The Dare Read online

  Table of Contents

  The Dare

  About the Book

  Praise for Kendall Ryan

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Epilogue

  The Temptation

  Acknowledgements

  Get Two Free Books

  Follow Kendall

  Other Books by Kendall Ryan

  The Dare

  Copyright © 2020 Kendall Ryan

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission of the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes only.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, or any events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.

  Edited by Tanya Saari

  Developmental Editing by Rachel Brookes

  Cover and Formatting by Uplifting Author Services

  Note: This book was previously published with the title Hard to Love. It has been edited and modified from its original version.

  About the Book

  A good girl.

  A bad boy.

  One sweet little girl he’s just been given custody of.

  What could go wrong?

  Cocky. Jaw-droppingly sexy. A patient in my emergency room.

  As an ER nurse, I’ve seen a lot of things, but this might take the cake.

  Because the charming hottie packing a whole lotta somethin’ somethin’ beneath his hospital gown? He’s all kinds of naughty trouble. And I have time for exactly none of it.

  I didn’t expect to see Cade again—never expected the guy I treated for a monster erection in my ER would turn out to be the sweet, single dad I’m now secretly lusting over.

  Complicated doesn’t even begin to cover it.

  Praise for Kendall Ryan

  “Dangerous and Seductive, Unravel Me will steal your heart, your time and your breath. I loved Unravel Me. This book read like a movie, a romantic, erotic thriller, and demanded my attention from the get-go.”

  - The Bookish Babe

  “Unravel Me by Kendall Ryan is a beautifully written story filled with passion, romance, angst, love, and mystery. Adult romance fans will go crazy over this novel because it has the perfect combination of story and sex.”

  - Reading, Eating, and Dreaming

  “I really enjoyed Kendall Ryan’s writing style; it was smooth and, at times, witty. The characters were well-developed and the story so intense that I wasn’t ready for it to end. Overall, this is a great book for anyone looking for a distinctly different story line that features some mystery, crazy hot chemistry and a man who will make you drool!”

  - Lisa’s Book Review

  “The chemistry in Make Me Yours is electric! Make Me Yours had my pulse racing and my heart aching, I didn’t know what would happen next! How amazing to feel what the characters in the story you are reading are feeling. Make Me Yours is a fabulous HOT read, full of story. You won’t be able to put down. 5/5 Stars!”

  - Flirty & Dirty Book Blog

  “A sexy, passionate and emotional story with funny and lovable characters. Kendall Ryan’s Books are like a breath of fresh air.”

  - Totally Booked Blog

  CHAPTER 1

  * * *

  Cade

  Dammit. I knew a four-hour erection wasn’t normal.

  Groaning, I shifted uncomfortably in the cab of my truck and debated what to do. The emergency clinic I had parked out front of was open twenty-four hours so that wasn’t the problem. It was the embarrassment over my current predicament that had me stalling in the parking lot. But damn, I was in pain and my cock felt like it was never going to go soft. It was growing more painful with every passing second. I tugged on my jeans, trying to create some extra room and adjusted my erection yet again.

  Yeah, not helping.

  Screw it. I had no choice but to go inside and deal with this. I stalked across the dimly lit parking lot, trying to walk as normally as possible, but each step tested my sanity and the short walk felt like I was partaking in a fucking marathon.

  When I finally reached the reception desk, an elderly woman looked up and asked what the problem was. I struggled to keep a straight face while I explained my current situation. She thrust a clipboard of forms at me with a dour expression clearly not wanting to hear anymore. Without another word, I headed to the waiting room, holding the clipboard in front of my groin, wanting to get this sorted out as quickly as possible.

  I scribbled down my details, described what was going on, and was signing my name when Rick, the director I’d been working with on set, came barging through the doors ranting that he wasn’t about to let one of his actors go through this alone. Just fucking great. Going it alone was exactly what I wanted right now. I didn’t need an audience for my humiliation, thanks.

  “There you are!” he said, collapsing into the vacant chair next to me. “How’s it going?”

  Fuck my life.

  “As well as expected,” I muttered, before walking back to the woman at reception and turning in my paperwork.

  Once I turned in the paperwork, I focused on thinking about anything that would tame this monster of a hard-on. The Chicago Bears, how much I hated hospitals —anything non-sexual. Nothing helped. It was full-on throbbing by the time they called me back thirty minutes later.

  I had hoped for a male doctor, so we could handle this man-to-man, but as I stepped behind the curtained room and saw a young female nurse waiting for me, all my hopes went up in smoke. Rick followed me inside the small room and positioned himself in the corner to observe. I was convinced he was here for the sole purpose of having a good laugh. Fucker.

  When the nurse glanced at me, her eyes widened and her breathing hitched. She looked young, too young to be a nurse, and was pretty in an innocent, sweet way that I didn’t normally go for.

  “Hello. Caden Ellis?” she asked, glancing down at the clipboard she was holding. It took me a second to respond. “It’s Cade.”

  “Please have a seat.” She gestured to the white-paper-covered exam table and began flipping through my chart. “My name’s Alexa. I’m a nursing student and I’ll be assisting the doctor tonight. Do you mind if I ask you a few simple questions before we move on to the hard stuff?” Her eyes shifted nervously to my lap, and I couldn’t help but grin when her eyes widened briefly.

  “Sure thing.”

  She nodded astutely. “Okay, let’s begin.” She sat down on the rolling stool beside me and wheeled herself closer. “Your weight?”

  “Two-ten.”

  “Height?”

  “Six-one.”

  She scribbled it down on her file. “And your age?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  She bit back a smile, though I didn’t really know why.

  Her hair was somewhere between blonde and brown, and she had large blue eyes that matched the color of a crystal-clear sky. She was petite yet shapely, nicely filling out her blue hospital scrubs with curves in all the right places. She had a full rosebud mouth and a small upturned no
se, and even in her work uniform she looked polished and put together—giving the impression she’d been raised to be poised and proper. A far cry from how I grew up.

  She finished the forms and busied herself with the medical equipment to check my vitals—taking my temperature against my forehead, and placing a little oxygen-measuring thing on the end of my index finger.

  Even though her presence was professional, it did nothing to help weaken my erection. In fact, I think my damn cock became even harder just to taunt me.

  She placed a stethoscope over my heart and listened for several moments before jotting down a few notes. I watched her work, a smile tugging on my lips.

  “So, Cade.” She smiled up at me with straight, white teeth while she attached a blood-pressure cuff to my bicep. “What seems to be the problem?”

  Fuck. She was going to make me say it. “It’s there…” I tapped the clipboard she held. “On the forms I filled out in the waiting room…”

  She looked down, a frown tugging on her lips. “Yes. I see that. But if you could just please explain how this happened. Is this the first time, you’ve, um…experienced this?”

  “I’ve never taken performance-enhancing drugs before if that’s what you’re asking.” The words from the overplayed commercial rang through my head. “If you have an erection lasting longer than four hours, seek immediate medical help.”

  I tore my eyes from the thin fabric stretched taut across her chest, but not before she caught me looking. She looked down at her chest to see what I was staring at and frowned. She pulled an oversized Q-tip I hadn’t even noticed from the pocket over her breast. “Don’t worry, I won’t be using this on you.”

  That wasn’t what had captured my attention, but I was relieved to not be caught ogling her breasts. The last thing I should be doing was staring at the nurse’s tits, I needed to be thinking of dead kittens, whether the egg or chicken came first, basically anything non-sexual, but it would seem my dick thought we were here to pick up a willing participant to ease his discomfort.

  Alexa worked quickly and methodically, pumping up the arm cuff and pressing her fingers into my wrist to get my pulse while she studied the ticking hands on her wristwatch. I took the opportunity to study her more closely, noticing the way her face held absolute concentration as she worked. She was trying her damnedest not to be distracted by me. It wasn’t the usual effect I had on females.

  “So can you tell me more about when this problem began?” She glanced down at my forms, which I’d deliberately left vague, jotting down only the most critical issues—name, medical insurance, and oh, yeah, a painful erection. I’d been hoping to speak with a male doctor who’d seen this kind of thing before, not an attractive young nurse who was encouraging my cock to throb.

  I hesitated and Rick decided he needed to divulge the information. “We were beginning to shoot and my star here got a little case of stage fright so I gave him a couple of the little blue pills I keep on hand just in case.”

  Her mouth pursed into a pouty frown again as she looked from Rick back to me. I glanced down, motioning to the tense erection straining against my jeans.

  “Oh, my.” Her hand flew to her mouth and she involuntarily took a step back.

  Her response was so honest, so damn innocent, I almost chuckled. Almost. But the majority of my blood supply was sitting south at the moment, which delayed any normal responses.

  “So, wait…what business are you guys in?”

  “Adult entertainment,” Rick and I answered at the exact same moment.

  “You mean…porn?” Alexa asked, raising one of her brows in question.

  I winced.

  Rick reached across to hand Alexa a business card. “Mrs. X Entertainment,” he said proudly.

  I didn’t explain that it was the romantic, softer stuff, and that the film company had won awards for being female-friendly—the features that had attracted me to working with them in the first place. Because frankly, none of that mattered. It was porn, and that was all she was going to think. The judgment appeared in her eyes and I could only imagine the thoughts swimming through her head. She probably figured I was some sort of player or a sex addict and I knew there was no use fighting it. It wasn’t like I would ever see this girl again. She would never know my reasons for choosing this line of work, or anything about the little girl in my custody, or the mortgage, groceries, and utilities I was responsible for. I’d just be the porn star who took performance enhancing pills and ended up in the hospital with a massive erection.

  After taking a moment to compose herself, Alexa went into full-blown nurse mode and thrust a white paper gown toward me.

  “Get undressed and put this on so that it opens in the front and I’ll be right back.” She fled the room without another word.

  A few days ago when I’d signed on for the whole adult entertainment thing it’d been easy. I showed up and posed for some modeling photos for the website. Wearing just boxers I lounged on a bed with a beautiful girl named Desiree. They had us pose in various positions that grew increasingly intimate—me licking her neck, her nipples, and then her clit. It wasn’t sexual, like you’d think it would be. We had to hold still and hold each pose for several seconds while the camera clicked away, so it wasn’t like I was actually getting her off. I just sort of held my tongue against her. It was anything but sexy or arousing. And when they’d asked me to shed the boxers, I wasn’t hard yet. Without a word, Desiree—like the pro she was—reached down and rubbed her long, manicured fingers over my package until I was erect. After that I spent another hour posing with her. Modeling was the easy part. It was the filming that proved difficult.

  • • •

  Three Hours Earlier

  Rick sauntered over to give me a pep talk. “You ready for this?”

  I took a deep breath and glanced at the staged set where I was about to have sex in front of a bunch of strangers—a white leather couch set against floor-to-ceiling windows in the chic loft the studio had rented. It all felt cold and contrived, but what did I expect? It was just sex. I could do this. It was the one thing I knew for sure I was good at. And most importantly, it paid a hell of a lot—enough for me to afford Lily’s medical care and provide her a safe home.

  I pictured her sweet face peeking out over the edge of her quilt when I’d tucked her in earlier tonight. I’d told her Stacey was going to babysit and she wouldn’t see me until morning. She’d tightened her lips and nodded. She didn’t like the dark, and sometimes even preferred to crawl into my bed at night, but she was putting on her brave face.

  “Cade?” Rick asked, pulling my attention back to him.

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  “That’s my boy. Our actress should be here soon. She’s a new girl; young, sweet, eager to please...” He licked his lips and his eyes got a faraway look to them. I shuddered at the insinuation. Throwing aside the fact that he was an adult-film director, Rick’s demeanor screamed sleazy asshole.

  I was almost starting to regret my decision to sign on for this job, but flashes of Lily suffering and not being able to provide the support she needed kept floating before my eyes. Rick had seen me in the amateur boxing ring several times over the previous year, and a few months ago he approached me after a match and promised big money if I was ever interested in starring in one of his films. At the time, I laughed it off. But as things got worse for Lily I realized the fights brought in less than steady money so I bit the bullet and decided to give it a shot. I felt like I had no other choice, plus it was just sex, right?

  The makeup artist approached us, thankfully distracting Rick from whatever perverted thoughts were currently running through his head. I removed my robe at her request and she began airbrushing some type of bronzing spray over my shoulders and chest. I didn’t like the smell of it, but I pushed it from my mind and focused on what I had to do.

  “The biggest thing to remember is control. No big money shots until I say so. So if you need to slow down, or switch positions
, just go ahead and do it. Do not come until I give the signal. We need plenty of shots and positions before that can happen,” Rick reminded me. “Understood?”

  “Got it. Shouldn’t be a problem.”

  He laughed. “Confidence. I like that.”

  Confidence usually wasn’t a problem for me, but I couldn’t deny there was a hint of performance anxiety at the thought of having sex with a girl I’d never met, on camera, in front of a roomful of people—lighting techs, the director, a film crew, and a few others whose roles I didn’t know and having to come on cue. I tried not to focus on all that and instead reminded myself about the money Rick had promised me and what it would do for Lily.

  “What about the actress? Should I talk to her first? Find out what she likes, how she gets off?”

  Rick laughed, and slapped my shoulder. “Silly boy. This is a porn shoot, not a first date. She’ll fake it, so don’t worry about her having an orgasm. All you need to focus on is making sure you get the job done.”

  Fuck, I was over thinking this shit way too much.

  The front door opened and everyone turned.

  “And there she is! Our beautiful girl…” Rick headed over to greet the wide-eyed starlet entering the apartment.

  I couldn’t help but notice how scared she looked. And young. Holy shit, was this girl even eighteen? I watched as Rick helped her out of her jacket and steered her by the shoulders over to the makeup chair.

  Fuck. Am I really going to do this?

  • • •

  When Alexa returned I was seated on the exam table, the paper gown closed loosely around me and my hard on still rock solid and as painful as ever. Rick hadn’t offered to leave while I changed. He and a whole room full of people had already seen me buck-naked though, so I figured it didn’t matter much at this point. This whole night just needed to fucking end.

  Alexa washed her hands before carefully arranging an ice pack over my groin. I shifted and let out a grunt at the shock of cold, causing Alexa’s eyes to flicker up to mine.