“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 happen,” 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.
“Right. It meant nothing you say and yet ... You want to kiss me again, just admit it, Kaya.”
His lips are so close to mine that it would take the smallest movement from either of us for this to turn into a kiss but we’re at a standstill.
I need to get out of this lake and I need to get away from this man because I feel totally out of control. I know I don’t want to kiss him but at the same time—
“No. I don’t want to kiss you. I’ll only do it if you’re daring me to. Are you daring me to kiss you, Oliver?”
His breath fans over my lips when he speaks again and I barely contain the shudder that causes, traveling at lightning speed down my spine and settling between my legs.
“No. I was going to but I won’t. I know that you can’t forget our kiss just as much as I can’t. But I want you to want it next time we kiss.”
I’m about to tell him that he’ll wait forever if he thinks I’ll willingly kiss him but Bryce’s voice reaches us from above.
He’s standing on the same rocks Oliver and I jumped from.
“Hey Kaya, are you ok over there?”
The noise of tons of people running and jumping into the lake swallows my first attempt to answer. There are girls shrieking and being tossed into the water, guys bombing in and it’s a small consolation but everyone is buck naked.
“Bryce, I need to get out of the water but I don’t know where my bikini is.”
“Don’t worry sweet stuff, I’ve got you.” He holds open a large towel, waiting for me to lift myself out of the water.
But two strong hands circle my waist and lift me up into my boyfriend’s arms.
Bryce
I WRAP KAYA IN THE towel, rubbing a little bit to dry her off. I tell her that her bag with her spare bikini is by our sleeping bags and that we can come back for her discarded bathing suit in the morning.
She leans on me while we walk through a short stretch of vegetation on our way to the far end of the beach.
We walk in silence, my arm wrapped around her shoulders. I know that something is bothering her and I’m sure it has to do with my frat president and probably with Reid showing up with a date tonight.
Dipshits.
She throws me a couple of sideways glances while we walk but I don’t say anything, waiting her out.
“I’m a ho!” she blurts out, stopping in the middle of a thick cluster of pine trees.
She doesn’t meet my eyes, holding the towel shamefully against her chest.
I mean, this normally would be funny but she looks worried and she was naked in the water alone with Oliver.
So actually, not funny at all. I ask her what’s wrong out of concern for her but a part of me is already planning on finding Oliver and beating the crap out of him if he did anything wrong.
Aside from how he got the Gamma presidency, the guy’s a pretentious prick and I disliked him at first sight.
The guys and I noticed the way he looks at Kaya, so he better not have crossed any lines because this time the problem won’t be just trying to keep Chase from killing him. My best friend will have to join the fucking line.
After the initial outburst, Kaya is standing there, eyes fixed to the ground and I have to coax the story out of her. It’s something I’ve become used to with her but she trusts me and eventually opens her heart. She tells me everything in a rush of words and I take a second to consider her story once she stops talking.