My eyes shoot immediately up to Reid: it’s uncanny how I can find Reid or Chase’s gazes in any room on the first try.
He’s sitting opposite me around the bonfire with Valeria right by his side. I try to avert my gaze before he sees it fixed on their arm and thighs. They’re sitting so close that they’re brushing against each other.
So they’re on a date. Well done, Captain Fucking Obvious. I shake my head, trying to silence my snarky internal voice. These days I’m not very good at lying even to myself. But what would the point be in that? All I have to go on in thinking that Reid has feelings for me is what Chase told me the night he confessed his own love to me. But every interaction or better non-interaction I’ve ever had with Reid suggests otherwise. From his indifference, to his hanging out with Jasmine Wheeler all summer, to his refusal to kiss me last week even if it was a party game. So I should do myself a favor and stop living in denial. I should believe what I see with my own eyes and that’s Reid on a date with my sorority president.
Every guy on the beach is playing football and every girl is watching shouting her encouragement to either the Gamma brothers or their pledges.
I’m standing slightly behind, leaning against a rock and watching the unbalanced game a little absentmindedly. First of all it’s clear that the pledges have no fucking chance to ever win the game. The Gamma team includes half the school’s starting football team and Chase, Bryce, Parker, Reid and Hoyt are the stars of it.
And anyway I have to admit that I’ve never really understood football. I get the general gist of it but mostly it looks to me like an excuse for the guys to tackle each other and let off some steam.
I flinch when a particularly big pledge tackles Chase quite roughly and I can’t help but sigh with relief when my stepbrother gets up shaking the white beach sand off of his clothes.
“Maybe I should’ve insisted on making it a flag football game, but I figured the pledges would love an opportunity to get even after we made them clean the hot tub in our backyard using toothbrushes.”
Oliver’s voice startles me as I take my eyes off the game and fix them on the Gamma president, who leans on my same rock mimicking my stance.
10.
I Dare You
Oliver
“YEAH, MAYBE FLAG FOOTBALL would’ve been better. And seriously I get the whole ‘making the pledges earn their spots’ but I’ve had my fair share of stupid tasks all week. Maybe you guys could ease things off?”
Her huge green eyes are fixed on mine when she says that and she’s trying to sound all bitchy but she’s way too sweet to pull it off.
Actually Kaya is bloody adorable, a far cry from the girls I usually hang out with.
“Nah.” I shrug. “We all had to endure rush week and the pledging phase. It’s only fair. You’ll be doing the same things to your pledges next year.”
She shakes her head, her dark brown hair brushing against my arm and I decide that this is my chance to get close, while her guys are busy with the game.
“By the way, why aren’t you playing? The president should set an example, right?”
I chuckle at the challenge in her voice and explain. “I don’t play football, darling. I play rugby, that’s what we play in the UK. Way more violent and manly, no helmets and no ridiculous pads. It really wouldn’t be fair if I played.”
She doesn’t look convinced but she seems to decide not to argue the point.
I really don’t know what it is with this girl, she’s gotten under my skin in a way that no one ever has before. Not even Valeria.
I almost run into the game without a bloody helmet to try and impress her but then I decide against it.
This is actually the perfect time to get closer and I’m in the perfect position to do it.
“Let’s go for a swim,” I say but she doesn’t even take her eyes away from the game.
“No, thanks.”
Bloody hell, she’s a tough nut to crack. I realize that maybe this is part of the reason why I can’t stop thinking about her. It isn’t just because she’s hot, it’s because she doesn’t kiss the floor I walk on like every other girl I cross paths with. I know I’m good looking and loaded but normally, especially with American girls, the British accent and the title I’ll inherit from my father make me immediately desirable.
Kaya doesn’t seem to give a rat’s arse about money or status.
But I know that I do have a chance because last week at that party she did kiss me back.
So I push. “It wasn’t a request, pledge. It was a dare. You’ll go swimming with me.”
“But ... but you’re a Gamma. I’m not pledging the Gammas.”
What did I just say? Bloody adorable.
“It doesn’t matter, darling. This is a joint event, so any brother can challenge a Zeta pledge and vice versa.” I offer her my hand but she doesn’t take it. “I saw the perfect spot earlier on. Come on.”
She hesitates one second longer but then follows me, still without touching me.
I know this lake pretty well, Erin’s father owns it and in the summer it’s full of families and campers but the facilities just closed a couple of weeks ago so we have the place to ourselves.
And I’ve been here before, I threw that famous party here, when I won the brothers over before the Hudsons came back from their summer house.
I guide Kaya toward a more secluded spot where the rocks form deep natural pools and the vegetation forms a barrier that almost completely muffles the noise from the football game.
I tug my t-shirt over my head not looking at her on purpose until she’s down to her purple bikini. Kaya isn’t a stick-thin model like girl, she’s petite and curvy at the same time. She’s perfect, she has meat in all the right places and the view of her delicious body goes straight to my cock making it stir in my board shorts.
So I decide to push my luck and make this dare a whole lot more interesting. I lower my swimming trunks down my hips and she gasps, staggering backwards and covering her mouth with one hand.
Yes, darling. I know the view is pretty impressive. I happen to be a grower and a shower, so I’ve always been pretty confident in the whole package.
“What— What the fuck are you doing?” she blurts, looking away but then immediately looking back at me, unable to take her eyes off my cock.
“Oh, didn’t I mention it? We’re skinny dipping.”
She shakes her head. “No, we aren’t. You said swimming. You never mentioned—”
I cut her off. Her reticence is cute and all but it’s time to play my game and follow my rules.
“We swim naked, pledge. Take your bathing suit off or you’ll fail the dare.” I try to sound stern but really, I’m trying to stifle the laughter that threatens to erupt at the expression on her face.
Kaya is so not the sorority girl type. I’m sure she’s only pledging the Zetas to make her mom happy. I mean, not every sorority girl is slutty but the stereotype is a stereotype for a reason after all and she definitely doesn’t fit it.
As I expected, she fights back. This is really way more fun than I ever could anticipate. See? This is the thing, I know she likes me. I can see it in her eyes, in the slightly nervous way she acts around me. I could feel it when we kissed at last week’s party. I know I wasn’t the only one who felt something.
“You can’t ask me to do this.”
I laugh. She has to try better than this to deter me.
“I can and I did. Take that bikini off, pledge or lose the dare.”
She shakes her head again. “You said, when you were explaining the rules for tonight, that the brothers and the sisters could ask anything of the pledges unless it was hazing or illegal.”
She’s so bloody sweet, she thinks she’s got me cornered. I make a point to look slightly bored rather than showing her my amusement.
“Right. Skinny dipping isn’t hazing. And it’s not illegal, so strip.”
She’s so stubborn. I can’t wait for that perseverance to be put to
work to pleasure me rather than resist me.
She makes a weak, last ditch attempt to win her point. “But public nudity—”
This time I laugh. “Darling, I can hardly see a crowd here. Go on, take that bikini off or lose the dare.” I challenge her.
I see her weighing her options and I realize that I was right. She doesn’t really care about being a Zeta, she must be doing it to make her mom happy. I know everything about legacies and the kind of pressure families put on their kids to follow paths that have been decided for them since before birth.
I’m slightly distracted by my own thoughts and almost miss the decision that flashes in Kaya’s eyes. She jumps into the water.
It’s my turn to shake my head, I’m still standing on the rocks with my hands on my hips. “I said we were skinny dip—”
The sopping wet, heavy fabric of her bikini top hits me smack in the face with a loud thud. It’s followed by the bottom piece that lands at my feet as Kaya throws it out of the water.
A slow smile forms on my lips and I can’t help but chuckle at her resourcefulness.
Well played, Kaya. Very well played. I think as I follow her into the water.
Kaya
ASSHOLE.
This is all some kind of game for Oliver. He is literally toying with me, like a cat with its prey.
I almost considered telling him where he could shove his dare and this stupid pledge thing.
But then I thought about how proud Mom was when I was accepted to pledge the Zetas.
Fuck, I know this is stupid. I’m nineteen and I shouldn’t be worried about appeasing my parents. And I know that Mom would live if I decided to drop out from pledging. The problem is that she’d be more worried about me not following in her footsteps by getting tied too early into a serious relationship and not ‘enjoying a full college experience’ and look more closely at my relationship with Bryce.
And that is something I definitely don’t want, because she might pick up hints on the fact that Bryce isn’t the only guy I’m seeing.
And the real danger would be for her to catch wind of my relationship with Chase.
Again, I know I’m an adult but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want to hurt my parents. I stand by my choices. I don’t see anything wrong in loving Chase. We didn’t grow up together and our relationship never felt like a sibling one. We even tried to stay away from each other but our feelings are too deep and our attraction too strong. I guess this is the heartbreaking part of becoming an adult: live the life you want even when it doesn’t match your parents’ expectations.
And sue me for wanting my mom to be proud of me, for still needing her approval from time to time.
I know how she feels about it: we had a silly argument once when I was sixteen, I don’t even remember exactly what it was about. I wanted to go somewhere and she said no. So I told her that I couldn’t wait to be eighteen so I could do what I wanted and she couldn’t stop me.
She agreed with me. But then she added that I’d understand the way she felt when I became a mother. “You never stop being a mother and you never stop worrying about your children’s happiness. You never quit wanting the best for them.” She’d told me.
She was right. I’m not a mother yet and I don’t plan to be for a long time yet but I can see how even if I’m at that age where I can do what I want, even if in a few short years I’ll be totally out of my parents’ house and financially independent, I still care about what they think about my choices. I still don’t want to do anything to hurt them or disappoint them.
So while I’m heartbroken that my parents would hate the path my heart has chosen, and I hate hiding things from them, at least I want to make them proud with my academics. And if something small like being a Zeta will make my mom happy, then I’ll do it.
Oliver re-emerges after diving into the lake and reaches me with a few powerful strokes of his muscled arms.
He has an irritating expression on his face, one corner of his lips tipped up in a lopsided smile.
He doesn’t say anything, making me squirm and I make the huge mistake of becoming defensive and retaliating. “What? You said skinny dipping and we’re skinny dipping. Your stupid dare is done.”
His smile widens and he sounds infuriatingly patronizing when he chuckles darkly, shaking his strawberry blond head and wading closer to me. “Kaya, Kaya, Kaya. My darling, naive, little Kaya.”
Who the fuck does he think he is? He moves too close for comfort considering our lack of clothes and I back off until my back meets the rough surface of the cliff of rocks we jumped off of.
“You know that taking your bikini off in the water wasn’t the point of this dare, right?”
He can bet his pompous, snobby ass that I know what he wants.
He pisses me off so much that I can’t help a surge of satisfaction for having outsmarted him, making me taunt him in his same chiding tone.
“Of course I knew what you wanted. Sucks not to get your way every time, huh?”
He laughs out loud, looking extremely handsome in a boyish kind of way and for a second I admit to myself that he might be an uppity, pretentious prick but he’s handsome.
His knowing smirk makes me immediately regret what I just admitted to myself.
“Sooner or later you’ll have to come out of the water though, won’t you? And I intend to be here, waiting.”
He’s fucking right.
Irritations crashes over me like a wave and I smack my hand on the surface of the dark water of the lake, splashing both myself and Oliver.
“Creepy!” I scold him but he’s completely unperturbed, his teasing smirk still firmly in place.
“It pisses you off because you know it’s true.”
I feel a little childish but I move my face to the side, refusing to meet his gaze. He’s got me exactly where he wanted me and we both know it.
“You know Oliver, I would’ve thought it was beneath you using your frat president status to see girls naked. Or to get them to kiss you.”
If I thought I’d scored a point, I was wrong.
“Are you kidding? That’s exactly the perk of being president of a popular fraternity like ΓΔΤ. And you’ve no idea what some girls would be prepared to do to catch my attention and to be seen out with me.”
He’s probably right. I’ve seen the way girls look at him. And at my guys too, they’re not only Gammas but also football players. Basically college royalty.
But I’m dying to knock Oliver down a notch or two, so I deliver one last dig.
“Whatever. If being kissed just because of a party game does it for you, then I guess you’re the luckiest guy on campus.”
He smiles, seeing through my attempt at scoring a point.
“Hmm, right. It might have started that way but you kissed me back. And actually now that I come to think about it, I never got to give you a birthday kiss last weekend. So the way I see it, you owe me one.”
How the hell did I get myself in this situation? Naked in the lake with a horny, albeit hot guy who I honestly quite dislike?
“I don’t owe you shit. I never promised you a kiss. You kept going on about it.”
He chuckles again, whatever this is, it’s amusing him to no end. “Babe, you will kiss me tonight. I can always dare you.”
I set him straight. “Sure, if it’s a dare I will. But it wouldn’t mean anything like the kiss at last week’s party didn’t mean anything. If you haven’t noticed, I have a boyfriend.”
“Right. Is he ok with you kissing other guys? After all, I’m not the only one who might want to dare you to kiss me tonight.”
I scoff, he’s so sure of himself that he rubs me the wrong way. But I think that part of Oliver’s fascination with me is that I have a boyfriend, so I try to take that appeal away. “Not that this is any of your business but Bryce and I talked about it before we even got to Bridgeport. He warned me that if I was going to rush and then pledge the Zetas all these stupid dares and shit would ha
ppen,” I say trying to sound unaffected by his closeness and by his subtle scent of expensive cologne when he comes so close that I see the gold specks in his green eyes. “He told me to play along. He knows that I love him, Oliver. That this shit means nothing.”
His smile is slow and it reaches his eyes. It’s dark away from the bonfire and from the eco-lights that illuminate the beach but there’s a full moon tonight and its sliver of light hits Oliver’s hair and his face. His eyes darken as one of his hands brushes against my jaw. I don’t dare move, trying to make sense of my reactions around this guy. I don’t like Oliver. Actually if anything, I find him cocky and really stuck up. But tell that to my fucking body. I have a physical reaction to him and it’s not the same as my rational one. The kiss we shared truly meant nothing, it was a party game and that’s the only reason why I did it. I knew that Parker and Bryce were ok with that kind of thing. But I wasn’t prepared to ‘like’ kissing Oliver.
I know it sounds crazy, but is it? I spent years hung up on a kiss I received in the dark from a mysterious stranger. I kissed lots of guys on purpose when I realized that any other kiss after that left me cold at best. Until I kissed Bryce and Parker. And then Chase.
But enjoying their kisses made sense in a way; I’ve always been in love with Chase and I felt attracted to Bryce and Parker from the moment I met them. And my stepbrothers’ best friends were nice to me when Chase and Reid were being hostile. So it all made sense. This? It’s crazy. How can I dislike Oliver on every level but feel this insane physical attraction to him?
His eyes are still fixed onto mine and even though my naked body is covered by the lake water, his gaze makes me feel very aware of my nudity, my nerve endings buzzing with an electric tingle. My nipples are two hard points and I know my knees wouldn’t support me if we weren’t in the water.
Illicit (Perfect for them Book 2) Page 10