Dare To Love Series: Hot Dare (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Avery Flynn Page A

Young ’ n , you are one lucky son of a bitch.” Darius had appointed himself Colt ’ s shipboard nurse and had refused to leave the cabin with the ship ’s doctor. “You just dodged a bullet.”
    He didn ’ t feel like it, and it had nothing to do with his sprained wrist. He hurt like he ’ d just taken a shotgun blast to the chest. He stared at the black guard holding his injured wrist in place. The pain meds the ship ’ s doctor had given him a few hours ago had kicked in, but had one unintended side effect. It didn ’ t dull the agony weighing him down. On a scale of one to ten on the asshole odometer, he ’ d been at one hundred and twenty-eight. Angie would never forgive him and he couldn ’ t blame her.
    “It ’ s all over the place—social media, the fan forums, the news,” Darius continued. “That bitch almost got you killed…”
    Heat blasted through him and Colt shot up, fisting his uninjured hand, trying to remember everything the man had ever done for him so he wouldn ’ t rip his fucking head off.
    His mentor held up his hand and continued to pace, seemingly oblivious to how precarious his life was at the moment. “Obviously you just need to toss this fish back in the ocean and go find another piece of ass to distract you on your last night on board. What about that Mystie chick who keeps following you around?”
    “Get out.” If he didn ’ t, Colt wasn ’t sure he’ d be able to stop himself from taking out all of his anger at himself on the man talking shit in front of him.
    “Not her? Okay, how about the redhead and brunette from the other night?” Darius asked. “A little tag team action will make you forget that crazy bitch faster than you can do the forty.”
    Something snapped inside him and Colt rushed Darius, shoving the bigger man up against the wall hard enough that the flat-screen TV hanging from the wall rattled. “Stop calling her that.”
    “What? A bitch?” He over-enunciated the word ‘bitch ’ , drawing it out and taking an already ugly word to the next level of insult.
    Colt pressed his forearm against his mentor ’ s throat, red fury eating away at his sense of self-control. “I ’ m gonna let go and you ’ re going to get the hell out of here.”
    Darius brought up his hands to Colt ’ s sternum and shoved hard.
    Caught unaware, Colt flew back. He slammed against the opposite wall, the impact reawakening the shards of pain slicing away at his wrist.
    “Young ’ n, you must have been dropped on you head on a near constant basis as a child to be this fucking dumb,” Darius said, anger puffing out his cheeks and making the veins along his neck bulge. “A bitch never gets between friends…unless she ’ s not a bitch all. Is that what you ’ re trying to wrap your pea-size brain around? The fact that you—the king of not giving a damn about anything other than football—finally found something that matters more than the gridiron?”
    That wasn ’ t it. It couldn ’ t be it. He ’ d just wanted to take her to his favorite Chinese place, the one where he wasn ’ t Colt “45” Butler; he was Colt “ extra fried rice ” Butler.
    But certainty hung around his neck like an anchor, dragging him down the wall until he his ass met the cabin floor.
    “You don ’ t know what you ’ re talking about,” Colt mumbled.
    “Of course I do.” Darius crossed the room and sat down beside Colt. “You fucked around and fell in love. It happens. So stop being such a dumb shit and do something about it.”
    “You got me mad on purpose.” To force him to act the truth that had been right before his blind eyes the whole time. God, he had fucked this up royally.
    “Of course I did, you moron.” The older man slapped the back of Colt ’ s head. “Have you ever heard me call a woman a bitch before? Hell no. I was raised by a single mother who to this day would slap the stupid out of me if she knew I ’ d said that…so keep your mouth shut if you happen to