Double Dare

She bit back a scream. All she’d ever heard from her older brother was how her friends were trouble and would screw up her life. Isabel was always nagging her to set goals and prioritize her plans. And now she was hearing from her friends that she wasn’t one of them anymore because she was trying to build a future. Not one damn person in her life was willing to simply accept her. All of her.

“I can have both a career and my friends,” Audra insisted. Wasn’t that the women’s right of the new millennium? She could have it all? It wasn’t as if Audra was looking to add a husband or anything stupid like that to the mix.

“Some career.”

“I design lingerie,” Audra pointed out, matching Suzi’s sneer with one of her own. “That’s hardly at odds with my Wicked Chick designation.”

“You’ve always wanted to design sexy, wild lingerie,” Suzi pointed out. And she’d know, since she and Bea spent years listening to Audra daydream about it, never once discouraging her.

“Instead,” Suzi continued, “you settled for vanilla-sweet nighties for virginal brides.”

“Everyone has to start somewhere,” Isabel interjected in Audra’s defense.

Before Suzi could retaliate, Bea pressed her hands to the table, bloodred nails spread like claws against the faux leather surface.

“Enough of this crap.” The mellowest of them all, her distaste for the bickering and one-upmanship was clear on her face. “Audra, this is an intervention. You either prove you’re still one of us, or you lose your Wicked Chick status.”

Isabel gasped. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

“Prove myself?” Oh jeez, it was junior high school all over again.

Suzi leaned forward with a challenging gleam shining in her midnight-blue eyes. “Prove yourself.”

Audra rolled her eyes. “How? Outdrink you two? Dance topless on stage? Give up my job?”

Audra tossed the words out in an airy, unconcerned tone. But her insides twisted at the thought of either the first or the last. Given that she’d started her drinking in her early teens, she figured she’d done more than enough partying. That, and she’d watched what drinking had done to her mother, leaving her old and haggard-looking by forty. The booze wouldn’t do Audra’s skin, or her health, a bit of good. And she planned to keep both long into the future. Two drinks were her limit now, although she did a good job of hiding that from her friends.

And quit her job? Oh, God, no. She loved that job. Loved designing lingerie. She couldn’t think of anything more satisfying than starting with a vision in her head, turning it into a reality and seeing a woman prance out of the boutique empowered by the result. They couldn’t—wouldn’t—be crazy enough to think she’d give that up.

“How about all thr—”

“No, much simpler,” Bea interrupted with a dark look at the blonde. Suzi sat back with a huff and a roll of her eyes.

Audra waited. The music pounded a heavy beat around her, the cacophony of voices blending with the percussions.

“I dare you…” Bea began.

Oh, hell, she should have known.

“…to do the next guy to come through the door.”

“This is silly,” Isabel stated. Her gray eyes flashed with rare anger. She crossed her arms over her chest, her sweater pulling tight to curves she tended to hide, rather than display like the other three women. “Haven’t you outgrown that silly game? I thought your club was all about empowerment, not pressure. Audra’s your friend. She doesn’t have to do anything to prove herself.”

A voice in Audra’s head agreed. She didn’t have to. Like drinking, impersonal sex had long since lost its appeal. She could have just as good a time with her vibrator as with most guys. And at least her “D-celled” friend guaranteed she’d come. Swear to God, most guys didn’t seem to know the difference between the G-spot and a parking spot.

But if she didn’t, she’d be saying goodbye to something vital. Not just her friendships were on the line here, Audra realized with a start. So was her sense of self. The badass, wild part of her seemed to be fading away. And she didn’t have a clue what, if anything, she’d find underneath.

“Hey, no problem. I never mind scratching that particular itch.”

Ignoring Isabel’s disappointed look, she gave the girls a wink, tossed back the last of her strawberry margarita and straightened her shoulders. Turning on the barstool, she leaned her elbows back on the table, faced the door and sent up a prayer that the next guy through knew how to park.

Holy cow. She eyed the sexy hunk standing in the doorway and exhaled a deep sigh of appreciation. Oh, yeah, he’d not only know how to park, but she’d bet he was hell on wheels. Audra took inventory, starting at what she estimated to be size twelve biker boots. Her gaze took a slow, appreciative tour up well-worn denim, lingering on a few particularly worn places.

Very nice.

She continued her tour over a well-defined chest and—m’m m’m good—perfect shoulders. The sleeves of the denim work shirt were rolled up to the elbows, and it was buttoned about halfway up to showcase that chest, wide and lightly dusted with a sprinkling of dark hair. How would that hair feel against her cheek? Soft and sensual? Wiry and erotic? Did it thicken as it meandered down his belly? Or did it taper to a very delicious point?

If he’d hurry up and walk through the door, she could find out. Anticipation made Audra antsy. She shifted in her seat and held her breath while her gaze rose to his face.

Oh, baby. Eyes half-mast, a wave of lust-induced appreciation crashed through her system. Now that was one hot man. Black hair tumbled around a face just this side of pretty. His full lower lip promised a sensual nature and, although she couldn’t see his eyes in any detail, the man had cheekbones to die for. The only thing that saved him from being girly-pretty was a stubborn jaw and his nose, obviously broken a couple times.

“Good thing I wore my sexiest lingerie, hmm?”

Bea laughed and gave an appreciative hum. Even Isabel mouthed “wow,” although the look in her eyes still screamed disapproval. Not surprising, since Isabel had never been comfortable with casual sex. At Suzi’s silence, Audra glanced over. The blonde didn’t look thrilled. If anything, she looked a little pouty. The rules of the dare were that neither of the others could come on to the dare guy. Which put hot, tall and sexy off limits for Suzi.

Audra couldn’t resist taunting her. “One small step for him, one giant orgasm for me.”

Suzi grinned and started to say something, then her eyes widened and she winced.

“Oops,” Bea said under her breath.

Isabel cringed.

Stomach suddenly tight, Audra followed their gaze to the entrance where the hunk still stood in conversation with the bouncer just outside the arch that they deemed the official entrance for dares. Disappointment sunk like a chunk of lead in her stomach when she saw the source of her friends’ horror. Shouldering the hunk aside was another guy. A nonhunky guy. A totally geeky, nonhunky guy. Audra’s stomach turned, but did she see any way out of the dare? Not with her pride intact.

“Ya think he’s got anything in that pocket protector you can get up?” Obviously trying to ease the tension, Suzi called the waitress over for a second round. “You’ll need a drink before this one, Audra. My treat.”

Was she supposed to be grateful?

“And as soon as you prove you’ve still got it in you to take a dare, maybe I’ll go get myself a whole different kind of treat,” Suzi mused. Audra followed her gaze to where hot, tall and sexy had taken a seat, two tables over from Audra’s target. Rarely territorial over men, Audra was surprised to find that the thought of Suzi and the sexy hunk made her teeth clench.

She grimaced her thanks at the waitress and knocked back her margarita in one long gulp. Audra ran her index finger under her lower lip to make sure her lipstick wasn’t smudged. Might as well get it over with. She slipped from the stool and sucked in a deep breath. A little shimmy of the shoulders to make sure everything was where it belonged, her fingertips brushed the hem of her leather mini and she let out her breath.

Isabel protested, “Audra, you don’t have to go through with this. I’m sure Suzi and Bea are just riding you. You guys have been tight for years. You don’t have to prove your friendship. Especially not by having random sex with some—” she grimaced at the geek “—creepy stranger.”

She shot the other two women a dark look. Pink washed over Bea’s cheeks and, with a half-hearted shrug, she averted her gaze.

Suzi, though, stuck out her chin.

“Hey, we never said jack about friendship. Audra knows we’re all amigas. This is about being true to the Wicked Chicks code. Nobody’s forcing her to re-up her membership. That’s her call. Hers. Not yours.”

With that statement, the underlying hurt and confusion in Suzi’s tone, Audra realized her friends needed reassurance. This wasn’t about where she stood with the Wicked Chicks. It was about where they stood with her.

Her friendship with Suzi and Bea was changing, sure. Did that matter?

Audra sucked in a breath. Yes, it mattered. These women were more than buddies to run around with. They were more than a part of her history. They’d accepted her, encouraged her. And, even if they were pains in the ass, they both gave her something nobody else, other than Isabel, ever had. Unconditional acceptance.

At least, they had until tonight.