“Are you guys ready?” Kami asks as she holds up the box for some new game that she’s brought. The guys all gripe, not liking to be taught something new, but she quiets their complaints by saying, “Stop it…you’ve all played UNO, right?”

“Yeah, when I was in kindergarten,” Ari grumbles. She ignores him and empties the contents of the box onto the table. In the center of the coffee table is all of our contributions to the pot, which I really hope I win. Last trip, I won five out of the six pots.

Merritt comes into the living room with a glass of what looks like Scotch on ice in his hand. He must really hate not having his phone.

“You mind if I sit here?” he asks me, and I shake my head, tucking my feet further underneath me. As I lean on the arm of the couch, Kami is rambling away, and I find my eyes wandering, taking in glimpses of Merritt. He’s muscular, but not too big, clean-shaven and his hair looks like he just ran his fingers through it. The sleeves of his black dress shirt are rolled up, and his thighs are straining the fabric of his jeans. Biting my bottom lip, I look at his cock, and Jesus, it’s... “Any questions?” Kami asks us. I blink wildly, like a kid on the first day of school that hasn’t a clue what to do.

Merritt passes me a blank card and a tiny marker, and I look at it, perplexed. Peeking around the room, everyone is writing on their cards, and I whisper to Merritt, “What do I do?”

“Write a rule or something.”

“A rule?”

“Yeah, like something the person has to do that picks the card.”

“Can it be anything?”

“I think so.”

“What did you put?” I ask him.

“I’m not telling; she said not to.” He covers his card, and I sigh in frustration. I have no clue what to write. The only things that come to mind are just dirty. What is wrong with me? As everyone hands her back their cards, I go with it; no one will know I wrote it, right? Remove one piece of clothing, jewelry excluded.

Kami collects the cards and then passes out our hands. “God, I feel like a kid,” Ari complains.

“Trust me, man, this one is fun,” Jacob chimes in. “I had Kami sucking my cock the other night on every other hand.” She hits him on the back of the head, and we all laugh as she blushes, obviously still thinking about their game.

Oh God, did someone put a card like that in there?

As we work around the room, playing a traditional game of UNO, I begin to think this isn’t so bad, but my eyes are on the little machine that sits in the middle of the table which has our cards all inside of it, and I wonder what’ll happen when we have to use it. Then Willow lays down a card that has a picture of the machine and grabs the lever. The entire room silences, telling me that no one wrote anything nice on their cards.

As she spins the tiny slot machine-like device, we wait for it to stop and when it does, she asks, “What does that mean?” It’s got a picture of a blank black card on it with a question mark.

“Oh, that one means you pull a card and do whatever it says,” Kami tells her.

“But I thought you said that we could choose who had to do it.”

“If it gives you that option, then yeah. But it didn’t.”

“Just pull the card, babe,” Ted tells her, and reluctantly she does, rolling her eyes and being all dramatic. With the card in her hand, she’s just looking at it, not saying a word.

“What does it say?” I finally ask, hating the suspense.

“Make out with anyone in the room for one minute.”

“Who put that one in there?” I ask, and Kami says, “Were you listening to anything I said at all? I told you, you’re not allowed to say.”

Willow drops the card on the table and grabs ahold of the sides of Ted’s shirt as she whips her hair around. I giggle, what is she a 1980’s porn star? Then she climbs on top of his lap and begins to kiss him. As I finish my drink, Merritt asks me, “You want another one?”

“Sure.” He gets up, and I follow him into the kitchen. “Did you write that?” I ask him.

“No, I thought you did.”

I smirk and awkwardly look at Willow who is still going at it with Ted. His hands are on her hips, then Kami yells, “Time.” And they slowly stop.

“Who would you kiss, if you pulled that card?” Merritt asks me, refilling my glass.

Sipping on my drink, I look around the room, filled with all of my closest friends and know my options are limited. Really it’s Ari or Merritt, and Ari is like a brother to me, and I bet Merritt knows that, so he’s expecting me to say him. I look up at him, and he winks at me. That is his card.

Sonofabitch!

“It’s a hard choice between Willow or Kami, maybe both!” His mouth drops open, and I strut off to the couch. When I sit down, he’s still standing in the exact spot I left him, watching me.

He shakes his head with a smirk on his face. “So what do I lay down?” I ask as Willow’s blue card with the machine is on the top of the deck.

“You’ve got to either match the picture or color.” Looking at my hand, I have one card with a machine on it, but I’m not about to make that move, not until I see what else these crazy fuckers have written down. Merritt sits back down next to me, and I lay a blue six, then Ari lays down the dreaded card with the fucking wheel on it again, and he spins the machine. This time it’s got the same blank black card with a question mark, but it’s surrounded by tiny arrows. “That one means you can choose anyone to pull a card, or you can yourself,” Jacob tells him and Ari looks at Merritt.

“For real, man?”

“Yeah, why not?”

Merritt grabs the machine and takes the top card out. I look over at it as he reads it.

“Take a tequila body shot off anyone in the room…except yourself.” He holds his breath, and I do the same, knowing he’s gonna pick me. He won’t pick one of the other girls. He might pick Ari to be funny, although I sure as hell hope he doesn’t. As I wait, the anticipation has me questioning things.

“Quinn?” he asks me and everyone cheers. I roll my eyes at their response and take his hand as he leads me into the kitchen. On the center of the huge island is so much liquor you’d think we were hosting a frat party.

My heart is beating profusely, and my stomach is in my throat. I glance at the girls, and they get up, following us for a better look. “Oh, come on, you guys,” I complain as they all crowd around us. Merritt pours the shot, then grabs a lime and the salt. Now that he has everything he needs, he turns and zones in on me, his eyes carnal, like he’s about to eat me alive… or tear my pants off and fuck me.

I swallow nervously, and he looks at my throat, gently placing the lime backwards in my mouth before I can say anything. I guess I don’t have a choice on where he places the salt. His eyes scan my body, and I swear he can hear my heart pounding, it’s so loud. With no warning, he leans into my neck and licks it slowly. I keep looking off, nervous as shit; like not making eye contact with him is going to make me any less turned on than I already am.

He’s not giving me room to breathe and grabs the salt, pouring it on me like a pro. Once it’s added, he braces his weight on either side of me on the counter top, then says, “Look at me.” I pull my eyes away from the ceiling and zone in on him. Helpless under his control, with the lime keeping me silent, he smirks, smashing his body against mine, the bulge of his cock pressing into me, and I about gasp. Then his lips are on me again as he sucks hard, pulling up on the skin of my neck. The girls squeal, and I want to whimper, it feels so good, but I resist.

He knocks back the shot, and I about drop the lime as he comes in on me, giving me a little nudge before his lips brush up against mine. Everyone hollers and I blush a shade I haven’t in a long time. Redder than I think Kami did earlier remembering her UNO game with Jacob.

Men don’t typically do this to me. No, wait, they never do. I’m always in control; it’s how I get them to like me, but with Merritt, the control I normally have is stripped away as he owns it, suddenly making me question everything.