Page 53 of Rut Bar

The alpha dancer presses a kiss to the inside of her thigh, and then he does something to her toes that makes a bone pop and she sighs. “I had to learn how after taking this job. Sometimes my feet are so sore by the end of my shift that I can’t sleep until I’ve worked the kinks out. Okay, I think it’s my turn. Truth or dare, babe?” he asks, looking at Anthony.

“Oh, definitely dare,” Anthony answers.

“I dare you… to kiss someone in this room who you’re attracted to.”

Anthony sets his cup on the floor, then stands. “So many choices.” He glances around the room, looking between them, and then his attention fixates on me and my breath catches when I realize he’s serious and nobody is laughing or making jokes.

“Me?” Is Anthony serious when he says he wants to kiss me?

“Yeah,” Anthony shrugs. “I kind of dig the fifties sitcom dad vibe. Plus, you’ve got a hidden wild streak that I think could be fun. Remember what I said earlier?”

Nobody will make me do anything I don’t want to do. I take time to think about it and work through the repercussions. Fucking around with the person I’m auditing is a terrible idea, but… Anthony is an employee. It’s bad. But it wouldn’t be as bad as if I pulled Veronica onto my lap and sank her down on my knot like I so desperately want to.

I meant what I said earlier too. I’m not really into men, but I can’t say I’m perfectly straight, either. There was too much experimentation in high school and college for that to be true. And there’s something magnetic about Anthony’s cocky attitude.

He’s so confident it’s hard not to be impressed. He’s a beta. Shorter, smaller, physically weaker. But I’ve never met a beta who was so ballsy and downright dominant before. It’s intriguing and part of me wants to see how far he’ll go.

So my preference might be for women, but I can’t deny there’s a spark of interest there.

“Okay,” I say, then swallow hard when he stalks across the room.

Anthony leans over me and grabs my chair’s armrests so I’m caged in my seat. He stares at me until my stomach flutters with the good kind of nerves, and then he dips his head until his lips barely brush against mine. It’s almost a kiss, but not quite, and it takes me a few seconds to realize he’s waiting for me to balk and change my mind.

I let my eyes slide closed and tilt my head to close the distance between our mouths and the beta gives me a deep and aching kiss that’s sweeter than I expected. After a brief hesitation, my lips soften and I kiss him back until the rest of the room fades away. When all the blood leaves my body to pool in my groin and my cock twitches to life against my briefs, he finally pulls away.

Anthony cups my jaw and scrapes his thumb over the stubble growing on my chin. “You’re a good kisser, papa bear.”

The nickname stuns me, but I don’t mind it. Anthony lets me go and saunters back to his chair, where he sits. “Your turn,” he says to me.

“Right.” I can’t reach down and adjust my strangled cock without all of them knowing exactly how hard I got from kissing another man. One who’s practically a stranger to me. I’ve only known them a week, and I’m still trying to figure out how I took this assignment and ended up right here, right now, in this surreal moment that feels like it should be a dream. “Truth or dare, Jamie?”

“Truth,” he answers from his spot on the floor. He’s still rubbing Veronica’s feet, except his massage has worked its way up her ankles and calves. I can’t blame him. I wouldn’t want to let go of her either if our situations were reversed.

“Would having another alpha in your pack bother you?” I ask him.

“No,” he answers immediately. “As long as you’re good to Miss Vee, I want whatever would make her happy.”

I would like to call him a liar, to say that two alphas in one pack would be like oil and water… but I can’t. I’m struck by the sudden realization that I don’t want to shoulder him out of the way so I can rub her feet instead, but to join him.

I was a competitive, arrogant alphahole before my injury hobbled me, and I lost everything. My scholarship. A promising career. Almost all of my friends. Now, however… I could see myself sitting on the floor next to the big blond alpha and rubbing one of her feet after a long, hard day while he does the other.

“My turn,” Anthony declares with far too much glee. “Vee, truth or dare?”

“Truth,” she answers without even looking. She’s slung her head over the back of her chair and her ass is barely perched on her seat as Jamie works higher up her legs.

“How have you been on your own since you were fourteen?”

She sucks in a breath and her eyes pop open as she stares at the ceiling. She’s silent for way too long until it’s uncomfortable. “Hand me my drink,” she says to Jamie. When he does, she drains it in a single gulp. “That’s not a story you want to hear at a party, Anthony. Dare.”

ChapterFifteen

BRENDAN

“I choose dare instead,”Veronica says.

“Okay, baby.” He fishes something egg-shaped and purple out of his pocket. “I dare you to wear this for the rest of the night.” He passes it to Jamie, and the alpha holds it up for her to inspect.

“Are you kidding?” She exhales loudly, but takes the remote control vibrator egg with a mulish expression. “Fine. Let me up, pet, so I can go use the bathroom.”

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