Pain & Pleasure | Erotic One-Shots | BDSM

Truth or Dare

The celebration wasn't until the weekend, but Melanie insisted on celebrating Alex's birthday the day before, so she brought a bottle of wine over and the two made pasta while laughing and watching a crappy reality show.

In Alex's thoughts, there was a delightful hum. The brunette had somehow wound up on the floor, her head resting on the arm she had spread out across the cushions. Melanie remained on the other side of the couch, her feet tucked up beneath her as she sipped from her glass and brushed a strand of red hair behind her ear.

With the bottle gone and each of them downing their last glass, their conversation fell silent and they were left staring at each other from their respective seats in the room. Alex felt a simultaneous want to pull away and a boiling breathlessness rise through her legs and torso as soon as she realized they were retaining eye contact. She swallowed as she felt a rush of adrenaline rush through her chest, finally breaking her stare to run her finger around the lip of her glass.

When Alex's gaze raised again the other woman was still contemplating her. Melanie 's eyes were curious and attentive, and just the start of a half-smile played on her lips. Alex was trying to figure out how to break the silence and the tension when her friend finally spoke again.

"Do you want to play truth or dare?"

The fizzing, bubbling feeling in Alex's body was moving down into her lower stomach, touching at the beginnings of an aching knot. "I didn't know adults played that game," she said. She'd meant it to diffuse tension, but toward the end of the sentence, her voice broke in a little high-pitched hiccup that made the feeling inside her twist sharply.

"We don't have to," Melanie 's voice was soft in contrast to her focused gaze. As if to illustrate her laissez-faire attitude, Melanie moved her legs from under herself and sat with them long over the cushions of the couch, leaning back and draping her arm over the back while she cocked her head at the birthday girl. One foot flexed, moved through a point, and then relaxed again. Now facing each other -- Alex on the floor, Melanie up on the couch -- Melanie 's half-smile bloomed over her face into a tiny, teasing smirk.

Alex took a breath and downed the rest of her wine. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," Melanie said. Alex felt her mind go blank -- this was why she never played this game, she thought. What was she supposed to ask?

"Um. Okay. What's the worst thing you've ever done?"

"Wow, really just diving in there," Melanie said after a throaty laugh, pressing her hand to the exposed skin of her freckled chest. She was wearing a tank top over her jeans, and Alex could see the skin just below her collarbone turn a slight shade of pink. "I cheated on a test in college once."

"That's not so bad."

"Hey, you didn't specify what kind of worst thing it had to be," Melanie said with a grin. "I got testing accommodations for my ADHD. I had this one engineering class that just...didn't make sense to me, but I needed it for my major. I studied and studied and it just wasn't coming, so I took some notes on my graphing calculator and used them during the test. No one knew because I just got a room by myself. I still feel bad about it." She paused, looking off into a corner of the room, the fingers on her chest drumming against her skin. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth," Alex said.

"When's the last time you had sex?"

Heat rose to the woman's face. "It's been a while," she started quietly. "A couple of months, I think. Before Sarah and I broke up. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Same question."

Melanie smiled. "Last week. Truth or dare?"