35. ISABELLE

Isabelle had never been drunk before, had never really been interested in anything other than a few social drinks with friends to maintain the appearance of being normal. But after shots with Maia, and a fresh drink pressed into her palm every time her previous glass was empty, she was certainly feeling something.

“Game time!” Maia crowed gleefully, motioning everyone over to her.

Isabelle took a step forward but her feet were so unsteady she almost fell over.

“Whoa there,” Jace said with a small smile as he held her steady. “How you doing, Miss Drunky?”

“I’m not drunk,” she tried to protest, but her words came out garbled.

Jace smiled indulgently as he led her over to the back of the garden where Maia, Matt, Ben, Kandi, Tate, Tyler and Giselle were gathered.

Tate pulled Isabelle away from Jace with a look of disdain, and settled her next to him. Isabelle drew her eyebrows in as she watched him. Tate was being so weird today, she had honestly never seen him like this…except with Jason, but that was a bit different.

Maia clicked her fingers in Isabelle’s face. “Pay attention! We’re going to be playing Truth or Dare.”

Next to her, Jace paled. “We should leave, now,” he whispered urgently.

“Leave?” Isabelle repeated, a little too loudly.

Maia’s eyes flashed. “Nobody leaves, ever, so sit down and shut up.”

Isabelle shrugged and settled herself onto the grass as Jace groaned softly behind her.

“Don’t say I didn’t try to warn you.”

“I’ll go first,” Maia said brightly, which only made Jace groan louder.

“Tate, Truth or Dare?”

Tate looked nervous. "Uh, truth?"

Maia smirked. "Have you ever thought about Isabelle naked?"

"Maia!" Isabelle cried out, mortified. "Don't answer that, Tate."

"If he won't answer, it goes default to dare," Maia told them, ignoring Jace’s firm pressure on her ankle.

"Fine, dare." Tate conceded.

Maia looked positively evil. "I dare you to kiss the prettiest girl here."

Isabelle relaxed, well that was easy enough. Pretty much every girl in this circle was that annoying mix of beautiful and nice; all Tate had to do was just pick one.

"What if I refuse?" Tate asked quietly.

Maia sighed deeply, like he'd already disappointed her. "Then you have to take off an item of clothing."

Tate was only wearing board shorts so refusal pretty much meant he would be naked for the remainder of the game. He glanced Isabelle’s way for a moment, before slowly getting to his feet and undoing his draw string.

As nearly every girl at the party stopped what they were doing and lasered in on Tate about to get incredibly close to naked, Isabelle turned her face away. It wasn’t like Tate was unpleasant to look at - he worked hard with his Dad on their family construction business so his body was nicely sculpted and no one could deny he was beautiful. It was just that Isabelle felt uncomfortable with him being so close, and so nearly naked, when he was practically family.

“Pick a girl, Tate,” Isabelle said, still not looking at him. “Just get it over with and then we can move on.”

“Not just any girl,” Maia reminded. “Who you think is the prettiest.”

Isabelle turned her nose up at Maia. Why was she even pushing this? And why was Tate being so difficult? It wasn’t even a hard question.

"Maia, ease up," Jace finally said firmly, as Tate started to pull his shorts off, revealing the waist band of white Calvin Klein’s before hastily yanking his shorts down the rest of the way.

"I don't make the rules," she replied lightly.

"No, you play by your own," Jace replied darkly before turning to Tate. "Pull up your pants Romeo - that was just a test run."

"Just kiss a girl, Tate," Giselle purred.

"Keep your pants on and mouth shut." Jace instructed. "We're going to start again and this time Maia, and everyone else for that matter, is going to tone it down, we clear?" He glared so fiercely at Maia she actually had the grace to duck her head. "Matt, you start."

Isabelle smiled at Jace brightly. She had no idea why Tate had even needed saving when it should have been so simple, but it was nice of Jace to step in even after Tate had spent the better part of the day freezing him out.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

Jace winked. “No need, I’m just too sober for a half-naked dude to be this close to me.”

Isabelle giggled softly and turned her attention back to the game which was apparently ‘ask Tate’ night.

“Truth or dare, Tate?” Matt asked innocently.

“Truth.”

“Have you ever been in love?”

Tate’s jaw tensed and he glared at Matt. “There are other people here you know, it’s not just me playing.”

“Oh I know, Rookie,” Matt told him with a smirk. “But I already know all their secrets.”

Tate grunted in annoyance. “I’m sure. Fine, yes.”

Isabelle’s head snapped over to Tate. Yes? Had she missed something? She had never seen Tate with a serious girlfriend in their whole lives. He never had any shortage of girls fawning all over him, and she knew for a fact that he wasn’t a virgin, but love?

“Ooh,” Maia crooned. “Who?”

“I believe I answered your question,” Tate replied lightly. “Is it my shot now?”

Maia nodded, gesturing for him to continue.

“Jace, truth or dare?”

Isabelle gulped down more of her double black cruiser. Crap. This was not going to go well.

Jace watched Tate mildly. “Truth.”

“How many girls have you had s*x with?” Tate asked and there was a cruel curve to his lip unfamiliar to Isabelle.

Jace paled, his eyes flicking to Isabelle briefly before coming back to Tate’s.

“You hoping I don’t answer so you can see me naked?” Jace asked casually, but his eyes were hard.

Tate didn’t reply, just gestured for Jace to continue.

Isabelle glanced around and saw Maia exchanging weary looks with Giselle as Matt death stared Tate.

She was just about to open her mouth to tell Jace he didn’t have to answer when he cut across her.

“Four,” he ground out through his teeth.

Isabelle didn’t know how to feel about that information. She knew at seventeen there was no way he could have been a virgin, and four was actually less than Tate, but there was a burn in her chest when she imagined other girls touching him. She didn’t like it.

“Jace,” Maia said softly. “It’s your turn.”

Isabelle was sure he was going to go on the offensive and lash out at Tate, but instead he surprised her by turning to Kandi and asking her a question.

After watching Kandi perform a lap dance for Ben who definitely did not seem as enthralled as he should have been, Isabelle knew by the gleam in Kandi’s eye that she would be next.

"Truth or dare, Isabelle?" Kandi asked, as if on cue.

“Dare,” she replied thoughtlessly, distracted by Jace pulling his wife beater up to wipe his face.

“Hang on.” Kandi fumbled with her iPhone for a few moments before a sneaky grin spread across her face as she read something. “OK got it, your dare is… to kiss a member of the opposite s*x on the lips.”

Isabelle wanted to crawl into a pit and die. Why did she ever think shots were a good idea? They had completely lowered her inhibitions and now she was bright red with a group of people staring at her expectantly.

She sighed deeply, very aware by the knowing grins between Kandi and Maia that they had planned this. Clearly her choice was between Jace and Tate because Ben and Matt were both spoken for and Tyler was as creepy as it got.

“Are you puckering up or getting naked?” Maia prodded with a smirk.

Isabelle rolled her eyes at Maia and turned to Jace. Maybe it was the liquid courage in her stomach or Maia’s taunting that had the nerves slip away from her but as she looked into those bright blue eyes she actually felt confident and sure that this was right.

Placing her hands gently on either side of his face Isabelle moved slowly until her lips pressed against Jace’s slightly opened and very surprised ones.

A peck was really all she had planned for, all that was technically required, but as their lips fused together a raw need over took her and she found it was her hands pulling Jace closer as she deepened the kiss. She had expected that he would push forward into their kiss, grab her or maybe even try and ease his body over hers but instead he was hesitant, almost guarded as his lips only moved against hers with the most tentative of movements.

It was too soon and reckless and probably incredibly stupid but she liked him and he made her happy. She didn’t care that tomorrow she would be mortified, she didn’t care that she could feel Tate’s eyes burning into her, or that she was meant to be keeping her distance. All she really cared about was living in this moment of careless abandon.

After Tate’s exaggerated cleared throat, Isabelle pulled herself away from Jace, smiling at his completely stunned expression.

“My turn?” she asked ignoring everyone’s gaze on her. “Maia, truth or dare?”

Maia grinned at her. “Obviously I’m choosing dare. Hit me with your best shot, newbie.”