Rushed (The Rushed Series) (25 page)

"Baby, no! Be fair." He looked up at the sky like he was pleading with someone for understanding and let out a breath that curled upward in the cold. "It's nothing. We're just dancing. For show. No, I haven't made a move. No, she doesn't suspect. No one does. Babe, I told you this is important. It's part of my image. I have to go to these functions.

"I'll ditch soon. I'll think of some excuse. I'm being
completely
faithful." He ran his hand through his hair.

I thought, for just a second, about sneaking back inside and letting him off the hook. Then again, this could play to my advantage. "Everything okay?"

Dakota jumped—like, physically jumped. "Gotta go. We'll talk later," he said to the person on the phone. "Alexis!" He forced a smile and slid his phone into his pocket.

A forced smile is so easy to spot. It doesn't reach the eyes. His looked worried and sad.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked.

"Looking for you." I came up even with him, shivering in the cool of the evening. "So I'm a decoy date."
 

I don't know why, but I found that funny. And it was fun to confront him. Fun to have power for once. All this time I was using him as a decoy and thinking he had the hots for me and he was using me the same way. I fought to hold my laughter in.

"How much did you hear?" Even in the dim light, his guilty expression and tone gave him away.

"Everything I need to. More than enough to realize I've been used!" I tried to sound indignant, which wasn't easy while fighting laughter.

"Alexis!" He turned to face me and grabbed my arm. "I'm sorry. I'm—"

A giggle slipped out. Maybe it was relief. Maybe I should have pretended to be indignant longer and strung out his suffering. "So I'm your beard now?"

"Beard?"

And then the implication hit him and he dropped my arm. "No!
Shit
." He ran his hand through his hair again. "I'm not gay."

His phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and glanced at it. "Shit," he said again. "Just a sec." He typed out a text and put his phone away again. "That was a girl.
My
girl."

I crossed my arms like I was mad. "Your secret girl?"

He took my arm again. "Are you pissed?"

He couldn't see that I was relieved? Maybe I was a better actress than I thought. "Probably."

He stopped short. "Probably?"

I shrugged. "Depends on what I can get out of this situation."

"I need to talk to you. In private." He looked around. "Like, really in private. Now. My room."

I put my arm around his waist. "Are you offering me a house tour? The girls warned me about those. Never go to a frat guy's room alone unless you mean business."

He shook his head. "Very funny."
 

I grinned. "Ready to put on a show? If I'm going to be your decoy girl, we might as well make it look good." I batted my lashes at him.

"Stop that." But he smiled and wrapped his arm around me, sticking his hand in my back butt pocket.

"No pinching," I said.

He laughed.

I'd been to his room, the presidential suite, as it was, once before. It had gotten messier since. It was a typical guy's room. Laundry piled on a chair. Wastebasket overflowing with beer bottles. Smelled vaguely of gym socks and unwashed bodies. As Dakota shut the door, I looked around for the puppy. "Where's the Pomsky?"

"Mom insisted I send him home to her to train. She didn't think we were taking good enough care of him. Damn, he had so much attention here, he was spoiled. She claimed you shouldn't spoil a dog. That it ruins them.
 

"She's probably doing the same thing right now that she accused us of. She fell in love with him and bought him all kinds of pampering crap, like this special bed that's nicer than mine. I wouldn't bet on her giving him back anytime soon. I think he's become my brother the dog. She likes him better than me now."

"Poor baby," I said to Dakota.

"Him or me?" He flashed that charmer's smile.

I plopped onto his bed so hard I made the springs groan. I was thinking that he and Zach had been quite the killer pair of hotties. I patted the spot next to me on the bed. "People are going to expect to hear some headboard pounding in here."

He raised an eyebrow. "That's going to be tricky without a headboard." He sat on the bed next to me.

I started bouncing. And moaning. "Oh, oh, oh, oh! Harder, Dak! Dak, Dak, Dak!"

"Shut up." But he grinned.

"I'm doing all the work here," I whispered to him. "Help me out. This is for your rep we're maintaining."

"Maybe I want to lie back and let the girl do all the work for once." His eyes danced.

"Sexist. Bounce!" I bounced until the bedsprings groaned.

"Damn, you're a bossy woman." He grinned and joined in.

With our combined bounce power, the bed rhythmically hit the wall.
 

"Turn on some music." I pointed to the speakers on his desk next to the bed. "People always think they can cover sex with music." I rolled my eyes. Since when did that ever work?

"What do you like?" He reached for the speakers.
 

"Whatever turns you on."
 

He paused the action to put on the music I'd asked for. It caught me off guard. I bounced into him so hard he had to grab me to keep me from slamming into the desk. I screamed and laughed as he laughed with me.

I broke into another round of giggles as he turned the music on and a cheesy sex song came on. The kind guys always think turns girls on.

"That's your sex music?" I asked. "I have a few things to teach you."

"Hey! Can it. This is the music the guys expect."

"Good point." I realized we'd both stopped. "We're losing our rhythm."

"Crap." He flashed me a devilish smile and bounced so hard it sent me flying and into another gale of laughter.

When I caught my breath, I asked him the important question. "Do you like screamers? Should I scream for you? Since we're faking everything else, I'd happy to fake that, too."

"Give me a few more minutes. I have epic staying power and everyone knows it. Let's give them something more to talk about."

We both cracked up. He bounced the bed so hard, I slammed against the wall and bumped my head.
 

"Ouch! Showoff! Give me some warning next time." I rubbed my head.

"Sorry. But I am supposed to be fucking your brains out."

I couldn't help it. I cracked up. "Not literally!"

He just grinned. "We're coming to a soft spot in the music. Get your scream on. I want everyone to hear this. Make it real."

"Make it real!" I rolled my eyes and let out a faked scream of ecstasy to end all faked orgasm screams. Just as the slats holding the mattress slid out and the mattress crashed to the floor. I tumbled on top of Dakota. We were both laughing so hard we could barely breathe.

"That should do it! Damn, I've never broken the bed before." He looked at me with admiration.

"Something to shoot for," I said into his ear when I finally caught a breath. "No one can say I'm not a good fake lay." I was lying on top of him and staring into his eyes as the music filled the room with its boom. He was a hot, gorgeous guy. And still, he just felt like a friend. I untangled myself from him and rolled off next to him to finish catching my breath.

Someone pounded on the door. "Everything okay in there, Dak?" The deep voice was amused, teasing.

"Go away, shithead!" Dakota grinned at me as we heard laughter and the sound of retreating footsteps.

I wiped tears of laughter from my eyes with the back of my hand and tried not to laugh again as I caught my breath. Dakota turned the music down now that the fake deed was done.

"I've never had so much fun having fake sex," he said. "Thank you."

"Do you always thank girls after sex?"

"After mind-blowing fake sex, yeah."

"Mind-blowing!" I grinned at him. "I'll take it!" I leaned back against the wall and caught my breath, wondering at the weirdness of having so much fun with Dakota when I'd been dreading this night. Seeing a glimpse of what he could be like and why he and Zack had been best buds.

"Now that I've given you what you want," I said with a tease, "we have to talk. This girl—why are you keeping her a secret?"

"Shit, I'm thirsty." He got up and got a beer from his mini-fridge, neatly avoiding the question. "Want one?"

"I'll take a pop or an energy drink if you have one."

He tossed me a can of pop. I tapped on the top and opened it cautiously.

"Her name's Jordan." He popped open his beer and plunked down next to me on the mattress that was still on the floor. "Faking sex with you was easy—you smell like her. Like her perfume and cinnamon. That's just another thing I like about you, Alexis. You remind me of her in all the good ways. Which is why I feel like shit using you."

Oh, crap! Jordan wasn't his ex. She was his current. And Zach, with his good advice, had made me an ever more delicious morsel. Another burst of laughter slipped out. "And yet you did."

"I can explain." He chugged his beer like he was working up courage. "Jordan and I are off-again, on-again. She goes to community college back home. Whenever I leave for school, she freaks, goes insecure on me, and breaks things off.

"When I first saw you in your Rho Gam group, we were off. There was something about you. I felt a spark."

"I'm flattered." I took a drink from my can and patted the mattress. "Should we fix this?"

"Don't worry about it. I'll fix it later." He took a drink. "You should be flattered. Jordan's the only other girl I feel that spark with. If it wasn't for her…"

I swallowed hard, touched. This evening was turning out so differently from what I'd imagined. Dakota was different than what I thought. "Thanks." I meant it. "So I take it you got back on at some point?"

"Just after the open house."

A light bulb went. I spoke without thinking. "That explains why you didn't text or call me for weeks!"

His eyes lit up. "Did you want me to?"

"If things were different. Don't make things more awkward." I bumped him playfully with my shoulder. "Tell me about Jordan."

He shrugged. "Not much to tell. Except my parents hate her for no reason. We dated in high school and went to prom against my parents' wishes. When we broke off when I left for school my freshman year, my parents did the dance of joy. Since then, we've kept our relationship from them. It's easier that way.
 

"Then there's my rep here at the house. The guys expect their fearless leader to date the hottest girls in the Greek system. To maintain the house rep."

"You mean me?" I primped my hair and laughed. "I really am flattered."

"Half the guys here would kill to be with you, Alexis." His voice became soft and completely serious.

I really was flattered. Embarrassed, I brushed it off. "Keep talking. My ego's hungry."

He shoulder bumped me back. "We agreed I would date and go to the functions."

"So you have to text her during the event and reassure her. Does she always freak?" I asked.

He looked me in the eye and shook his head. "She used to think it was funny…until you."

"Oh," I said as the laughter I'd felt evaporated.

"The other girls I took out weren't threatening to her. I chose them that way. But you…" He took a deep breath. "That day at practice when I took you to the SUB and asked you about Zach, that was a serious question. The way you answered it, I knew I didn't have a real shot with you. I'm fucking tired of being second to Zach."

"You would have dumped Jordan for me?" I violated my own don't-make-things-awkward policy by asking.

"I might have. I like you a lot. Life would be a lot easier."

"For both of us," I said, seeing that he understood. "If we were really into each other."