by Elle Thorpe
“Truth or dare?” he asked.
I bit my lip. “Dare.” My voice came out oddly breathy, like his nearness alone had the ability to physically affect me.
“I dare you to kiss Banjo.””
I raised one eyebrow, surprised. And maybe a little disappointed. Not about there being a kissing dare. I was playing with two teenage guys. Of course these dares were going to get sexual. Hell, I wanted them to. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have started the game. Everyone knew party games like this were only played so you could make out with your secret crush. But he’d caught me off guard when he’d said to kiss Banjo, and not him. “You want to sit here and watch me make out with Banjo?”
He grabbed the tequila bottle and took a long, slow swig, his gaze never straying from mine. “To start.”
Heat bloomed low in my belly. I wasn’t entirely sure what he meant by that, but there was a hidden promise in his words that shot heat straight between my legs. If he meant what I thought he meant, then playing this game had been a very, very good idea. Or perhaps a very dangerous one. Only time would tell. But right now, with my core already throbbing, if felt right.
“Come here, Lacey,” Banjo said, his voice deep.
A shiver rolled down my spine. He was lying back against the pillows, hands propped behind his head. I crawled across the bed, watching as his smile grew. It was infectious. And I loved kissing Banjo. I touched my lips to his and then went to pull back, knowing Rafe was watching. But Banjo’s hand shot out lightning fast, pressing to the back of my head, holding me in place. His tongue coaxed my lips open, and before I truly realized what was happening, I was falling into the kiss, tugging him close, our lips moving together. We’d kissed a lot, he and I. It was familiar, but still exciting, and the longer it went on, the more I wished the two of us were alone.
When we eventually broke apart, we were both breathless. Banjo threw a smug, shit-eating grin in Rafe’s direction. Rafe simply smiled into the bottle then took another swig.
Banjo sat up a little straighter, focusing on me. His gaze hovered on my lips. “Truth or dare, princess.”
Truth would have been taking the coward’s way out. Everybody knew that. “Dare.”
“Kiss Rafe.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Really? That’s all you two got? You’re just going to dare me to kiss each other? You both know I’ve already done that.”
“And more,” Banjo said with a laugh.
I shot him a look, but he didn’t seem to care.
“Fine,” I said to him. I turned in Rafe’s direction. His icy-blue eyes watched me, and I suddenly felt like I couldn’t breathe. Hadn’t this been what I’d been waiting for? Over the last couple weeks, I felt like I’d gained permission to kiss Banjo whenever I wanted, at least if we were alone. But I didn’t have that with Rafe. He still felt forbidden. But that didn’t stop me from wanting him.
“Gotta stop staring at me like that, princess,” Rafe said lazily, “Or someone is going to have to dare me to do a lot more than just kiss you.”
I swallowed hard. I leaned in, letting my lips brush by his ear. “You don’t need to be dared for that.”
It was supposed to come out teasingly, almost a joke, but with a snap of his hand, Rafe dragged me across his lap and laid his mouth over mine. And God, it was good. I closed my eyes, snaked my fingers into his hair, and let his kiss rock me to my very core. Beneath me, his erection stirred, and that put a whole host of new ideas in my head.
When we finally pulled away, I glanced over at Banjo, feeling the tiniest bit guilty, even though he’d been the one to dare me. I expected to see jealousy in his eyes. But all I saw was heat.
“Well, fuck.” He pulled a pack of cigarettes from the nightstand and lit one up, not even bothering to crack a window. On the exhale he murmured, “If you two are gonna kiss like that, then I need a smoke. And maybe a cold shower. That was hot.”
A tiny laugh escaped me, and I sat back against the wall. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
“Why?” Rafe asked, motioning for Banjo to pass him a cigarette. “You’re young and hot. You should be doing stuff like that all the time.”
“Do you?” I asked.
“Make out with girls while my best friend watches? Hasn’t happened before, but I’m not against it.”
Interesting. I took another shot of tequila. It was really starting to course through my system now. Not only turning me on but loosening my lips. I wouldn’t betray Banjo’s confidence, no matter how drunk I was.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t help things along a bit. I had two seriously hot guys in front of me. Two hot guys who were both a little drunk, and judging from the way they’d just kissed me, plenty horny.
“Rafe. Truth or dare?” I asked.
He took a drag on the cigarette and blew the smoke in my direction. “What do you think?”
“Dare.”
“Fine, dare it is. Do your worst, princess.” He was so full of arrogance. It was going to be fun to surprise him.
“I dare you to kiss Banjo.”
Rafe coughed. “Say what?”
“Kiss Banjo,” I repeated. But then I felt bad about pushing him into something he might not want to do. I didn’t want that. I just wanted to see if under the guise of a dare, he might do something he’d been secretly thinking about for a while. “Or you can switch to truth,” I added on, giving him an out.
He glanced at Banjo. And there it was again. That look. Something that screamed barely concealed attraction. I was sure of it.
He handed me the cigarette. “You good with this?” he asked Banjo.
Banjo grinned. “Are you? I’m a fucking excellent kisser, Rafe. You might just fall in love if you kiss me right now. Lacey can vouch for me.”
Rafe shook his head. “Shut up, dickhead. Kiss me then. Blow my mind.”
If I hadn’t been trying to play it cool, I might have squealed with excitement.
Banjo sat up and shifted across the bed. The two of them stared at each other for a long moment, breaths becoming ragged.
I couldn’t do anything but watch.
“Fuck it,” Rafe murmured. He leaned in, lips locking with Banjo’s.
Banjo was quick to respond. He grabbed Rafe’s face and pushed him back until his head hit the wall. It was rougher, harder, all the softness they’d had with me gone out the window while they both tussled for control. They grappled with each other, a violent mess of lips and teeth and tongues.
But then something changed. They found a rhythm. They went from fighting, to melding to the other. Moving in unison, both giving as much as they got. There was something beautiful about that kiss. Something that got me deep in the feels. Something that told me the two of them had been waiting to do this longer than either would admit.
Banjo groaned, sitting back. Rafe opened his eyes, and both of them turned to me.
“Did you get what you wanted out of that?” Rafe asked, his voice slightly hoarse.
I grinned at them. “Did you? Because that was the hottest kiss I’ve ever seen.”
Something silent passed between them.
Rafe moved in first. “Time for a new game,” he whispered, kissing me again with a determination that guided me to the middle of the bed.
Behind me, the mattress shifted, dipping beneath Banjo’s weight as he maneuvered in behind me.
My breath quickened. “What game?”
Rafe shifted his mouth to my neck, kissing me there until my eyes fluttered closed and my head dropped back.
Banjo moved to the other side, placing a kiss below my ear. “One where we get you very naked.”
My eyes flew open. “We? As in both of you? I can’t…Banjo, I…” He knew I was a virgin. There was no way I was going to lose my virginity in a threesome. That was just too much.
But all I saw in Banjo’s gaze was solid strength. Safety. Someone I trusted. Some of the butterflies in my belly disappeared.
“Rafe,” he said.
Rafe
glanced up from my neck, his gaze slightly unfocused.
“Third base,” Banjo commanded. “Nothing more. Got it?”
He looked at me, then back to Banjo. “Even if she begs for it?”
Oh my God. I just about melted into a puddle.
Banjo chuckled behind me. “Especially then. Leave her something to dream about.”
Oh, there would be no problems there. This was already something right out of a dream. A super-hot dream I never wanted to wake up from.
Rafe leaned in and kissed me again, while Banjo gathered up my hair, kissing the back of my neck and pushing my shirt aside to kiss his way down my shoulder. His fingers trailed down my back, eventually coming to rest at my sides.
“Gotta get you naked, baby,” Banjo whispered in my ear. “Trust us. We won’t go too far.”
“I do,” I whispered back.
“Good.” Banjo lifted my shirt.
I wished I’d worn nicer underwear, but I hadn’t exactly expected to be doing this when I left the house this morning.
Neither boy seemed to care. Rafe’s gaze raked over my skin, my chest, my cleavage, before he tilted my mouth up to meet his again. His kisses were drugging, pulling me into him, making me feel more than I’d thought possible. It suddenly didn’t seem like a big deal that I had two gorgeous guys kissing me. They were slowly stripping me of my clothes, vowing to make me feel good, but to also go at my pace. Why exactly had I been nervous? Stupid, when what they were promising seemed oh-so-delicious. And just a little bit wicked.
“Have you two done this before?” I asked.
Banjo’s fingers rolled over my spine, unsnapping my bra and drawing the straps off my shoulders. I shivered as he pushed it away, dropping it on the floor. Banjo trailed hot, wet kisses along my skin, while Rafe cupped my breasts, his palms grazing over my nipples. “Have we had a threesome before? That what you asking, princess? Or you asking if we’re virgins, too?”
Banjo chuckled. “Definitely not a virgin here.”
I shook my head. “I know you guys aren’t virgins. Have you had a threesome before?”
Rafe nodded. Behind me, I thought Banjo might have as well.
“Just not together,” he said, confirming my thoughts. “Or with other guys.”
“Oh. You must think I’m ridiculous…still holding on to my V-card and all…”
Rafe leaned in and kissed me. “We don’t think anything. I don’t care what you are. Or what you aren’t. Want to know a truth?”
I nodded.
“I just want to strip you naked and get between your thighs.”
Heat flushed my face.
Banjo shifted to my side and laughed. “You made her blush. Talk dirty some more, she likes it.”
“I do not,” I protested, though I had no idea why, because we both knew I did.
“Yeah, you do. You love when I tell you exactly what I’m going to do to you. Lie back. Because now I’m gonna kiss you, so you can’t squeal while Rafe takes off your panties.”
Oh. My. God. The two of them were too much.
But then Banjo’s lips were on mine, kissing me hard, pushing me back against the pillows, his fingers pinching and squeezing my nipples. I rubbed my thighs together to ease the sensation building between my legs.
Rafe lifted my skirt, settling it around my midsection, and I gasped as his fingers hooked in my panties, drawing them down my legs in exquisite slowness.
“Fuck, Lacey,” he groaned. “You’re so gorgeous. I love bare pussy.”
I whimpered.
“Get your mouth on it then. Before I do,” Banjo said, leaning down to take one of my nipples into his mouth.
But it was Rafe I watched. I had my head elevated on pillows, so I could see them both, but Rafe drew my attention. He watched me relentlessly, never looking away. Inch by inch, he slid down the bed and then placed kisses up and down my thighs. Each one inched closer to where I wanted him, and needy little noises escaped my throat. Like they had a life of their own, my knees fell apart, and Rafe’s next kiss landed directly over my core.
“Oh,” I moaned, my hips jerking up.
Rafe didn’t waste any more time. His tongue plunged between my thighs, opening me up and giving me exactly what I wanted. He licked over my clit, massaging it before flicking lower, pushing its way inside me just a little. Over and over, he did that, while Banjo worked my nipples, and gave me deep kisses that had me yanking his hair, tugging him down, not wanting him to stop. Sensation roared through every limb, every muscle. Banjo at my mouth. Rafe between my thighs. If I’d been a guy, I would have been embarrassed at how quickly the two of them brought me to the edge of orgasm. But they licked and kissed me in tandem, their tongues relentless until I was quivering on the verge.
Rafe’s fingers found my entrance and drove inside, filling the aching void. That was all it took. Sensation coursed through my body, starting from my core and radiating out like bursts of sunbeams. My cries of pleasure were swallowed by Banjo’s talented mouth. My thighs clenched as my internal walls clamped down on Rafe’s fingers. My hips had a mind of their own, rolling in time with his movements, riding out the orgasm until all I saw was stars.
Rafe’s fingers were replaced by soft, slow kisses to my sensitive flesh. Banjo moved back, and I blinked open hazy eyes, my body still floating on a cloud of bliss. Rafe crawled up my body and claimed my mouth. He tasted of my arousal, but I held him to me, kissing him hard, and he responded eagerly, his tongue plunging inside my mouth, owning it.
We moved away, and for a moment, the three of us just stared at each other.
Banjo shook his head and grinned at Rafe. “Didn’t expect to be doing that tonight when I asked you to play video games, did you?”
Rafe’s smile lit up those butterflies in my belly again.
Banjo stood and went to his drawers, riffled through them, and then tossed a T-shirt at me.
I caught it, then pouted at it. “We didn’t…I mean, I did…but you guys…” Heat flushed my face. I didn’t know how I’d ended up in this situation. I didn’t have the experience to handle it. I sat up, pulling my knees to my chest, suddenly feeling completely exposed and vulnerable.
But Rafe twisted my chin so I had to face him. “Hey, wherever you just went in your head, stop it. Nothing else is happening tonight.”
“But…”
“But nothing,” Banjo said. “It’s late. I’m already naturally gorgeous, but Rafe needs his beauty sleep. You staying, bro?”
Rafe nodded. “Too fucking drunk and horny to drive anywhere.”
I bit back a smile. “I should go. Selina will be wondering where I am.”
But Banjo shook his head and dropped a kiss onto my shoulder. “No way. You’ve been drinking, too. No one is driving. Put that shirt on. You’re sleeping here.”
Rafe lay back on the bed and patted the space next to him. “Lacey sandwich.”
They were right. I wasn’t ready to talk to Selina anyway. After tonight, I was more determined than ever that any birthday party I had would include all my friends. Especially Banjo and Rafe. If Selina couldn’t accept that, then there’d be no party. I’d send her a text, saying I wasn’t coming home and then turn my phone off. I didn’t want another argument to kill the good mood I’d found here with the guys.
I opened up Banjo’s shirt and lifted it over my head. The material was soft, almost to the point of being silky, and it dwarfed my body, covering up my nakedness. Something scratchy brushed over one still sensitive nipple, and I glanced down.
My vision blurred, my brain rejecting the image before I even really got to comprehend it.
SVHF.
Saint View High Football.
I stared up at Banjo, blood draining from my face.
26
Lacey
“You okay?” Banjo asked. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
I ran my fingers over the embroidered letters, trying to make sense of the swirl of questions this shirt had aroused in me. In all
my weeks at school, I hadn’t seen anyone wearing a shirt with the letters embroidered like that. This was it. The shirt I’d been searching for. Just not in the place I’d wanted to find it.
“This shirt,” I started, voice shaky. I stared into Banjo’s eyes and found nothing but the safe place he always offered me. It had been Banjo and me from day one. Despite my body screaming warning signals at me, my brain fought to make coherent sense. It couldn’t be him. There was no way. He hadn’t known my name before that day at my uncle’s funeral. The man at the fire had called me Lacey. This shirt was just setting off emotions in me that made no logical sense.
I sucked in a deep breath. “I need to tell you something.”
Banjo sat on the edge of the bed, and Rafe must have noticed the tone in my voice, because he, too, focused his full attention on me.
“That night of the fire at my old school. The one that was set to cover up my uncle’s murder. I was there, too. I got overwhelmed by the smoke and flames.”
Despite my earlier gut feeling that neither of these guys was the one who had carried me out, I still watched them carefully, waiting for any sign that I’d made a mistake. But they both just sat quietly, waiting for me to finish. I relaxed a smidgen, believing again that neither of them knew anything.
“Someone carried me out. A man. And he was wearing one of these T-shirts.”
Banjo shook his head. “What the hell, Lacey? You don’t think it was me?”
I bit my lip. “I don’t know what to think. I came to Saint View, only knowing that the letters on the man’s shirt stood for Saint View High Football. So yes. I started off thinking it might have been you. It was the same night as the party on the beach. Neither of you went to that.”
Rafe raised one eyebrow. “So we’re top of your suspect list? Because we own football shirts and didn’t go to some party?”
I sighed, wishing I could take another swig from the tequila bottle. Because when he put it like that, it did all sound insane. I fished the list from my purse and passed it to him. “I know. I’m sorry. You weren’t the top of the list. You were just on it. But then I got to know you both better and I crossed you off. See? This shirt, it just threw me for a second. I know it’s ridiculous. Any number of Saint View students or supporters could have that shirt.”
