Do You Dare? (Truth And Dare Duet #1)

by Lylah James

I stumbled back, aghast. I knew he was immature, rude, and vulgar, but this was a whole other level of douchebaggery. Murder is a crime, Lila. You could go to prison for a very long time.

Fine. He wanted to play… then I’d play. After taking two steps forward, I did a little side twist, which allowed my bag to hit him. Bullseye. When I heard a hiss of pain, I knew that the corner of my bag had bumped into his crotch, and his dick probably felt the impact, too. I turned my head and gave Maddox a look over my shoulder. He had doubled over and was cupping himself between the legs. “You were in my way. Whoops,” I said lazily, repeating his earlier words. My middle name is ‘Petty Bitch.’

His deep voice rolled down my spine. “Don’t fall for me, Lila. I’ll break you.”

Things just turned out to be a bit more complicated because it would have been easier if I hated him.

Hate is a strong word. It’s a bitter but sweet fucking poison. It’s like cocaine, and once you’ve had a taste, it’s damn addictive. It becomes something more. It infiltrates your system, running through your veins, until you can’t see anything other than red rage. Hate kept me going. Rage kept me alive. It became the oxygen I breathed.

I found out it was easy to hate but so damn difficult to love.

I knew what it felt like to suffer like this. Chest caving in, all the air being sucked out from your lungs, a fist clenching your heart so tight, blood rushing through your ears, your lungs can’t seem to work properly and then it happens… suffocation. The need to crawl out of your skin, as if your body is not your own anymore, chasing an escape you couldn’t even see through the fog.

Emotional pain bore invisible scars; yet, these scars could be traced by the gentlest touch, I knew that. Breaking apart was hard. It stung with every breath taken. Recovering from it was the hardest. Sometimes, the pieces can’t be put back together because they’re mismatched, missing or completely shattered, making it an impossible feat.

Maddox was a sinking ship; he was drowning in the wreckage of a wounded heart, and I was the anchor holding him together.

My heart thumped harder, almost angrily, and it pumped acid through my veins, except I was…drowning. It was then I realized that you didn’t need water to drown.

“Because I need the world to know they can’t mess with what’s mine.”

What started out as a game for me was not a game anymore. Lila was truly and honestly my…friend. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. In fact, I didn’t like the thought of her hurting at all. I didn’t know when or how it happened. But too soon, Lila became someone important to me. Maybe it was when she hugged me in that dark closet and sang me a lullaby. Or when she had offered me that tuna sandwich. Or maybe it was when I wrapped my pinky around hers and did that silly pinky swear. But somehow, Lila Garcia became more than just my prey. She was someone I wanted to protect. From the world. From me.

“You can’t fix him,” he said to my back. No, I couldn’t. But that was the thing… I didn’t want to fix him. I wanted to hold his hand. Nothing more; nothing less.

bit ruined, a little bit messy, a little bit broken -- a beautiful disaster. Like me.

He was a simple, seventeen-year-old boy, who only wanted his parents’ approval, with a little messy childhood and now, he starved for attention. I made him smile. I did it. And I’d continue to do so. One dare at a time, I’d chase his smiles – because I realize Maddox needed someone who cared enough about his happiness and his anger. And I did.

Lila and I were alike in so many ways, yet still… different. Maybe that was why we suited each other so well as friends. We balanced each other.

She was the calm in my reckless life. I was the chaos in her peaceful one.

Sweet Lila – the fiery dragon with a fragile heart.

Life had broken her. Just as it had broken me. Maybe it was why we found each other.

Love was too simple of a word to describe it because love was black and white. Love or don’t love – there was not really an in-between. What we had… it was a kaleidoscope of colors.

Dickass-ren

But Maddox and I had been friends for months now, and Pops slowly started to warm up to him. In fact, if I wasn’t mistaken, they were on the same team now. Project: Don’t let Lila date and protect her at all costs.

“You’re not stopping me,” I snarled. “No, I’m coming with you.” He cracked his knuckles, his lips splitting into a deadly grin. “He fucked with one of ours.”

“If I love you, I give you the power to destroy me. I’m not strong enough for that. I can’t be just another girl to you, Maddox. I need to be more; I deserve more, and I don’t think you can give that. I can’t risk us and what we are. We’re beautiful… just like this. Friends.”

Lila was sunshine mixed with a little hurricane, and I was getting swept away.

I thought he had left his asshole ways behind. But no, I was wrong. So fucking wrong about him. About us. Friends. We were friends. I thought maybe… he wanted more. More of me. More of us, of what we were or could be. I was so goddamn wrong. Maddox Coulter was still an asshole behind a pretty mask. And I was the stupid girl who fell in love with her best friend.

“If there’s a God, He doesn’t want me to be happy. Maybe it’s my fault because I pushed you into the arms of another man. But He won’t let me have you even though I begged him to let me love you freely. I can’t remember the last time I asked Him for something. I guess... I’m not meant to have what I want. My parents. A family. You. You. You,”

Lylah James writes about drool worthy and total alpha males and strong and sweet heroines. She makes her readers cry—sob their eyes out, swoon, curse, rage, and fall in love. Mostly known as the Queen of Cliffhangers and the #evilauthorwithablacksoul, she likes to break her readers’ hearts and then mend them.