“Why don’t I get credit?” I could barely concentrate on speaking. His hands were busy distracting me with their descent down my back.
“Because technically I’m still here as a pledge. I had to come.”
I whispered in his ear. “Are you here as a pledge?”
“No. I’m here because you look so damn hot in that.” He touched the strap of my black string bikini.
“So I do get credit.”
“Half.”
“Full.” I ran a hand down his bare chest.
“Half.” His lips rested on my neck while his hands found their way to my hips.
“You look good tonight too, you know.”
“I always knew you liked me shirtless.” He grinned.
“Do you like me shirtless?” I teased him.
“Hell yes.” He reached behind me and untied the top string. I expected him to drop the strings, but he held them. “But I don’t know if you’re really ready for this.”
“Oh, I’m ready.” I bit my lip, giving him the sexiest look possible.
“I’m really glad you said that.” His free hand ran over my stomach.
“Are you ready?”
“I’ve been ready for weeks.” He rested his forehead against mine. “I think it’s time we find out how great we can be together.”
“I already know how great we can be.” My body ached for more of his touch.
“That’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
“Do you like torturing me?”
He laughed. “No, but I do like making you look at me like that.”
“Put another look on my face.”
“All right. I can do that.” In one swift motion, he’d dropped the top strings and seated me on the trunk of a car. He untied the back strings, letting the top fall as he took one breast in his mouth while he fondled the other.
I reached down into his swim trunks, wanting to feel just how much he wanted me. I needed to know he desired me as much as I desired him. He was hard as a rock, and Colt groaned against my breast as I stroked him.
“I want you so bad.” His mouth moved up to mine, his teeth nipping at my lip.
“You can have me.”
“I can’t. I forgot. My wallet’s outside.”
“Mine’s not.”
He grinned. “You came prepared?”
“Yes.” I’d started carrying a condom around ever since the near hook up in the library. “Aren’t you glad I did?”
“More than a little.”
The sound of a knob turning was the only warning we had. Colt took my hand, and I grabbed my top just in time. We’d just found a spot to hide behind a shelving unit when the door opened.
“Is that an Aston Martin?” a guy asked.
“Like I’d know.” Claire’s voice cut through the silent garage. I could just picture her rolling her eyes at whatever Kappa she was talking to.
I needed to put my top on, but I was afraid to move and make noise. I was barely keeping still to begin with. Then Colt went and made it worse. He cupped my breasts from behind, kissing my neck. I couldn’t say anything out of fear of being heard. He released one of my breasts and slipped his hand down the front of my bikini bottom. I tried to shift away a tiny bit, but that just made it easier for him to slide his hand in. Damn.
“I wonder what he got it for. It had to cost a pretty penny.” The guy’s voice got louder as he moved closer to where we hid.
I bit down on my lip, determined to stay silent. Was Colt really going to do this to me? Well, he’d get a taste of his own medicine. I reached behind me and slid my hand down into his swim trunks again. I felt his breathing deepen as I grabbed him, and I didn’t worry about being gentle. I pushed back against him, probably making it so much worse. His lips tickled my earlobe as he whispered, “Oh, you just asked for it, babe.” My lip was no match for the sensation caused by what he did next with his fingers. I let out a moan.
“Hello? Is someone in here?” Claire asked. I thought I’d die. That should have made Colt stop, but it didn’t. I couldn’t see his face, but I’m sure I would have slapped him for the look on it.
I let out a whimper as he pushed me further.
The mystery guy laughed. “I think we should go somewhere else. Someone else already found this spot.”
“We have to find out who it is.”
Seriously? Was Claire crazy? I’d never want to catch people hooking up.
“I bet they don’t want to be found.”
That comment made Colt laugh for some reason. His body shook behind me. I used his distraction to pull away enough to offset his hand. I quickly retied my top. If we were discovered, I wasn’t about to flash some unknown guy.
“Come on, let’s check out the pool house,” the guy tried to distract her again. I wondered if it was because he was in a rush to get laid or because he didn’t want to embarrass someone.
I let out a deep sigh of relief as the door slammed closed. If I wasn’t imagining it, he’d slammed it especially hard to let us know they’d left.
“Oh my god. That was close.”
“Yeah. I couldn’t wait much longer.” Colt’s lips were on mine again, and his hands quickly got rid of my top again.
“Colt!”
“What?”
“We were almost caught. We have to go.”
“What’s the chance they’ll come back?” He dropped my top on the ground. “Besides, there’s no way I’m going out there like this. Don’t move.” He grabbed a condom from my bag.
I waited with my arms crossed over my chest.
“None of that.” He pushed down my arms, and made quick work of my bikini bottoms. “No hiding with me—ever.” He placed me on the edge of the hood of one of the cars.
“You really want to have sex here?”
“No. I need to have sex with you here.” He undid his swim trunks and unwrapped the condom.
Before I could think about how crazy we were being, he was inside me. I was ready for him, and I pulled him closer to me. I wanted him deeper. I wanted all of him.
His movements rocked me, but I refused to scream. I pushed my lips against his shoulder, trying to muffle the sounds as he moved faster and faster. He knew what pace to go. He knew exactly what I wanted, what I needed.
I tangled my fingers in his hair as his mouth closed on my breast. His teeth grazing me in the process.
He reached his release just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore.
We leaned against each other, panting for a moment before either of us spoke. He kissed my earlobe. “Don’t even try to call that friends with benefits.”
“I won’t.” My heart beat out of my chest, and I was almost too shaky to get my swim suit back on.
“You okay, babe?” He smiled.
“How did you get that good?” I watched as he got back into his swim suit. “And don’t say practice.”
He laughed. “It’s not about me being good. It’s about us being good.”
“How are you so confident about that?”
“Because I’m confident about my feelings,” he touched the place between my triangle cups, “and yours.”
“You can go on out. I need a minute.”
He shook his head. “I’ll wait.”
“No. You should go. Aaron might be looking for you.”
“You’ve got two minutes.” He kissed my cheek. “If you’re not out by the pool, I’m coming back for you.”
“I’ll be there.” I wrapped my arms around myself, still trying to get my heart rate back to normal.
Chapter Twenty
The night after the pool party, we met for our weekly house meeting. I’d barely made it downstairs in time after getting myself stressed out over some econ concepts that were on my next test. I figured a break from the books would help. Turns out econ was the least of my problems.
“Girls, we need to talk.” Morgan paced the front of the room. She’d taken control of the meeting before the president could even call the meetin
g to order.
“About what?” Danielle asked, settling into her usual spot on the couch. She was one of the seniors, and they got first priority on the good seats for meetings.
“It’s come to my attention that one of you may have been doing something inappropriate in my father’s garage last night.” She looked at all of us, and my stomach dropped. Did she somehow know? Had Claire told her? I hadn’t told anyone about what happened with Colt and I, and I wasn’t planning on changing that.
“What’s the big deal?” Jana asked. “So someone had a good time.”
“The big deal is my parents get back from their cruise in a week.”
“So?” Cara looked up from her cell phone. From the expression on her face, Aaron had sent her a dirty text.
“So? I told them we were only having girls at the party. They are going to flip.”
“How would they know?” I hoped the answer was they wouldn’t.
“Do you realize how expensive my dad’s car collection is?”
“Not exactly…” I sat up a little straighter. I was getting a bad feeling.
“Hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which is why the garage is under constant video surveillance.”
What? No way. She couldn’t be serious.
Morgan sighed. “So if anyone was stupid enough to fool around anywhere near the cars, I’m in serious trouble.”
“Then just grab the discs or whatever. Delete the drive. If the sister doesn’t fess up, we’ll find out anyway.” Claire had no idea how unhelpful she was being. Or maybe she did. She had been all about finding us.
“That’s the problem.” Morgan balled her hand in fists. “I can’t get access to them. Dad has it all set up in some complex system.”
My stomach dropped. I was so screwed.
I could barely pay attention to the rest of the meeting. We discussed some upcoming social events, and I excused myself as soon as I could. By eight o’clock, I was hiding under the covers.
“Uh, Mallory?” Cara asked quietly. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to decide how much worse my life can get.”
“I knew it.” Juliet sat by my feet.
“Knew what?” Cara asked.
“She’s the one who hooked up in the garage,” Juliet whispered.
“No way. She wouldn’t have done that.” Cara’s voice was strong and didn’t hold a hint of disbelief.
I lowered the blanket.
“I’m right, aren’t I?” Juliet pressed. If it was anyone else, it would have annoyed me, but she wasn’t trying to give me a hard time.
I nodded. There was no point pretending.
“You did Colt in the garage?” Cara grinned.
I looked at the closed door. “What am I going to do?”
Juliet leaned over me. “First, you’re going to explain to us why we’re only hearing about this extracurricular activity now.”
I groaned. “I’m sorry. I just couldn’t tell you. It was too embarrassing.”
Juliet laughed. “I told you about when I hooked up with Reed in the kitchen at Al’s. How is this any worse?”
“It was a garage. That’s worse.”
“A garage full of gazillion dollar cars. That makes it different.” Cara smiled.
“Okay. I should have told you.”
“You should have, but first were you near the cars? Morgan made it sound like the video was limited to that area.”
I covered my face with my hands. “We did it on the hood of a car.”
Cara busted out laughing. “Wow. I’m kind of impressed.”
Juliet got up and paced. “Okay. Damage control time. The important thing is we have to delete that footage.”
“But how? Morgan is going to flip if I fess up. She already hates me.” I must have flirted with a guy she liked or something, because she always gave me an attitude. She was the only girl in the house I didn’t get along with, and it irked me. Of course the mess had to have happened at her house.
“She doesn’t hate you.” Cara tied up her hair.
“Yes, she does. She totally does.” Juliet laughed.
“I have no idea why, but it’s just going to make things worse.”
“We have to ask Reed for help.” Juliet said it like there was no other conceivable possibility.
“No way!”
“He’s good at this kind of thing.”
“He’s good at breaking security systems?” I raised an eyebrow. I knew Reed was resourceful, but this would be a stretch even for him.
“Trust me. He’ll figure something out.”
“This is going to involve telling him, right?”
“Telling him it’s you. We don’t have to tell him what guy it is if you don’t want to. But I doubt he’s going to do it for just anyone. He knows you’re important to me.”
“When do we talk to him?”
“Now?” Cara suggested. “It might take time to plan.”
I sighed. “It’s not like I’m going to be able to sleep with this over my head anyway.”
***
“To what do I owe this honor?” Reed looked up from his book when Juliet pushed open the door to his room. It was pretty orderly for a guy’s room other than some books laying out. I assumed we had Juliet to thank for that.
Juliet walked in first, and we followed right behind her. “We need your help.”
Concern crossed his face. “What happened?”
“It’s not about Juliet…It’s me.” There was no reason to let him get worked up over nothing.
“Good.” He visibly relaxed. “Not that I don’t care about you too, Mallory.”
I laughed. “Save your breath, Reed. I don’t care why you do it, but I need your help.”
“Okay. But tell me, does this have anything to do with Tanner? I know about what he did last night, and I’m sorry I even suggested you go out with him.”
“Uh, what are you talking about?”
Reed paled. “Oh. That’s not what this is about?”
“Talk, Reed. Talk.” Juliet took his arm and towed him over to his bed. Cara took his chair and I sat on the floor since I was the reason we were there.
Reed exhaled sharply. “Damn. Why does this kind of stuff always happen to me?”
“What?”
“Being the one to deliver bad news.”
“What’s the bad news?” I crossed my arms. His room was insanely cold, and I had no idea what was coming.
“Tanner went out with some girl he met over the summer. He brought her home…”
“What’s the bad news?” I asked.
“That is the bad news.”
Juliet and Cara started laughing.
“Considering Mallory had her own hook up last night, we’re fine.” Juliet patted Reed on the shoulder. “Plus they stopped seeing each other weeks ago. You know that.”
“Whoa. Slow down. Who did Mallory hook up with?”
“That’s not important.” Juliet pulled up her leg so that it rested partially on Reed’s lap. “What’s important is that it somehow ended up on film.”
Reed grinned. “You’re taping your sexual exploits now?”
“No! It was a total accident. The garage was under surveillance. Now we have to get the security footage deleted before Morgan’s parents get back.”
“And I’m supposed to somehow help you with this?”
“Yes. You can always figure things out.” Juliet stoked his ego.
“I appreciate the vote of confidence, babe, but breaking into a security system isn’t my expertise.”
“Is anyone in the house good at it?” Juliet asked. “Someone has to be.”
“I don’t know of anyone off the top of my head. Maybe a pledge?”
I jumped up. “No. No pledges!”
A slow smile spread across Reed’s face. “Busted. It was Colton. You hooked up with Colton.”
I buried my face in my hands.
“Why didn’t you just admit it?”
“She thinks people wi
ll think less of her for dating a pledge.” Juliet didn’t bother to hide her distaste, but I was glad she didn’t mention any other excuses. Although Tanner wouldn’t have been a bad one.
“Well, at least he’s pledging the right house.” Reed smiled.
I sat back down with the sudden need to defend my decisions. “You know that’s not the only reason.”
Juliet sat down next to me on the floor. “And what are the other reasons again?”
“I already told you about how I dated his brother and he broke my heart into a million pieces.” I sighed. “I can’t get serious with another Gasden boy.”
“Do you want me to leave?” Reed looked torn. I could tell he wanted to say something but he didn’t want to overstep some invisible boyfriend rules.
“No. You already know.”
He looked me square in the eye. “Then can I ask you something?”
“Sure.”
“Why does the brother thing matter? If he hurt you, why do you think he’ll care if you date Colton?”
“I don’t think he’ll care. That’s the whole problem.”
“Do you girls understand this? Am I crazy?” Reed looked back and forth between Juliet and Cara.
“She’s scared.” Juliet leaned her head on my shoulder.
“No. I just don’t want to be sucked back down into that damn town. I’m better than Gasden.” I stood up. “If you can’t help, I’ll find someone else.”
“Want me to ask the pledges?”
“Sure. But please don’t tell them why.”
Reed nodded. “I won’t unless someone volunteers to help.”
“Thanks.”
“But, Mallory?” He looked over at me.
“Yeah?”
“Give Colt a chance. He seems like a pretty cool guy and he cares about you. And you never know. Maybe he’s better than Gasden too.”
I nodded. “Thanks. I‘ll see you guys later.” I walked out of his room and down the stairs. I didn’t get far.
“Mallory, hey.”
I groaned. Now Tanner. Seriously?
“Hi.” I turned.
He looked at me nervously. “Can we talk?”
“Sure.” I figured I might as well get it over with.
“Can we do it in private?” He eyed the guys sitting around the room.
“How private are we talking?”
The Hazards of a One Night Stand Page 16
