Page 91 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

And that guilt wrapped around my chest again. Here I was, bitter that Axel was asking Sophie to the dance. When I should have been excited that Jacob had asked me. I looked up at him. I focused on his brown eyes and breathed easier than I had all night.

My dad’s words swirled around in my head.

How he knew he was in love with my mom because it had been easier to breathe when he was with her.

And I had that with Jacob. Thinking back on it, I always had.

The world had somehow turned Axel cruel.

But Jacob was still Jacob. The only thing that had changed about him was that he’d finally told me the truth.

That he liked me. And I liked him. I smiled up at him, letting everything else fade away. “Hey.”

“Hey,” he said with a smile.

“Does that offer for dinner still stand? I’m kind of jonesing for one of your mom’s cupcakes.”

“Yeah. How about Monday night?”

“It’s a date.”

“We should get back to the party,” Axel said.

Sophie scooted toward the door in the floor. “Yeah, Scar and I have some meetings we need to get to.”

“Meetings?” Jacob asked.

“Yup.” She winked at me.

Meetings? Really? Was that how we were referring to me kissing football players now? Why did this have to be so awkward?

I sighed and followed her out of the treehouse. But I did think I’d found what I was looking for.

The four of us would be friends.

Always.

They’d all promised.

And I knew where my head was. I leaned down to put my sneakers back on. But as I laced up the last one, Jacob picked me up in his arms.

I laughed the whole way back to the woods.

Yeah, my head was with Jacob.

Sophie squealed as we approached the closest bonfire. “Are guys playing spin the bottle?”

And just like that...my head was a mess again. I hated spin the bottle. Loathed it. I was pretty sure a game of spin the bottle had ruined my freaking life.

I forced myself not to look over at Axel as Jacob set me down in front of an empty log.

“Nah,” Billy O’Reilly said. “We’re playing Truth or Dare. You spin the bottle to see who you get to dare.”

Oh. Phew. That sounded loads better. The game was definitely already in full swing. Because there were a few people missing clothes and a couple making out on one of the logs.

“This is so much better than what I had planned,” Sophie whispered to me. She turned toward Billy. “Love it. Can I go?”

Billy shrugged.

Sophie spun the bottle. It went round and round and round.

I sat down on the empty log. Jacob sat down on one side of me and Axel sat down on the other.

The bottle slowed down until it finally landed on Ezra. One of the guys on my list that now, fortunately, only had ten guys left on it.

Sophie glanced at me and smiled before turning back to Ezra.

Oh no. What was she about to do?

“Truth or dare?” she asked.

He took a sip of his beer. “Truth.”

“Perfect,” Sophie said. “Have you ever received saucy photos via text from a redhead?”

My eyes grew round. That was way too specific!

“No?” he said.

“Why did you answer that like it was a question?” Sophie asked.

Ezra laughed. “Because it was weirdly specific. The answer is no.”

Okay, that had actually worked really well. My list was officially down to nine.

“Great, can I go again?” Sophie asked.

“That’s not really how it works...” Ezra started.

But Sophie had already spun the bottle. It landed on some girl I didn’t know. Sophie grabbed the bottle and tilted it a bit to the right.

The girl looked like she was about to protest.

But Sophie was already firing off her question for...Jack. Another guy on my list.

“Have you ever sent texts from an unknown number to a girl you had a crush on?”

I leaned forward, trying to see his reaction through the smoke coming from the bonfire.

Jack frowned. “No. Why would someone do that?”

“To keep their identity a secret,” Sophie said casually, like it happened all the time.

“You didn’t even ask me truth or dare,” Jack said.

“Oops.” Sophie spun the bottle again. “Let’s try this again.”

“What is Sophie doing?” Jacob whispered in my ear.

“No idea,” I said. But my voice came out squeaky and weird. Sophie had turned Truth or Dare into an interrogation of sorts. And it was kind of working. My list was down to eight now. If I could keep narrowing it down without kissing anyone else, that would be a major win.

The bottle landed on Noah.

“Truth or dare,” Sophie asked.

He pushed his shaggy hair off his forehead. “Dare.”

Sophie waggled her eyebrows at me and then turned back to him.

Soph, please, no.

“I dare you to kiss Scarlett and cop a feel.”

WHAT?! That last part didn’t need to be part of the dare. At all.

Noah set his cup down and stood up.

Jacob sighed next to me.

Seriously...why, Soph? Why cop a feel too? That was entirely unnecessary! I’d be able to tell from just the kiss!

I barely even had time to react.

Noah leaned down to kiss me.

But I was so very aware of Jacob and Axel staring from either side of me.

Noah’s lips pressed against mine.

And I knew right away that it was wrong. It probably felt wrong partially because of the guys next to me. But either way, I knew for sure that Noah wasn’t my kiss thief. There was zero passion.

But I just sat there awkwardly with his lips on mine as he put his hand on my left boob.

“Dude, seriously?” Jacob said. “She’s wearing my jacket, man. You know what that means.”

I kind of wanted to know exactly what it meant...

Noah chuckled against my lips. “It was part of the dare,” he said as he pulled back. But his hand was still on my breast.

“You have one second to remove your hand before I shove it up your ass,” Axel said.

Noah laughed as his hand fell. “Chill, captain. It was just a dare. I know she’s off-limits.”

I knew my face was bright red. Not just because of the stupid kiss.

But because of Noah’s words. Off-limits.

It was proof that what Jacob had told me was true.

That Axel had threatened the whole locker room.

“Sorry,” I muttered under my breath. But I wasn’t even sure what I was apologizing for.

It seemed like everyone around me was annoyed though.

And I wished I could just melt into the leaves on the ground.

Jacob put his arm around my shoulders as Noah walked away. “Seriously, what has gotten into Sophie tonight?”

“I have no idea,” I lied. My list was down to seven.

But I really preferred the truth portion of the evening more than the dare.

Sophie wouldn’t ask someone else to kiss me.

..right? Because that would come off so desperate.

And I really wasn’t desperate to make out with anyone else tonight.

Unless it was Jacob. I scooted a little closer to him on the log.

“Okay, let’s see who’s next,” Sophie said.

“Sophie, isn’t it someone else’s turn?” Jacob asked.

She turned around to look at us.

I hoped she could read my face. No more kissing dares, Sophie! Please!

I wasn’t sure she understood. Because she just shrugged. “I don’t think that’s how it works, Jacob.” She spun the bottle again.

This time the bottle landed on Sean.

“Truth or dare?” Sophie asked. “Great, truth,” she said before he could respond.

I breathed a sigh of relief. Apparently she had read my face.

“Sean, have you ever made out with someone secretly in a dark closet?”

Sean spit out the sip of beer he’d taken. “What did you just say to me?”

“Have you ever secretly hooked up with someone in a dark closet?”

He took a long sip of his beer. And then he hiccupped. He looked really pissed. Or really sad? I couldn’t tell. But he certainly seemed really drunk.

“Who told you that?” he asked.

Sophie shrugged. “I’m just asking.”

“No, tell me. Did my sister tell you that?” he asked. “Did you talk to my sister?”

Yeah, he definitely seemed pissed.

“Um...yes?” Sophie said.

Sean burst out crying.

Oh my God, what is happening?

“I begged my uncle not to touch me.”

I cringed. Oh no.

“Sophie,” I hissed. “Sit down.” This had gone entirely too far.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered as she joined us on the log. “I didn’t know he’d been inappropriately touched by his pervy uncle. How was I supposed to know that?”

There had been no way to know. But that officially lowered my list to six.

Billy O’Reilly slapped Sean on the back and stood up. “On that note. Maybe someone else should go. Liam, how about you?”

Wait, what? I looked over to where Liam had just stood up. RJ and him had been sitting across the fire from us and I hadn’t noticed. Ah! No! My little brother and cousin couldn’t play Truth or Dare with us. That was too freaking weird!

But my brother had already spun the bottle.

I stared daggers at him. But I wasn’t sure he could see because his face was obscured in a cloud of smoke. Wait. That smoke wasn’t coming from the fire. Was Liam smoking a joint right now? I stood up and walked over to him as the bottle spun.

“Are you smoking?” I asked. Even though it was very clear that he was. A freaking joint was hanging out of the corner of his mouth.

He took a long pull from the joint instead of responding to me.

“Dad is going to kill you if he smells pot on you.” I pulled the joint from his lips and threw it in the fire.

Liam groaned. “What the hell, Scar?”

“Are you trying to get grounded next?”

“You probably shouldn’t have touched that,” he said. “Now you’ll smell like pot too. And you threw it in the fire. Everyone is gonna be high.”

Freaking gah! I wiped my hand off on my jean shorts, not that it would help at all. The smell of his drugs was all around me.

Liam cleared his throat and nodded down at the bottle.

It was pointed at my feet. Oh screw me. I stepped out of the way to see who it would land on behind me.

But Liam shook his head. “It landed on you. Truth or dare, Scar.”

“Don’t you and RJ have a hole in the floor to fix?” I hissed.

RJ laughed from the log he was sitting on. “It’ll be fixed by the time you get home,” he said. “I promise.”

“What does that mean? Did you hire someone to fix it? RJ...”

“It’s my question, Scar,” Liam said. “Truth or dare?”

“Fine.” I threw up my hands. “Dare.” But I was going to murder him if he dared me to smoke next. I was starting to think my little brother had a death wish.

“I dare you to tell everyone who your secret crush is.”

Yup, I was going to kill the little twerp.