Page 26 of The Dare

A laugh flies out of my mouth. “You’re incorrigible.”

“Why’d you stop playing with my hair? Felt nice.” His tongue darts out to moisten his bottom lip, an adorable action that quickens my pulse. “So what do you say? We keep pretending for a while longer?”

“The fact that I’m entertaining this idea says I had too much to drink today,” I respond.

“That was hours ago. You’re not drunk. Besides, tell me the look on Abigail’s face every time she’s seen us together hasn’t gone straight to your tingly place.”

“First, don’t ever call it that again. Second…” I want to tell him he’s wrong. That I’m above such petty amusements. However…he’s not entirely wrong about the tingle. “Maybe I enjoyed it a little,” I confess.

“Ha! I knew it. You enjoy the game as much as I do.”

“Just alittle,” I stress.

“Liar.”

When he sits abruptly, I experience a sense of loss I’m not allowed to feel. But I feel it all the same, missing the heaviness of his warm body on me and the softness of his blond hair between my fingers.

“What are you doing?” I demand as he hops off the bed and grabs his discarded pants.

He returns with his phone, plopping down beside me. His thumb slides over the screen as he…well, I’m not sure what he’s doing. Because I’m nosy, I lean closer to peek, and discover that he’s pulled up MyBriar, our school’s social media app.

My eyes widen as I watch him change his status toin a relationship.

“Hey,” I chide, “I didn’t say yes.”

“You basically said yes.”

“I was at a seventy percent at best.”

“Welp, might as well prance that last thirty, because we’re blowing up, babe.”

Oh my effing God. The little bubble above the notification icon starts blinking. Ten, twenty, forty.

“C’mon,” he coaxes. “I’m bored. This’ll be good for a laugh, at least. Best case scenario—you cave to my smoldering good looks and fall into bed with me.”

“You wish.”

“I really do. But fine, second-best case scenario: it might get Abigail to lay off you for a while. That’s worth something, right?”

Thatwouldbe nice. Especially since there’s a Kappa chapter meeting tomorrow and I just know Abigail will be all over me with her passive aggressive jabs.

“You know you want to…” He wiggles his phone in the air enticingly.

My gaze is drawn to the thick silver band around his middle finger. “Nice ring. Where’d you get it?”

“LA. And you’re deflecting.” He holds the phone out to me. “I dare you.”

“You’re incredibly persistent.”

“Some would consider it one of my better qualities.”

“Also completely obnoxious.”

Conor flashes his self-assured grin that says “obnoxious” is just girl code for “charming” when she’s about to break.

“Taylor Marsh, will you do me the incredible honor of updating your relationship status and becoming my fake girlfriend?”

And break she does. As if possessed by some supernatural being, my hand takes the phone from him. My finger logs out of his MyBri and then logs into mine. And as I change my status to match his, I’m vaguely aware of two things:

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