Page 49 of The Very Naughty List

“Yes,” I whisper. Then I correct myself and add, “Well, technically, not all of them would be done in a bed.”

“Fuck,” Reid breathes, running a hand through his chocolate brown hair. Nick groans quietly.

“Honestly, I haven’t made that much progress on it,” I admit. I don’t know why I’m still talking, but the silence feels too intense, making me itch with the need to fill it. “The dating scene in LA is abysmal, so I haven’t had a lot of opportunities.”

The muscles in Reid’s jaw work as he shakes his head. “Clearly, whateverboysyou’ve been meeting out in LA aren’t the kind of real men who could take care of your needs. That’s their loss.”

“What’s on your list, songbird?” Nick asks, his voice strained.

I already feel like my heart is about to pound its way out of my chest, and his question—not to mention the way he’s looking at me as he asks it—only makes it worse. My pulse is racing so fast, and there’s so much sexual tension swirling in the room, that I start to feel a little lightheaded.

But what do I have to lose? I’ve already told them that the list exists, so I might as well give them the details. I haven’t forgotten what my best friend said to me the other night when I called her after I’d kissed Sebastian, and as wild and reckless as Lorelai’s advice seemed at the time… it’s starting to feel a little less impossible.

“I can show it to you,” I offer, my voice breathless.

Instantly, all three men nod in response.

Swallowing hard, I head up to my room to get it. I’m intensely conscious of all three pairs of eyes following me as I make my way up the stairs, making me feel like a piece of prey for three very hungry hunters.

None of them have moved an inch when I come back a few seconds later with the list clutched in one hand. I don’t quite have the guts to read it to them myself, so instead, I hold it out to them like an offering.

Sebastian takes it, and Nick and Reid crowd over his shoulders to read it along with him. Their gazes scan the page, and I hold my breath as I wait to see their reactions.

“‘Have my hair pulled during sex. Be spanked. Ride a pierced dick. Be part of an orgy, three way, or four way.’” Sebastian starts reading aloud, and with every word he speaks, I feel my face getting hotter. “‘Go down on a guy while being fucked by another. Have sex in a public place. Be fucked wearing only a pair of high heels. Be fucked against a window.’”

Jesus, is he really going to stand here and read the whole thing? My face flushes again at the thought. I can’t believe I’m letting these three men, my brother’s best friends, read mydeepest sexual fantasies—the things that Dylan was way too vanilla to ever even want to try—like they’re front-page news.

But it’s even harder to believe how hot I think it is.

Sebastian pauses in his reading, his gaze finding mine as his eyes gleam with heat, and Reid takes the opportunity to pluck the piece of paper from his brother’s hand. He reads the next few lines silently, a slow smirk spreading across his face before he speaks them aloud.

“‘I think I might have a praise kink. Do I have a degradation kink too? I’d like to find out.’” He lifts a brow at me, almost as if he wants to be the one to help me find out, then continues reading. “‘I want a guy to get me all worked up and then make me beg for him. Have a guy spit whiskey into my mouth, then chase it with a soul-stealing kiss.’”

Reid glances up from the paper at me again after the last one, his dimples appearing as his grin widens. “That’s vivid.”

“Keep going,” Nick barks at him, and Sebastian chuckles roughly as Reid’s eyes return to the page.

“‘Have a guy tell me to get on my knees and crawl to him. Have a guy tug my panties off and then drop to his knees in front of me to eat me out. Sit on a guy’s face—like, really sit. Sex while blindfolded. Sex while tied up. Wear a vibrator that someone else controls. Be forced to come over and over until I literally can’t take it anymore.’”

Reid pauses once more, something passing across his expression before he reads the final item on my list. “‘And last but not least, find a guy who’d actually be into doing all of this with me.’”

The room goes quiet again for a moment, all three of the Cooper brothers staring at me like they’re seeing me—or at least seeing this side of me—for the first time. Then Sebastian lets out a low whistle and chuckles.

“You dirty, dirty girl,” he drawls. “These are all the things you want to try? Who knew that sweet face hid such a filthy mind?”

My face burns with embarrassment, and I squirm a little under their gazes. I feel kind of like the awkward little sister of their best friend again. But I’m not that girl anymore. I’m a grown woman, and there isn’t a damn thing on that list that I should be ashamed of.

I hold his gaze and lift my brow a little, challenging him to say otherwise. But he just shares a look with his brothers instead, and then all three of them turn back to me.

Tension crackles in the silence that sweeps between us, like lightning through a storm cloud. I chew the inside of my lip, waiting for someone to say something to break it. But they just keep staring at me, their gazes hot and probing.

“You know I got pierced because you dared me to, right?” Sebastian finally asks, and my eyes snap to him.

I nod. “Yes. You told me in the hallway last night.”

“Well, I have a dare for you.”

“What is it?” My throat is so tight and dry I can barely get the words out.

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