Rushed (The Rushed Series) (13 page)

He took his laptop from me and set it aside. Then he gently cupped my chin and tipped my face up until our eyes met. "I believe you think you wouldn't. But in life, you never know." He stared into my eyes.

Our lips were inches apart. I closed my eyes, trying to hear a song that made me feel like I was flying. His lips came down on mine, soft and warm. The first gentle strains began to play.

As his kiss grew more insistent, the music grew louder in my head. I slid into his lap, wrapped my arms around his neck, and opened my mouth and my heart to him.

No one else had ever made me hear music or soar like I was flying. He slid his hands around my waist and up beneath my blouse.
 

I couldn't get enough of him. When his mouth left mine to sear kisses down my neck, I gasped. His hand brushed my breast and I was on fire, wanting his touch everywhere.

Necking is like a dance. One passionate move and then the next until I ended up on my back with Zach braced over me, kissing me in the chasm between my breasts. I pressed his head to me, wishing his lips would never leave my skin. "Zach."

It was the wrong thing to say.

He pulled back, bracing himself above me and staring down at me with dark, tortured, determined eyes. "I can't do this. You have to go."
 

He rolled next to me and ran his hands through his hair, still breathing hard. "We're playing with fire, Alexis. My head knows the right thing to do, but my heart is talking faster. If I'm not careful, I'll start listening to it. I don't do emotional commitment. And I'm not risking everything for a quick screw."

His words stung. "That's a crappy thing to say," I said. "I should go."

He grabbed my wrist. "I'm sorry. That came out wrong. I didn't mean to imply…" He ran his hand through his hair again and begged me with his eyes. "If things were different…"

"But they aren't." I straightened my blouse and ran my fingers through my hair like a comb as he sat up next to me. I scooped up my laptop.

"All the girls get a crush on one of the house guys at least once. That's what Kayla says. It's a rite of passage." I tried to hide my disappointment and hurt behind a light tone. "Nice to get mine out of the way right off." I grabbed my laptop and headed for the door.
 

"Wait!"

I didn't listen to him. I threw the door open just as Morgan came down the hall.

Zach swore beneath his breath. "
Perfect
timing."

Morgan's eyes narrowed when she saw me. "She's not supposed to be down here." Her voice was like ice and judgment.

"Chill, Morgan," Zach said as he shrugged off the intimacy between us. Though if Morgan had half an ounce of emotional intelligence, she would feel the tension crackling between us. "That's what I told her. She didn't know the rule. It's my fault. We have a class assignment together. I wasn't answering her texts, so she came to find me. We should have taken it to the study room."

Zach was a good enough actor to fool her. Morgan smiled. "Not another overeager academic achiever! She'll ruin our reputation." She laughed like that was an insult.
 

"Someone has to keep the house GPA high enough to keep you off suspension," Zach said.

"Too bad houseboys' grades don't count." Morgan's gaze lingered on him. "Don't let it happen again," she said as I brushed past her.

"It won't." I shot a hurt look at Zach. "I promise."

Her laughter echoed down the hall as I left.

Chapter Eight

Zach

I almost lost my head and spilled everything to Alexis. There was something about her that made me want to trust her. But girls like her didn't fall for guys like me. Not guys with a past and family like mine.
 

It was bullshit, really. On the surface, I wasn't someone any normal parents would object to. Not even Double Deltsie parents. Not if I wasn't a houseboy. I got good grades. Didn't get into any more trouble than was usual for a guy my age. My parents were firmly upper middle class. Some of the girls would be surprised at how well off they were, given how cash strapped I always was. From the outside, it looked almost like I rebelliously insisted on living the servant life.

It was all the crap you couldn't see. All the stuff we'd spent my lifetime hiding and all the resentment it caused. Those were the deal breakers.

Alexis was normal, completely normal with a happy childhood and parents who doted on her. Maybe too much, but who was I to judge? Too much was better than not at all. She didn't need my shit messing it up.

I was still stunned that I had come so close to confiding in her. I blamed the music and the sexual tension that charged the air whenever Alexis came around. I cursed fate for throwing her in my path. But then, that was nothing new. I cursed fate a lot for what it had thrown at me. I'd learned early that life wasn't fair. You had to find a way to deal with it and even the odds.

Alexis frightened me for the way she made me feel. Or could if I let her. She was the first girl I'd known that made me even consider doing something different, finding another job and way to get by. The problem was, I wasn't ready to give up living in the house for a girl I'd just met and barely knew. And the simple act of getting to know her better would put everything in jeopardy.
 

For all that, some of the girls in the house were total drama queens. And some were too stuck up to talk to me or treat me as anything but subservient. And the house as a whole had a rep for being snooty and snotty. Most of them treated me like a brother. They'd become like family to me. All the family I had for now. Too much to risk. I had to harden my heart against Alexis. It was the only way.

Alexis

On Wednesday when I arrived in class, Zach was already seated. All the desks around him were completely filled with girls. Geeds. Indie-music-loving girls who laughed as he flirted easily with them. His message was clear—stay away. He could get a girl who didn't come with complications.

The problem was that whenever I saw him, my heart beat faster and I felt a smile blooming.
 

Lingering after class, waiting to walk back with him, would have seemed desperate. I would have swallowed my pride and done it anyway, except I had to get back to the house to prepare for our open house that evening. I caught up with Emily in our room after our pledge class had finished decorating the house and dinner was over. We stood in our bras and panties, trying to decide what to wear, tossing dresses and discarded choices on our bed.

Our door was open. A pledge named Sarah and her roommate Katie knocked on the doorframe. "What are you girls wearing to the meat market tonight? Let's all coordinate."

"The meat market?" Laurel, the other live-in pledge, was walking by. She joined them in the doorway.
 

"That's what Kayla calls it." Katie flashed a lopsided grin and stepped inside. Sarah followed her and took one of our desk chairs.

Laurel came in and flopped on the bed in the middle of the heap of dresses. We were all in a similar state of undress—hair and makeup done. Wardrobe choice to be determined.

And there we were—the five chosen ones. All of us blond, except for Em, who was already considering bleaching her hair. I wondered what I had in common with the other three and how I had beaten them out for top choice. They were all pretty and polished, confident of their appeal in the way popular girls are. Inside, I was as insecure as anyone. Only my mom's training gave me any polish of confidence.

"The frats really come through and size us up and we're supposed to just grin and bear it?" If you couldn't hear Sarah's tone, you would have thought she was complaining. But the thought clearly excited her.

"You'll think that's great until you see some of the frat guys!" Em surveyed another dress, frowning. "Peter Smith, like, the jerkiest, nerdiest guy from my high school, pledged." She shuddered. "Creepo. No idea how he made it into
any
frat, even the Lambda Rhos."

"Yeah, but the good houses like the Tau Psis will be coming through, too," Sarah said. "You take the good with the bad. I went to high school with the Tau Psi president, Dakota Bradley." She sighed heavily. "Smoking hot. Any girl who gets his attention is lucky. His social media says he's not in a relationship."

I fought to keep a straight face. Was Dakota really interested in me, or just flirting? No idea. But my ears perked up. If Sarah had gone to high school with Dakota, she had also been in school with Zach. Given the circumstances, the odds were high that they ran in the same social circles.

"House guy on the floor! Handyman coming through!" Zach's voice suddenly rang out.
 

Our door was just four down from the stairs. Katie, who was leaning against the wall and the closest person to the door, made no move to close it. Instead, she smiled devilishly. "It's just the houseboy. No one closes their door for the houseboy. They're like family."

She was right—I didn't hear a single door along the hall close.

I was standing by my open closet door, wearing pink thong panties and a lacy bra in full view of the hall. I might have ducked behind the closet door, but I didn't think or move fast enough. In the next instant, Zach walked by, glancing into our room as he passed. His gaze slid appraisingly over me until I tingled all over. Our eyes met and held for an instant that felt like time stood still. His sparkled with desire.
 

He frowned like he was angry with himself, and me, looked away, and walked by. He'd seen everything. Including the way my breasts budded with desire when he looked at them. As much as he was fighting it, our chemistry was undeniable.

Katie laughed and slammed the door shut too late on purpose. She broke out into a gale of giggles. "Whoa, Alexis! Good job."

Sarah was fanning herself. "There goes
the
most popular, hottest guy from the class two years ahead of me. If Zach had pledged a frat, I would be
all
over him. What was he thinking taking a job as a houseboy?" Her laughter was bubbly and contagious. At least, the other three joined in. "I still might be," Sarah said. "If Alexis drops her guard."

I blushed. "It's nothing. There's nothing between us."

"Tell it to the judge. You're guilty as charged." Sarah twirled a lock of hair around her finger, smiling angelically while her eyes danced with devilment.

Em rushed to my defense. "Give Alexis a break! If she says there's nothing there, she means it. Besides, I've heard Morgan already spit on him her freshman year. Everyone knows better than to cross her."

"Nasty Morgan." Sarah frowned. "It's weird the way things turned out. Dakota was always Zach's second. And now he's
the
one to catch."

My mouth went into motion before I could stop it. "What happened between them?"

"Oooh, good girl! You've been doing your research. Information is power!" Sarah's estimation of me had just risen several notches. I could see it in the way she looked genuinely impressed.
 

"I was at the party where it happened. But I didn't see it directly. I've only heard the rumors. They had been friends since kindergarten. Or maybe it was first grade. Early on, anyway. Practically inseparable. They intentionally decided to go to the same university. Everyone expected them to be roommates. Some people wondered if it would really work out or if they'd kill each other if they actually lived together. They were ultra-competitive about everything. It seemed to fuel their friendship, though no one understood how. Some people just thrive on competition.

"But Dakota always ran second to Zach. Everyone thought if Dakota was better at just one thing than Zach, maybe they had a chance. Unfortunately, the only thing Dakota really had over Zach was a ton of money from his parents.
 

"Zach was like valedictorian of his class and got a ton of scholarships. He was captain of the football team, baseball captain, and chosen as senior boy of the year. He took second place as athlete of the year to the only guy from the football team to get a Pac 12 scholarship.

"Something happened between them at a party just after graduation. It was like Dakota finally snapped. Both of them were hammered. They got into some kind of a shoving match. Everyone thought they'd let off some steam, duke it out, and go back to normal. Like they had in the past." Sarah paused, frowning.
 

"But this time was different. Dakota accused Zach of liking the spotlight so much that he would kill his own sister to get attention. Zach went crazy and beat the crap of him, like he really wanted to kill him. By the time they finally separated them, they had beat the crap out of each other. But, as usual, Dakota took a worse beating. Both of them would have been charged with assault, but their dads stepped in and smoothed things out.