Chapter 11: The Wager

POV: Zac

October 1, 2007

It had been a week since our game of truth or dare, I hadn’t asked her about this Shawn person, in fact I’d kept a bit more distance because she’d woken up Tuesday afternoon in a very strange mood. She spent most of the day in her bunk, barely talking to anyone. The same had occurred the rest of the week, she would reply if we asked her something but general conversation she just didn’t bother. She also didn’t seem to be flirty or whatever it was she was doing, so I kept my distance. We’d played the House of Blues in Chicago the last two nights and we were currently headed to El Paso, Texas.

I hadn’t said anything but I had heard her talking to that guy again, telling him no again. He didn’t seem to be backing off and that concerned me because she was constantly checking her phone now and the tone was just a single beep, nothing like she’d set up for Abby or Maxwell. It seemed like all this guy had to do was send her messages or call, which she never answered when I was nearby, I assumed she didn’t when anyone else was either.

The truth or dare game had however given me some glimpse into her favorites or past. She’d mentioned her hair being dyed black, I couldn’t imagine that. The fact her favorite song at the moment was mine, was another shocker. I found that knowing she’d had sex in a park with others around was erotic and fuck it was hot too. However, the fact that she’d had sex with a male friend made me wonder exactly what Max was to her, because she’d only mentioned him and that Shawn person.

I was horny but I couldn’t find a single person that peaked my interest when it came to sex, I tried at the House of Blues to find anyone but no one stuck out. Despite there being half dressed women and them dancing, grinding on one another or any number of other erotic things, not a single one seemed to make me want to ask. No, the only person that seemed to do that was Gabby.

We were currently sitting in the back of the bus, I was playing the infernal racing game still, Taylor and Isaac were talking about designs aspects and Gabby was sitting in the corner reading. When asked she replied to Taylor and multiple times she picked up her phone and looked at it. But never replied. I kept an eye on her, even when Taylor and Isaac left the room. I noticed she was on the same page, I hadn’t heard the pages flip or move in an hour.

“You know you’ve spent an hour reading the same two pages, either there very interesting or you just can’t decide if you want to continue.”

“Every time I read a line, you crash, I was wondering if it was me causing you to run into walls.”

I turned slightly. “It’s not your reading.”

No, what was causing it was my desire to pull her down into my lap and make her feel better. She was clearly feeling down or something. It showed in her attitude, behavior, and the lack of social life all week.

“Really? It’s not me? Then you just suck at this game?”

“I am number two on the board!”

“Oh, really? I don’t see how you could be second when you can barely win a race.”

“Wanna play?” I asked and I gave her a slight smile.

She looked up from the book. “Define play because I know how your perverted little brain works. Play to you could be naked on the floor. I’m almost afraid to ask how many pictures of my ass you really have.”

I really wouldn’t mind if that’s what she wanted to do! I would love to play that way!

“Well, I meant the racing game and I only have two.”

Okay, two might be a bit of a lie, there was more than ten on my phone. But, she had a nice ass! It was very easy to photograph and they always looked amazing.

“I don’t know, you seem to suck pretty bad without my help.”

She was aware of how bad I sucked, maybe I could make this a bit better. If she thought I just totally sucked she might bet me on winning.

“I can wager on it.”

The line was dropped and the hook was raised, the question was: would she bite?

“Wager?” The sinker was bobbing on the surface…

“Yes. If you can beat me, then you get something and if I beat you, I get something.”

She closed the book and laid it down, mentally I did a cart wheel. The hook, line, and the sinker had snagged, now to reel in the catch.

“Something is very vague, you want to be a bit more specific?”

I considered it, we were on tour so there was limited things I could really do and I also wouldn’t include anything that might endanger her well being.

“I win you do anything I want for 24 hours.”

She actually laughed! It sounded nice to hear her laugh, it wasn’t obnoxious or anything. It was a sweet laugh and I kind of wanted to keep hearing it. She didn’t do that very often.

“Is that some coy way for you to get what you want?”

“No. Anything is a pretty wide scenario and it’s 24 hours. It wouldn’t be nothing dangerous or anything obviously because I can’t have you hurt or worse.”

So, I can’t lie..the concept of sex was right there in my head. It would be in the anything topic and I was sure that Gabriella was aware of that and that I’d ask if I won. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to think about it because she was adamant that one night stands weren’t her thing. She was thinking and I was sure that some of it was what she’d want and some was if she could really do what I’d ask. But she had to bite her bottom lips as she did so and damn that was sexy!

“If I win you do anything I want for three days.”

Holy shit! That was random as fuck! I blinked at her, three days?! That was twice what I had asked her for.

“Three days? Come on Gabriella, that’s a bit excessive don’t you think? I’m only asking for 1 day.”

“It’s not excessive because while you can certainly have me for the full 24 hours, I cannot have you that long. I can’t make you fetch me lunch during the walks, or do anything while your performing. I lose time there. Besides, I’m not stupid I know exactly what your anything will be. You really aren’t that transparent Zachary.”

Have I mentioned how I like the way she said my full name? “Three days…”

That was a long time by anyone’s standards and I was only asking for one, 24 hours. That was it. But, my anything was pretty big…

“You can rest assured, sex would not be included in mine.”

“I am fully aware of that.”

I was really, but she’d never played this game and the idea that she could beat me was kind of remote, so I had the upper hand there. Yet, three days was a long time for me to be taking orders from anyone. I finally deducted that she couldn’t play, there was no way she’d win. I didn’t have to worry about losing, I would show her exactly how I could make her feel and hopefully get her to realize I wasn’t a whore.

“Deal. I win you do anything I want for 24 hours, if you win I do anything you want for three days.”

“Deal.”

We even shook hands.

“I’m going to run to the bathroom, want anything from the front?” I asked.

“Dr. Pepper. I’ll find the controller. You want to quickly set it up so I can put in some random name for this and select a challenge.”

“Ok.”

I set it up right quick and even found the controller for her. I then ran to the bathroom and once done and my hands washed I got us both a can of dr. pepper and went back. She’d only moved to better see the TV and I handed her the drink and found she’d pulled up a 10 race challenge.

“Ten races? Isn’t that excessive?” I asked.

“Do you really think I will risk 24 hours on one race? Oh no, you want those 24 hours you gotta work for it. You have to win at least six of the races.”

I giggled and we both picked cars, I was impressed that she carefully selected a car. Then again, she often read as I played so she’d probably watched me a while and knew the good ones. The first three races I won easily, she came in dead last on them all.

“You were saying six? What if I win six in a row do we have to play the last four?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t seem very thrilled and she went in to check the controls of the car she was using, she snorted and changed several things. Did she really think this was going to help her? I waited until she was done and then the fourth race started and she won, leaving me dead last. She then won the next two races, tying us with three each.

“Oh, you look nervous.” She said.

“Not over yet!”

She got the fourth win easy and I nearly did not get the next win to tie us again, shit she was flying through the streets, barely hitting anything. Anyone with five wins was pretty much a guarantee, she got the 5 th one and I fought like hell to tie us again. Great, we’d tie and that wasn’t a win. Yet, I was about to turn when it came up with a tie breaker and the track was nothing but curves!

“I didn’t even realize this was here…”

“Yeah, it only comes up when you play multi-player. Afraid are you can’t do it?”

“No. But, how did you know it would come up?”

She didn’t have time to answer me because the race started, a head to head and for a quarter of a mile she was behind me. I came to a huge curve and spun out, but she drifted around the corner never touching anything. I fought like hell to catch up to her, but her car was sailing around corners and I was slamming into them very hard. She reached the finish line a full minute ahead of me. Putting her at 6 and me at 5. I blinked at the TV. I’d just fucking lost, how did that happen?!

“You didn’t do too bad.”

The screen came up, increasing my score but then I saw the screen name she had put in. Skye. That was the name in first place on the game.

“You…that…but…”

“Oh, to answer your question I know that a tie breaker comes up because it’s my game. I brought it with me to play but all I got to do was download my information to your system. You haven’t given me time to really play.”

“Two out of three?”

She shook her head. “You lost Zachary. Accept it. You really should have chosen one of your games, because I totally suck at those. I’ve beaten this one twice already.”

“How does Skye fit in? I’ve been trying to figure out who that was and not once have you ever mentioned it. As a nickname or anything else.”

She looked down at the controller and then me. “It’s my middle name. Gabrielle Skye Frost.”

“I rather like Skye.”

It had a nice flow to me and I could see why someone would like the name.

She shrugged. “It’s okay, lot of teasing with Skyefrost as a kid, so I got to where I just didn’t mention it. It’s always been a bit strange to me.”

I wondered if she’d give me more information if I found some clever way to get around it. She’d played truth or dare easily enough and I wondered if she would do that again.

“Truth or Dare?” I asked.

Her right eyebrow raised and she just looked at me with those caramel eyes. I figured she’d say no to the game, it was just the two of us here and there was no reason to believe I would not ask sexual questions.

“Truth.”

I looked at her, I really hadn’t thought she’d play, surprised me she chose one, but I knew my first question already.

“Are there pictures of you with black hair and if so, do you have any?”

“Yes, there are pictures of me with black hair. I have some, but I don’t think you want to see them. Truth or Dare?”

“There is nothing you can dare me to do, so why don’t we just assume it’s truth.”

“Oh, I could totally come up with some dare, but what is your biggest regret?”

“Right this moment it was underestimating your racing abilities. But, overall? Not sure that I really have any. If you have pictures, why won’t you show them to me? I could just dare you too.”

I wasn’t entirely sure but perhaps the last few years of just finding random women could be considered a regret, but I wasn’t ready to admit that.

“Oh, except we’re basically playing the truth game. I don’t think you can handle them. Otherwise Carrick would have showed you the one he found weeks ago.”

“Wait, he found pictures of you?”

She sighed and probably realized that I’d just bug the hell out of him now until he showed me. I couldn’t believe he found one and didn’t share! She got her phone and did a lot of swiping before she turned it around. Fuck, I should have taken her word for it. The leather pants fit so fucking well, hugging every curve, the black heels seemed to fit perfectly and the top? Fuck my life if she ever wore that now. She however looked too thin in the picture, I rather liked her body size now, which seemed perfect. She looked older with jet black hair though, so naturally I wanted to know.

“How old were you here?”

“Seventeen, swipe right.”

I let my finger flick the screen to the right, another one of her this time without anyone around her at all. She was alone laying on the seat cushions of a tour bus couch, close to the one she was on now. The jet black hair was laying down her back, all the way to her ass and as my eyes traveled along that curve I saw that she was wearing either underwear or very short shorts. What else caught my eyes was that she wasn’t wearing a shirt of any kind, evident by the smooth tan skins I could see under her hair.

“No top?”

“Photographer didn’t want me to have one on.”

She swiped it to one of her with the same black bathing suit top, this was just a bust picture though, but she was clearly laying on the floor. The black hair accented her face so well, the deep caramel eyes reflecting some wild need and they were accented by the makeup she’d worn and the black lipstick with red centers was exceptionally hot. My eyes traveled down to the black choker around her neck and then farther down but something caught my eye. On the left side there was something barely visible beneath the fabric and I flipped back but didn’t see it in the others.

“You have a tattoo?”

“I thought it was my turn to ask a question.”

I zoomed in and turned it around. “Only visible here..Do you have one?”

“Yes. I do have one. But, don’t ask to see it because I’m not doing that. My turn, did you ever want any tattoo or body piercing?”

“Thought about it, not sure what I’d get. Since you won’t show me, what did you get?”

“It’s an ornate heart locket done in an antique style with filigree coming inside. Is there anything that you are self-conscious about?”

Damn, she’d gone personal with that question, I took a moment to find the answer and word it right.

“My weight. Fans act like I don’t see the comments but I do, I’m either too thin or too heavy. So, do you have other pictures besides those?”

“No. The photographer apparently didn’t add many and when Carrick brought them to my attention I went through all 200 of them. Most were band or tour footage. Your weight is fine. Are there any pictures of you that you wouldn’t show anyone?”

“That is a loaded question. In a nude sense, no. I don’t have any of those. In general, sure there are pictures that I don’t like or wish hadn’t been seen. Why do you like the song Stricken? Is there some reason?”

She smiled. “I like the drums in the song and of course the lyrics. But, I think it’s the lines about blood stained hurricanes that I like the most.”

“You come on like a blood stained hurricane? That’s the line you like?”

“Yep. It is. So, if you had to pick an item of women’s wear, anything from shoes to shirts, what do you think you’d wear?”

“Uh..well I haven’t really wanted to wear any item of women clothing. But, if I had to choose…maybe a bra? I always wondered how women dealt with them all day. Have you ever kissed or had sex with someone of the same sex?”

I knew the moment I asked, her cheeks turned bright red and I kind of braced myself for her answer.

“Yes, I have. It’s been a while though. So, I’ll make this my last question..what is your ultimate sexual fantasy?”

I am sure I sat there stunned for a full minute or more, had she seriously just asked me that? Who the hell was she kidding? I wasn’t drunk enough for that question.

“You could take a dare over the answer, but be aware that it will probably come during those three days.”

“I never really thought about it honestly.”

She leaned back, clearly going to wait, great she’d asked the one question I really didn’t want to answer. I knew the answer but I couldn’t look at her and say it.

“I don’t really know what it would be, but I have wondered what it would be like to be tied up. I haven’t trusted any partners to do that. Um, for my last question..have you ever had really bad sex?”

The little smirk on her face faded and her eyes lowered to her lap. “Yeah, I think I need to get in bed.”

“Sure you don’t want me to make the bed for you?”

She giggled as she got up. “No. I never said when my three days would begin, likewise you never specified either. No, we have a two day hotel stay and then an entire day of riding. I think…I’ll just wait to call my side of the deal in.”

I blinked. I didn’t even know that information and it was our tour, yet she’d been smart enough to not give any hint that she could play, then she never bothered to tell me when those events would take place. Fuck, she’d made it so she really would get three days and I had no reason to escape. I fell back against the bean bag, I’d learned more. Yet, for some reason I wanted to know more…However the last question had given me a response, it was fairly normal for most people to have bad sex at some point, but her behavior seemed off. I kept playing though, going to bed fairly late.