Page 7 of Obsessed with the Player

Because I shouldn’t care what Dan got to. I shouldn’t care whether he suddenly became a ‘player’and started fucking his way through the city.

I shouldn’t care.

But luckily enough for me, I was one hundred percent sure that Dan wasn’t going to go in that direction. He just wasn’t built for it. He was the most solid, relationship-oriented guy I’d ever met. He’d been in a relationship all the way through college, not strayed once, and from what I knew (and I wouldn’t reveal my sources—which were definitely Travis’s boyfriend, who was Dan’s brother’s best friend), that had been pretty similar even before college. This was just Dan having a crisis because something must have happened with his ex and he was trying to run away from it.

Dan's jaw shifted. “You don't think I can do it? Or you don't think you're good enough to teach me.”

“I don't think you have what it takes to keep up with me and my lessons. You'd go back crying to your old predictable life, and then I would be the bad guy.”

Now, Dan had always been, as far as I knew, the closest thing to arockwhen it came to peer pressure.

Never had I ever seen him give into anything that he didn't want to do, not at a college party, not anywhere.

But right here, right now, Dan wasn't only observing my dare, there was a fire in his eyes that told me just how much he wanted to take it.

I felt a ball of eagerness and a dread coil inside me, waiting to see what he would actually do in the face of it.

I didn't know if I was strong enough to watch Dan really take on a newly single lifestyle, but I knew it was in my best interest to see it close up, which would hopefully mean watching him fail.

And my intentions might have been on my face, which was probably why Dan looked so murderously determined right now.

“What will it take for you to believe me, then?” He asked, knowing what was next.

Was I crazy enough to do this?

I was. Especially with the way Dan was looking at me.

It lit me up. It made my blood sing, full of adrenaline, it made me want to close the distance and do very stupid things.

So feeling a little crazy and not in my rind mind at all, I said, “You’re going to have to prove it to me in a one-time test, and if you fail, you'll never ask me again.”

Dan’s nostrils flared.

“What's it going to be? Because if you say yes, it's going to be my way or the highway.”

His eyes darkened. He leaned forward again, breath kissing my face.“I’m going to enjoy watching the flies fly into your mouth when it falls open after I'm done with your stupid test.”

My cock twitched.

This wassonot how I’d thought this meeting was going to go.

But now I couldn’t walk away from it.

I would just have to make sure that Dan got this stupid idea out of his head, and pray to hell that I didn't regret this.

3

Dan James

All too quickly, I realized that I may have spoken too soon.

After our little pact was formed, Andy gave me a key to his apartment and told me to move in the next day, Saturday, and after we spent the whole day moving my stuff in (I was still kind of surprised he’d offered to help), Andy had just decided that my trial by fire should betonight, giving me only half an hour to get mentally ready, which was how I’d ended up here, feeling like I was about to be kicked in the nuts by an exam I’d never prepared for.

We were at a nearby bar, which was full to the brim as it would have been expected on a Saturday night, the low, warm light illuminating everything but the darkened dance area, and we were perched on the bar, about to order our drinks. I stared at the crowd of strangers, feeling more than a little bit out of my element and ready to call it quits and go home for the night.

“Relax,” came suddenly Andy's voice, his lips way too close to my ear, his hand on the back of my neck. “You look like you're two days away from turning twenty-one and you’re afraid of getting carded.”

I bristled, resisting the urge to brush his hand off and instead simply glaring at him.

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