Crushed (Rushed #2) (27 page)

I was a tightly wound spring, waiting for him. Wanting to come together. "I love you, too."

He thrust deeper and deeper and deeper.

I gasped and so did he.

"Dak!" The pleasure was so intense, my eyes rolled back and I sighed.

"Morgan!"
 

I felt him come, felt his pleasure and release. When he collapsed on top of me, we were both hot and flushed.

"Wow!" I ran my fingers through his hair.

"Is that all you can say?" He kissed the tip of my nose.

"I'm lucky I can speak at all."

He laughed and braced himself, holding his full weight off me. "I meant it. I love you."

"I know." I kissed the tip of his nose. "And I love you. Desperately."

"Love shouldn't be desperate, Morgs. We belong together."

Chapter Nineteen

Dakota

I'd fully intended to impress Morgan with my dashing, romantic nature. I wanted sex. I wanted her love. I wanted everything. So, yeah. I went full out. But I meant every word I told her. Was it deceptive? I wasn't always the most romantic guy.
 

Maybe it was. One thing I knew, when you wanted something, you went after it full force with everything you had. No half-assed attempts. No lack of confidence. No weakness. I'd let Zach win her before with his gentle, brotherly attention. This time I wasn't leaving her in any doubt where I stood.

She kept telling me that private winter semiformal I gave her was the most romantic thing she'd ever heard of. She was going to write an article about it and send it in to that sorority gossip site she was always reading.
 

If it got published, my fellow men were going to hate me forever for that move. I would be right up there with that article on why guys don't need blowjobs. Shit, didn't we have enough pressure when we finally decided to lavalier a girl or propose? You had to upstage every viral proposal any other guy had ever done. I'd just raised the bar on dates.

I thought about her all the time. All. The. Time. She was like a drug in my blood. More addictive than alcohol. I barely kept my head through finals.

I bought her a necklace for Christmas, a snowflake pendant studded with tiny diamonds. To remind her of that winter dance I'd given her. And because I wanted to see it sparkling around her neck while she wore that, and only that, while I made love to her.

We made love almost every night. It was only
almost
because there were a few nights she insisted on actually studying alone, or hanging with her sorority sisters and sleeping in her own bed at her house. She claimed she'd really bonded with most of them during her social probation pariah phase. She was tired of being the witch of the house. Now that she was happy, she actually liked most of her sorority sisters. The rest of the nights she spent with me at the frat.

I dreaded Christmas break. I was going to be horny as hell without her. And lonely. Morgan had replaced Zach and my frat buddies as the best friend I had. Or had ever had.

As the Grinch found out, though, hard as you try, you can't keep Christmas from coming. So it came all the same, on the heels of finals.

I couldn't stay away from her. If only I could drive, damn it. I took the bus. I rode the light rail. I bummed rides off friends. I even conned Zach and Alexis into double dating so he could do the driving.

"Morgan and Alexis are big and little," I said to Zach. "Alexis could learn a lot from Morgan. We're best friends again. We'll be hanging out. They need to get along."

Zach nodded. "They're working on it."

"What do you think about Morgan and me?" I asked Zach.

He shrugged. "Do you need my blessing?"

"Just asking your opinion."

He grinned. "I think you're good together."

It was damned refreshing to be out with a girl my friends and family approved of. Mom invited her over for dinner several times in the days before Christmas. She couldn't stop raving about Morgan. Even the Pomsky Mom had carted home from the frat loved Morgan. She brought the dog a sweater. The dog let her dress him in the silly thing and cart him around in her arms like he belonged there. For a while, I was almost jealous of the dog.

The other challenge was making sure Morgan didn't run into Jordan. Shit, like I needed that to happen.

The day before I left for school, Jordan cornered me as I stepped out of Starbucks.

"Dakota!"

"Shit, Jordan! You startled me." I was carrying a hot cup of coffee. I nearly dropped it when she appeared from nowhere around a corner. "Were you lying in wait for me?"
 

"You've been avoiding me."

Her eyes were sad. I felt like a douche. I shrugged.
 

"I've seen you around with a girl. A sorority bitch, by the looks of her. Is that who you threw me over for?"

"What's the point of talking about it?" I tried to step around her. "We're through. Let's leave it at that and part as friends."

"Friends?" She nearly snorted the word. "Is that what we are?" She grabbed my arm. "Friends answer texts and take each other's calls."

"Jordan, don't."

"Don't what?"

"Don't be desperate. You have your new life. New friends. I don't fit into it any more than you fit into mine."

"Is that what you think?" She looked genuinely stunned. "That you don't fit in my life?"

"It was pretty clear I didn't at that party."

"I
said
I was sorry." Her grip tightened. "We don't have to go to any more of my friends' parties. We've been together forever. We belong together."

"Is that why you slept with Zach? While we were still together. Because we belong together so much?" I shook her off and walked away.

"Who told you?" she screamed after me. "Zach?" She let loose a stream of threats and foul language. "I'll get you back, Dak. We belong together. Our breakups never last. This one won't, either!"

I kept walking.

Morgan

The new semester started off the second week in January with bitter, biting temperatures in the single digits and a chill factor below zero. My baby brother had been born the day after Christmas. He was a cute little thing. I hated to leave him, but I was glad to be back at school.

Seth moved out to live with Zach in his new apartment. Two new houseboys—babes, really—took their places. They were all awkward angles and gawking expressions, like they'd never seen so many hot chicks in all their lives. It was annoying. And sweet, in almost geeky way.

Breaking in new houseboys was the pits. It wasn't the same around the house without Zach and Seth. Paul and Dillon had their hands full bringing the new guys up to speed.

Fortunately, I was so busy I barely had time to notice. I was too happy. Dakota had made all the difference. Our birthdays were just a few weeks away. We were planning to have a party at the frat. With plenty of booze. Dak had already recruited a couple of seniors in his frat to buy it for us a few days ahead.

I had ordered a cake from the best bakery in town. In university colors. One half had the Tau Psi letters and
Happy Birthday, Dakota
on it. The other half had the Delta Delta Psi letters,
Happy Birthday, Morgan,
and flowers and bows and candy pearls. Two champagne glasses clinking met in the middle. I'd ordered us matching monogrammed champagne flutes. And we'd made a date for the Monday after to pick up our driver's licenses.
 

I'd gotten Dakota a jacket and sweater he was going to look so hot in. And as a special surprise, Dad had used his connections to get Dakota on as an alpha tester of the next big video game. It was the game everyone was going to want. They'd already spent several hundred million on its development. I could hardly wait to see his face when he found out.

Dakota had been hinting since Christmas that he had something special planned for my birthday. Something that involved jewelry. Since he'd given me a necklace for Christmas, and it was too soon to get engaged, I had fantasies of him lavaliering me. The Tau Psis both lavaliered and pinned. The order of a serious Greek relationship here went lavaliering, pinning, and finally engagement.

Two of the seniors in my house were pinned. Three were lavaliered. Two of them had been lavaliered at least twice. Lavaliering was a huge deal. The guy gave you a necklace with his house letters. It meant he valued you as much or more as his house and his fraternity brothers. Pinning was even more serious. He gave you either his own pin with his letters, or a special girlie version made just for pinning. Both pinning and lavaliering involved a special ceremony.

Both were public declarations of the guy's love before his house and hers. Very big stuff. Yes, it was early. Most of the time the couple had been dating a year or more. But we were already halfway through our junior year. And it was important to show everyone that he was over Alexis and I was over Zach. And we were serious about each other. No one took this kind of thing lightly.
 

Although we'd only been a couple a few months, we were each other's complete support. And we'd known each other from almost the first minute of our freshman year. Plus, how many people had the bond of almost running over the other one? I teased him about that.

A huge snowstorm hit on the first Thursday of class. We didn't get blizzards in the Pacific Northwest, but this was a complete whiteout, with blowing winds and the chill factor below zero.
 

I met Dakota for coffee at The College Grind, ducking in to get out of the wind before facing the icy hills of Greek Row. I wore my white coat with the fake fur collar, white boots with more faux fur trim, and white mittens.

He was waiting for me at a table, with his hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee and one waiting for me. He jumped up and kissed me, his lips hot with the promise of more body heat as he warmed my frigid blue lips.

"You look like the Snow Queen." He pulled my gloves from my icy hands, tossed them on the table, and rubbed my bare hands between his to warm them.

"Frozen, like I have a chip of ice in my heart?"
 

"No. Fucking beautiful."

I laughed. My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out. "I'm amazed this thing still works in this cold. Good to know my smart phone is rated for below-zero temps." I glanced at the screen and couldn't help frowning. "It's Dad. I'd better get it."

Dak nodded as we both sat.

"Hey, Dad!" I tried to keep the tremble of fear out of my voice. My father didn't call just to chat. "What's up?"

There was a pause. "Sweetie…"

My heart stood still. He'd only spoken a single word. But I knew. Bad news.
 

"Grandma?" I could barely speak.

"I'm sorry." His voice broke with emotion. "She's had a major heart attack, honey. She has the best doctors. Don't get your hopes up. It's not looking good. Her heart is too weak. They don't expect…"

It was like if he didn't say the words, it wouldn't be real. But we both knew it was.

He took a deep breath. "They don't expect her to make it through the night. I'm trying to catch a flight out of Seattle to fly to see her. Nothing's flying into eastern Washington right now. I'll keep trying."

"Is anyone with her?" My heart pounded in my ears. Grandma lived about ninety miles away from the university. The rest of the family lived on the west side of the state, about three hundred miles away.

Dad paused a beat. "No. Your aunt left two days ago. Before any of this happened. No one expected…she was doing so well."

"She can't die alone!" I grabbed a napkin from the table and dabbed at my eyes and nose, trying to pretend the cold had made me a mess. I pictured Grandma alone in her room with no one there who loved her. She'd always been there for me.

"Don't get any ideas, Morgan. Stay where you are." Dad's voice was firm and worried. "I've seen the news. It's almost a blizzard over there. There's no bus service. The airport in that one-horse town is closed. So are half the roads."

"But Dad—"

"Stay put, honey. If anything happened to you… You're my baby. Stay safe and warm. I'll keep you posted." He hung up before I could argue.