Hopeless For You (10 page)

"We'll see." I rubbed my hands together. "If we're going to play this game, then we're going to play the Canadian version."

"The Canadian version?" Gina sounded just as worried as Ash now.

"Yes." I grinned deviously and saw the glint in Blaine's eye. The 'Canadian' version was something I played at the bar when I was working on a girl, a harmless little game that sometimes got sexual. "Truth, dare, kiss, love, or torture?"

"Torture." Gina said right away.

I pressed my lips together. "Looks like we've got ourselves a sadomasochist here, Blaine."

"Hey!" Gina tried to slap my arm but I raised my hands and she ended up high-fiving me. I held onto her hand for a few seconds and when I let go, I noticed Ash was scowling at me.

I wiped the grin off my face. "So, torture it is. You've got two choices, Gina. Tickle torture, where each of us gets to tickle you for twenty seconds. Or truth, where we all get to ask you a question."

"Tickle torture." Gina smiled broadly. "Since I'm immune to tickling."

Blaine launched at her and she squeezed her arms hard. I joined Blaine and together we managed to lift one of her arms and tickle her. We got her in the ribs, the underarms—no ticklish body part was spared. Gina struggled, laughing frantically the whole time. I think we tickled her longer than twenty seconds because it was just too hilarious and we were all laughing. Even Ash was chortling along behind us, though she hadn't joined in with the tickling.

Finally, we sat down. "Immune to tickling, my ass," I said.

Gina was still breathing hard and her face was all red. "You cheated."

I rubbed my arm where she'd left a nice long scratch with her nails. "Nope. You're the one who cheated, trying to hold your arms down like that. Anyway, it's your turn."

Gina looked at Blaine. "Truth, dare, kiss, torture...what else was there?"

"Love." Blaine said.

"That's right. Love. So Blaine, which is it?"

"Love," he repeated with a grin.

Gina glanced at me. "What's that mean? What does he have to do?"

I shrugged. "Tell him who to make love to."

Gina smiled. "Dry hump your backpack."

Blaine threw up his arms in mock defeat and then proceeded to mount his backpack. I groaned and averted my eyes. "Ah, stop. I can't take it. I don't want to remember you this way, Blaine. Not as a backpack humper."

Gina and Ash were laughing.

"All right ,all right, that's good enough, Blaine," I said. "You won."

Blaine sat back. His face was flushed. "Ash is next. Truth, dare, kiss—"

"Kiss," Ash interrupted before he could finish.

Blaine smirked. "Interesting choice. All right. Kiss Kade."

Her eyes widened and she gave me that deer-in-the-headlights look.

I shrugged like it was nothing but my heart was beating faster than it had all day. I actually struggled to control my breathing.

She got up. I didn't move. I felt my shoulders stiffen.

She stepped over to me and knelt. Her smell was all around me—a mix of perfume and day-long sweat. I'd never been more aroused by a smell.

Then her lips brushed my forehead. I felt that electrical spark, stronger than ever before, and I was worried I might shudder in front of everyone.

She moved away and sat back down. I could still feel the touch of her lips lingering on my forehead. I was very careful not to look at her because I knew if I did, everyone would see the longing in my eyes and the wolfish, all-consuming lust. In that moment, I wanted her more than anything in the world.

She'd kissed me. Actually kissed me.

This was silly. It wasn't like I'd never been kissed before. She hadn't even touched my lips...

"Wow, she actually did it," Blaine said. "Impressive. So. It's your turn now Ash."

Ash looked at me and before she could spout the game phrase, I said, "Truth."

She had a mischievous glint in her eye. "If you were homosexual, what actor would you have the hots for?"

"Ah, you're evil, girl," I said. "Just evil." I had to think about this one.

"Come on, Kade," Blaine said. "Spill it."

"Give me a sec." I didn't go to movies very often and didn't watch TV so I said the first name that popped into my mind. "Ryan Reynolds all the way, baby."

"Oooh." Gina clapped. "Nice choice."

"Thank you." I gave a bow. "So. Your turn again Gina. Truth, dare, kiss—"

"Dare." Gina said.

I smirked. "You really gotta be careful when you choose a dare with me."

"Why?"

"Show a nipple to everyone while moaning passionately."

Gina's mouth dropped open. She glanced around shyly, then started to moan. She pulled the collar of her sweater and the underlying T-shirt down so her bra was visible. I didn't think she was going to actually do it but then at the last second she yanked the bra down so I could see some of her areola.

Abruptly, she released her sweater and the stretched fabric snapped back into place. She stopped moaning.

"Hey!" I said. "You didn't show your nipple. Just a piece of areola." Though even that was more than I expected.

"The areola is part of the nipple," Gina said. "Didn't you take anatomy in school? And you're lucky I showed you even
that
much."

"She's right," Ash said. "I know I wouldn't have." She sounded a bit like she was scolding Gina, and the blonde woman lowered her gaze.

Blaine had kept quiet the whole time, I noticed. He was looking at Gina with a strange light in his eyes.

Gina turned toward Blaine. I was pretty sure she was aware of the effect she'd just had on him. "Blaine, when you see a girl, what's the first thing you notice about her?"

Blaine blinked for a few moments and I thought he was trying to get the image of her areola out of his head. "What, I don't get to choose from truth, dare or kiss and the rest anymore?"

"We're focusing exclusively on truth because Kade's dares are too racy."

"But that's what makes the game so fun," I said.

"Well?" Gina kept her eyes on Blaine. "The first thing you notice about a girl?"

Blaine rubbed his chin. "Her areola?"

Gina beat him playfully with her hand.

"Just kidding." Blaine raised his arms defensively. "Probably... her eyes."

I could definitely agree with that. Eyes were the hottest thing
s on a girl. It was cliche to think it but they truly were the windows to the soul—and Ash's eyes were the most incredible windows I'd ever seen.

Blaine turned to Ash. "Okay, Ash. Your lover has been transformed into an
animal. To turn him back, you need to have sex with him once. Which animal would you choose him to be?"

"A falcon," Ash said almost immediately.

Gina's eyes widened. My own became pretty big.

"A falcon," Blaine chuckled, apparently not noticing the double meaning. "What, you'd stuff its entire body in your vajayjay?"

Ash turned crimson in the torchlight. "I mean, no, that's not what I meant. A different animal. A dog, maybe."

"Too late," Blaine said. "Your deepest, darkest desires have been revealed. Bird sex. She's into bird sex."

I felt like telling Blaine to shut up but I thought it would just make Ash feel even more uncomfortable. I rubbed the tattoo at my neck. Falcons were beautiful animals. That's what she meant. Of course she wasn't implying anything about having sex with me.

Of course she wasn't.

Eager to get the heat off Ash, I turned to Gina, who was staring at her thoughtfully. "Who do you think is the most well-endowed—me or Blaine?"

"Oooh," Gina said. "Good question. I'm going to have to go with you, Kade, just because you're taller."

"Taller don't mean longer, baby," Blaine said.

More questions were exchanged and as the evening progressed, I learned Ash shaved her vajayjay twice a month, once wore a sexy devil outfit for Halloween, her most embarrassing nickname was Cucumber, and she'd always wanted to have bigger boobs.

I shared a few cringe-worthy secrets of my own. I shaved my privates once a week, had dressed as a dominatrix for one Halloween, was once nicknamed Shaggy Dog, and my most embarrassing intimate moment was bringing home a hot chick from a bar and having a bad case of whiskey dick. The chick accused me of being gay and somehow word got around so that the next time I went to the bar a bunch of dudes hit on me. Needless to say, I changed bars.

The evening was growing late and I wanted to sleep soon. We agreed on one more round of questions and decided to reverse the order we'd been asking them in.

Gina went first. "What's the one thing that's most important in the world to you, Kade?"

"What happened to the naughty questions?" Which I actually preferred. A question like this was deeply personal and I'd never shared something like that with anyone before. Well, Momma Jeanne, maybe, but no one else.

"Being out here," I said finally, mostly for Ash's benefit. "In the heart of nature. I can be myself and have nothing to prove to anyone. Not out here." I felt exposed emotionally yet I was glad Ash knew this about me. I'd gone and lifted one of those barriers I always put up to keep people from getting close.

I turned toward Ash to ask her my question. Her eyes seemed a little moist in the firelight. "Since we're getting all philosophical, I'll ask you this, Ash—if you had a time machine, what moment would you go back to, and what would you change about that moment?"

Ash stared at me with wide, shocked eyes. "I—" She started to choke up, and grabbed at that lump of jewelry she kept hidden beneath her sweater. "I—"

Abruptly she stood and dashed into the shadows.

Gina was instantly on her feet. She shot me a scowl.

"
What
?" I said.

Gina ran after her. I saw Ash's silhouette standing motionless in the dark. Gina embraced her. Ash's body was shuddering and I thought she was crying.

"Shit." I rubbed my forehead. "What did I say now? What the hell did I say?"

Blaine shrugged. "Beats me. Must be the Kade magic tongue again. You're quite the lady's man, as always."

I flipped him the bird and angrily stabbed at the charred wood in the firepit with one of the leftover marshmallow sticks.

Blaine retired to the tent. Ash and Gina joined him not long after that. I ignored them, glad they were gone, but a few seconds later I heard the tent flap move and someone ducked outside again. Ash? My heart beat like a drum machine until I realized it was Gina.

She sat on the log beside me and spoke in hushed tones. "If you hurt her, Kade, I swear I'll rip you apart. I'll hunt you down and you'll wish you never lived."

"Got it." I forced a brief smile. She'd never understand I was more afraid of Ash hurting
me
.

"Good." She gave me her own smile now, one that never met her eyes.

"I don't know what the hell I said. I really don't."

"And it's better if we leave it at that." Gina got up and ducked into the tent.

Sighing, I put out the fire with the water bottles and then felt my way in the dark until I was inside the tent. We'd arranged the sleeping bags end to end, placing them alongside the four walls of the tent so that the beds formed a square around the supplies in the middle. I groped at my sleeping bag, which was right at the entrance, and when I was sure it was empty, I hopped inside and zippered it up.

I lay there a while, feeling guilty. What happened out there with Ash was eating away at me. I felt compelled to say something but I wasn't sure what.

"Ash," I finally said into the dark. "Are we good?"

The tent was silent.

"Ash—"

"Yes," she said. "I
— well, I overreact sometimes."

"Nah. It was a silly question. I shouldn't have asked it." Though, to be honest, the question didn't really seem all that silly to me. I mean, come on, there were lots of moments I wished I could travel back in time to and take back. The asking of that question, for example. But I didn't say anything. I'd gotten myself in trouble enough tonight.

I closed my eyes.

The distant howl of a wolf caused my eyelids to shoot right open again. I sensed movement in the tent.

"What was that?" Gina was sitting up and so was Ash, their bodies faintly outlined against the tent fabric.

"Just a timber wolf," Blaine said.

"Shit." Gina's voice sounded panicked and I thought she and Ash might bolt.

I rolled onto one side, glad my body was blocking the entrance. "Remember what I said.
Wild animals will leave us alone as long as we're together. You have nothing to worry about."

"What about bears foraging for food?" Ash said. "You always see that on TV. A family is camping and a bear
barges inside the tent while they're asleep."

I sighed. "Bears won't bother us, Ash. Trust me. Besides, you have me guarding the entrance to the tent. That's got to count for something, right?"