Dare and Dare Alike
Leigh Ellwood
Also by Leigh Ellwood
In the Dareville series…
Truth or Dare
The Dares That Bind
Dare Me
Daring Young Man
Double Dare
Dare to Dream
Daringly Delicious
A Winter’s Dare
Don’t Dare the Reaper
Where Angels Dare to Tread
By the Chimney with Dare
Handle With Dare
Also available…
Long Awaited Friend
Share
Share Some More
Enter Sandman
Last Call
South of Sundance
and many more…
Dare and Dare Alike
A Dareville short by
LEIGH ELLWOOD
Dare and Dare Alike copyright 2010 by Leigh Ellwood
All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
www.DLPBooks.com
Virginia Beach, VA
Cover titling © 2010 Kathryn Lively
Image courtesy of Dreamstime
Smashwords Edition – July, 2010
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Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
Author’s Note
Greetings, friends of Dareville! Thank you for sharing this all-M/M novella in the Dare universe. Dare and Dare Alike takes place some time after the events of A Winter’s Dare and Daringly Delicious.
See you around town, and stay daring.
Leigh
Chapter One
“Hey, sailor. Buy a girl a drink?”
Any other day, in this state of aggravation, Derek Robeson might have grunted a barely intelligible hello and returned to his lunch. Yet, for all the anxiety and frustration clouding his mood, no way could he point a cold shoulder toward his favorite cousin, who had sashayed into Mick’s from the steaming August heat to take the stool to his right.
He kissed Kate’s proffered cheek and drew her into a one-armed hug. “You look amazingly cool given the drought. How easy was it to arrange a pact with the Devil?”
Kate smirked and slid closer a thin, cardboard coaster advertising the restaurant’s happy hour specials. “Not so much the Devil, but Tish Richmond’s handy mechanic boyfriend. He fixed the A/C in my car, saved me a couple hundred bucks.”
“Smart move,” Derek nodded, “considering you probably spent the last hundred you had.”
Kate gestured to her green floral print cocktail dress. “Worth every penny. I’m meeting Devon for an early dinner at the beach, then off to the symphony. What about you?” She frowned at him. “You don’t look too happy for a guy savoring all his favorite treats.”
Derek glanced at the barely-touched platter of Mick’s signature fajita nachos and the pint of Harp—the head now dissolved to a micro-layer of white foam—and pushed them both away. His stomach churned and boiled, though it had nothing to do with the food. “I asked Dar to meet me here.”
“I see.” Kate stiffened and straightened, and Derek bit back a laugh. Of course, everybody in the family knew of the growing animosity between the identical twin brothers. Between sports rivalries and self-imposed competitions to best each other academically, it seemed every move made by one or the other signaled a competition. Only where romantic entanglements were concerned did the Robeson twins respect each other’s turf. One didn’t have to be family to know why.
“How did he ruin your life this time?” Kate appeared to settle in for a long, dramatic tale, smiling quickly as Mick himself intuitively placed her usual, a dry martini, on her coaster.
“Well, let’s have him explain it.” Derek waved over brother Darien, who entered dressed in a manner completely the opposite of his twin. Where Derek preferred his long sleeves and suits even when off the clock, Darien constantly sported a casual look that almost always featured open-toed sandals and a t-shirt bearing some sports team logo. Today, he did not disappoint: foam rubber flip-flops sounded with each step, and an ash tee declared Dar property of UVA’s swim team.
It sort of made sense, Derek surmised, given Dar’s insatiable hunger for athletes of either sex.
“Hey, cuz.” Dar kissed Kate’s other cheek, then reached over to cuff his brother’s shoulder. “Der,” he said. “I thought you had a date tonight.”
“I had a date tonight. Had as in past tense, not going to happen, thanks to you,” Derek growled.
Mick hovered nearby, and Dar asked for a draft stout. “What? I haven’t done anything.”
Derek reached into the messenger bag on the stool to his left and yanked free a glossy, colorful sheaf of papers. “Reservations at The 219, limo ride set up, bottle of champagne and strawberries chilled, and before I can leave work Tonya storms into my office and throws this in my face.”
He tossed the pornographic magazine onto the bar, open to a pictorial collage of two men engaged in various explicit oral sex positions. That Dar comprised one half of the pair wasn’t lost on Kate or Mick, both of whom moved quietly away from the rising tempest about to explode.
“You know, I think I’m going to finish this at an empty booth,” she said. “Nice seeing you two.”
Mick grabbed a menu, likely for show. “I’ll seat you and tell you about the specials.” Both left without saying goodbye or waiting for acknowledgement from either of the brothers. As it happened, Dar appeared more interested in the magazine than Derek’s anger.
“Dude,” he flipped through the rest of the issue, clearly admiring the photographic quality. “When did this come out? I did these pics, like, months ago. Good thing I got paid onsite.”
“Who the fuck the cares when you posed for them, Dar? Tonya thought this was me licking some other guy’s ass.” Derek hissed the last word. “What do you think something like this says?”
“That Tonya’s into gay porn?”
Derek stared, stone-faced. Dar shrugged and let out an awkward laugh, but Derek could see him trying his best to tread the hot water. “Well, how else would it explain her getting this magazine? I mean, it’s not like you can find Hard Ballz easily at the local bookstore. Something like this, you subscribe to and get in a plain brown bag,” he said. “Anyway, you’d think if Tonya were into it, she’d have asked to marry you.”
“How Tonya got the magazine is immaterial, and clearly she’s not ‘into it.’ She came screaming into where I work, calling me everything but straight, thinking I was going to give her AIDS.”
“Hey, they test you something fierce on these sets—”
“I don’t care!” Derek exploded. He grasped the pint of beer, thinking the glass might crack if he squeezed hard enough. The heat from his hand alone seemed to set the liquid to boil.
Taking a deep drink to cool down, he slammed the glass and bared his teeth. “It’s not funny, stop laughing!”
But a red-faced Dar only let his mirth come out louder. “You’re foaming. I keep waiting for your head to spin.”