“Yeah. Can’t remember which one, though. Cori would know.” Harvey pointed at two girls walking up the street. “Hey, there they are now.”
Hitting the gas pedal, I quickly drove past the house in search of a parking space. We were four blocks away before I found one. Harvey whined, but I needed the time to psych myself up. Not to mention think of a few excuses to keep from having to dance with Lillian. The four block walk wasn’t nearly enough. I didn’t know if they saw us driving by earlier, or Lillian had graduated to full-on stalker, but they were both waiting for us when we strolled up.
“Hey, boys,” Cori said. She gave each of us a one-armed hug.
Lillian burst forward as soon as Cori stepped back and wrapped both arms around my middle. She didn’t seem to notice my sigh. “Hey, Lils.”
“I’m so glad you guys came!” Lillian said. She did back off from her hug, but then proceeded to link her arm with mine as if she belonged there.
I glanced over at Cori and Harvey for help. Both only shrugged. Harvey was going to pay for this. Lillian pulled me toward the frat house, and even though I dragged against her, she just kept at it. Cori and Harvey were talking about something behind us, ignoring Lillian altogether. My only remaining hope was that the crowd and noise would either pull her away from me, or at least drown her out. I hadn’t come to be dominated by Lillian. Dahlia was still lingering in my mind and I hoped I could track down Dominic before he got too sauced. He had a game tomorrow, so he should be taking it easy.
The hot, stagnant air in the house felt like something I needed to brush off my skin. My general dislike of crowds made me feel claustrophobic, and Lillian hanging on me only made it worse. “I’m going to get something to drink?” I said.
When she turned toward me to say something, but I extracted myself from her grip and slipped away before she could speak. I had no idea where the drinks were and didn’t really care. Lillian could get her own damn drink if she wanted one. I wasn’t her date. Maybe she’d figure that out at some point. Instead of looking for the source of the usual red plastic cups scattered around the property, I searched the crowd for Dominic Vancaster’s massive frame. He wasn’t hard to spot once I ended up in the same room as him. Lounging against a wall in the den with a girl draped along his side, he was retelling some play or something from the previous weekend’s game.
We had a class together this semester and ran into each other now and again, but we weren’t exactly buddy-buddy. Interrupting to ask him about Dahlia would be awkward. Content to wait for an opening so long as Lillian wasn’t trying to make out with me, I walked up to another classmate of mine and struck up a conversation while I waited for a chance to catch Dominic.
Imagine my surprise when Dahlia suddenly appeared beside him and tipped her head to the side. That was all. She was sucked back into the crowd then—which wasn’t very hard given her size. Dominic continued to talk for a few more minutes before shrugging off the woman and downing the rest of his beer. The girl I was talking to from my environmental economics class was in the middle of a story so I couldn’t exactly just run off after Dominic like some lunatic, but it was killing me not to bolt and find out what was going on between them.
Three painful minutes later, Riley wrapped up her story and I pretended to see Harvey waving me over, then bolted. All I had to go off of was that they’d both disappeared out of the door to my right, so I followed and was immediately swallowed up by what felt like a hundred bodies all grinding against each other—only some of them in time to the music blaring through the room.
A quick look around the room showed only two possible exits. Stairs led up to what I could only assume were bedrooms, and a much shorter flight of steps led down from an open door to what looked like a basement. Not too keen on catching co-eds in the middle of a drunken one night stand, I opted for the basement first. A quick jog down the stairs put me in the middle of several white plastic card tables set up with some pretty serious poker games going on.
It didn’t seem like Dahlia’s or Dominic’s scene, and a quick look around the dead end proved I’d chosen the wrong path. “Hey, Sammy, come to try your luck?” Oliver, a friend from my dorm building, asked.
“Nah, just looking for someone.”
“Oh yeah? Who?”
I shook my head. “Just someone I went to high school with.” His interest piqued, but I wasn’t about to elaborate. “Anyway, guess she’s not here.”
I turned to go, but Oliver grabbed my arm. “Sure you don’t want to play? Got a couple spots opening up the next hand.”
“No thanks. I don’t even know how.” It was a lie, but it got him to let me go and return his attention to the games. I darted back up the stairs and into the dance room-slash-make out station. I had to practically rub up against at least three couples parked on the stairs to make it to the landing.
For a moment I stopped and considered what I was doing. Harvey was probably looking for me. Lillian definitely would be. I hated coming to these things and it wasn’t like me at all to just disappear on them. What was I going to say when they found me? Actually, I’d like to see the look on Lils’ face when I told her I was trying to track down another woman. With Harvey, though, it would only inspire a bunch of questions I didn’t want to answer. Mainly because I had no answers.
Might as well just find Dahlia, ask her what’s going on and possibly apologize for earlier, and then show back up at Harvey’s side with a plausible excuse. Taking a quick survey of the visible parts of the upstairs, I noticed two hallways going in separate directions. One had all the doors closed and several couples pressed up against walls looking like they were close to forgoing the bed altogether. The other hallway….
I had no idea what to think when I spotted two huge guys standing guard in front of a bedroom door at the end of the hallway. Clearly, no one was getting through them, but I couldn’t imagine what they were trying to protect. Nobody’s reputation was that big of a deal here. Certainly not Dominic’s, if that’s where he’d disappeared to. The guy was with a different girl every few weeks. Who cared who he slept with?
Not really able to explain why, I suspected both Dahlia and Dominic were on the other side of that door. I also couldn’t give a good reason for why I turned down that hall instead of back down the stairs, but I did. Both men squared up as I approached. One, the bigger one—well bigger by maybe half an inch—eyed me with a look that said I was clearly in the wrong place. I don’t know why. I mean, I was pushing six foot, played lacrosse, and could hold my own in a fight. Not against those two, but you know, against a normal sized human being I would come out on top.
“You got an appointment?” the other guy asked.
“Appointment?” Man, what was Dahlia getting involved with? “No, I just wanted to talk to Dahlia. She’s an old friend.”
The slightly shorter guy glared at me. “That’s what they all say.”
They? Who were they and why would guys be trying to get in to see her all secretive? At least he confirmed my hunch was right about Dahlia being locked behind the closed door. “We went to high school together.”
The two boulders blocking the door looked at each other. Big turned back to me with a dead expression. “She’s with someone. Wait if you want, but you aren’t getting in this room without an appointment.”
What were they doing in there? Maybe I didn’t want to know. Dominic and Dahlia were two consenting adults and if they wanted to have some kind of weird, secretive fling…none of my business at all. I couldn’t really pinpoint why that thought grossed me out. Maybe it was because Dominic could literally squash her during sex, but something about the two of them together like that turned my stomach.
That didn’t mean I’d given up. Shrugging, I leaned against the wall. “Sure, I’ll wait.”
It kept me away from Lillian, either way.
I started to nod off after a while. Whatever was going on behind those doors certainly wasn’t quick. The start of a new semester always sapped my e
nergy, so I was dragging. I couldn’t remember what time I’d come up here, but I was pretty sure it had been at least an hour. Longer since I lost sight of Dominic in the first place. Try as I might, I couldn’t figure out what, other than sex, they might be doing behind a locked door at a frat house party. By that point, I’d put too much time into finding out to walk away empty-handed.
Not particularly talented at sleeping while standing up, I gave in and parked myself on the floor, leaning my head back against the wall. The thought crossed my mind that the carpet of a frat house was probably a really disgusting place to sit, but once I was down there I didn’t care enough to get up. Another half hour passed before I was pretty sure I fell asleep. The pop of a door opening snapped me back awake and I found myself blinking to clear my vision.
“Thanks, baby,” Dominic said as he adjusted his shirt.
Dahlia’s expression didn’t change from its disinterested blandness. “Just keep it covered this time, all right? No taking it off early.”
“I’ll do my best,” he said with one of those grins that usually made girls’ panties spontaneously disappear. Dahlia rolled her eyes.
The two guys were standing to the side of the door now, opening a space for Dominic to leave. He wasn’t quite ready to drop back into the party. Dahlia didn’t react in the least when he grabbed her chin and yanked her mouth to his. It was actually quite the feat to manage so quickly because of their height difference. Her posture communicated nothing but impatience. Not a single ounce of interest or lust—which only made me more interested than ever to talk to her.
When Dominic finally pulled back looking rather pleased with himself, Dahlia sighed. “You pull something like that again and it’ll be the last time you see me.”
Mocking her, Dominic brushed a hand down the curve from her waist to her hip. “Ah, come on, baby. You can’t resist me forever.”
Dahlia’s hand closed over his. It didn’t look to be backed by aggression, but Dominic winced as her fingers closed around his wrist. Every muscle in her arm was taut as she removed his hand from her body. “This is your last warning, Vancaster.” She shoved his arm away from her and spots of blood from her fingernails welled on his wrist.
“Damn, baby. You don’t have to mark me to lay a claim.” His words were cocky, but he took a step back all the same. He nodded his head to the bouncers on either side of him and walked down the hall without even glancing at me. I wasn’t quite as invisible to the rest of the people standing in the hall.
Both Big and Less Big were looking at me with stern expressions while Dahlia seemed more confused than anything else. “Sanford? What are you doing here?” She looked at the bodyguards, who were apparently with her and not Dominic as I had initially thought. “Dominic was my last appointment.”
They nodded and I took that moment to stand and try not to think about what grime I’d picked up on the back of my jeans. “I just wanted to talk.”
Dahlia’s posture morphed from wary to hipshot, her expression dry. “We already talked. It didn’t go well.”
“Look, I’m sorry, I just…”
Shaking her head in a way that cut me off, she turned to Big. “I need to clean up. Watch him.”
With that, she disappeared back into the room, the lock snicking closed behind her. I wasn’t totally sure whether she expected me to wait or just go away, but I hadn’t sat in the hall for two hours just to be told off. She didn’t want people to think she was into drugs, maybe she shouldn’t walk around campus acting like a dealer.
Whatever Dahlia needed to clean up sure took a hell of a long time. It was also likely she was just trying to make me wait as long as possible. I wouldn’t put it past her by that point. Eventually the door popped back from its frame and Dahlia stood there looking like a pack mule. Honestly, she looked a little ridiculous with the two black boxes—which looked like oversized cloth-covered tackle boxes—draped in a crisscross style across her slender body. I wasn’t even sure how she was managing them because they looked like they weighed more than she did.
“You want any help loading up?” Less Big asked her.
Dahlia eyed me, then shook her head. “I’m good. You guys can head out. Thanks for the help tonight.”
They both nodded and left. Dahlia stood there staring at me for a few seconds before walking over to where I was still leaning against the wall. “So, what’s your deal, Sanford? You stalking me or something?”
“Stalking you?” I snorted. “Hardly.”
She tipped her head to the side to indicate I should follow and started down the hall. “Then what?” She nudged a couple of people aside at the top of the stairs so we could get through. “I run into you on campus and then you show up here, waiting outside the door like a lost puppy.”
Not appreciating the comparison, my curiosity was temporarily replaced by irritation. “Look, I’m sorry I jumped to the assumption that you were dealing. What with all the handoffs and secrecy, I can’t imagine why I might have thought that.” Insert eye roll. “I was serious about the police planning to watch the campus more closely. Whatever the hell it is you’re into, I don’t want to see you get tagged, all right? That’s it. Take it for what you will.”
We were thick in the middle of the dancing bodies by then, and Dahlia was having a hard time making it through the crowd with her ridiculous baggage. Knowing she’d probably slap me for offering to help, I reached forward and snatched one of the straps from around her neck before she could react and slung it over my shoulder. When she looked back to glare at me, I gestured for her to get moving. Her answering scowl got the same in return. As if I were really going to open up her secret box in the middle of a hormone riddled crowd of coeds. I didn’t want to be seen with whatever she was toting around in these things.
It wasn’t until we were almost to the front door and I spotted Lillian chatting animatedly with some girl I thought I recognized from one of my classes, that I remembered I was trying to avoid her. Her gaze started to shift, like she could sense me coming. Reacting on impulse, I grabbed Dahlia’s arm and shoved her outside before Lils could see me. A startled, “Hey!” trailed out the door as we escaped.
The door wouldn’t stay closed for long so I continued to push Dahlia down the steps until we were hidden by enough bodies that I thought I was safe. As soon as my grip relaxed, Dahlia ripped her arm away from me and shoved me back. “What the hell, Sanford?”
“Sorry, I just didn’t want Lils to see me, and unless you wanted to be separated from your James Bond luggage strapped around my neck, you needed to come with me.” She could be pissed if she wanted. I was kind of over the whole curiosity thing. If I just left, I was sure Harvey would be able to find a ride home.
Dahlia’s outrage morphed into disgust. “Please don’t tell me you’re dating Lillian Devry. I thought you had better taste than that.”
“First of all, no, I am not dating Lillian. If she weren’t friends with Cori, I’d never see her at all. Girl can’t take a hint, let alone me telling her to her face that I’m not interested over and over again.” Why wouldn’t she just back off? “Secondly, you don’t know me at all. Definitely not well enough to think you can judge my taste in women.”
Looking slightly offended, Dahlia stopped in front of a car—which I assumed to be hers when she leaned against it—and gave me the kind of look that said I was an idiot. She dropped her bag on the curb and motioned for me to do the same. Which I did. Then she turned her attention back to me. “We went to school together for what, like seven years? I think I know a little something about you, Sanford.”
“Oh yeah? What do you know about me?” I challenged.
She looked as though she was about to respond, but her mouth snapped closed again just as a syrupy voice called, “Sammy! There you are, sweetie.”
I cringed and wondered how on earth she had seen me. I was about to turn and tell her to leave me the hell alone, but I never got the chance. The next thing I knew, Dahlia’s hands were wrapped around
my neck and my mouth was on hers. Not once in my plan to find out what she was up to did I ever consider kissing her. I figured she’d sooner punch me.
My hands were on Dahlia’s waist a split second later. She went all in, pressing against me and running a hand up into my hair as she continued to work her mouth against mine. My brain completely shut down at that point. I’d kissed my share of women, but this was in a whole other realm. Heat ripped through my body and I was panting for breaths between each kiss, my tongue dancing against hers as thought abandoned me.
I felt detached from my body as my hands squeezed Dahlia’s waist and lifted her to sit on the trunk of her car. It gave her enough height that I didn’t have to lean down as much to reach her, but it put us chest to chest as well. I knew she could feel every inch of me pressed against her torso and didn’t care in the least that it was plenty obvious how much she was affecting me. It seemed to egg her on, deepening her next kiss as she pulled against me. Part of me thought I must be imagining the whole encounter, but Dahlia wasn’t backing off.
In the distance I heard a huff followed by angry stomping, but the sounds I was focused on were Dahlia’s breathing and the soft scratching of her fingers running through my hair. I was seconds away from dragging Dahlia into the backseat of her car when she abruptly shoved me away.
“She’s gone,” Dahlia announced as everything I was sure she’d been feeling shut off like a switch had been flipped. She wriggled out from between me and the car and hopped to the asphalt. I was still reeling as she popped the trunk and started loading the first bag. She couldn’t have looked less affected by what just happened than if we’d spent the last few minutes watching a documentary on the migratory patterns buffalo, but seconds earlier she had been just as consumed as I had been. No way she was faking all of that, right?
Trying more than just a little to shake off my stupor, I reached down to grab the bag at my feet and stepped off the curb to put it in the trunk. Dahlia grabbed it out of my hand halfway there and shoved it in after the other bag. She looked back up at me, her lips still swollen, but only to say, “You’re welcome.”
The Ghost Host: Episode 2 (The Ghost Host Series) Page 33
