yeah, dude. This is supposed to be a battle of the sexes.” Jess dropped back into his chair. “Whose side are you on, anyway?”

      Ray splashed another shot of bourbon into his glass. “Let’s just say I’m doing all I can to keep my getting-lucky options open.”

      The other three men razzed him with loudly voiced hoots and hisses and snickering laughter. All Sydney could do was stare at the liquid in her glass, knowing the smile on her face was bound to give her away. She wasn’t sure she wanted everyone at the table to know of her plans before she’d had a chance to share her intentions with Ray. Before she’d shown him exactly what a lucky guy he was and done so in a more intimate setting, without an audience.

      Poe finally and effectively killed the locker-room atmosphere by drumming her hands on the table. “Yoo-hoo, Jess. I think we all understand your rules. Now are we going to play or what?”

      Jess turned his attention to Poe. “Yes, we’re going to play. And since you started this mess and put me in charge, I’ve

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