Free The Valentine's Dare (The Sycamore Serial Book 1) by Nicolette Owens Page B

looking for a place amongst his math notes where she could write a naughty word or two.
    It wasn’t math, though - not exactly. Up close, she could see that besides the numbers, the board was covered in names. Some of them were familiar, like Mason’s roommates Thomas, Frankie, and Glenn - who she’d heard of but never met, because he was out on foreign exchange. There were other names, though, all boys’ names, and each one had a row full of numbers beside it. So it’s some kind of spreadsheet, then.
    Her eyes fell on the bottom right corner, where a sentence with two blanks had been filled in. “The prize of the year is a total pool of: $1,047 . The target of the year is: Kierra Adair. ”
    Kierra stared at her name for a moment, then glanced back up the chart, barely registering other words. “February 14 th , 2015 by 12pm EST. A kiss wins 1 point, a date 2, and sex 3. 4 points are needed to win.”
    She didn’t quite get it until she remembered what Lacy had said: “every year, Mason hooks up with the Matchmaker during the dance instead of his date. It’s kind of his thing.”
    And he had a bet running about it.
    One that he’d just won.

    He was standing at the counter opening up a bottle of wine when she stormed out, her face red, eyes full of unshed tears.  
    “I don’t ever want to see you again,” Kierra said, those eyes meeting his in a blaze of hatred. “Stay the hell away from me, Mason Pryor.”
    He reached for her, but she was gone before he could even say a word, the slam of the door in its frame reverberating through the whole room. Mason stood there with his mouth agape, corkscrew halfway through the cork in the bottle, when he realized what must have happened.
    “I’m a fucking idiot,” he breathed, furious with himself. “I left her in the room with the chalkboard.”
    How was she supposed to know that in just a few hours he was going to cancel the bet and pay out the pool to everyone, costing him over $1,000 in cash? All she saw was what she was worth - to him, to his friends, to the whole building. No wonder she ran out.
    For a moment he considered going after her, trying to explain - but what could he say? The truth was, Mason hadn’t done anything to cancel the bet before they slept together; he hadn’t even thought he’d get that far.
    I’m a fucking idiot, he thought, as he finished uncorking the bottle and prepared to drown in his sorrows. I lost the best girl I’m ever gonna get.

CHAPTER NINE
    Saints and Sinners

    February 14 th
    The dreaded day arrived, and like every other Valentine’s Day in Kierra’s life, it was full of heartbreak and disaster.
    It’s been a week and a half since she’d seen - and slept with - Mason. By avoiding the clubs and adjusting her schedule, she’d managed not to get closer than 100 feet away from him. Leila and Lacy had helped as well, fending off any visitors at the door and checking the hallway before she left for class to make sure he wasn’t outside.
    To Mason’s benefit, though, he had made himself scarce. Leila and Lacy hadn’t told her if he’d come to the door to talk to her, but if he had he’d been warned off in no uncertain terms - and apparently, he’d listened.
    She didn’t know how that made her feel.
    Thankfully she had enough on her plate with the dance; sitting around and thinking about her feelings wasn’t an option. Kierra had thrown herself into the preparation of it, and she was pretty proud of how everything had turned out. For one thing, all her decorations were spot on; and for another, all her matches made sense.
    Except, of course, for setting Mason and Anna up, she thought; but at the end of the day it was what they both deserved. Talk about a couple created by destiny.
    If the thought of them together pained her, it was only some lingering feelings that would soon be gone - so she told herself, at least.
    “Where do these go?” Kierra was interrupted from her reverie by one of the freshman volunteers