The Dare
Authors: Karin Tabke
Tags: #Romance, #the dare, #karin tabke, #The Chronicles of Katrina, #contemporary erotic romance
Also by Karin Tabke:
Blood Moon Trilogy
Blood Law
Bloodright
Blood Vow
Blood Sword Legacy Trilogy
Master of Surrender
Master of Torment
Master of Craving
A Knight to Remember
**Master of Deception
Hot Cops Series
Bad to the Bone
Good Girl Gone Bad
Skin
Jaded
Have Yourself a Naughty Little Santa
Anthologies
You’ve Got Murder, co-written with Edie Ramer
Hard Stuff
Men Out Of Uniform
Guns and Roses
PARANORMAL ROMANTIC SUSPENSE
w/a Karin Harlow
L.O.S.T. series
Enemy Lover
Enemy Mine
**Enemy Sworn
**Coming soon**
Enemy Sworn, TBA
Master of Deception, book four in the
Blood Sword Legacy
series, TBA
THE DARE
Copyright © 2013 Karin Tabke LLC.
All rights reserved.
Editor: Christina Trevaskis
Copy Editor: Martha Trachtenberg and Karen Matheny
Cover Design & Ebook Production: VMC Art & Design, LLC
This book is an original publication of Karin Tabke LLC
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without prior written permission from the copyright owner.
ISBN- 978-0-9881879-1-7
t took a village.
Thank you Syl for dragging my ass half way across the country to find my mojo. Tina, thank you for handing me my mojo and for believing in me. Your support has been invaluable.
Virna, thank you for your always spot on crits, and taking the time to read for me when you were crunched for time yourself. Thank you Yajaira and Catherine for always volunteering to be my first readers. Double thank you, Catherine for reviving my Street Team.
Martha, thank you for taking pity on me and bloodying up my pages. Karen, thank you for doing the same and for your final proof eyes. Victoria, thank you for coming to the cover rescue, we were meant to be! And also thank you for the lovely layout and so formatting of my words.
Thank you to the anonymous couple in the lobby of the conference hotel who inspired the first scene.
And last but never least, thank you to my hot cop husband who reminds me daily that if it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t write hot cops half as well as I do.
s the door closed behind the trio, Katy trembled with excitement. She couldn’t believe she was doing this. Going where she had never gone before. Not even in her wildest fantasies: To bed with two men. One, her lover, Evan; the other a stranger.
Her eyes traveled shyly but appreciatively down the newcomer’s tall athletic body. If she actually went through with this, he wouldn’t be a stranger for long. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled slowly. She could do this. She
wanted
to do this.
“Hey,” Evan whispered against her ear, “I’m here, too, don’t forget that.”
Encouraged by his presence, and his reminder that he had a jealous bone after all, Katy smiled and turned slightly to her left. Gazing into his suddenly concerned eyes, she slid her hand down Evan’s hard belly to his even harder groin and squeezed. Her touch elicited a sharp hiss of breath from him. “This rodeo was your idea, cowboy, now suck it up and make the most of it.”
Evan’s eyes widened at her chastising words. She was always a passenger when it came to sex, but this time—she nipped his bottom lip and turned slyly to her new friend, who stood watching their exchange with something akin to amusement. Now she was the driver.
If she didn’t chicken out.
Admittedly, she would have balked if the stars had not been aligned as they were when Evan challenged her.
There they’d been, at the hotel bar downstairs, when the handsome stranger she’d met earlier that day walked in. He’d caught and held her gaze, and Katy’s body had warmed in response. Of course, Evan had noticed the way she squirmed in her chair, and had later casually commented that the man had not taken his eyes off her all night. She’d noticed too.
She’d smiled inwardly but didn’t tell him they had already met, quite by accident. Literally by accident. She’d stepped out of the elevator with her arms full of notebooks for her seminar and had plowed right into Mr. Smokin’ Hot. When they’d both bent down to pick up the binders, they bumped heads. Rubbing her forehead, she’d looked up into two very intense green eyes.
“I’m sorry, I’m such a klutz,” she’d stuttered.
“A very pretty one,” he said. Her reaction to the heat in his eyes and warmth in his voice was instant. She blushed, pushed her glasses back into place, and proceeded to drop the remainder of the binders onto his large booted feet.
“Here,” he softly exasperated, taking her elbow and guiding her to a standing position. “You stand, and let me pick them up so we’ll both be out of harm’s way.”
She watched him, covertly from beneath her lashes, trying not to feel guilty about how much she admired his moves. He looked like a man’s man. A big, rough and tumble kind of guy who’d like the outdoors. He even smelled like it. Fresh and woodsy. The total opposite of her quiet, intellectual lover, who despite lacking this man’s animal magnetism, had his own brand of charm.
As the handsome stranger stacked the binders in her arms, her eyes dropped to his capable hands and instantly conjured the vision of them on her breasts. When she raised her gaze to his face, he was smiling. A wolfish knowing smile. Heat rose in her cheeks, spreading to her nipples and lower. Katy was no shrinking violet, but this man made her extremely aware of her female parts being in close proximity to his very male parts. When the binders were all stacked, he cocked a brow and asked, “Are you staying at the hotel?”
“Yes,” she’d admitted too quickly.
“Me too.”
She swallowed. “That’s nice.”
“Not really. But what would make it nice is if you would let me buy you a drink later tonight.”
She’d swallowed hard again. “I can’t, I’m with someone.”
His full lips tightened and he nodded. “Lucky man, your someone.” He tipped the brim of an imaginary hat and walked away.
Since that meeting, she’d seemed to bump into him at every turn, including when she and Evan had gone down to grab a drink before dinner. Green Eyes sat across the bar with a bunch of drinking, carousing guys. Who, according to the cocktail waitress, were cops in for some kind of task-force meetings. Although he wasn’t partying with the others, he was drinking, and with each drink, he’d raised it to her in silent salute.
“It’s my turn, Katy,” Evan had said pulling her attention back to him. “And I pick dare.”
Excitement shivered down her spine. “Okay,” she said, slowly exhaling. “I’m feeling rather daring at the moment.”
He grinned and nodded toward the group of cops. “I dare you to pick one of those cops and take him upstairs.” She went from feeling excited to feeling a little sick to her stomach. Not that sex with one of the hunky cops was sickening, but because Evan had suggested she have sex with another man.
Her face must have reflected her dismay because Evan said, “C’mon, Katy, don’t tell me you’re not turned on by the one that keeps staring at you. I should go punch his lights out for his audacity.”
“Then why don’t you?”
He chuckled. “I’m a lover, baby, not a fighter. Besides, if I did, it would be kind of hard to invite him upstairs, wouldn’t it?”
Not a fighter for her anyway. How could he dare her to take another man to bed? Weren’t they a couple? A secret one because of the no-fraternizing rule at work, but if he cared about her at all, how could he be okay with her having sex with another man?
Her pride kicked in. Fine, if she didn’t mean enough to him to remain monogamous, then this little dare would be on her terms.
She glanced over at the group of cops. Yeah, she admitted, and only to herself, that despite her hurt, she was intrigued. They were all good-looking men. Cocky as all hell, and most women would be happy to indulge in one or all of them—but there was only one she would consider. But, was Evan bluffing? Playing a game; a test to find out how much he meant to her by putting her in this position?
“Are you serious?” she asked, sure he was kidding.
“As a heart attack,” he said with conviction. He wasn’t bluffing.
Her belly did a slow roll as she stared at him, waiting for him to take it back—but he didn’t. Raising her chin she made her decision. Pride was the devil’s child, so to hide her hurt, she nonchalantly threw back at him, “Only one? Why not two?” Go big or go home, right?
Please God don’t let him say two
! She couldn’t do that. Wouldn’t. The verdict was still out on picking just one. She knew she was uptight. Inhibited, Evan had said. She needed to loosen up.
Evan’s lips twitched into an arrogant little smirk that she loved. It was playful and loaded with promise. He leaned forward and kissed her neck just behind her ear. The touch elicited a small tremor that instantly infused her already sensitive nipples, then shot straight to her groin. He knew that was her weak spot and used it to his advantage. “Count me in as the second one,” he whispered.