Page 58
“Oh, shit.” Tyler’s eyes light up. “Anybody know where we can find a tape measure or a ruler?”
“Twenty bucks says his dick doesn’t measure five inches.” Trey pulls a wad of bills from his pocket.
“I’ll take that bet.” The bronze Adonis slaps his money down in front of Tyler. “But the whole pot needs to go to the guy with the biggest dick!”
“Count me in.”
“I’m in!”
“Me, too!”
“Ditto!”
The voices sound off all at once, and I can’t tell them apart anymore.
Jordan—who’s been quiet up until now—jumps up and reaches for my hand, pulling me to my feet. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”
With an emphatic nod, I tear my gaze from the unfolding disaster and let Jordan lead me through the basement to a chorus of zippers dropping.
A voice yells, “Found a yardstick!”
“It’s all fun and games until the dicks start coming out.” Jordan tightens his grip on my hand, picking up the pace.
“Where are we going?”
He wordlessly tows me down a hall, past the open laundry room where Nicole and Jeremy steam up the tiny window, and around a corner to the end of another hall. He yanks the door nearly off its hinges and shoves a bunch of coats to the side before pulling me inside.
“We’re hiding in a closet?” Oh, the irony!
Jordan slams the door, but it bounces open again, letting in a sliver of light—barely enough to see his panicked expression as he spins me toward him in the dark closet. “Why are you doing this?”
I blink up at him, confused by his sudden one-eighty. “The closet was your idea, mister!”
“Don’t act stupid. We both know you’re not.” Jordan shoves a hand into his hair and shifts his weight, his mask slipping as he gazes down at me.
Is Jordan Keller nervous? If so, it’s a stunning sight to see.
“You’re obviously not enjoying yourself . . . or maybe you are,” he mutters. “What the hell do I know?”
As fascinated as I am by this new side of him, I refuse to let him Jedi mind trick me into admitting I’ve been waiting for the bottle to land on him.
“Of course I’m not enjoying myself! It wasn’t my idea to play spin-the-bottle-pong. We had rules. But . . .” I melt against the wall behind me and release a pent-up breath. “Everything spiraled out of control.”
“Why not put a stop to it?”
“The game?”
“The game. The competition. All of it. Why would you start it to begin with?”
“I didn’t mean to!” I let out another heavy breath, and the truth comes with it. “Nicole and I were goofing around and decided to make a list of guys I might theoretically be willing to lose my virginity to. Believe me, I’ve regretted that decision ever since. I never meant for the list to go anywhere. I told her to burn it, but she lost it. I didn’t even know until after someone found it and posted it for the whole world to see.”
Jordan gets quiet and pulls the door shut the rest of the way, bathing us in complete darkness. He exhales through his nose, and I swear I can hear his jaw popping as he grinds his teeth.
“You’re going through with this idiotic plan because some . . . asshole”—he emphasizes the word—“posted the list on the internet?”
“Was I supposed to let them get the last laugh? Become the punch line in someone else’s joke? Poor Kennedy Beaman, humiliated again. After Lucas . . .” I shake my head. “I’m not getting played again. If that means putting on my game face out there, then that’s what I’ll do.”
Jordan relaxes his stiff posture and leans against the wall beside me. “Believe me, I get controlling your own narrative, but you need to shut it down before you get hurt.”
