Page 16 of The Dating Dare

“Shit. I’m sorry. Come in.” He hurriedly stepped aside then led her to the living room.

It was Tara’s favorite room in the house, cream colored and filled with overstuffed sofas and lounge-worthy chaises. Some of her anxiety eased as the cozy warmth of the room soothed her. Seth motioned for her to take a seat and chose an armchair for himself near her but not within touching distance.

Once they were settled, he just sat drumming nervously at his knees. After a while, he inhaled and opened his mouth to say something, then stopped, ridges appearing between his eyebrows. She couldn’t take it anymore. She had to break the silence.

“So… what did you want to talk about?” Tara said with forced nonchalance. Maybe he would reveal what happened that night without her having to admit that she remembered nothing about how she ended up near naked in his bed.

“I wanted to talk to you before tonight, but I thought you needed time to get over your embarrassment,” he said softly. “But you don’t have to be embarrassed. It’s not a big deal.”

“Here’s the thing. Iamembarrassed. Mortified. Humiliated.To death. But not for the reason you think.” She squinted at her nails, studying them with intense focus. “All I know is that I woke up next to you wearing nothing but a T-shirt.”

“What do you mean?” he asked warily.

“I don’t remember anything that happened after our toast to the dating dare.” She couldn’t look straight at him, so she peered at himthrough the corner of one eye. “Please don’t be offended, but I have to ask… did we have sex?”

“God, no.” His eyes widened and the corners of his mouth drooped in the most heart-wrenching, crestfallen expression. She felt like a complete jerk. “Of course, we didn’t have sex. How could you even think…”

“I’m so sorry. I knew there had to be another explanation for why I woke up naked in your bed.”

“There is,” he said stoically.

“I know, but doubt kept butting in to tell me I was grasping at straws to deny what really happened. You must understand why I needed to hear you say nothing happened?”

“I do understand,” he sighed, tilting back his head and squeezing the back of his neck. “But I wouldn’t saynothinghappened.”

“Oh, no. What did I do?” She buried her face in her hands and groaned. “I kissed you. Didn’t I?”

“No, no. Nothing likethathappened.” Tara peeked through her fingers at him. Seth nearly smiled. “You seriously don’t remember anything?”

“Nope.” She shook her head, letting her hands fall on her lap. “Nada.”

“Jesus. Okay. Let me start from after the toast then.” He leaned forward in his seat with his elbows on his knees. “I didn’t know how drunk you were until you started sliding off the stool at the brewery.”

“Which is irrelevant,” she said pertly. He wasn’t taking responsibility for how drunk she got. “I made the decision to drink however much I did. It was my choice and my responsibility.”

“It is relevant, because if you got incrementally inebriated likemost people, I could’ve asked you for your address before you got completely wasted.” Seth ran a hand down his face as though just recounting the story was exhausting. “When I asked you where you lived, you said something about over yonder and onward ho. Do you have some kind of a pirate fetish or were you one in your past life?”

“I… uh…”

“And orange marmalade.”

“Orange marmalade?” Coffee and toast with orange marmalade was her idea of fancy teatime. But why would she bring up orange marmalade out of the blue?

“Never mind. That bit really isn’t relevant. The point is I couldn’t get your address out of you. Since I didn’t think it would do to leave you sleeping on the brewery floor, I had to improvise.” Seth dragged his fingers through his thick, wavy hair. His hair really was fantastic.Hello?Maybe she should focus on this nightmarish conversation, not his freaking hair. She had to rein in her attraction to him if she wanted to be in control. “I brought you to my hotel room, and that’s when you threw up on me.”

“I what on you?” she sputtered. Maybe he already wrote off the dating dare. Nothing like some puke to snuff out a spark of attraction.

“You spewed vomit like a woman possessed. Mostly on my shoes, but you managed to get some on your dress as well.”

“Oh, for the love of elves.” Tara pressed her hands against her flushed cheeks. This might be one of the most humiliating moments in the history of her whole entire life.

“All I did was help you get out of your soiled dress. The rest you did on your own.”

“The rest?”

“You insisted on stripping down to your birthday suit, bouncing and wiggling.” Seth stopped to clear his throat.

“So I stripped naked in front of you? You saw me naked?”Lightning, strike me now.

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