LustandOtherDrugs

by Saranna Dewylde

  “I don’t give a shit what you do, Gin. But Seth might.”

  “Will you let that go?”

  “If you stop making cracks about me and Chase.”

  “Fine.” Gin huffed. “But I want you to say it. Say you don’t want me to kiss him.”

  “I already said I don’t care,” Anne repeated, but as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she wanted to take them back. She didn’t. Anne wasn’t sure about her feelings and she wasn’t ready to deal with any of it. “But don’t expect me to waste my dare on you. I already told Chase if he wants to try to one-up me, I’ll dare him to kiss Justin.”

  Gin grabbed her shoulder hard and crossed her legs as if she were doing the potty dance.

  “What are you doing?” Anne couldn’t help but laugh at her friend’s pose.

  “Not Justin. Seth. God, wouldn’t that be hot?”

  Anne licked her lips. Yeah, it would be hot—and thinking of them sharing a kiss, she felt none of the jealousy she did when imagining Chase with Gin.

  Anne was officially an asshole. She hated feeling jealous and guilty and… “You still didn’t tell me what you’re doing.”

  “Creaming my panties.”

  “TMI, Gin.”

  “You know if we dare them to kiss, they’re going to dare us. If they don’t dare us first, actually.”

  Anne flashed back to her earlier conversation with Chase. “It’s more socially acceptable for us to make out than it is for them.” But she knew he’d do it if she wanted him to, if that’s what got her off.

  Gin giggled. “Yeah, and you know it’s pretty good for my ego to know we’d be spank-bank material for both of them. So where is your knight in fuck-me armor?”

  “I’m not sure.” Anne looked around the room.

  “I notice you didn’t correct me.” Gin raised a brow.

  “In the four years I’ve known you, it’s always been futile.”

  “Come on, let’s go to the Seven in Heaven room.”

  Anne wondered again if maybe this was a bad idea, but trudged up the steps and through the throng of people milling about the door labeled “Seven in Heaven”. Looking at the names of the games on the doors, Anne realized it would have been more honest just to label them Orgy Room 1, 2, etc., instead of Seven in Heaven, Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle…

  She downed the beer as Gin dragged her into the room. Anne immediately spotted Chase across the room.

  There was a guy on a karaoke machine who grinned when he saw Gin. “Next up, by popular demand, Gin Ettinger and Chase Donovan!”

  “I guess it won’t be in the Truth or Dare room after all. Are you sure this is okay?” Gin whispered, the gleam in her eye daring Anne to say no.

  It was on the tip of her tongue to say just that, but Anne reminded herself there was no commitment between her and Chase, nor was there likely to be. And it was just a stupid kiss in a closet. It didn’t matter. “Go for it. Maybe I’ll find Seth and have my turn with him.”

  Gin pouted. “You can’t have both of them.”

  “What’s good for the goose, doll-face.” Anne hated herself a little bit. She knew how much Gin liked Seth and how good they’d be together, even if Gin wasn’t ready to admit it.

  No, she thought. She wasn’t going to hate herself. She was exploring her options. If it was okay in Gin’s mind for her to go slobber all over Chase, knowing there was something between him and Anne, why wasn’t turnabout fair play?

  “If you don’t want me to, you could just say so…” Gin’s voice was almost a singsong. Like she wanted Anne to tell her no. What was Gin playing at?

  “Who can’t have them both?” Anne replied, reminding her friend she knew Gin wanted Seth just as Anne wanted Chase.

  “Whatever.” Gin downed her drink. “This is your last chance to tell me no.”

  Anne couldn’t open her mouth, but it didn’t matter. She refused to say it. Even when Gin pushed her way through the crowd toward the closet—toward Chase, who stared back at Anne, his face a mask.

  Anne felt sick, jealous and angry. It made her stomach feel overly full and empty at the same time. She breathed deeply. She had to let go of this. Chase wasn’t her boyfriend. They were just friends.

  So maybe she couldn’t do this whole friends-with-benefits thing. Anne didn’t know why she thought she could.

  Chase was right again.

  No, that was bullshit. She wasn’t going to let him one-up her on this too. She refused to be the simple girl who got stars in her eyes just because she had an orgasm.

  “So, looks like Gin finally got a piece of Chase, huh?” Seth said quietly against her ear, seeming to appear from nowhere.

  Anne wondered if he’d heard her comment about taking a turn. She blushed. “I guess so.” She nodded grimly.

  “You’re okay with this?” Seth sounded disgusted.

  “Sure. Why not?” Her voice sounded tinny, even to her.

  “You’re a horrible liar, Anne.”

  “Chase and I are not together. He can do what he likes. So can Gin, for that matter.”

  “And so can you.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means maybe we should take our turn in the closet and see how they feel about it.”

  The idea appealed to Anne. After all, she’d threatened Gin with that very thing. “Sure. Why not?”

  “Good. Gin paid that guy a twenty to call them together. We’ll see how she likes a dose of her own medicine.” Seth started making his way through the crowd toward the emcee.

  “What are you doing, Gin?” Chase asked softly when the door closed behind them. There was no denying Gin was sexy as hell, but he’d never been interested in her as anything but a friend.

  Anne’s just a friend too, a little voice in the back of his head reminded him.

  Yeah, she was a friend. But she was also something more. He didn’t really have words for what Anne meant to him.

  “What am I doing? You’re the one who came in here with me,” Gin replied tartly.

  “Because I want to know what kind of crazy you’re on. I thought Anne’s friendship was more important to you than getting a piece of me?”

  She sighed. “You’re both half-stupid.”

  “Excuse me?” Chase asked, unsure he’d heard her correctly.

  “It’s been so obvious from day one that you guys are perfect for each other. I told her that she’d be fucking you blue before the month was out, and here you are. I know you’ve been wearing her kitty out.” Gin smirked. “But listen…she loves you.”

  “I love her too,” Chase responded easily.

  “No, dumbshit. She’s in love with you. Do you know the difference?”

  The possibility that Anne could be in love with him punched Chase in the gut like a wrecking ball. “Did she tell you this?” he asked in a measured tone.

  “No, but she didn’t have to. I don’t think she knows it herself, or if she does, she isn’t ready to deal with it.”

  “Then I say again, if you’re her friend and you know she loves me, why did you set this up? Why come in here with me?”

  He heard her sigh heavily. “So she’d realize she can’t stand the thought of seeing you with another woman. Or, so you would make out with me and Anne would know you aren’t the kind of guy who can be counted on for anything more than a fuck.”

  “Speaking of fucks, Gin, did you stop to consider you may have fucked this up irreparably?”

  “I did. That’s why I gave her every chance in the world to come to her senses and admit her feelings before I came in here. I practically dared her to tell me not to.”

  “You know Anne is the most stubborn woman to ever walk the earth. The more you want her to do something one way, the more likely it is she’ll take the longer, harder road.”

  “I know, which is why this called for something drastic. Don’t screw this up, Chase. I don’t care what kind of conversation you two have had about what you’re doing together, and I don’t give a shit what
Anne’s told you. This is more to her than casual fucking. If you don’t love her, stop this, okay? Otherwise, you’re going to break her heart and your friendship.”

  “Gin, I—”

  “I don’t want your explanation. I just want you to take care of your business and not hurt Anne while you’re doing it.”

  The bright light of the room suddenly spilled inside the closet, but it illuminated more than the space around them.

  It lit up Chase, too.

  Knowing that Anne loved him—was in love with him—flipped some hidden switch. But it wasn’t just turning on a light; it was like turning on the sun. It was warm and sweet—but it burned, too. There was a very real possibility that no matter what he did, Chase could still lose her.

  And he loved her.

  But she deserved better than what he had to offer right now. He was a medical student buried in loans who had to cyberwhore to even put a roof over his head. Her head, too. Anne already knew all about that, but from previous experience, Chase knew just how little his reasons for appearing on the site meant when it came to the parameters of a relationship.

  Maybe Anne did love him, and he loved her…but would it be enough?

  When the door opened, Anne didn’t want to look. She didn’t want that image of Gin and Chase together. Her mouth swollen from his kiss, her hair mussed…a satisfied, confident grin on Chase’s face.

  But that’s wasn’t what she saw. Instead, Chase’s gaze sought her out, and when it found her, the look on his face softened.

  Then her name was called and the soft look on Chase’s face changed to something she didn’t recognize as Anne allowed rough hands to propel her into the closet.

  This was nothing like how it had been in middle school and high school. She wasn’t nervous at all. Surprisingly, the closet smelled of lemonade.

  “Now what?” Anne whispered into the dark.

  Seth’s hands settled on her hips. “Well, I did lay down fifty bucks. I don’t think a little bit of lip action is out of line.”

  “Fifty?” she squeaked.

  “Yeah. Chase had paid twenty to get called with you too. But I had more cash.”

  Pleasure over the fact that Chase had wanted to be locked in a closet with her warred with irritation that he’d thought she’d just tra-la-la down the primrose path, eager for whatever he wanted to give her, right after he’d sucked face with Gin.

  Well, fuck him. “Let’s stop talking about them so I can pay my tab.”

  He laughed, sliding one hand all the way up her spine and cupping the back of her head, the other pressing her hard against him. Seth was a wall of muscle. Leaner than Chase, but just as defined. Being crushed against his chest was not unpleasant.

  She twined her arms around his neck and found his shoulders to be just as solid as Chase’s and almost as broad. His hands were hot, burning her skin, tugging awake the familiar ache between her thighs.

  Seth tilted her head back in a smooth motion and brought his lips close to hers, their breath mingling for a moment as expectation built. When his mouth finally took hers, it was nothing like what she’d expected. His kiss was demanding and all alpha male.

  Images of things she’d seen on Dreamed Desire flashed through her mind and Anne’s hands wandered from around his neck to the hard muscle of his back.

  He hauled her up against him, guiding her legs around his waist then bracing his forearm beneath her ass. He pushed her against the wall for leverage.

  This wasn’t as unexpected as becoming aware of Chase, but it was a surprise that touching Seth and being touched by him felt as good as it did. His cock was hard on her thigh, and again, he was packing as much firepower as Chase.

  Unbidden, naughty fantasies of watching Chase and Seth together crashed into her awareness and made her all the more wet. Her nipples were so tight, begging to be touched, stroked, sucked. She arched her back, jutting her breasts forward for his attention.

  Seth bent his head—

  And the door was flung open—and everyone in the room saw just how very far their seven minutes had gone.

  They broke apart, both panting. Clapping, catcalling and howling ensued, egging them on, and the emcee closed the door again.

  They were both silent for what seemed like ages, but logically, Anne knew it had only been a couple of seconds.

  “Did you get your fifty’s worth?” Anne asked lightly.

  “And then some,” he admitted. “We’d be good together if we weren’t in love with other people.”

  “I’m not—”

  But she was. It was time to stop lying to herself.

  She felt no pangs of jealousy thinking of Seth with Gin. Or Seth with any other woman. He was her friend. She liked him. She’d felt passion with him. They could have been very good friends with benefits and no-strings wouldn’t have been a problem. He’d made her body sing the same way Chase had, yet it wasn’t the same.

  Motherfucker.

  There was no more dying it. She was head over ass in love with Chase Donovan.

  Chapter Nine

  She fled the closet as if it were on fire, barely registering the people she shoved out of her way. Anne didn’t know where she was going, all that mattered was getting out of the frat house. It had been a stupid idea to come.

  It had been even stupider to have crossed that line with Chase and then, when given the opportunity to quietly back into safer territory, barrel forward, stomping on land mines as she went.

  Anne was in such a hurry to get out of there, she didn’t see the brick wall of Chase in front of her. He caught her against his chest.

  “This is just like middle school too. Leaving the dance in tears?”

  “I’m not crying,” she growled. And if she had been, she wouldn’t have told him about it.

  He tilted her chin up with his fingers. “Didn’t have a good time with Seth?”

  Anne couldn’t determine whether he actually cared or if he was being cruel.

  “Or did you have too good a time?” Chase leaned closer and whispered, “Did he get you ready for me?”

  His words were a thousand needles on her skin. They made it crystal clear he wasn’t emotionally invested, and likely wasn’t going to be. She was just a place to put his cock. As much as that should have made her want to put space between them, she wanted to take what she could get even more.

  He’d maneuvered them outside before she realized it and his hands on her hips were scorching her through her jeans. Chase led her to a small shed and pulled her inside.

  Anne knew she should push him away, tell him to stop. That she couldn’t do this because being with him meant more to her than it did him, but she couldn’t find the words.

  “Tell me about it, Anne.” He bent his head to her throat. “Did he kiss you here? Does it make you hot to think of me tasting his mouth on you?” He fastened his mouth to the tender curve between her shoulder and neck.

  She tightened her grip on his shoulders and tilted her head back to offer more. His hands slid down to cup her ass and press her hard against him, and she could feel his thick cock.

  “Have you imagined taking us both?”

  Anne gasped as the forbidden imagery spurred her need. “What about you, Chase? Did Gin make you hard?” She slipped her hand down to unbutton his jeans and free his cock.

  “Yes.” His hands were beneath her shirt now, filled with her breasts. “Because when her hot little tongue was swiping against my lips, I imagined it doing the same to your clit.”

  “Chase!” She gasped again as another wave of heat flooded her pussy.

  “It’s only fantasy, right?” He made small whorls over her nipples with his thumbs.

  “Imagining us together was only fantasy too.” She pushed his jeans down his hips. “I didn’t like that you went in the closet with Gin,” Anne confessed against his mouth before she could stop herself. “And if we’re going to keep doing this, I want to be exclusive.”

  He pushed her up on a worktable, tugging
her jeans and panties off as he knelt in front of her. “You should have said so. I thought there wasn’t anything we couldn’t tell each other?”

  Chase pressed his mouth to the inside of her knee and she shivered, spreading her legs wider for him. “It didn’t bother you to see me with Seth?”

  “I didn’t see you. I left when you went inside.” His breath ghosted over her wet pussy. “And I know he can’t make you feel like I do.”

  There was the arrogance that would serve him so well in his chosen profession. It stung that he didn’t care someone else had touched her, kissed her.

  “But he can,” Anne blurted. “He made me so wet with his hands, his mouth—” She broke off when his tongue slipped over her clit.

  “Then why isn’t he fucking you, lovely Anne?” He lapped at her some more. “Why isn’t it him on his knees in front of you? Why isn’t it his tongue buried in your cunt?” Chase suckled her clit into his mouth and held it between his teeth gently while his tongue worked her.

  She couldn’t answer him. She didn’t want to, because she’d have to speak the words, admit to him that he was the only one she wanted.

  That she loved him.

  “Shut up and fuck me,” Anne demanded, her tone harsher than she meant it to be, unable to hide the anger at him and herself for feeling these things.

  “I want your cum on my lips first.”

  Anne shuddered and carded her fingers through his hair, bringing him closer to her needy cunt. She let go of every emotion roiling through her, determined only to feel in the moment. To bask in every sensation his body could wring out of hers.

  His tongue delved into her slick folds, flicking back up over her clit and working the bud until she was shuddering against him, coming against his mouth as he’d demanded.

  “How many times did I make you come today, Anne?” he murmured as he licked his lips and moved up her body to her breasts, her throat and finally her mouth.

  He kissed her hard and she tasted herself on his lips and tongue.

  She pushed off the table. “On your back, Donovan.”