Page 38 of Queen Rose

Daphne stops to sweep her long hair up off her neck. “Okay, I’m going to start us off pretty tame. Do you have a hidden talent?”

Max pretends like he’s thinking for a few seconds, then cracks up and glances at Griffin. “Ask my boyfriend.”

“Oh, no. Don’t drag me into your turn.” Griffin hesitates for a second, his cheeks turning pink. But then he smirks and clears his throat roughly. “Even if you do have a wicked, wonderful way with your tongue that takes me from zero to—”

Daphne bursts from her seat. “Oh. My. God. Stop right there.” She dissolves into giggles as Micah pulls her back down next to him.

“You asked!” Max snorts, winking at Daphne, whose face has contorted comically. If I had to guess, she wasn’t expecting Max—or Griffin—to be so cheeky with the answer.

She playfully narrows her eyes on both of them and splashes water in retaliation.

“Next!” Max scans the group, finally selecting his victim. “Micah, truth or dare?”

“Dare. Duh,” he grunts.

“Okay, I dare you to jump naked off the dock.”

I shake my head. I get the feeling this isn’t anything unusual either. Micah hauls himself out of the tub, then with his back to us, strips down, baring his ass before taking off at full speed down to the dock and throwing himself into the cold, dark water.

Aria leans into me. “All these years we’ve been friends, and I’ve never seen Micah take anything other than a dare.”

I shrug. “Private guy. I get that. Not a bad thing to be.”

Beau laughs. “Or he’s a fucking exhibitionist and knows someone will tell him to get naked and do something. Could be that.”

We’re all still laughing when Micah jogs back to the group, shivering with one big hand mostly covering his junk. “Sorry,” he huffs. “Even with cold-water shrinkage, it’s hard to hide my dick with my hand.” He gives us an unapologetic smile, and snatches up his trunks. After slipping them on, he points at Aria.

“Truth or dare, Queen Rose.”

I turn my head just in time to see one brow go up, and she takes a long swallow of whatever drink Beau brought her earlier. “Truth. Do your worst, Micah.”

I watch her from the corner of my eye. She straightens her back, putting on a pretty good I-don’t-fucking-care-what-you-ask show, pursing her pretty lips. I don’t buy it. She’s totally about to panic, holding herself together by hiding behind this fake sassy queen attitude. Odd that she’d do it with her friends, though.

Micah shrugs as he slips back into the hot tub next to Daphne. “We’ll keep it simple. When was the last time you lied?”

It’s almost imperceptible, but she stiffens. After a second, she taps her pointer finger to her lips, scrunching her face up, like she’s thinking hard. She’s stalling. “It was probably a lie of omission. Does that count?”

Micah lifts one shoulder and drops it. “Sure.”

Aria sneaks a quick look at me before focusing on her hands. “I didn’t tell anyone at home besides Franny that Nate was coming with me. I haven’t told my parents that I’m dating anyone.” She mumbles that last part, then turns her head to look at me. “It doesn’t mean anything. My parents just suck. And—”

She doesn’t even have to finish whatever she was going to add for it to feel like a punch to the gut. No wonder I’ve been made to wait down at the road for her. If her parents are really that bad, though… I inhale quickly, giving her leg a brief squeeze. “It’s okay,” I grind out.

“It’s not.” She looks at me, and I see it in her eyes—she means what she says. And it bothers her that she’s felt the need to keep quiet about us.

I nod. “No, I guess it’s not, but I get it.”

“Her family is really shitty and weird, Nate.” Lyla shakes her head. “Honestly, you don’t want to know them. You should put that off as long as you can.”

I’d already gathered as much from Aria the few times she’s mentioned them, so it doesn’t surprise me. Needing to get the game moving again so we stop focusing on me, I put my arm around Aria and draw her close to my side, kissing her temple. “It’s really fine. We’ll talk about it later. Take your turn.”

Aria wets her lips and blows out a careful breath, recovering. “Okay, this one is for Griff. Truth or dare, hot stuff?”

“Truth. You don’t scare me, pretty girl.” Griffin shoots her a cocky smile.

“I don’t, huh? Okay, if Max were out of the picture…” She pauses with a slight smirk on her lips as Max groans. “Sorry, Max. I want to know who else in this group would you want to get freaky with? If they were single, that is.” She delivers him a gotcha wink.

Xander groans, “Oh man, way to make things awkward, Aria.”

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