Rushed (The Rushed Series) (8 page)

Zach was breathing as hard as the look in his eyes as he stared at Dakota. "QB2."

It might have been my imagination, but the way he said it sounded like a putdown.
 

Dakota held Zach's gaze without flinching. "Houseboy, are you hassling my pledges?"

"Your pledges were carting off one of ours." As Zach straightened, a bruise appeared on his back.
 

"Boys!" Dakota snapped his fingers and pointed a thumb back toward the partying masses. "Get back to the party." He turned his back on Zach and smiled at me, running his gaze over me, lingering on my breasts with a lusty look glittering in his eyes. "Alexis," he said, finally dragging his eyes to my face. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, too furious to speak.
 

He tucked a lock of hair behind my ear. "Good. The guys get a little wild on bid day. You can't blame them. Sunshine. Beer. Hot girls." His gaze slid down me again.

Zach came up beside me and took my arm. I would have been aware of him even if he hadn't touched me. "We should get back." He was clearly dismissing Dakota.

Dakota ignored Zach and spoke to me. "You pledged the Double Deltsies?"

I nodded again.

"I had you pegged." Dakota's smile was almost a gloat. "I knew you would. You know, you can talk to me now. The recruitment ban is lifted."
 

I didn't want to talk to him. I just nodded again.

He winked at me and leaned in to whisper in my ear, "I'll be seeing you, Alexis. Real soon." He walked away without looking at Zach.

I waited until he was out of earshot before I took Zach's arm and whispered, "That was stupidly brave of you. I have experience with drunk guys at lake parties. I could have handled them myself."

He winced as he tried to grin. "Yeah, you were really handling them. Don't flatter yourself. I didn't do it for you. I just felt like getting my ass kicked."

"Is that so?" I smiled back at him. "FYI, I was completely safe. There's no way they would have taken a swing at me."

He stared at me like I was naïve. "No, but they would have taken your bikini top, made you beg to get it back, groped you. Any number of things." He frowned at Dakota's retreating back. "It's a good thing your boyfriend came to the rescue." There was a tease in his voice, but something serious, hard, and unhappy beneath it, too.

"He's
not
my boyfriend." I gently touched Zach's back. "I've never even spoken to him."

Zach tried to hide it, but even my whisper of a touch hurt. He winced again.
 

"That's too bad for you. QB2 is house president of the most powerful frat on campus. He's destined for greatness in his dad's law firm." He laughed, but it held little humor.

"QB2?" I asked.

"Second-string quarterback. In high school." He grinned.

"Who was QB1?" I asked.

Zach kept grinning. "Who do you think? Why do you think he called me houseboy? It sure as hell wasn't to lift me up." He laughed. "Yeah, I was starting quarterback. Drove Dak crazy. He still believes he was better than me. Thinks Coach was biased." Zach shrugged.
 

"Was he?"

Zach stared at me like he was trying to judge how serious I was. "Dak has delusions of fame and overrates his abilities, on and off the field."

I took that as a warning. "How good was your team, QB1? Did you lead them to victory?"

"We took state in 4A. Enough about me." His teasing grin held, but there was an edge to his voice, like he was being almost sarcastic. "You could do worse than Dak. He was the second most popular guy in my class."
 

Zach was almost daring me to go for Dakota, yet warning me off him at the same time.
 

I didn't know why he was acting like this. I didn't want Dakota. I ignored the suggestion and played along with Zach's game. "Who was the most popular guy?"

"Again, who do you think?" He grinned and inhaled deeply, like he was trying to breathe through the pain.

I put my hand on his arm, worried, and caught a glimpse of his tattoo on the underside of his arm. It was definitely a date. "Mr. Popular, you're hurt. That pledge hit you with a literal low blow. Did they get you in the kidney?" I cursed beneath my breath, worried. A guy from my class got punched in the kidney once and had to be taken to the hospital.

"No, they missed me by that much." He laughed like it didn't matter. Like he'd been taught to suck it up and wasn't used to people caring.

"Let me take a look." I grabbed his shoulders to turn him around so I could inspect his injury, letting my hands rest longer on his rapidly drying skin than I should have. He smelled like the river and sunshine, everything wet and wild.

He presented his back to me, lifting his arms so every muscle on his back rippled into definition. An ugly black bruise the size of a fist showed through his tan, just to the right of his spine, too high to have hit any vital organs.
 

I let out a sigh of relief. "It's nasty looking and going to get worse. Big, too." I outlined it with my fingertip to emphasize my point.

Goosebumps rose on his skin in the heat, like he enjoyed my touch. He held very still.

I leaned up and whispered in his ear. "You should ice this." I left unsaid the promise that I would happily help him.
 

Being so near him took my breath away. I had this crazy desire to kiss his back all the way up his spine until I nibbled on his ear. To hold him in my arms and take away the pain that I sensed went way deeper than anything physical.

"I'm sorry," I said.

He looked at me over his shoulder. "For what?"

"Causing you to get hurt a second time."

The bump on his forehead was turning greenish yellow. I touched it gently. His hair was still wet from the river and pressed back flat against his head. I itched to run my fingers through it and fluff it. His face was flushed, but his skin was cool from the river.
 

I stared up at him with hero worship in my eyes, practically begging for a kiss. All I had to do was go up on my toes and brush my lips against his.

He looked away. "We'd better get back."
 

He started walking so suddenly, I nearly toppled over.
 

I had to nearly run to keep up with him. "Zach?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks for back there."

He nodded. "Don't underestimate the Tau Psis. They take advantage of girls. What were you doing out at the cliffs alone?"

I couldn't tell him I was watching him jump. "Getting in line to jump."

He shook his head. "Wise up, pledge. Double Deltsies don't do shit like jump off cliffs. Not unless they have an adoring audience of frat boys egging them on."
 

I couldn't believe he was warning me. "What
do
they do?"

He made an exaggerated point of rolling his eyes, like, duh, you have to ask? "Flirt with frat guys, party, and look hot."
 

I couldn't tell if he was teasing or not. Just then, he looked up overhead. I followed the direction of his gaze. Two parasailers were floating down from the cliffs on the opposite side of the river on brightly colored sails.

"Shit!" Zach grabbed me and covered my eyes, playfully. "Don't look, baby pledge."

"What?" I flirted back, pulling his hands away with halfhearted effort and pressing against him and his hard chest.

"Don't say I didn't warn you." He dropped his hands. "Stupid Zeta Nus trying to show off. You have to be better hung than that to actually show off."

I looked up just as they floated overhead, getting a look of two naked butts and dangling dicks. "Ugh." I made a face of disgust.

Zach laughed. "Don't let those tiny dicks scare you off real men."

"That's going to be burned into my brain."

"Yeah, and I packed hotdogs for lunch. Yum." He turned and took my arm, propelling me away as the parasailers landed and ran through the crowd.
 

We reached our group too soon. As soon as we did, any intimacy between us vanished. Zach morphed into houseboy mode, cold and aloof like a disapproving older brother.

Morgan spotted us and ran to us, suspicion glittering in her eyes. "Where have you two been?" Her voice was almost venom.

Zach shook his head like he was disgusted, and nodded toward me. "The Tau Psis separated one of your pledges from the herd."
 

His disinterested tone seemed to satisfy Morgan. "And you saved her?"

"They were about to throw her in the river," he said.

Morgan laughed. "The douches. Did they try to untie your bikini top, too?"
 

Paul came up and gave Zach a playful shove. "Our hero."

Zach was caught off guard and winced.

Morgan's eyes went wide as she saw the bruise on his back. "You're hurt." She glared at me like I was the one who'd hit him. She took his arm, caressing his hard bicep. "Let's get you some ice for that." She put a purr in her voice as she led him away.

I tried to ignore Morgan. She fawned over Zach and held a plastic bag full of ice against his back, laughing when he pulled away because it was so cold. But it was like a traffic accident on the freeway. Morbid curiosity took over. My gaze seemed to wander back to them against my will.

The afternoon passed slowly, even with the house guys barbecuing hotdogs and hamburgers for us. It was torture not to talk to him and watch him while he laughed and talked with the older girls who were already members. Some of the girls were friendly. Others treated the house guys as if they could snap their fingers and the guys should do their bidding. Even though Kelly made it clear that guys were off duty and our guests.

When it was my turn, Zach handed me a hotdog with a straight face. "Perfectly charred. Just for you."
 

Going along with his kidding, I took it from him, slathered it with mustard and took a big bite, licking the mustard off my lip suggestively. "Delicious!"

Unfortunately, I couldn't linger and spar with him.
 

After lunch, Kelly called us all together. "Time to pack up! Classes begin tomorrow. Scholarship is important to us."

There was a general round of laughter like everyone knew this was tongue-in-cheek. My new house wasn't known for its high GPA.

"But before we go, we have an important announcement." She bounced on her toes like the former cheerleader she was. "Exciting news! For the first time in years, we actually have spots open in the house for five lucky pledges to move in immediately!"

A momentary, stunned hush fell over the girls. This was unprecedented. No one got to move into the house until second semester. At the
earliest
. I had been counting on that.
 

Then someone whistled and everyone started cheering. I cheered with the rest of the pledges, trying not to stand out. Girls whispered to each other, speculating. I crossed my fingers, hoping that I wouldn't get one of the spots.

Kelly whistled to quiet us. "The recruitment committee, along with the officers, spent hours coming up with the fairest way to fill these spots. We voted on which girls we thought would be the future leaders of the house, which would represent us best, and whom we thought would fit in the most. We've been watching you today to confirm we'd made the right choice.

"It was a tough decision. We would love for all of you to be able to move in immediately. We're so excited about getting to know all of you and know you'll all be fantastic assets to the house. Remember—we handpicked each of you!

"But we voted, taking into consideration rush crushes and recommendations. One girl stood out as the leader."

I relaxed. There was no way that girl was me.

"Alexis Turner, you're our top pick!"

My mouth fell open. Either I was a better faker than I thought, or someone had set me up. My mouth went completely sandpaper on me. I panicked. Live in the house so soon? It was terrifying.