“Yeah, yea,.” I replied, finishing my fourth drink. “I've gotta pee. I'll be back,” I said, getting to my now very wobbly feet.
“Do you need help?” Gracie asked, laughing as I braced against the bar to steady myself.
“Nah. I got this,” I hiccuped and headed to the bathroom. After finishing up, I left the bathroom and found myself face to face with none other than Jordan fucking Levitt himself.
“Hey. I think we need to talk,” he said, his face unreadable. Damn if I didn't still want to stick my tongue down his throat. He was too yummy for his own good. And that pissed me off even more. I tried to move around him and he grabbed my arm. “Maysie. Please, just hear me out,” he pleaded, but I yanked my arm away, almost falling over in the process.
“Get your hands off of me,” I bit out. Jordan ran his hands over his face in frustration.
“I had no idea you were a Chi Delta,” he said. I rolled my eyes.
“Makes it a little inconvenient I guess,” I mumbled, crossing my arms over my chest.
I hated how hurt I felt. But I had really started to like him. And now he was hands off. Life sucked. “Inconvenient? What are you talking about?” Jordan asked, frowning. I barked out a laugh.
“You know, the fact that I'm in the same sorority as your girlfriend. Makes it hard to tap my ass,” I spat out hatefully.
Jordan flinched at my words. “Shit, Maysie. That's not at all what I was trying to do.” I felt like I was swaying on my feet and had to lean back against the wall so I wouldn't fall over. That would just be perfect. You know, make more of a jerk of myself.
“Then what were you trying to do Jordan? Because you asked me out. When you had a girlfriend. That's skeevy,” I said coldly. Jordan sighed.
“I would have told you about Olivia.” I snorted. Like I believed that. Jordan glared at me. “Will you just stop it already. I'm telling you the truth. Yeah, Olivia and I have been together for a while. But I feel drawn to you...”
“Drawn to my tits and ass, I'm sure,” I scoffed crudely. Jordan smirked and that annoyed me even more.
“Well, you do have mighty fine tits and ass, Mays.” I drew myself upright.
“You do not get to talk about my body in any way shape or form,” I hissed.
Jordan's smirk dropped and he looked contrite. “I'm sorry. Really.” I huffed and looked away from him. This conversation was over as far as I was concerned. I really wanted to knee him in the balls, but I held myself back.
“Maysie. Listen. I really like you. Of course I'm insanely attracted to you. I mean, look at you.” His eyes roved over my body in a way that made me throb between my legs. Stupid vagina! “But, I also like talking to you. I wasn't really thinking about Olivia when I asked you out. I was only thinking that there was this beautiful, amazing girl that I wanted to get to know better. And look, things with Olivia have been strained for a while. I mean she's off partying in North Carolina all summer...”
Okay, that was it. I didn't want to talk about his relationship with my sorority sister. I wanted to get the hell out of there. I put my hand up to stop him. “Just shut up, alright. I don't care what your reasons were for asking me out. All I know is that you have a girlfriend. Not just any girlfriend, but the president of my freaking sorority. And right now, what I think is that you're some two timing douche bag who wants to get a piece of something on the side while his girlfriend is away. And I have no interest in being that girl.” I pushed off of the wall and walked around him.
I heard him let out frustrated breath. “You're not just a piece of anything. Don't ever think that. I really like you, Maysie,” he said softly, stopping me in my tracks. Damned if I didn't want to believe him. Damned if I didn't still want to turn around and launch myself into his arms. But I had more pride than that.
“Whatever,” I threw back at him and walked away. I should have felt good for putting him in his place. But I didn't. I felt horrible.
Chapter Four
I woke up the next morning with a horrible taste in my mouth and my head feeling like it had been run over by a Mack truck. I groaned and rolled over in my bed, startling when I touched a hard body lying next to me. I sat up, the blanket falling to my waist and gasped at the fact that I was naked.
Then it all came flooding back to me. Jordan. Jordan asking me out. Finding out Jordan was dating Olivia too-perfect-to-be-real Peer. I had gotten completely tanked and taken a cab back to the apartment. Then around three in the morning there had been a knock at my door.
Eli had shown up, completely stoned. Of course I had let him in. I was drunk, I was depressed over the whole Jordan fiasco. And more importantly I was extremely horny. So I had allowed him to maul my body with his hands while he trailed slobbery kisses across my face and neck. I tried not to imagine that it was Jordan as Eli took my clothes off and proceeded to give me some of the most awkward oral sex of my life.
Maybe it was the fact that he could barely stay awake while his tongue slid over me. Or perhaps it was the fact that I was dangerously close to calling out another guy's name. Well, whatever it was, the mood left about as fast as it had arrived. So I pulled Eli up rather forcibly by his hair and made him stop with the god awful tongue tango he was attempting to perform on my nether regions.
He had protested and tried to keep going at it. But I had hauled him up by his shoulders and made him lay down on the other side of my queen sized bed. I hated cuddling while I slept, which was the reason I very rarely let guys stay the night. I liked my space. There was nothing more annoying than waking up with someone's arm over your face and hot morning breath in your ear. Yuck. No thank you. The morning after was just not my thing.
And of course, Eli was all up in my personal space and I really had to pee. So I, not too carefully, heaved him onto his other side. He grunted but didn't wake up. I threw on a pair of shorts and an old Rinard College t-shirt and opened the door to my room.
Riley was coming out of hers at the same time. “Morning,” she said and then looked around me into my room where Eli was snoring like a freight train in my bed. She snorted. “Niiice...” she said slowly. I closed my door a little louder than I meant to and moved passed her to the bathroom.
“He showed up here early this morning. He was wasted, I couldn't let him drive home,” I explained. Though it annoyed me that I felt the need to explain anything. I was an adult. If I wanted to have a guy over, that was my business. I had to check myself. I was feeling overly touchy and I knew Riley really didn't mean anything by it.
“Whatever, I wasn't going to say anything,” she commented, going into the kitchen.
“Wow, there's a first,” I said sarcastically, going into the bathroom. I closed the door on Riley's laugh. When I was done I padded into the kitchen to find Riley had made coffee.
She held out a steaming cup. I took it and cradled it to my chest. “Oh, sweet nectar of the gods,” I moaned as I took my first fortifying sip. Riley pulled out the bread and popped two pieces into the toaster.
“Want any?” she asked and I shook my head, feeling queasy to my stomach. She slathered her toast with peanut butter and my nausea intensified.
“God, that's disgusting,” I groaned, looking away as she took her first bite.
“That's what you get for tipping the scales toward alcohol poisoning last night. You're lucky a hangover is all you ended up with. You were loaded. What the hell brought that on?” Riley asked, looking at me questioningly.
I rooted around in the cabinet for the bottle of ibuprofen and shook out three capsules in my hand and swallowed them without water. I drank another sip of coffee and looked at her. “I was just hanging out with Gracie and the girls. Things got a little crazy is all,” I evaded.
“So, you didn't meet up with Jordan after work? I thought you said that's what you were planning to do.” I stiffened at her question. The mention of Jordan made my already upset stomach roll over painfully. The night was a bit fuzzy but one thing was crystal freaking clear. He had a girlfr
iend. And that made him completely untouchable. Because as much as I wanted something to happen with him, I just wasn't that girl. Never had been, never would be.
My silence piqued Riley's curiosity. “What happened? Did you not end up hanging out?” She used air quotes and I felt an irrational urge to slap her. I was used to Riley's snarky commentary but for once it touched a raw nerve. I felt like an idiot for being made a fool of. Jordan had led me on and I didn't take that very well. What's worse is I had felt something for Jordan in the 24 hours I had known him that I had never experienced before. It was more than lust, more than attraction. It was this crazy connection that would be near impossible to ignore.
But ignore it I would. Because he was a dick and that's all there was to it.
“Yeah, that's just not gonna happen,” I muttered, dumping the rest of my coffee into the sink and putting my mug in the dishwasher. Riley dropped her plate on the counter and I gave her a look of death until she shrugged and put it in the dishwasher as well.
“Why? What happened?” she asked innocently. The lack of jaded sarcasm in her voice made my hackles drop a bit. I sighed and perched up on the stool at the island.
“He has a girlfriend,” I admitted, dropping my head into my palm.
Riley's face darkened. “That asshole,” she hissed, coming immediately to my defense. And that was why I loved her. She had my back no matter what.
“I know, right?” I said, grabbing my cigarettes from the wooden bowl on the counter where we kept our keys. Riley followed me out onto the balcony. She must have sensed how upset I was because for once I didn't hear a word about the cancer stick I was lighting up.
I leaned back in the chair and let out a drag. “He was coming onto you really strong last night and the whole time the nut sack had a fucking girlfriend? You should castrate him!” Riley's voice was filled with self-righteous anger and I gave a weak laugh.
“Yeah, I contemplated serious bodily harm once I found out, trust me.” I took another drag from my cigarette and exhaled, watching the smoke plume out in a thick cloud. “And you don't even know the worst part,” I continued. Riley watched me, waiting.
“His girlfriend is Olivia Peer,” I told her. Riley's eyebrows drew together as she tried to place the name. “You know, the president of Chi Delta?” Recognition registered and her eyes widened in surprise.
“You are shitting me?!” she breathed out.
I shook my head as I leaned over to stub out my cigarette. I flicked the butt over the banister of the balcony. I propped my feet on the wrought iron and leaned back in the chair. “Yeah, I couldn't have been more surprised than if he had told me he was gay.” Riley, who had been leaning back in her own chair on two legs, slammed back down onto the ground.
“So he at least came clean, right? I mean he told you he had a girlfriend?” she asked.
“Nope.” I let my mouth pop around the word. “I found out from one of my sisters. Vivian told me he and Liv have been dating for like three years or something. I knew he looked familiar, but I just assumed it was because he was a Pi Sig and I had seen him at parties or something. But now that I think about it, I have heard his name mentioned a lot. I can't believe I was such an idiot. Of course a guy like Jordan Levitt would be with a girl like Olivia Peer. They're both beautiful, popular, and fucking perfect. They make sense,” I said a little depressed.
Riley swatted my arm. “Stop with the self-hating bullshit. You aren't some fugly social reject. You're hot and popular and all that other trite crap as well. Olivia ain't got nothin' on you, babe.” I grinned at my best friend, appreciating her efforts to perk me up.
“Love you, Riley,” I said, blowing her a kiss.
“Back at ya, chica. But seriously, I want to kick his ass. That was a total dick move. Asking you out while he was taken. What a dog. But do you see why I told you to stay away from guys you work with? Because now it'll be weird.”
I stood up and opened the sliding door. Riley followed me inside. “No it won't. Because I barely know the guy. There's no sense in getting all worked up over someone I just met. At least I know it's not going anywhere. Now we can just be friends. No drama.”
“Who can you just be friends with?” Eli asked from the hallway, his voice husky from sleep. I whipped around to see him ambling into the living room, pulling his shirt over his head.
Riley smirked and went back to her room, leaving me with a barely functioning Eli. He sat on the couch and pulled on his Doc Martens, tucking the laces inside. Which for some reason I found really annoying all of the sudden. I mean, how lazy do you have to be to not take the extra two seconds it takes to tie them?
I found myself glaring at his shoes and had to snap myself out of it. “Uh, nothing. No one. Just some guy at work.” I replied in what I hoped was a blase attitude. Eli zipped up his jeans and left the button undone and I could see the dark hair trailing from his belly button and disappearing into his pants. Normally I would have found that hot. This morning I just found that he looked sloppy and unkempt. Nothing like the sexy deliciousness of Jordan Levitt.
Crap. Snap out of it! Eli pulled on my hand and I ended up in his lap on the couch. He wrapped his arms around my waist and started sucking on the skin at my neck. I pulled away. “If you give me a hickey, I'll kill you,” I warned and Eli chuckled.
“You've never minded it before,”he said as he tugged the collar of my shirt down so he could lick the cleft between my breasts.
I felt the familiar stirring between my legs and then just as suddenly as it came, Jordan's face flashed in my mind and it was like throwing a bucket of cold water on my libido. I slithered off of Eli's lap and plopped down beside him. Eli reached over and tucked a piece of hair behind my ear. “Sorry for my less than stellar performance last night. I was fucking wasted. I didn't even make you come. That's unforgivable,” Eli murmured as he worked his fingers under the elastic of my shorts.
Normally, I loved Eli's sexual candor. But now, with another boy on my mind, it just made me feel uncomfortable. I barked out a fake sounding laugh and wiggled out from underneath his hand. “That's okay, baby. You needed to sleep.” Eli looked at me strangely but didn't comment on the way I kept trying to dodge his touch. We both knew it was unusual for me to stop him once he got started. But I just wasn't in the mood and he'd have to deal with it.
“Yeah, thanks for letting me stay the night. I enjoyed sleeping next to you.” His heavy lidded eyes smoldered at me and I had to blink in surprise. Eli was anything but a romantic. So his sweet sentiment threw me.
Eli leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips. “You're beautiful first thing in the morning. I think I could get used to that,” he whispered as he attempted to deepen the kiss. This is what I had wanted him to say since we had started hooking up. But now it just left me feeling cold.
But then I got angry. Angry at myself for letting stupid Jordan Levitt interfere with whatever Eli and I had. He and his two-timing ass were definitely not worth it. So I forced myself to give into Eli's mouth as his tongue swept against mine, his teeth nibbling on my lower lip. He groaned in the back of his throat and pulled me against him as we sank into the couch.
“Sorry to interrupt but Maysie, we've got to head into Barton's and get our schedules,” Riley said, suddenly appearing in the living room. I pulled away from Eli abruptly but he continued to tease the underside of my breast with his fingers, not feeling in the least bit self- conscious about the fact that my roommate was standing less than five feet away.
He looked up and gave Riley a lazy smile, his fingers squeezing my nipple as I squirmed. “Why don't you join us over here, Riley. It would be hot to have us all together, ya know. What do you say?” Normally I would have laughed at Eli's efforts to make Riley uncomfortable. He loved to say outlandish crap just to piss her off. He knew she didn't like him so he used that against her...a lot.
But this time, his words just bugged me. I shoved his hand away from me and pulled my shirt down. “Shut up, Eli. That's me
ssed up,” I told him sharply. Eli looked at me and for once I didn't see the stoned, could give a shit demeanor he typically wore. In fact, he looked almost hurt by my tone. Well, that was just ridiculous, considering he had never expressed an interest in how I felt about anything before.
“In your dreams loser. Now, get the hell out of our apartment so we can get ready,” Riley retorted, turning on her heel and heading into the kitchen.
Eli got to his feet and I followed him to the front door. I held it open for him as he walked out into the hallway. He turned around and took my face into his hands. He cradled me as he gave me the sweetest, most gentle kiss he had ever given me. What the heck was going on?
“I'd like to see you tonight. Are you free?” he asked me. I chewed on my lip, unsure as to what had suddenly changed between us. This was not the Eli I was accustomed to.
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