Schooled

by Piper Lawson

  “I don’t mind at all. That would be fantastic.” And it was.

  Back in my hotel room, I’d almost needed someone to peel me off the ceiling. It was the lone high moment for me in the past few weeks. The one that made it feel like success was so close I could taste it, and like all the blood, sweat, and tears were going to be worthwhile.

  ---

  I was glad to see my best friend. She’d arrived last night and we had a last-minute Travesty conclave in our hotel room but otherwise kept things pretty mellow. Tonight she had other ideas.

  “We’re going out. You’ve been so bummed lately, and working insane hours. We’re all set for tomorrow afternoon. Now you just need to calm down,” she told me. Since we had both turned twenty-one already, we could legally get into any club. But, before that Ava had arranged fake IDs that had permitted us entrance to many establishments since we were nineteen. Still, it was nice to do it legally, and as myself rather than Alexis Bledel. The name had been Ava’s idea. Incidentally most bouncers had never watched the Gilmore Girls, so it was rarely an issue.

  “It’s like a pre-celebration. And you’re wearing this.” She produced a gorgeous silk green dress that was fitted around the bust. When I tried it on, it hung loose to the tops of my thighs.

  “How did I not know you were working on this?”

  “It’s your Christmas present.” Ava clapped her hands together. “And you will look totally hot in it!”

  “I love it, thank you.” And I did love it. The dress wasn’t the color of emeralds, like what I usually wore, but a pale mossy shade that looked like plants in the forest. It gave extra punch to my hair, making it look more copper than red. I styled it in waves hanging down my back just past my shoulders. Some black strappy sandals and a gold clutch pulled it together into something that looked festive and hip at once.

  Ava looked stunning, as usual. Her dark hair was up in some kind of messy bun that looked like it’d taken hours. Pieces fell artfully down by her face, which was dramatically made up with light eye makeup and dark-red lips. Her dress was black with cutouts along the midsection, and it stopped well above her knees. With a pair of platform black stilettos, it showed off her legs to full advantage and made her look much taller than usual.

  Since Ava would not be dissuaded from her quest for guys, she chose an upscale place that apparently catered to young professionals. As it turned out, junior stockbrokers and lawyers were a few years older than us but not many. It was classic Ava to show up in a town she barely knew and immediately find the hottest party.

  She eyed up a few guys by the bar when we went to grab a drink. Ava was chatting them up.

  “No one will believe we’re in such a fab place,” she gasped.

  “Yeah. We’ll have to take pictures or they’ll think we made it up.”

  “My brother said he’d stop by. He can be our alibi.”

  “What? Ethan’s in town?” I knew he did some business here occasionally.

  “Other one.”

  It took me a minute to process. When I did I nearly choked on my martini. “Dylan’s in New York?”

  Ava nodded. “Weird, right? He has some kind of engineering conference. He also said something about visiting friends from Penn State.”

  Two good-looking guys in jeans and button-downs offered to buy us the next round of drinks as my brain rushed to make sense of this piece of news. Ava quickly jumped on that bandwagon and instantly we’d made some friends.

  The guys were cute and very flirty, and dragged us off to dance. After one song I pulled away and told Ava I’d be back. I wandered up the stairs to the second floor, my mind wrapped around other things. I leaned against the railing, gazing down over the dance floor.

  Dylan hadn’t mentioned anything about a conference, or visiting. But then, why should he? We weren’t anything anymore.

  If I could go back, do things differently, would I? I wasn’t sure. But it was perfectly clear to me in the weeks since we broke up that something wasn’t the same without him. Breaking up with Jake, even after four years, had been a huge adjustment—we had spent time together most days. But with Dylan it was more acute, like a piece of me had been cut out. A piece I hadn’t known was so critical to my functioning.

  The club was dark but there were pulsing lights. I watched Ava dancing enthusiastically with a different guy than before. It looked like she’d traded up to one in a suit.

  I should’ve been having a better time but felt detached from it all. Like I was above it and not part of it. Which in a way I was.

  New York was a one-in-a-million kind of city. I’d always romanticized about it, about the energy, the vibe, the people. But right now I wasn’t feeling like a one-in-a-million kind of girl. So, it was wasted on me.

  The song changed again and this time, something shifted in me. I glanced over toward the bar and my gaze caught, held. My heart started beating faster than the techno music in the background. Before I could think it through, I was tripping down the stairs, whether due to my own clumsiness or the obscenely large heels, and up to the bar.

  For once I had zero thought of doing “the right thing.” I pushed my way through the crowd and sucked in a breath, not the slightest idea of what I would do next.

  “Come here often?” I asked, standing on my toes so my lips nearly grazed his ear.

  Chapter 27

  I could smell his shampoo. A wave of emotion washed over me and my breath hitched.

  Dylan’s body stiffened, and he turned his head a fraction of an inch but was still facing away from me. After one heartbeat, two, he turned back to face the bartender.

  I wasn’t sure what to do next and thought about retreating to beat some sense into myself. But I saw some evil girls down the bar eyeing him up. Screw pride, and sense. There was no way I was going to let them any closer.

  I downed my drink and tilted my chin at the bartender to get another, mouthing my drink order. I’d need it. Dylan didn’t move to acknowledge me except to let me in at the bar just enough to pay.

  After taking a long sip, I tried again. “I miss you.” My voice was casual but there was a raw edge to it. Something more meaningful.

  His laugh sounded tight. Not the easy sound I’d come to expect, but at least he acknowledged me. And why the hell wouldn’t he look at me?

  We stood, not touching, surrounded by people and drinks and a low, thrumming beat, for endless moments. I could smell Dylan and feel his warmth even in the heat of the club. Being this close to him after nearly a month apart was perfect, and it was torture.

  Well, at this point I had very little to lose.

  “Dylan. I can’t stop thinking about you.”

  “Yeah?” The first word he’d said to me. He glanced in my direction for a split second, our eyes connecting. I took the opening and charged ahead.

  “I think about the way you laugh at my stupid jokes. The way you’ll be totally sweet one moment and drive me crazy the next.” He was still listening, but I couldn’t read his face. I dragged in another breath. “The way every girl in this bar wants you but you don’t have a clue.”

  Being this close to him without touching him was killing me. It had been too long since I’d had his hands on me, his mouth. While my memory had preserved parts of him, it hadn’t quite gotten right the intensity I felt being in his presence. The way it felt like the air crackled between us when we were just a few breaths apart.

  “Dylan?”

  I waited endless minutes. The song changed to something low and primal, and still I refused to move. How long was he going to make me wait? Would he even acknowledge me at all?

  He’d have to, I thought determinedly. Because I wasn’t going to move.

  Dylan slowly finished his drink before turning to me. When he finally did his eyes were stormy, but in the low lighting, I couldn’t tell what mood he was in.

  “I think about you too.” Something in me thrilled as he reached a hand out to my hip, pulled me gently toward him, leaned down until
his mouth brushed my ear. God, yes. Yes, yes, yes.

  “I think about my mouth on you.” Dylan’s voice was low, his lips on my skin. Something in me curled at the feeling. “When you’re just starting to come, you make those little noises because you’re so close you want to scream.” He pulled me harder against him. A bolt of pure lust ran down my body at the feel of how hard he was already. I had no idea whether he felt anything beyond the physical, but I was ready to take anything he would give me.

  “I think about sliding into you when we’re in the shower. Of being hot and wet and slippery all over, and you’re even hotter and wetter inside.” He said it on a single breath and I felt the air pass my ear. I swallowed audibly, not sure I could speak if my life depended on it. But my body was responding, turning to Jell-O until I thought I’d melt at his feet. He must’ve known, as his hands held my hips tighter to steady me.

  Dylan’s mouth grazed my ear again. “I think about feeling like a fucking king when you’re so far gone that all you can say is my name.” His voice was rough but his lips were soft, moving back and forth across my sensitive skin. When he spoke I could hear not only hunger but something else. Something deeper. “And you say it, over and over.”

  Shit. Dylan had just obliterated the time and space that’d come between us. I couldn’t tell whether my heart or my libido was leading the charge, but both were completely invested.

  I’d missed him more than I thought possible. In that moment, with him pressed up against me and whispering those things, I needed him back. Would tell Ava about us. And his family. And anyone else who cared to listen. I’d shout it from the top of the Empire State building.

  I didn’t care if he broke down my walls. If we broke up and it caused problems, so what? We’d deal with them. The bigger question was, what if we didn’t break up? Was it fair to deny us the possibility of something epic because of what could go wrong? What Ava or her parents might say or do?

  The reasons I’d been keeping us apart suddenly seemed feeble. As they crashed down around me, in their place I felt a sudden possessiveness spring up.

  In that moment I didn’t care that he was my best friend’s brother. He was my Dylan now, mine first. Everyone else could get the hell in line.

  I grabbed his hand and pulled him along behind me toward one of the private bathrooms, tugging him in. I locked the door behind us. Looked up at him for the first time in weeks.

  Dylan towered over me, looking like a mirage conjured by a girl dying of thirst. His tailored jeans perfectly fit lean hips. The navy button-down made his eyes a deeper brown. The eyes that were stormy and just inches from mine.

  His breathing was unsteady, like he wasn’t sure where his words had left us. Like he didn’t know what it had done to me. He was waiting for me to give him permission. But I’d dragged him in here, hadn’t I?

  “Don’t go shy on me now, Cameron.” I raised my chin, both in challenge and surrender. Dylan’s eyes blazed at me and he released a long breath I hadn’t noticed he was holding.

  “Turn around.” His voice was firmer than usual, leaving no room for argument, and just a little hoarse. I did. “Pull up your dress.” Shaky hands lifted it to my waist, leaving my ass exposed. Dylan groaned and leaned into me.

  “Fuck you’re gorgeous. It’s been driving me crazy, being away from you,” he murmured, lips moving on my neck. My chest was pressed against the wall. “I want to do everything to you.” His finger ran down my spine slowly, down my thong where it ran between my cheeks. Pulled it tight so I could feel the fabric slide across heated flesh. Then he slipped his finger underneath, into me.

  He was still the Dylan I knew, but our time apart had made him edgier somehow. Like he’d taken every second we were separated and thought of a million things to do to me and was now focused single-mindedly on executing them.

  I felt like I’d just fallen off the face of the earth and into another dimension. Just when I’d gotten used to our play, he’d changed the rules of the game and I was breathless and disoriented again.

  I groaned. “Please, Dylan.” I didn’t know what I was begging for. I’d take whatever he’d give me right now. In a minute I might be a puddle on the floor of the bathroom.

  “Tell me you missed me.”

  “God, more than you can imagine.” The words were husky.

  He added a second finger, sliding in and out. “Tell me you need me.”

  “You have no idea. I always need you. Only you.” My hands were braced on the cool tile of the wall but I was burning up everywhere.

  Dylan groaned and I could tell my words were affecting him.

  His thumb had hooked around my thong and he pulled it tight every time his fingers left. It was madness, no relief. Back and forth, fingers invading then the friction of lace against my wet skin. I shuddered.

  “In a minute,” he whispered against my ear, his voice raw, “we’re going to go back out there. I want you to talk to your friends, and dance, and drink. And every second you’re going to be thinking about how badly you want me inside you. Of how wet you are because you can’t wait.”

  His words made me both hotter and anguished. I writhed over his hand, and he slipped the other hand up my dress to cup my breast. His fingers pinched my nipple while the other worked me down below. I’d clearly taught him too well.

  “And later,” his words were a promise hissed through his clenched jaw—he was almost as worked up as I was, just from touching me—“I’m going to have you a million different ways until I’m so deep inside you that you can’t ever forget me.”

  So close. His fingers sped up to match my rhythm and I was biting my lip to keep from letting the sounds escape. I could hear loud voices just outside the door. Dylan’s hushed tones into my shoulder, where he scraped his teeth across my back. “Lex, I love your smart mouth. But keep quiet for a second.”

  It was enough to make me lose control completely. My head fell back. He reached a hand across my mouth to muffle the involuntary moan that emerged. I reached back to grab his hair and pulled hard as I clenched around him. My whole body shook with the force of it as it ripped through me. Holy God, this boy undid me. The dirty talk, the sweetness, the innocence, the boldness. All wrapped up in a combination that seemed to be my kryptonite.

  Then Dylan kissed me, just once, lightly and almost sweetly, before leaving me to wash up and find my way out of the bathroom.

  I needed a drink.

  “There you are!” Ava exclaimed. I blushed all kinds of red, hidden, I hoped, by the darkness of the club. “Where were you?”

  Getting my brains fucked out by another stellar example of the Cameron gene pool. “Bathroom. Can I get a drink?”

  “Sure. Then get your ass back out here and dance!”

  Every second you’re going to be thinking about how badly you want me inside you. He was so right. I was. I felt empty without his fingers. Was still wet and couldn’t seem to turn off my brain. I’m going to have you a million different ways until I’m so deep inside you that you can’t ever forget me. Images of his promises were running through my mind. Shit. What I hadn’t quite worked out was how I was going to see Dylan without Ava noticing. I didn’t want to have this conversation in the middle of a club. But I might have to.

  I drank and danced, trying to smile along with Ava and the seemingly endless parade of guys. One seemed to have a thing for me, and Ava kept giving me pointed looks. But no matter what I couldn’t stop thinking about Dylan for even a second.

  Ava seemed to be into one guy in particular. After dancing with him for ages, she came up to me. “Will you hate me if I ditch?”

  Hell no. “No, it’s OK. Is he legit? I don’t know how safe it is for you to go home with some random guy.”

  “He’s fine, trust me. I’ll text you his address.”

  My phone buzzed and I glanced down without Ava noticing.

  Put Ava in a cab and meet me out back

  Five minutes

  “OK, A. I’ll see you tomorrow.
And don’t have too much fun. Be back by eleven so we can have lunch and prep, alright?” I watched Ava leave with the guy before heading to the door myself.

  Dylan was waiting when I got there. He held open the door to a cab and I stepped in, conscious of my dress rising up my thighs as I did. He shut the door behind me and walked around to get in the other side.

  “Good night?” the driver asked.

  “It was alright.” I was afraid if I gave anything away in my voice, I’d lose control in the cab.

  “My place or yours?”

  “Um, yours.” I didn’t want to risk Ava coming home early.

  Dylan plucked the phone from my hands and pocketed it. His eyes darkened. “I haven’t seen you in weeks. I’m not in the mood to share.”

  I tried to make some semblance of conversation during the unbearably long ride. “Ava said you were here for a conference?”

  “I bought the plane ticket earlier this fall. It was going to be a surprise.” Our eyes connected and my heart swelled in my chest. “In the end I couldn’t cancel, and figured why waste a perfectly good trip to New York? Then when Ava might have mentioned your plans tonight …”

  We managed to get out of the cab and into his hotel. The elevator ride was a blur, his mouth on mine before the doors even closed. He pinned me up against the mirrored wall, and my legs wrapped wantonly around his waist as my hands fisted in hair that had grown longer over our break.

  “God I missed you,” he murmured against my mouth. A thrill rushed up my spine, not just because his hardness was pressing against my stomach. I had missed him too, more than I wanted to admit. Missed his voice. The way his mind was always running underneath the smooth surface. The way he could be sweet when he thought no one was paying attention, unlike most guys, who waited until they’d be noticed.

  “Key?” I asked hazily after we stumbled out of the elevator. He reached into his pocket and handed it to me, his teeth on my neck and his other hand up my skirt. My hands shook as I tried to slide the card into the door. Dropped it. Dammit.