Challenge Accepted

By: Jillyree

Rated: M (for later chapters)

DISCLAIMER: The characters in this story do not belong to me; they belong to their respective owners. No copyright infringement is intended. I'm just a fan. Please don't sue!

(Although if someone can tell me where I can buy a man just like Aaron Tyler, I'd be most appreciative.)

Killing the engine on her car, she looked straight ahead into the darkness of the night. It was 2 AM; most of the civilized Niagara region had already gone to bed for the evening. Yet, here she sat, and for what? A dare from her best friend’s brother? He’d probably been joking when he’d challenged her earlier; she believed that to be true.

Well, all except for that nagging feeling she’d had in the back of her mind since their earlier conversation in the living room.

“I’m somebody’s brother,” he’d said so calmly, biting his lip right afterward.

It took all the willpower Majandra McGinty had to suppress those giggly memories of yesteryear start to form low in her stomach; back in the day when she’d had a crush on Jaye’s older brother Aaron. She’d done her best to laugh it off. “Yeah, right…my best friend’s brother. Like that‘s ever gonna happen.”

He’d not let much time pass after their shared laughter. “Why not?”

She’d looked at him, stunned. “Well, for one thing, if we ever even tried to kiss, we’d never stop laughing.”

“I bet we could get through it.”

If she hadn’t been shocked before, she was for sure now. “Doubtful,” she’d curtly replied, once again trying to use sarcasm and wit to hide her true feelings. There was no way he was saying these things to her, and any minute her alarm clock was going to go off, alerting her that it was all a dream.

But it wasn’t, and she knew it by his next actions. “I challenge you. I challenge you to a kiss.” And then, he’d given her that look and started to move toward her, until her defense mechanism had won out over her heart and she’d told him to shut up.

It was getting colder by the minute out in her vehicle, and she knew it was now or never. Climbing out of the driver’s seat, she closed the door, breathed a silent prayer that this was the right thing to do, then quickly walked to the front door, ringing the bell.

She could see his form descending from the stairs, the same gray t-shirt and maroon boxers adorning his body as they had been earlier in the evening. Watching a yawn escape from his lips as he opened the door, she couldn’t help but smile on the inside, thinking about how cute he looked with his bed-head hair and groggy eyes.

“What’d they lose now? An alligator?” he mumbled, his voice coarse from sleep. She slowly stepped into the foyer of the Tyler home and turned to face him, her voice just seconds away from cracking.

“I accept your challenge.”

She said it more confidently than she had expected, although her hands were wringing nervously in front of her. She was shocked, but happy, when he nodded his head, a playful ‘oh’ escaping from his mouth, and felt her pulse speed up when he gently took her gloved hands into his before leaning down to gently press his lips to hers. As the pressure between their mouths grew stronger, she felt herself subconsciously wrapping her arms around his, pulling them closer together.

After they drew apart, she looked up at him. “I’m not laughing.”

“No, you’re trembling.”

Not leaving their embrace, he reached around and closed the door behind them, neither one knowing what was in store, but both knowing that they wouldn’t spend the night alone.