He shook his head at me. “Come on, Meg, at least one dare. I promise I won’t make you do anything gross.”
I stared at my beer bottle for a minute before sternly pointing my finger at the bottle. “I’m going to blame you for this tomorrow,” I said to it before tipping it back and draining it. The bottle didn’t reply.
I pulled myself over to the edge of the bedlet and let my feet hang over the side facing Jeremy. I reached for another beer, which was sitting on top of the bed. Jeremy grabbed it first and held it away from me. “Whoa. Maybe you should take a break.”
“Just one more. I promise. I’m fine.” I made grabby hands for the bottle.
He reluctantly gave it to me. “You go first,” he offered.
“Fine.” I pulled my pillows from the top of the bed and arranged them behind me, then I settled back against them and propped my feet on the edge of the bed, my knees in the air. “Truth or dare?” I intoned.
“Truth,” he said.
I smiled smugly. “How did you find out your ex was cheating on you?”
“How did I know you were going to ask that?” Jeremy replied.
“That’s not an answer.” I remained smug.
He ran a hand through his hair, sighed, and leaned forward off the bed, his bare feet braced on the floor. He hung his head. “She told me.”
“That’s it. That’s the big personal secret?” I immediately felt like an ass for saying that. It was clearly painful for him. Beautiful people hurt sometimes, too. I’d do well to remember it.
He shook his head. “She told me when I called her cell at four a.m. I asked her where she was and she said she was in bed with another man.”
“Oh.” I shut my mouth and plucked at the label on the beer bottle. “Man, that sucks.”
“Yep.” Jeremy was still staring at the carpet. I could tell he was remembering it. I knew just how a moment like that felt. Being mentally catapulted back through space and time to a shitty moment was no fun. “What did she say after that?”
“That we’d talk in the morning.”
I waved a hand in the air to try to lighten the mood. “Cheaters always want to talk in the morning.”
“Yep.” Jeremy was plucking at the label on his beer bottle too.
“How did the next morning go?” I ventured.
“Pretty much as expected. It was a Saturday. She showed up around ten wearing the same clothes she’d gone to work in the day before. She had told me she was going to happy hour with the team after work.”
I winced. “She slept with a guy she worked with?”
“Yep.”
I gasped. “Not her boss?”
“No. Just a coworker. She actually thought she loved this guy.”
I took another long swig of beer. “Please tell me they got married and remain madly in love to this day.”
He frowned and then laughed a little. “You’re the first person who’s ever said that.”
“Yeah, well, I figure if you’re going to put another person through a lot of pain, you should at least do them the courtesy of staying together and claiming you’re soulmates. At least that makes it worth it on some sick level.”
“I always figured she did me a favor by showing me her true colors before we got more serious.”
A lump formed in my throat. “Were you going to get married?”
“We’d talked about it a little. Not much, though.” He rubbed his bare foot against the carpet. Of course his foot was beautiful and perfectly proportioned, unlike my hobbity ones.
“So...are they still together? Your cheating ex and Hitler Moustache?” I had to ask.
“No.” Jeremy shook his head. “She dumped me, but Hitler refused to leave his wife and kid. They broke up six months later and she tried to crawl back to me.”
I sucked in a breath. “Wow. What assholes.”
“My sentiments exactly.” He drank some more beer and lifted his head to look at me. “Now it’s my turn. Truth or dare?”
“Truth,” I said with a huge grin on my face, taking another chug of beer.
“Really?” He arched one brow at me.
“What? Old habits die hard. You didn’t say when I had to take the dare.”
“Fine.” He expelled a breath. “Do you put on an act on purpose to make people think you’re mean?”
Whoa. Shit just got real, fast. But the flippant response that sprung to my lips died an instant death. Did I? Did I do that? “Not on purpose,” I said somberly. “Maybe subconsciously, though. I never thought about it until you pointed it out to me that night.”
“Okay.” Jeremy nodded. He seemed appeased by that answer. “Your turn.”
“Truth or dare?” I said, still discombobulated by the truth I’d just shared. Maybe a dare wouldn’t be so bad after all. I probably hadn’t played this dumb game since college anyway. Maybe dares were the way to go as an adult. Adult truths were deep.
“Dare,” Jeremy replied.
The beer took over my mouth. My mouth, my sense of reason, and all my other thoughts. “Kiss me,” I said. “Give me a kiss so I can be even with Harrison.”
The look on Jeremy’s face made me instantly regret my words. His features reflected a mixture of surprise and dismay.
“Really?” he asked. “Are you serious?” The tone of his voice sounded as if he’d do it if I pressed the issue. If the beer hadn’t been talking, I wouldn’t have pressed the issue...probably. But the beer was loud and gregarious.
“Really,” I said, nodding vigorously.
“Will you regret it later?” he asked, the look on his face highly skeptical.
“It’s just a silly game of truth or dare.” I waved my hand in the air and made a pshaw sound. Even I believed I was serious and unaffected. “Are you gonna kiss me or lose, Remington?”
I immediately shut my mouth and nearly yelped when he set his beer on the nightstand and moved down to the couch bed to sit next to me. He turned to face me and I gulped. I rested my beer bottle in between my thighs and squeezed to keep it steady. Jeremy searched my face as if he was an actor and we were in a movie together and he really wanted to kiss me. I didn’t remember acting being part of truth or dare. I remembered a lot of squealing and trying to get unpleasant things over with quickly. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think Jeremy was taking his time and really setting the scene for a real, live, honest-to-goodness kiss.
I held my breath as he leaned down, cupped my cheeks in his palms and laid his lips on mine. He sat there without moving for a second, and I was just about to pull away and laugh and thank him when his hot lips slanted across mine and his mouth pushed mine open while his tongue moved inside. Damn. I was being kissed by super-hot Jeremy Remington, and he was good at it. His hands moved down to pull me against him and I wrapped my arms around his broad shoulders, and we kissed like that for what felt like an hour but must have been a few minutes before he pulled away from me. We were both breathing heavily, and I stared at him as if he were a unicorn or a centaur or something.
I was still struggling with the aftermath—both mental and physical—from that kiss when Jeremy leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Truth or dare? And I’ll go easy on you. You can pick truth if you want.”