Page 11 of The Dating Dare

After propping her up against a wall, he grabbed a towel and held it under running water. He returned to her side with the wet towel, and cleaned her clammy face and neck. Tara had fallen asleep again and didn’t stir at his ministrations. He was about to lift her off the floor to carry her to bed when he noticed that the front hem of her skirt was soiled. He couldn’t let her sleep wearing her own vomit, so Seth took a steadying breath and got to work.

He pulled her into his arms, her head resting on his shoulder, and unzipped the back of her dress. After he leaned her back against the wall, he maneuvered her floppy arms free and dragged the dress down, making a heroic effort not to stare as her lacy black bra revealed itself to him. God, she was so fucking sexy. He took a deep breath and doggedly tugged her dress down further, preparing himself to be slammed with a matching pair of black panties. But she surprised him with her choice of… What exactly was she wearing? It covered her up from right under her breasts, down to her mid-thighs. Ah, it must be one of those body contouring things. He shook his head, working the dress down past her legs and off of her. She was perfect. She didn’t need shapewear.

“I can’t stand wearing this thing,” she mumbled as though she’d read his mind.

Then she promptly tugged and squirmed until she pushed her undergarment down to the top of her hips.Yeah, baby. Take it off.What? Where the hell did that come from? But, of course, he knew exactly where it came from, so he told his dick to shut up. He refused to take advantage of her in even the smallest way while shewas drunk. And to prove that his head still ruled him, he averted his eyes before she exposed more of her glorious body.

“Oh, God,” he groaned when her underwear flew past him. He squeezed his eyes shut when her bra followed in its wake. The woman he’d been hungering after all night was naked in his bathroom, but he couldn’t do anything about it because his mother raised him right. Even so, the temptation to peek at her was too powerful. “Stay right here. Let me bring you a T-shirt.”

He went to his luggage and fished out his one and only T-shirt, the one he’d been planning to wear tomorrow. He brought it back to the bathroom, keeping his eyes focused on a spot over Tara’s half-prone form. Seth pulled the T-shirt over her wobbling head and pushed her limp, uncooperative arms through, all the while making a valiant effort not to notice how soft her skin felt.

While his shirt was huge on her, she was undeniably naked underneath it. And his continued effort to keep his eyes averted was about to burst some blood vessels. He needed to get her under the covers. Seth hugged Tara tightly against his chest, and heaved to a stand. He carried her to the bed, and laid her down on it. She was sleeping peacefully, her features soft and relaxed. A rush of affection flowed through him as he arranged the duvet around her. He stepped away before he acted on his impulse to drop a kiss on her forehead.

Next up was the puke pile. Without overthinking it, he grabbed a lined trash can and a whole roll of toilet paper, and got to work. He cleaned up everything he could, but he couldn’t do anything about the stain on the carpet. He would leave the maid a big tip for the rest of the cleanup.

After a long, hot shower, Seth put on a pair of boxers. It was asdecent as he could get with his unexpected guest wearing his only spare T-shirt. Being careful not to disturb Tara, he slipped under the covers, and turned his back to her. The only way he could fall asleep was to pretend she wasn’t there.Fat chance. Every hair on his body stood at attention, acutely conscious of the beautiful woman next to him. He might as well give up on sleep and read a book on his phone. But as the minutes ticked by, Tara’s warm presence settled his restlessness and he drifted off to sleep.

CHAPTER THREE

Tara lifted her arms high above her head and stretched down to her pointed toes. When she released her taught muscles, her body relaxed into a gelatinous blob, and a satisfied sigh escaped her lips. She loved this part of waking up. The first stretch of the day, where you surrender every muscle in your body. It was one of life’s simplest but greatest pleasures.

She turned to her side, keeping her eyes closed, like a lazy cat sitting on a patch of sunlight. It took her a couple seconds to realize she wasn’t alone. With a chill of alarm slithering down her spine, she forced her eyes open. Her heart took a flying leap into her throat as she stared into Seth’s beautiful sleeping face.

“No,” she choked, holding herself very still.

She stomped down on the panic that was rising inside her, and forced herself to rewind her mind to last night. She remembered playing truth or dare with him at the brewery, and her impulsively agreeing to date him. It had seemed a perfectly sane idea at the time. She was lonely; he was hot. A no-strings-attached month of dating sounded like exactly what the doctor ordered.

But her memory turned hazy after the part where they toasted tothe dating dare.Oh, God. Did I sleep with him?Well, it was obvious she slept with him. She was in bed beside him, and the sky was softening with the colors of approaching dawn. But did shesleepwith him?

She carefully lifted the duvet covering her body, and saw that she was naked underneath an oversized T-shirt, which presumably belonged to Seth. Tara briefly considered lifting the blanket further to see what Seth was wearing on the bottom, because from what she could see, he wasn’t wearing anything on the top. But she promptly chickened out. What if he was naked? The thought made her blood rush south even as she freaked out about the implications.

She wanted him—last night and this morning. That much was certain. Her body was apparently a wild thing with a mind of its own. Even now, it begged her to touch him. To slip a hand underneath the sheets and feel up his broad chest and tight abs.Simmer down.If she felt this out of control, sober and wide awake, how would she have behaved last night? She might’ve acted on her desire without restraint.

Why did Seth bring her to his hotel room? He wasn’t the kind of man who would take advantage of a drunk person.But look at the evidence.She was in his hotel room, lying next to him in nothing but a T-shirt. Why would she be half-naked if they didn’t do the deed? No, she didn’t buy it. There had to be a different explanation—probably a hugely humiliating one for her.

But if theyhadslept together last night, she’d probably participated wholeheartedly. She was ridiculously attracted to the man. She wouldn’t call it the best decision of her life, but she could own it. The thing that bothered her the most was that if they really had had sex, she didn’t remember any of it. Even the orgasm. She was certain he would’ve made her come. The mere sight of him made lust pump through her veins. Besides, weren’t playboys supposed to know theirway around a woman’s body? Tara wanted to groan out loud, but she couldn’t risk waking up Seth.

She had to get out of here before he woke up. Whatever happened last night, it would be humiliating to face him with no memory of it. She shifted gingerly toward the edge of the bed, wincing as her brain rattled in her head, and removed her weight from the mattress with excruciating care. Wouldn’t it be funny if she accidentally jostled him awake? Yeah… no.

Her dress hung neatly behind a high-backed chair with her bra and Spanx next to it. With a grimace of distaste, she put on her uncomfortable push-up bra and Spanx and quickly stepped into the dress. The hem felt cold against her bare feet for some reason. She paused to sniff the damp skirt, but it smelled clean.Whatever.She had to find the rest of her stuff. Once she found her shoes and her purse, Tara made her escape. She would’ve sprinted down the empty hallway if her brain wasn’t attempting to shove her eyeballs through their sockets.

Once she made it out the main entrance, the gentle light of the rising sun pierced into her pounding head. It was just past six o’clock, and the streets were still empty. Which was good and bad. It was good since there was no one to witness her walk of shame. The bad was that her chances of catching an Uber in her tiny town at sunrise were slim to nothing. Besides, taking an Uber would create a witness to her unplanned sleepover, which she didn’t need. Waddling home in her mermaid dress and high heels was her only option. It felt like her comeuppance for drinking without restraint when she was feeling so off—with a gorgeous man she had a hard time keeping her hands off of.

When Tara got safely home with sore feet and a guilty conscience, she pushed everything out of her mind so she could get more sleepto do away with her hangover. She didn’t want her brothers giving her a hard time for staying out late and getting so drunk. They had a cowbell they loved to ring around her head when she overdid it with the adult beverages.

She stripped out of her tight dress and the wretched undergarments, put on an oversized T-shirt—which reminded her of the feel of Seth’s shirt against her naked skin—and slid into bed. She closed her eyes with a sigh, and dreamt of the peaceful face of the sleeping man she’d left behind in a cozy hotel room.

Tara woke up for the second time that morning, the sun shining brightly into her room. To her great relief, the pain stabbing at her head didn’t feel like medieval torture anymore. Unfortunately, her mortification had only grown like one of those magic sponge animals that quadrupled in size in water. Her remorse at her reckless actions didn’t fit inside her mind, and her scalp felt stretched tightly around her head. She screamed into her pillow. It helped a little, so she did it again. Feeling marginally less likely to burst, she slowly swung her legs to the floor and stood.

No shooting pain in her temples. No dizziness.Yup. Her hangover was practically gone. Putting on her slippers, she dragged herself out to the kitchen to hydrate. Her mom had a giant jug of boricha—roasted barley tea—prepared in the fridge, and she gratefully poured out a tall glass and chugged it down.

“Hey, kiddo,” Jack said, strolling into the kitchen. “How late did you stay out last night? I didn’t hear you come in.”

“Late,” she said vaguely, hoping her brother wouldn’t push it. Becauseoh, I came home a couple hours ago after having a sleepover with Sethwas a conversation neither of them needed to have.

As sad as it sounded, she was a twenty-eight-year-old woman with an unspoken twoA.M. curfew. She knew her parents only wanted to protect their little girl, but it was absurd to have a curfew at her age, especially since her brothers hadn’t had a curfew since they were in high school. She loved her parents dearly, but some of their old-fashioned views were getting… old.

Thankfully, Jack just shrugged and poured himself a glass of boricha, too. “I can’t believe Aubrey is really married. I mean, she’s been living with Landon for a few months now, and they have Morgan, but that wedding ceremony made everything feel so official.”

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