Then Summer Came (10 page)

I gasped, playing up offense.  “A girl doesn’t abandon amazing shoes like these because she’s had a few drinks!”

“A few?”  He raised a brow at me.  “I don’t think you have the right understanding of what ‘a few’ is.”

I wobbled and grabbed his shirt to steady myself.  “You’re right!” I decided with an animated hand gesture.  “More drinks, less heels!”

He held my arm as I maneuvered and pulled off my favorite black heels.  I tossed them in the corner and grabbed a cup.  "Here!"  I handed him the cup full of whatever had been in the bottle on the counter.  “Drink up!” I shouted over the stereo. 

"I don't think the music is as loud as you think it is," he said, grinning at me. 

"Then maybe I should turn it up!"  He smiled and turned his cup up not seeming to care what was in it. 

Beck disappeared a few times throughout the night—mingling, I assumed—and then he'd reappear with a new drink and a different girl under his arm.  I stayed by Emily's side, mostly because she was dragging me around trying to get me as drunk as possible.  I tried, a few times, to get her and Beck together so I could finally introduce them, but the dorm was huge, and it was proving impossible.  Getting them in the same place always seemed to be difficult.  They were together inside the same four walls more than once, yet I couldn’t manage to find them both to introduce them. 

I slipped away and stumbled my way into the kitchen.  Beck was casually leaned back against the counter listening intently to the flirtatious blonde in front of him.  She had one hand securely hooked into the front of his jeans and was running the other all over his abs and chest as she told her story. 

My heart skipped a little at the sight of how sexy he looked all slouched back.  It made me miss Derek, and I wanted to touch him the way the blonde was touching Beck. 

I was mad at Derek all over again for not coming. 

Beck glanced over and smiled when he spotted me.  I raised my glass at him, tilting my head toward him, and he shook his head and pushed the blonde away. He sauntered past her over to where I was.  "You're still loading up, I see." 

"Aren't you?" I asked and tried to hop onto the counter; I just needed to sit down. 

"Need help with that?" He said and grabbed my waist and sat me onto the counter, where I was eye level with him.  

"So, do you have some secret stash of women here somewhere?" I slurred, wiping my hair out of my face.

"No, do you?” he laughed and leaned in to my ear, “‘Cause that’s something I’d be interested in." 

"Ha!" I cackled.  "I'm not the one with a different, random on my arm every ten minutes!" 

“
Random
?  What’s with that?  You said it the other night, too.”

“That’s what I call all the gross chicks you’ve been banging,” I shouted and grabbed a bottle that was standing on the counter beside me.

He stared at me and just raised his eyebrows with a smirk.  "Is that
jealousy
I hear?" 

"I'm not jealous!" I argued.

"Could've fooled me." 

"Well, now, that’s not a difficult thing to do, Beck."  I rolled my eyes and jumped down from the counter, but my knees were numb and I fell into him.  He caught me and pushed me upright, laughing. 

"See, look, you just want to be close to me." 

I looked up at him, reached and gripped the collar of his shirt with both hands, and pulled him to me.  "
I'm
not attracted to you
,
Beck
!" I said straight into his ear, just to be sure he heard me. 

He pulled his head back just until our eyes met.  "Are you sure?" He asked, looking down my nose, his breath hot on my face. 

I chewed the inside of my lip, but it couldn't distract me from the tantalizing grip he had on my waist, and the way his chest felt under my hands wasn't helping at all. 

“Oh my God!” Emily shrieked.  "Derek!  I can't believe you came!"  She ran to our sides, knocking over almost everything she came in contact with, people and all.  "I could kiss you!  Lis totally needed this!"  She patted my cheek and smiled happily at me.  "You don't look excited," she said, her smile sagging. 

"Em, he's—" 

"Glad to see her, too." Beck cut me off and pulled me into him tighter.  I just looked up at him confused.  Emily clapped out her excitement and danced away goofily.  Beck looked back down at me, and I squirmed out of his grip. 

"Why'd you let her think you were Derek?" I demanded.  He looked at his empty arms like I'd offended him and then crossed them over his chest. 

“Why’d you let her think I was Derek at the club?” he countered.

I slugged his shoulder when he tried changing the subject.  "Answer me!”

"Well I couldn't do this if she thought I was
me
."  He swiped me back into his chest and started to dance with me.  I pushed him but he locked his hands around me. 

"You're a douche," I growled.

"You didn't answer me," he leaned in and whispered in my ear. 

"What?" 

"Are you
sure
you aren't attracted to me?" 

"I'm positive!"  I slipped out of his grasp and walked a crooked path to the nearest punch bowl.  I dipped a cup into the mystery liquid and downed it.  I grabbed a handful of olives, and I saw Beck come up beside me, out of the corner of my eye. 

I turned to insult him before he started in again, but he was lip locked with a black-headed harlot in a slutty police getup.  She had her leg hiked up around his, and she was kissing him violently.  I saw her tongue as it slid in and out of his mouth.  She seemed far more into their embrace than he was; his hands just kind of hung at his sides.

"Excuse me," I said before I’d even realized it.  I pushed her as hard as I could, and she stumbled back and cursed me.  "
That's my fiancé
!" I shouted back, pointing an unsteady finger in her makeup plastered face.  She mumbled something and slinked off, snapping a short whip in her hand. 

When I looked to Beck, his shit-eating grin was wide and prominent, and I rolled my eyes at him. 

"Oh, so
now
I'm Derek?" he snipped.  He came closer to me, plucked an olive from my fist, and tossed it into his mouth. 

"No!  I was helping you.  You looked miserable!" 

"You think horny girls that enjoy role play make me miserable?" he said, grinning wider. 

"Well, I think they
should
!" I snapped back. 

"And why's that?" 

I turned around, deciding to just ignore him.  I was too drunk for all that. 

"Tell you what," he whispered in my ear from behind me, as Poison’s “
Every Rose Has Its Thorn
” came on the stereo.  "You dance with me," he reached over my shoulder and plucked another olive from my hand and pressed it to my lips, and I let it fall into my mouth, “and then you can decide if you're attracted to me." 

I looked at him from over my shoulder, his face just an inch from mine.  "You are so arrogant.  You know that?" 

He didn't answer me.  Instead, he spun me around and caught me before I toppled over.  I laughed out loud at him as he began to sing and dance comically, and I jumped in with him, singing loudly…and
badly
, I might add.  I hadn't had that much fun in weeks. 

We danced shamelessly until the song ended.  We cracked up at how ridiculous the other looked and then headed for another drink.  After a few shots he begged me to dance again, and this time Emily joined us.  The three of us danced a mash-up of our best seventies and eighties moves, as the alcohols and liquors roared through our bodies.  Beck spun me into his arms and then out again, and Emily shimmied provocatively against my chest, lip syncing. 

She broke off when the song faded to AWOLNATION’s “
Sail
”, and I felt a body press into my back.  “Dance with me,” Beck whispered.  His arm snaked around my stomach, and I stiffened.  The song sent a sharp urge to dance through me, and the beat was perfect for the way he was pressed into me.  I wanted to move away from him…that was what I should’ve been doing, right?  But instead, I relaxed back into him.  He felt so good.  His body moving against mine made me forget everything.  I gripped the waist of his jeans, mashing us closer together as the music coursed through us.  The heat of his breath on my neck was disastrous on my insides.

A chill shot through me when his soft fingers slid under my shirt and across my skin.  I dug my fingers into his wrist and relaxed my head back onto his shoulder.  I needed to be touched, wanted.  I reached back and slid my fingers into his hair.  His neck was clammy under my fingers, and his damp hair was cold to the touch.  I pulled at his neck and he buried his nose into mine as he grinded against me, his hand pulling back across my stomach.  I gasped as his fingers dug across my skin, down to the inside of my thigh.  I turned my face into his, and his lips were there almost immediately, and his tongue followed, wasting no time. 

His kiss was exactly like I remembered it, only I’d not know who I was kissing the first time.  It had been the most intense kiss I’d experienced, but it felt all wrong when I saw it was Beck. 
This
, though,
this
felt
good
. 

I could taste the salty hint of sweat that he'd worked up during our dancing.  He kissed me over my shoulder, his hand exploring every part of me he could reach, both of us completely oblivious to the other hundred people jammed in the room with us. 

I turned around and gave his lips the attention they deserved. 

His kiss was hasty, but content.  I could feel how perfectly his crew cut was edged at the nape of his neck, and it caused me to moan into his mouth. 

A hand snaked between us, and I looked to see a woman rubbing at his crotch.  She was kneeling, pulling at the button on his jeans.  I backed away to see what the hell she was doing,  and he smacked her hand away, his eyes never leaving mine, and he yanked me back into him, his tongue finding my mouth, again, quickly. 

The drunken desire consumed me.  I pushed him backwards, through the crown of sweaty, jolting bodies and toward the empty hallway.  He gripped my thighs and lifted me into his arms.  I wrapped around him as much as I could, flicking my tongue against his.  His skin against mine was like nothing I’d ever felt before, but then again, maybe it was just the drinks.

He backed into the wall and relaxed against it as our kiss grew hungrier, his hands fisted into my hair, his tongue coaxing mine.  “Em’s room is right there,” I said in between kisses.  His mouth stopped almost immediately.  He looked dead into my eyes, as if he was taking in what I’d said and asking if I was sure.  I answered his unasked question with my lips, pulling his mouth back to mine and allowing my tongue to taste every inch of it.  I didn’t want to think about it, I just wanted him. 

He slammed the door shut behind us, and I heard the lock click.  His fingers quickly found their way across my bare back and into my hair again.  He laid me back, pressing me into the bed, his body pressing hard against mine.  His hands on me made me feel more inebriated than all the liquor I’d consumed.  I’d seen Beck with girls at clubs a few times, and they all seemed to get drunk off his touch, and I could see why.  It had the same effect on me; it was intoxicating. 

I was most definitely attracted to him.  He was my fiancé’s identical twin, how could I not be?  I was a very sexual person, and I’d not even seen the likes of a man in a month, so I found it hard to control myself when I was entangled in him that way.

Heat, desire, tingling need, and twenty kinds of liquor ripped through me as I lost myself in him.  I could think of nothing but him and his touch and how much I wanted him, how much I wanted to be touched.  Caressing, licking, biting, it was all taking control of me, only…in my head…it was Derek.

He tore my skirt off, followed by my shirt, bra, and then panties.  His lips never left my skin as he pulled off his jeans and briefs. 

I rolled him onto the bed and straddled him as the tingling inside me became hotter.  His naked body was scorching against my thighs, and the sensation was unmatched.  I trailed my lips down his stomach and he growled when I wrapped my mouth around him.  He was slick and tasted so good, and my want for him prickled across my skin. 

My insides twisted viciously. I felt his hips thrust beneath me, pushing him harder into my throat, and I sucked harder, massaging my tongue across the tip of him. 

He sat up swiftly and pulled me into his lap, a serious look hot in his liquid-brown eyes, and I yelled out as he slid into me.  I clutched his head to my chest, and he pulled me down onto him harder, and it took my breath.  My head fell back and the room began to spin.  I closed my eyes, and he moved faster beneath me.  He groaned into my chest and a thrill shot through me when I felt his fingers dig into the skin of my lower back.  I screamed and moaned, not caring at all if anyone heard us—though it was unlikely.  I braced myself against his shoulders as I picked up the pace and we found the perfect rhythm.  My name escaped his lips in a raspy gasp, and his teeth grazed the skin over my collarbone; it was wickedly tantalizing. 

I cried out as he took control of my hips, sliding me on and off of him faster and faster.  I could feel everything inside of me tensing and swelling, and I was dying for it to let go.  I needed him to make me come.  I needed to feel that rushing release.  Those five seconds of amazing, uncontrollable pleasure. 

His fingers scratched across my back and slid into my messy hair.  He groaned into my neck as he pulsed inside of me.  It built inside me until I couldn’t take it anymore.  I fell apart, and he gripped my face to his so tightly I could feel his ragged breaths sucking through his teeth. 

I made my orgasm known and he loved every second of it.  He seemed to be getting off on every sound I made.  I screamed at the pleasure that had overwhelmed me, and his fingers dug viciously into me as he came.  The feeling of his release filled me up, making me dizzy, and I blacked out.