Jamie set the bowl beside the nearly empty pitcher of beer, then buried her face in her hands. “I can’t believe I just did that. You seriously owe me now.”
Ryan continued to chuckle through his mock-indignation. “Oh, I owe you?”
“Oh yeah, you owe me big time, man.” She reached for the pitcher and poured the last of the beer into her mug. “I followed through on your dare; now it’s your turn.”
“What? No way. I didn’t sign up that!” Ryan could pretend to be duped all he wanted, she could tell he was enjoying this; she was loving every minute of it too.
She touched the mug to her lips and stared at him with the sweetest, most seductive gaze she could muster. “Please?”
Ryan sat back in his chair, crossing his arms over his chest. “Okay, fine. I pick truth.”
“What? You can’t pick truth!”
“Why not?” He was back to looking highly amused.
“Because we’re not playing truth or dare,” she explained, but the moment she said it, she realized how untrue that was. Hadn’t they kind of been playing truth or dare all night? Isn’t that what she’d been doing when she brought up that party at Nate’s? Pushing to see if she’d get a reaction?
“I’m not doing a dare,” he said.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re super smart and you’re gonna think of something devious for me to do.”
Jamie sighed. They were already playing. Why not keep going? “Okay, fine. Truth it is.” She pursed her lips, thinking for a moment, then said, “Tell me something true that I don’t already know about you.”
He finished the last of his beer, and eased back into his chair again, his eyes roaming as he pondered his answer.
“Come on,” Jamie said. “There is a time limit on these things.”
“Okay, fine.” He sat up a little straighter. “The real reason I broke my arm in freshman year is because I fell out of a tree while spying on my hot neighbor.”
Jamie felt a spike of jealousy zip up the back of her neck, but she shook it off. “I already knew that. Nate told everyone a week after it happened.”
Ryan looked genuinely surprised. “You knew that?”
She nodded. “Try again, Peeping Tom.”
He raked a hand through his hair. He actually seemed flustered, not a look she was used to seeing on Ryan Maher. “You sure that’s your question?” he asked.
She nodded, but suddenly didn’t feel so sure. Maybe she didn’t want to know Ryan Maher’s secrets. What if he divulged the details of some random hook-up he’d had?
“Okay.” He sat forward in his chair, his crossed arms now leaning on the table between them. “Since you walked through that door tonight, I’ve wondered, more than once, what it would be like to kiss you.”
Jamie sat perfectly still as he waited for her reaction, his gaze never wavering. Her throat suddenly felt very dry. Had he actually just said that? No, it was a joke. It had to be. This was what he did. He’d always loved teasing her. This was just more of the same. He was hoping to get a rise out of her, make her say something stupid.
There was no possible way he was serious…was there?