Schooled

by Piper Lawson

  “Lex?” Dylan’s voice was a raw whisper in my ear. I could tell his impatience was kicking in, and loved how I could make him come unhinged. I could barely breathe, let alone answer him. “If we don’t get into this room right now, I’m going to fuck you up against that door.” My fingers almost dropped the key again. “In about two minutes everyone on the eighteenth floor is going to know my name.”

  Mercifully, the green light flashed and we fell into the dark room.

  The door closed almost as quickly as it’d opened, and Dylan slammed my body up against it. I’d never felt him this desperate before.

  I reached for the zipper in my dress and started to carefully slide it down my body so as not to damage it, extending one hand to hold his chest away from me. “Dylan, as much as I love this,” I managed to get out between kisses, “Ava will kill me if I wreck this dress.”

  “I’ll kill you if you wreck that dress. I fucking love that dress.” His mouth was buried in my shoulder, my hair wrapped around his hand pulling my head back to allow him better access.

  I managed to step out of it and toss it on the stool by the bar. It shouldn’t wrinkle too badly in the next twelve minutes. Which was probably a generous estimate of how long we’d last.

  Feeling a sudden urge to take a breath, to catch up with what we were doing, I pushed Dylan back just far enough to look at him. He complied, though clearly unsure of this unexpected shift in me. “Hey,” I said.

  “Hey.” A million things were running through his eyes. A question, why I’d stopped him. Impatience and hunger because he wanted me. A deeper emotion I couldn’t name but desperately needed to.

  He reached a hand up to run a finger across my lips, almost reverently. At first we’d been all about the passion, but the sweetness had crept in over time. It resurfaced now. “God you’re beautiful.” The emotion in his voice made me swallow.

  “Dylan, I’m sorry if I—”

  “I know. Later.”

  I didn’t know what had caused the moment, but it felt like we were frozen in time. We were still seducing one another, being seduced by one another, but our touches were slow, and longing, and meaningful.

  I’d fallen for him, hard—after a month apart, was ready to give him anything he wanted. Would tell him anything he wanted. Which scared the hell out of me.

  So instead I lifted the bottom of his shirt and ran a finger along the top of his pants, feeling his skin heat beneath my touch. I tilted my chin up at him.

  “Dylan?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Are you going to fuck me or what?”

  His eyes lit as he pulled the shirt over his head and I went to work on his belt. He pushed me back up against the door and wrapped my legs around his hips.

  Dylan reached between my legs, sliding the scrap of silk aside to plunge his fingers into me. “Bossy,” he murmured against my lips, stroking me with his fingers and rubbing his thumb in circles over my clit. My head fell back at the intensity.

  After a few moments the pressure was starting to build, and then he pulled his hand back and I moaned in protest. He slowly slid those two fingers into his mouth and sucked them, eyes fierce on mine, before letting them fall. Holy shit. Then he leaned forward and kissed me, hard, and nothing in the world had ever been hotter than tasting myself on him.

  When he pulled back I was dizzy. “Where’d you learn that?”

  “Creative license,” he drawled.

  “Dylan Cameron, you are the hottest thing I’ve ever seen.” I pulled his face back to mine and pulled him out of his boxers so I could stroke him. He groaned into my mouth and suddenly the race was on.

  We clawed desperately at each other as his control snapped. I tried to get a few more strokes in, but he pushed my hand aside and reached around my thighs, lifting me up and against the door as he plunged into me in a single stroke. If I hadn’t been so ready, it would’ve been unbearably tight. But it felt like heaven.

  Our voices mingled as we kissed and moaned together. He felt unreal. He was so deep, but still I wanted him deeper, closer to me, part of me. I wanted him to be mine forever.

  We were so far gone. I leaned my forehead against his, beads of sweat mingling. Our eyes locked.

  “Lex, I’m close,” he warned.

  I dug my nails into his back. “Dylan, please. Just like this.”

  We came together, crying out, not caring who heard.

  ---

  I woke up to the sound of the door closing behind me. The way the sun was peeking through the gap in the curtains, which we’d forgotten to close the night before, suggested it was still early. I stretched and rolled over to see Dylan wearing jeans, last night’s shirt, a leather jacket, and a killer grin. He was carrying two cups of coffee. I smiled and beckoned him with a finger. “Get over here, you.”

  “Are you talking to me or my coffee?” Dylan raised an eyebrow.

  “I meant the coffee. But I guess you can come too.” I held the sheet over me and leaned toward him while he passed me the coffee. I promptly deposited it on the bedside table behind me and grabbed the collar of his shirt. His mouth was warm on mine. I could get used to this. It felt right.

  “How can I be this sore,” I muttered between kisses, “and still want to do it all over again?” I moaned as his lips and teeth started doing wicked things to my neck.

  He smiled smugly against my skin. “I’d be happy to oblige.”

  Thirty minutes later we were back on even ground in the clothing department: 0–0.

  “Have I told you how much I love your new ideas?” I said.

  “Mhmm.”

  “So how’ve you been?”

  “OK. Actually, that’s not true. I’ve been shitty.” He leveled serious eyes at me. “School’s OK, the guys are fine. But there’s this girl I was into, and she kind of up and left me. And I realized there’s no one I can talk to like her. There’s no one that makes me laugh, and swear. And she already knows my secrets, so it’s just easier.”

  “You’re saying I’m a sure thing?”

  “Something like that. But you’re not predictable.”

  “Can I ask something?” He nodded. “Did you really hit Jake?”

  Dylan expelled something between a laugh and a groan. “I hate that guy.”

  I was glad. Jake was pretty hard to hate, but the fact that Dylan did on principle meant something.

  “I guess I should be his biggest fan since he’s responsible for you being single. But I hate that he was with you. That he’s touched you, talked about his dreams and yours. And the way he was talking about you guys getting back together …”

  “Jake said that?”

  “Yeah. And I just lost it,” he admitted.

  “I didn’t peg you for a fighter.”

  “I’m not. It just made me crazy thinking about you with anyone but me.”

  I mulled this over for a few moments.

  “Dylan, I want to make this work. You mean a lot. I’ll tell Ava tomorrow. I just want to wait until after the pitch.”

  “Seriously? Thank God.”

  Round three was sweeter, but not slow.

  ---

  I was still lying on my back when the knock sounded at the door. Dylan jumped up to answer it, pulling the handle.

  “Why did you order room service? We just had—”

  “Dylan?” I froze at the familiar voice. “I’m freaking out. I need you to help me find Lex.”

  In slow motion, Ava stepped into the room. I noticed she was dressed a bit more conservatively than usual in a gray wool skirt and a violet blouse. Her polished appearance didn’t match her face, which wore an expression of panic. Our eyes connected and the expression was instantly replaced with one of horror and disbelief.

  Then she turned on her heel and took off as quickly as she’d come, leaving a wide-open door in her wake.

  Chapter 28

  “Shit, shit, SHIT!” I rushed to pull on clothes, looked around for my cell. A worried and contrite looking Dylan seeme
d to realize what I was doing, then dug around in the pocket of his jeans from the night before to produce the phone.

  “Thanks.” I leaned up to kiss him on the cheek. “I have to—”

  “I know. Go,” he said as I was already making a beeline for the door.

  I didn’t know where she’d gone but thought I’d try our hotel. I wanted to call her in the meantime and hit the power button, but the battery was dead. Great. If she’d gone to one of the million other places she could be instead of the hotel, I’d be screwed.

  As I ran I thought about what I was going to say. Obviously this was not the scenario I’d envisioned.

  Bursting into our hotel room twenty minutes later, I saw Ava throwing things into a suitcase with her back to the door. She whirled around when I entered.

  “Ava, thank God you’re here.”

  “You missed the meeting.”

  “What meeting?” Panic. “The meeting with Kirsten?” I checked my watch, which I’d thrown in my jacket pocket as opposed to putting back on in my rush to leave Dylan’s. It was only ten thirty.

  “You remember the part where she said it might move up? Well, Kirsten called this morning to say she was bumping the meeting up to nine thirty. Apparently two of her colleagues had to switch their plans to leave early for their vacation to Europe. I assumed you’d gotten the message, since she rang first thing. But I called you just in case.”

  I was rooted to the spot, felt like all the air had been sucked out of my lungs. Out of the entire room. This couldn’t be happening. It had to be a bad dream. But the pieces clicked into place one by one.

  Dylan. He’d put my phone in his pocket. And the battery died.

  Ava turned to face me. “I came here first and was freaking out you weren’t home. So I went to your office, thinking maybe … I don’t know, you’d gone in early. Because this is the most important thing of our lives and I know you’d never let anything get in the way of that.” Her voice was rough.

  Words finally came. “Oh God, Ava. I’m so sorry.” I was white. My head was spinning as my worst nightmare unfolded before me. But apparently it could get worse.

  “For what? Missing the meeting? Or for being with my brother behind my back?” She waited, deadly quiet. “What were you doing there, Lex? And don’t you dare tell me it was just a hookup. You wouldn’t do that. Not with him.” She’d never looked so serious.

  I swallowed. “Ava, I …”

  “We don’t keep secrets, Lex. Remember?”

  “Ava …” My brain hadn’t worked out a contingency plan for this. The few times I’d thought of telling Ava, it had been in a controlled way. Not seeded with betrayal and hurt.

  “How long?”

  “What?”

  “How long has this been going on?”

  I did the quick math in my head. Sucked in a breath. “Two months.”

  Ava looked even more disgusted than she had a moment before. I didn’t know that was even possible. “You’ve been together this whole time behind my back? Lying to me? You were the one who said we needed to plan and put the business first.”

  Tears burned the backs of my eyes. “I know. I’m so, so sorry.”

  “The worst part is, I don’t know how you’d be with him. He’s been trying to get in our way all along.”

  My throat dried up. “What? What are you talking about?”

  “My parents were going to invest in Travesty. I talked to them last year about loaning some money for us to get started, and thought it was settled. But they told Dylan about it this summer, and Dylan said it was a bad idea. He’s been trying to convince them otherwise ever since. Told them to wait until after Christmas to decide, that things would change by then.

  “He also started pushing other programs on me. Trying to get Mom and Dad to pull my tuition unless I switched.”

  I was horrified.

  “He thinks I don’t know. In the end they decided not to pull my tuition. But now I can’t see them loaning us any money either. And we just missed the chance to sell your boss’s friends on the idea, so …” She shrugged in a way that was anything but careless. “You tell me. Where do we go from here?”

  My brain was incapable of processing all of this. I just stood there, gazing wildly between points on the floor. Tears were welling up behind my eyes.

  Ava’s gaze reflected hurt and pity. “Looks like there’s finally something you don’t know, Lex. You thought you had it all figured out. But Dylan’s used to getting his way, and outsmarted us all, you included.”

  Ava zipped her bag closed and started back toward the door, suitcase in tow. “Now you’ve just blown up our best lead for business. I hope you’re in the market for a new job post-grad. Maybe you should be in the market for a new best friend too.”

  The door shut loudly behind Ava before my knees gave out under me and I sunk to the floor. For the first time in ten years, I let the tears flow freely.

  I sat there for a long time.

  Chapter 29

  A while later I managed to pull myself together long enough to relocate to the bed. The rest of the day was spent lying on my back, staring at the ceiling, contemplating how things could have possibly gotten so screwed up. I’d screwed up my friendship with Ava, our dream and future careers, my relationship with Kirsten, my … whatever I had with Dylan. Or whatever I’d thought we had. If Ava had it right I’d just been a pawn.

  The perfect in to help put the brakes on our business plans. Would he be that callous?

  If it was to protect his family’s interests, he might.

  I didn’t check my cellphone until late. When it was fully charged I pulled up voicemail. A blinking icon told me there were eight messages.

  Four were from Ava about the meeting. I forced myself to listen to them in order. In the first she was excited and nervous, wanting to confirm the address and asking what she should wear. In the last she was tense and worried. It felt like replaying our conversation over again. My gut twisted tighter with every message.

  One was from Kirsten, also about moving the meeting up. “Hello, Alexis, two of my colleagues have to leave early today, but good news: we’ve been able to reschedule for this morning at nine thirty. I know you’re ready to present, so see you soon.” It was at 6:45 a.m.

  Now I’d let her down big time. I’d also managed to make her and Ava look like fools in front of some of the top names in the business. How was I going to get over this?

  The last message was from Dylan. Miserable, I hit PLAY. A warm voice tinged with concern played out at me. “Hi beautiful, I hope everything’s OK—this morning looked shitty but I know we’ll figure it out.” He laughed. My gut twisted.

  “Give me a call when you can. I … miss you.” A breath. “That sounds dumb since we’ve only been apart for eight hours. If you ever repeat that to my roommates they will never let me live it down.”

  Hearing his voice made it even harder to reconcile what I felt with what Ava had said he’d done. Clearly he’d distracted me. But I really cared about him. Wasn’t that worth something?

  I didn’t know if it was serious. I’d loved Jake, once, but this was different. With Dylan it was like he knew exactly what made me tick. How to make me smile. How to say the right thing to light me up. We certainly connected physically. Last night had been one of the best nights of my life. Hell, I’d fallen for him, even if I wasn’t sure he felt the same way.

  If I found out he’d played me, I might never get over it. Could he do it? Probably. Would he? I didn’t want to think so. I’d only truly known him for a short time, but everything in my heart said this wasn’t him.

  It seemed so far-fetched. I needed to hear it from him.

  With grim determination I dialed his number.

  He answered on the second ring. Sounded out of breath, like he’d run to grab the phone. “Lex. What’s going on? Are you OK?”

  A million things ran through my head. How good it was to hear his voice. How much I wished he was here. In the end I said som
ething else entirely.

  “I need to ask you something. It’s crazy but I just need you to answer me, OK?”

  He paused. “Anything.”

  “Were you trying to stop Ava and I from launching Travesty?” I was hoping he’d sound confused, ask me what I was talking about.

  Instead there was silence over the line. Finally, “Where are you getting this from?”

  I sucked in a breath. This was not the answer I had expected. “Were you convincing your parents not to support us? Which I had no idea they were even going to do, by the way.”

  A deep breath echoed in my ears. A muffled curse. “I’m not going to lie to you, Lex. But will you let me explain?” My head suddenly felt full of cotton. Nothing else processed. He hadn’t denied it. What Ava said had all been true. He’d been out to see us fail. To see me fail. Suddenly I didn’t want to hear anything more.

  “No. But I will say that you got your wish.”

  I told him how they’d moved the interview, how I hadn’t answered. He was silent for a few minutes.

  “So that’s why Ava’s upset.” That was part of it. “Lex, I’m so sorry.”

  I heard a thud down the line, like Dylan had hit something. Still I didn’t care, was building up a head of steam from the horrifying revelation that what I thought couldn’t possibly be true actually was true.

  “So you were using me? This was all just a big setup to try and get me and Ava to back down from starting our own business?”

  “It wasn’t like that. I wasn’t using you.”

  “It was like that. I was the convenient means to your end. Nothing’s ever been as important to you, Dylan, as this is to me. I’ve given up everything for this. You don’t understand that.”

  “What don’t I understand? Sacrifice? Working hard? Wanting something that’s always just out of reach?” His voice was urgent and had taken on an edge. I wished suddenly I could see him. Was he rubbing his hand through his hair the way he did when he was agitated? Though his voice was forceful, there was an undercurrent of hurt. The age thing almost never came up with us, but it did now.