Dare Kings

Chapter 36: Carnival 2

I stuffed one of my three gigantic bears into Tristan's arms and then spun around, flashing a mischievous smile as I felt his gaze burning into the side of my face.

"You could've just asked," he muttered, rolling his eyes in mock exasperation.

I shrugged, my smirk intact. "But what if I didn't want to?" I turned to face him, and he shot me an amused look.

"You're on the naughty list for Christmas."

I rolled my eyes at him and crossed my arms. "What, are you Santa now?"

He flashed a cocky grin. "I could be, your one and only Santa Claus. Maybe you could be my ho-" I shot him a venomous glare, and he raised his hands in surrender. "I was going to say, Mrs. Claus."

"Yeah, right," the roller coaster started moving forward.

This was going to be a blast.

"You don't want to be married to this hot cake?" He arched an eyebrow with a cocky grin.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You mean burnt buns?" He frowned, and I burst into laughter, turning to face forward as we approached the ride's peak. Then I glanced back at Tristan and grinned. "Are you going to unleash your inner bitch side?"

"You forgot to add 'baddest' in front of it," I rolled my eyes at him, tightening my grip around the bears. Maybe bringing them on board wasn't such a good idea, but it was too late now.

As we reached the top, the coaster slowly moved forward before plummeting down at a breakneck speed. My body lunged forward, the wind whipped my face, and my hair went wild, adding to my excited and amused expression.

I screamed. It was fast and scary.

Then I stopped screaming and looked at Tristan, who was sitting there casually, cradling my pink teddy bear.

"You sure love to scream," he said in a low, teasing tone that I couldn't ignore.

"It's something I'm used to," I replied, watching as he smirked at me with a mischievous grin.

"I bet you are," he said coolly, his gaze making me feel like I was his prized possession.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him, just as the roller coaster surged upward again, then quickly dropped, sending us on another high-speed thrill.

I glanced back at Tristan for an explanation. "Don't worry, enjoy the ride. I love hearing your screams," I had no idea how to respond.

"Um, okay!" I turned forward and screamed with one hand raised high. "This is so much fun!"

"You know..." I looked at him curiously.

"What?"

"I never thought you'd be this fun..."

"What makes you say that?"

"Maybe it's because I've been spending time with you..." He shrugged, and I couldn't help but chuckle.

"We've only hung out about four times, including today," I pointed out with a grin.

"Maybe we should change that-" we began down a humongous coaster. "Holy fucking fuck!"

"How did we miss that!

"Oh, my God!" I exclaimed before unleashing a scream as the roller coaster plunged downward, joining a chorus of terrified, delighted, and even panic-stricken screams from our fellow riders. I spotted a kid who had lost his lunch, and it looked like a technicolor rainbow.

I thanked my lucky stars I hadn't chosen to sit in that unfortunate spot. It was like a projectile vomit extravaganza.

My stomach had officially declared mutiny.