Chapter 2 Truth Or Dare

• Rayne
• “Do you think we’re going to be able to get a table here?!” I wailed as we pushed through the sweaty bodies that had packed the trendy nightclub in Rio de Janeiro.
• We had entered a competition and won an all-expenses-paid girls' trip to the Carnival. It was a dream come true.
• “Yes!” Sophia called out over her shoulder with determination. “We’re not leaving by the way!” We worked our way across the crowded room and finally found a table in the corner close to the bar.
• “Oh, my gosh!” Kim’s words gushed out in a wave of uninhibited excitement, with drool almost slipping out the corner of her pink lips. “That’s, Javier Gonzalez!”
• My close friend Kim Lee clutched my arm and discreetly pointed at the hottie knocking back whiskey at the bar like he had just been informed it was about to run out. His poor liver was going to suffer but it seemed like he didn’t care about the consequences. He was on a mission, and that was to get wasted. So far, he seemed to be on the right track to accomplishing his goal.
• He was gorgeous in a sultry, rugged, dangerous way.
• He was dressed in snug-fitting pants, and a dress shirt, his silk tie abandoned on the bar counter. But something about his presence seemed silently to command attention. Women whispered and nodded discreetly in his direction. Their thoughts of what they’d like to do to him if given a chance if they ever got a chance were evident on their lusty faces.
• He was really a fine specimen, though his name was not familiar, everyone else seemed to know him, he was clearly some rich or famous arrogant billionaire or celebrity of some sort. For a moment, I leisurely glanced at the beautiful creature and then turned my glance away from the broad back before we were caught staring.
• “Javier who?” I eyed him skeptically again, He looked way too hot to be just a business tycoon. To be honest, how many hot billionaires did you know-just off the top of your head? If we’re being honest, most rich guys were not man-candy. They were bald, fat, and not so good-looking. If the creature was rich, he probably made his billions as a model or an actor maybe? Or born into money? That could be it.
• “Oh Ray, you’re hopeless!” she groaned. “Javier is only the smartest, richest, and hottest Spanish billionaire to walk the planet,” she explained excitedly. “His intelligence adds to his appeal too,” she added. “He has developed apps that have changed-revolutionized actually, the technical world,” she continued to list his accolades. “Hot, sexy, filthy-rich, and smart-oh yes-recently single,” her face lit up like she actually had a shot with him. “And rumor has it he has mad skills between the sheets,” she pouted and swallowed the drool that had gathered in her mouth. “What a combination! Pure genius!” She exclaimed, never taking her eyes off him. “Look at the way he is holding that glass…” She propped her elbows on the table, folded her hands under her chin, and studied him intently. “Hmmm those fingers really look like they can drive you wild…” she zoned out into another world that probably included her naked, under Javier Gonzalez.
• “Oh wow,” I gazed at him with newfound admiration. “He doesn’t look it though…intelligent I mean,” my lips turned down in a frown as I stole another glance. “He looks more like a GQ model.”
• “Doesn’t he just?!” Her eyes swept over him appreciatively and she smacked her lips. “Look at those guns and those buns girl…Dee-lee-shus!”
• “Unfortunately, with guys like that, all you can do is look,” I commented dryly. I was doing something I rarely did, and that was to gawk and drool, I turned away feeling guilty for some reason.
• “Hmmm…” she sighed dreamily.
• We had arrived in Rio that morning and didn’t waste time, exploring the city after dumping our bags in our respective, shared hotel rooms. After sightseeing we went back to our cheap motel to change and hit the town, ending up at a popular samba nightclub, that was also a popular music venue, playing virtually every type of tune imaginable. Just then, our two other friends returned from the restroom and slid onto the high stools.
• “We just saw Javier Gonzalez!” Ava whispered excitedly. “Over there at the bar!”
• “Be still my beating vajay-jay,” Sophia sighed, her eyes all hazy. All my other friends wore similar dreamy expressions as they swooned over the guy.
• “It should be a crime…” Ava said, swallowing down the drool in her mouth in huge gulps. “It’s illegal to be that gorgeous.”
• “He should come with a health warning from the state department…” Kim added. “I think I might need an asthma pump after this.”
• “My heart is literally beating in my panties,” Sophia nibbled her bottom lip. “Beating just for him in that secret place I’d love him to touch…”
• “I don’t know if it’s true, but I heard…” Kim slid closer to me and got ready to unleash the juicy gossip like she usually did. “His fiancée got knocked up by his young brother Mateo-another total hottie-but doesn’t come close to Javier-and he walked in on them incidentally…He was right on the nest or so to speak,” her eyes widened as she glanced around the table of the noisy club to give us a moment to let it sink in. Our other two friends Sophia and Ava gasped.
• “Noooo!”
• “True story, chicas…” she nodded, her gaze strolling over our faces to see the full effect of her story.
• “There’s more…” she whispered and we huddled closer to her, trying to hear the conversation, and contributed a comment here and there.
• “The story was on Billionaire Hot Goss News and Two and Two Together just yesterday,” she affirmed. “You can check it out on their social media page.”
• “How do you know if he’s not the one that knocked up his wife?” I suddenly felt sorry for him. Poor guy. No one deserved to be played like that.
• “There’s no way that could have happened,” she strongly refuted. “Get this…” Kim made sure she had our undivided attention before she dropped another juicy tidbit. “He’s impotent.”
• “Noooo!!”
• “The fiancée told someone, who told someone, who told someone…” She let out a disappointed sigh but I knew better. She thrived on such drama. “Breezy was right…these hoes ain’t loyal…” she said, shaking her head dismally.
• “Is that why he’s drowning his sorrows like there’s no tomorrow?” I mused, sliding a look of pity in his direction.
• “Could be,” Ava responded with a shrug.
• “I hope he gets really, really drunk so I can shimmy over there and let him take advantage of me…” Sophia, ever the flirt, was literally undressing the unsuspecting man with her cat eyes. “Or me him…works both ways. I’m sure I’d enjoy every minute,” she giggled, tipsy from all the cocktails she’d been sipping on all night.
• “Hey!” Ava frowned down at me in disapproval. “Drink your cocktail!” she reprimanded me. “We agreed we’d all get intoxicated tonight-you included,” she pointed at me as she raised her Martini. We’re all in this together.”
• “I’m trying!” I whined, staring into the blue liquid in my glass. “It’s too strong and you guys know I’ve never tasted alcohol before tonight.” I was already feeling the effects of the concoction. I wasn’t a drinker, not even a social one. My parents would have killed me.
• “Let’s drink to that!” Sophia smiled and raised her glass. “And tomorrow we are getting you a total makeover before the carnival on Saturday. Cheers!!”
• Sophia was half-Italian and part-British, her sultry looks and shapely body always turned heads. Kim was partially Asian and American. Medium-height and attractive, her smooth skin and come-hither eyes drew guys in like bees to honey. Ava was a tall, slim, gorgeous redhead with the most beautiful green eyes I’d ever seen. I think I was the only ordinary-looking one among my stunningly beautiful, confident, and attractive friends. I was nothing to write home about-slim brunette with dull hair and brown eyes…and really long legs. Told you, I was ordinary, right?
• “Let’s make this interesting, shall we?” Sophia leaned her elbows on the round table and glanced around challengingly. “I dare-anyone of you-to go over there and dare him. To either kiss you. Buy you a drink. Dance with him. Or…all of the above.”
• My head was spinning and I had propped it up with my hand. “Count me out,” I returned without enthusiasm.
• “No way!” she shook her head vigorously... “We’re all in this together remember?”
• “I can’t. I won’t.” I dug in my heels, protesting vehemently and feeling the onset of a headache. “You can’t make me.” It was bad enough they practically forced me to drink lethal concoctions that I didn’t even know the names of or what was in them-but I was sure it was poison.
• “If you don’t do this…” her red lips curved into a wicked smile. “I will go over there… and tell him you sent me-to tell him-that…you think he’s hot and you wouldn’t mind jumping his bones.”
• “You wouldn’t…” She would. I knew she would.
• “Let’s draw straws, shall we?” she ignored my protests and death glares and got busy extracting them from our glasses and breaking them into uneven pieces. “The one with the shortest goes first.”
• “Fia-Fire no...” I protested to deaf ears, covering my face with my hands. “Don’t make me do this…please?”
• “It's spring time. Live a little, Ray. This is just for fun,” she shimmied her shoulders to the beat in the background and winked at me. “You go first.”
• “I know I’m going to regret this…” I plucked a stick from her hand and threw it on the table.
• “That wasn’t hard was it?” she grinned, then moved on to Ava.
• She looked at our straws and squealed in delight. “Yes!” she grinned like a cat that got the cream. “I get to go first!” she tossed her luscious jet-black waves over her shoulder like the seductress she was, plunging her hands into her bra and plumping her breasts. “There might not be a need for the rest of you to shoot your shot once he gets a load of this,” she hopped off her chair and trailed a hand down her curvy torso.
• “Hopefully,” I mumbled to myself.
• “How do I look?” she checked her appearance, looking a bit nervous as she tugged at her black sequined crop top.
• “Gorgeous,” I smiled widely. “As always.”
• “Sit back and watch a pro at work,” she winked and ran her tongue over her lips. “Let me show you how to snag a hot, rich billionaire with just a smile and a touch.” Her enthusiasm and unhinged antics thawed my anxiety a bit. I could do this. It was just for kicks, right? And that’s what I was here for, correct?
• After all, it was springtime, like she said. A time to bloom and grow.
• “Go get ’em, tiger!” Ava cheered her on, watching her hips sway as she walked towards her mark. "Whooohoo!!!!"
• She must have said something to him as she whispered, leaning toward him so that he had an unhindered view of her cleavage. From where we were sitting, Javier didn’t so much as glance in her direction or impressive boobage and got the barman to tell her to buzz off or something along those lines, as she later reported). This all happened in under one minute by the way.
• Kim was up next and didn’t have any luck either. She got his large hand in her face. She didn’t put up a fight but made an abrupt turn and stalked back to our table with her tail between her legs.
• Ava gave it another twenty or so minutes before she made her move. But we were both skeptical after watching him rebuff Sophia’s no so subtle advances. If he could snub her what about the rest of us? Though, I was glad that I had put a bit more effort into my appearance tonight. I had allowed my friends to do my makeup and had pilfered a red off-shoulder top from Kim and paired it with my black skinny jeans and matching peep-toe boots. My hair was straightened and hung loose down my spine. Jewelry was kept simple but classy.
• “What a jerk!” she huffed.
• I ordered another drink and knocked it back in two huge gulps, trying to garner liquid courage, after watching Javier repel Ava like an annoying insect.
• “Good luck,” Ava said in a silky voice as she returned to her seat. “You’re going to need it.”
• “What did you say to him?” Sophia prodded.
• “I got there and dared him to dance with me or buy me a drink-or both.”
• “And what did he say?”
• “He just said, I dare you to leave me alone, comprende?”
• “Ouch! That was harsh.”
• “So good luck,” she said before knocking back a shot of tequila and slamming the glass on the table.
• “It’s just for fun, right?” I shrugged and slid off the chair.
• “Ray,” an unusually subdued Sophia said. “You don’t have to do this.”
• “I know,” I grabbed my glass and tweaked her cheek before I walked towards my humiliation. Tomorrow we would sit around on the bed and laugh about it.
• As I approached him my song of the moment came on and suddenly I felt rejuvenated, energized-like I could take on the world. The adrenalin rushed through me and the music took over as I moved to the song.
• Maybe it was time to try a different approach.