Lust and Other Drugs (10 page)

Anne wondered again if maybe this was a bad idea, but
trudged up the steps and through the throng of people milling about the door
labeled “Seven in Heaven”. Looking at the names of the games on the doors, Anne
realized it would have been more honest just to label them Orgy Room 1, 2,
etc., instead of Seven in Heaven, Truth or Dare, Spin the Bottle…

She downed the beer as Gin dragged her into the room. Anne
immediately spotted Chase across the room.

There was a guy on a karaoke machine who grinned when he saw
Gin. “Next up, by popular demand, Gin Ettinger and Chase Donovan!”

“I guess it won’t be in the Truth or Dare room after all.
Are you sure this is okay?” Gin whispered, the gleam in her eye daring Anne to
say no.

It was on the tip of her tongue to say just that, but Anne
reminded herself there was no commitment between her and Chase, nor was there
likely to be. And it was just a stupid kiss in a closet. It didn’t matter. “Go
for it. Maybe I’ll find Seth and have my turn with him.”

Gin pouted. “You can’t have both of them.”

“What’s good for the goose, doll-face.” Anne hated herself a
little bit. She knew how much Gin liked Seth and how good they’d be together,
even if Gin wasn’t ready to admit it.

No
, she thought. She wasn’t going to hate herself.
She was exploring her options. If it was okay in Gin’s mind for her to go
slobber all over Chase, knowing there was something between him and Anne, why
wasn’t turnabout fair play?

“If you don’t want me to, you could just say so…” Gin’s
voice was almost a singsong. Like she
wanted
Anne to tell her no. What
was Gin playing at?

“
Who
can’t have them both?” Anne replied, reminding
her friend she knew Gin wanted Seth just as Anne wanted Chase.

“Whatever.” Gin downed her drink. “This is your last chance
to tell me no.”

Anne couldn’t open her mouth, but it didn’t matter. She
refused to say it. Even when Gin pushed her way through the crowd toward the
closet—toward Chase, who stared back at Anne, his face a mask.

Anne felt sick, jealous and angry. It made her stomach feel
overly full and empty at the same time. She breathed deeply. She had to let go
of this. Chase wasn’t her boyfriend. They were just friends.

So maybe she couldn’t do this whole friends-with-benefits
thing. Anne didn’t know why she thought she could.

Chase was right again.

No, that was bullshit. She wasn’t going to let him one-up
her on this too. She refused to be the simple girl who got stars in her eyes
just because she had an orgasm.

“So, looks like Gin finally got a piece of Chase, huh?” Seth
said quietly against her ear, seeming to appear from nowhere.

Anne wondered if he’d heard her comment about taking a turn.
She blushed. “I guess so.” She nodded grimly.

“You’re okay with this?” Seth sounded disgusted.

“Sure. Why not?” Her voice sounded tinny, even to her.

“You’re a horrible liar, Anne.”

“Chase and I are not together. He can do what he likes. So
can Gin, for that matter.”

“And so can you.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means maybe we should take our turn in the closet and
see how
they
feel about it.”

The idea appealed to Anne. After all, she’d threatened Gin
with that very thing. “Sure. Why not?”

“Good. Gin paid that guy a twenty to call them together.
We’ll see how she likes a dose of her own medicine.” Seth started making his
way through the crowd toward the emcee.

“What are you doing, Gin?” Chase asked softly when the door
closed behind them. There was no denying Gin was sexy as hell, but he’d never
been interested in her as anything but a friend.

Anne’s just a friend too
, a little voice in the back
of his head reminded him.

Yeah, she was a friend. But she was also something more. He
didn’t really have words for what Anne meant to him.

“What am
I
doing? You’re the one who came in here
with me,” Gin replied tartly.

“Because I want to know what kind of crazy you’re on. I
thought Anne’s friendship was more important to you than getting a piece of
me?”

She sighed. “You’re both half-stupid.”

“Excuse me?” Chase asked, unsure he’d heard her correctly.

“It’s been so obvious from day one that you guys are perfect
for each other. I told her that she’d be fucking you blue before the month was
out, and here you are. I know you’ve been wearing her kitty out.” Gin smirked.
“But listen…she loves you.”

“I love her too,” Chase responded easily.

“No, dumbshit. She’s
in
love with you. Do you know
the difference?”

The possibility that Anne could be
in love
with him
punched Chase in the gut like a wrecking ball. “Did she tell you this?” he
asked in a measured tone.

“No, but she didn’t have to. I don’t think she knows it
herself, or if she does, she isn’t ready to deal with it.”

“Then I say again, if you’re her friend and you know she
loves me, why did you set this up? Why come in here with me?”

He heard her sigh heavily. “So she’d realize she can’t stand
the thought of seeing you with another woman. Or, so you would make out with me
and Anne would know you aren’t the kind of guy who can be counted on for
anything more than a fuck.”

“Speaking of fucks, Gin, did you stop to consider you may
have fucked this up irreparably?”

“I did. That’s why I gave her every chance in the world to
come to her senses and admit her feelings before I came in here. I practically
dared her to tell me not to.”

“You
know
Anne is the most stubborn woman to ever
walk the earth. The more you want her to do something one way, the more likely
it is she’ll take the longer, harder road.”

“I know, which is why this called for something drastic.
Don’t screw this up, Chase. I don’t care what kind of conversation you two have
had about what you’re doing together, and I don’t give a shit what Anne’s told
you. This is more to her than casual fucking. If you don’t love her, stop this,
okay? Otherwise, you’re going to break her heart
and
your friendship.”

“Gin, I—”

“I don’t want your explanation. I just want you to take care
of your business and not hurt Anne while you’re doing it.”

The bright light of the room suddenly spilled inside the
closet, but it illuminated more than the space around them.

It lit up Chase, too.

Knowing that Anne loved him—was
in
love with
him—flipped some hidden switch. But it wasn’t just turning on a light; it was
like turning on the sun. It was warm and sweet—but it burned, too. There was a
very real possibility that no matter what he did, Chase could still lose her.

And he loved her.

But she deserved better than what he had to offer right now.
He was a medical student buried in loans who had to cyberwhore to even put a
roof over his head.
Her
head, too. Anne already knew all about that, but
from previous experience, Chase knew just how little his reasons for appearing
on the site meant when it came to the parameters of a relationship.

Maybe Anne did love him, and he loved her…but would it be
enough?

When the door opened, Anne didn’t want to look. She didn’t
want that image of Gin and Chase together. Her mouth swollen from his kiss, her
hair mussed…a satisfied, confident grin on Chase’s face.

But that’s wasn’t what she saw. Instead, Chase’s gaze sought
her out, and when it found her, the look on his face softened.

Then her name was called and the soft look on Chase’s face
changed to something she didn’t recognize as Anne allowed rough hands to propel
her into the closet.

This was nothing like how it had been in middle school and
high school. She wasn’t nervous at all. Surprisingly, the closet smelled of
lemonade.

“Now what?” Anne whispered into the dark.

Seth’s hands settled on her hips. “Well, I did lay down
fifty bucks. I don’t think a little bit of lip action is out of line.”

“Fifty?” she squeaked.

“Yeah. Chase had paid twenty to get called with you too. But
I had more cash.”

Pleasure over the fact that Chase had wanted to be locked in
a closet with her warred with irritation that he’d thought she’d just tra-la-la
down the primrose path, eager for whatever he wanted to give her, right after
he’d sucked face with Gin.

Well, fuck him. “Let’s stop talking about them so I can pay
my tab.”

He laughed, sliding one hand all the way up her spine and
cupping the back of her head, the other pressing her hard against him. Seth was
a wall of muscle. Leaner than Chase, but just as defined. Being crushed against
his chest was not unpleasant.

She twined her arms around his neck and found his shoulders
to be just as solid as Chase’s and almost as broad. His hands were hot, burning
her skin, tugging awake the familiar ache between her thighs.

Seth tilted her head back in a smooth motion and brought his
lips close to hers, their breath mingling for a moment as expectation built.
When his mouth finally took hers, it was nothing like what she’d expected. His
kiss was demanding and all alpha male.

Images of things she’d seen on Dreamed Desire flashed
through her mind and Anne’s hands wandered from around his neck to the hard
muscle of his back.

He hauled her up against him, guiding her legs around his
waist then bracing his forearm beneath her ass. He pushed her against the wall
for leverage.

This wasn’t as unexpected as becoming aware of Chase, but it
was a surprise that touching Seth and being touched by him felt as good as it
did. His cock was hard on her thigh, and again, he was packing as much
firepower as Chase.

Unbidden, naughty fantasies of watching Chase and Seth
together crashed into her awareness and made her all the more wet. Her nipples
were so tight, begging to be touched, stroked, sucked. She arched her back,
jutting her breasts forward for his attention.

Seth bent his head—

And the door was flung open—and everyone in the room saw just
how very far their seven minutes had gone.

They broke apart, both panting. Clapping, catcalling and
howling ensued, egging them on, and the emcee closed the door again.

They were both silent for what seemed like ages, but
logically, Anne knew it had only been a couple of seconds.

“Did you get your fifty’s worth?” Anne asked lightly.

“And then some,” he admitted. “We’d be good together if we
weren’t in love with other people.”

“I’m not—”

But she was. It was time to stop lying to herself.

She felt no pangs of jealousy thinking of Seth with Gin. Or
Seth with any other woman. He was her friend. She liked him. She’d felt passion
with him. They could have been very good friends with benefits and no-strings
wouldn’t have been a problem. He’d made her body sing the same way Chase had,
yet it wasn’t the same.

Motherfucker.

There was no more dying it. She was head over ass in love
with Chase Donovan.

Chapter Nine

She fled the closet as if it were on fire, barely
registering the people she shoved out of her way. Anne didn’t know where she
was going, all that mattered was getting out of the frat house. It had been a
stupid idea to come.

It had been even stupider to have crossed that line with
Chase and then, when given the opportunity to quietly back into safer territory,
barrel forward, stomping on land mines as she went.

Anne was in such a hurry to get out of there, she didn’t see
the brick wall of Chase in front of her. He caught her against his chest.

“This is just like middle school too. Leaving the dance in
tears?”

“I’m not crying,” she growled. And if she had been, she
wouldn’t have told him about it.

He tilted her chin up with his fingers. “Didn’t have a good
time with Seth?”

Anne couldn’t determine whether he actually cared or if he
was being cruel.

“Or did you have
too
good a time?” Chase leaned
closer and whispered, “Did he get you ready for me?”

His words were a thousand needles on her skin. They made it
crystal clear he wasn’t emotionally invested, and likely wasn’t going to be.
She was just a place to put his cock. As much as that should have made her want
to put space between them, she wanted to take what she could get even more.

He’d maneuvered them outside before she realized it and his
hands on her hips were scorching her through her jeans. Chase led her to a
small shed and pulled her inside.

Anne knew she should push him away, tell him to stop. That
she couldn’t do this because being with him meant more to her than it did him,
but she couldn’t find the words.

“Tell me about it, Anne.” He bent his head to her throat.
“Did he kiss you here? Does it make you hot to think of me tasting his mouth on
you?” He fastened his mouth to the tender curve between her shoulder and neck.

She tightened her grip on his shoulders and tilted her head
back to offer more. His hands slid down to cup her ass and press her hard
against him, and she could feel his thick cock.

“Have you imagined taking us both?”

Anne gasped as the forbidden imagery spurred her need. “What
about you, Chase? Did Gin make you hard?” She slipped her hand down to unbutton
his jeans and free his cock.

“Yes.” His hands were beneath her shirt now, filled with her
breasts. “Because when her hot little tongue was swiping against my lips, I
imagined it doing the same to your clit.”

“Chase!” She gasped again as another wave of heat flooded
her pussy.

“It’s only fantasy, right?” He made small whorls over her
nipples with his thumbs.

“Imagining
us
together was only fantasy too.” She
pushed his jeans down his hips. “I didn’t like that you went in the closet with
Gin,” Anne confessed against his mouth before she could stop herself. “And if
we’re going to keep doing this, I want to be exclusive.”