Between Friends (Between the Raindrops #3) Read online

  The other two girls dance around us as he kisses my neck and his fingers run down my sides. His lips graze my ear and he says, “Don’t be too obvious, but look at the screen. You’re on camera.”

  “No,” I tell him. And I don’t look. I can’t even believe I’m doing this and if I look I’ll probably freeze up. We buzz through three more songs. He is an incredible dancer. I’ve never known a guy who could actually dance. Our bodies are in perfect synch. He spins me one last time and then he just jumps off the stage. Of course, he lands perfectly on his feet. Security clears a hole around him and he stands with his arms out for me.

  I can’t believe I’m doing this. He motions with his fingers for me to jump and I jump. I’m flying through the air and I think I’ve changed my mind. I just want to climb down now. I want out of this, but I’m already committed.

  Liam’s arms pluck me out of the air and he plants a kiss on my forehead as his arms wrap around my back. Oh my god. That was the wildest thing I have ever done. My heart is racing. I feel so alive.

  “Can we do that again?” I ask, as I try to catch my breath. He looks surprised by my question.

  “I don’t want to be too exposed. I usually limit myself to once every two months and tonight was the night.”

  “So that was legal?”

  He nods. “I get paid to show up here. And If I dance on stage, I make more.”

  “You are such a prostitute. You know that, right? I thought we were going to get kicked out for climbing on the stage.”

  “The cameras caught you jumping into my arms. I deserve to make double for our spectacular show.” The corner of his lip turns up and he glances back up at the dancers on the stage.

  “I was so scared you were going to drop me. I didn’t hurt you, did I?” I’m used to Peterson carrying me around, but he’s got eighty pounds on Nordstrom.

  He grabs my hand and places it on his bicep. “Feel this.” He flexes and I squeeze. “I could have caught you with one arm.”

  Wow, his arms definitely could support me and there goes the tingling in my core. “All right, you’re buff,” I say. “Can we hit the ladies’ room?” I’m sure my makeup is sliding down my face and I need to check my bra.

  “I didn’t know you were into public bathroom sex. I thought you were a good girl from the Midwest. But okay, whatever you want.”

  “Shut it.” He always has a comeback, doesn’t he?

  He leads me past the guard at the bottom of the stairs to the VIP section. Hand in hand, we ascend. I can see my friends sitting at the large table as we climb, but no one looks our way. I wonder if they saw us dancing on one of the big screens. I still can’t believe I did that. As we near the restrooms, I start to worry he wasn’t joking about the bathroom sex. Though, I don’t know if I would say no. He stops in the hall outside the ladies’ room, his body caging me against the wall.

  “How long are you going to be in L.A., Meg?” he asks, pushing my hair behind my ear and smoothing my sweat curls. Yuck. But the gesture is sweet.

  “Just the weekend.”

  “That’s too bad,” he breathes an inch from my lips. He crushes his body against mine before his lips follow. The kiss burns with hunger as his tongue completes an inspection of my mouth. He breaks away and straightens my shirt, looking around. I didn’t realize his hands were roaming again.

  “What was that for?” I ask. I hope he’s not really expecting bathroom sex. It sounds hot in theory but I’m pretty sure the reality would be gross.

  “I just want you to consider the possibilities while you’re in there.”

  “Oh, I will,” I say as I slide through the door opening.

  I head for the stall right away to make sure my lady parts are in the right place after my wardrobe malfunction and everything seems to be in the correct position. When I find my way to the sinks, to wash my hands, the bimbo next to me is sizing me up. What is her problem? The look she gives me is disturbing. She is either going to mug me right here in the bathroom or ask me out. I do my best to ignore her and walk to the mirror to check my makeup. I wipe my damp hands in my hair. I’m so sweaty that it can’t hurt and I don’t see any towels.

  My hair is a mess, and I bend over to try to fix it. When I stand back up the chick from the sink is standing next to me again. I fold my arms in front of me and with my coldest glare, I ask, “Can I help you?”

  “So you’re Nordstrom’s blonde flavor of the week?” She says it like she was last week’s flavor.

  “The night,” I say. “Just the night. A week is too big of a commitment for me.”

  “I haven’t seen you around. Are you new to L.A.?”

  “Nope. Just visiting.” I take out my gloss and run the tip across my lower lip. My answer must be what she wants to hear because she smiles and her attitude toward me seems to change.

  Her friend joins us and pulls a small plastic bag from her clutch. “I’ve got the latest and greatest in designer sweets.” She places one of the fuchsia-colored capsules under her tongue and adds, “They’re a cross between molly and purple fizzles. You want one? My treat.” She hands one to last week’s flavor and holds one out to me. I have no idea what a purple fizzle is.

  “No. I’m good,” I say, rubbing my lips together and stashing my gloss in the tiny bag slung across my left hip. I feel sorry for them—so eager to fit in they can’t just be themselves.

  “She won’t need it, Chelsea. She’s going home with Nordstrom.”

  The girl nods.

  I’m pretty sure I won’t be going home with him, but it’s intriguing to think I wouldn’t need to be high to enjoy myself. If his dancing is any indication, he’s got to be pretty good in bed. My phone buzzes in my purse and I take it out to check it. It’s a text from Sarah.

  Sarah: Jon just called for the car. We’re leaving in a few minutes and you’re coming with us. Drag Liam along too. We’re his ride.

  Me: Be right there.

  My phone is still in my hand when I find Liam. “Sarah says they’re getting ready to leave and we’re your ride,” I tell him, holding my phone out to show him the text.

  “Hmm. I guess Nak is finally making the move to get back together with Leslie. He’s my roommate and my ride. He wouldn’t have left with anyone but her.”

  He snatches my phone and starts typing on it. What is it with guys helping themselves to my phone? He poses next to me and snaps a picture. Now he’s typing again.

  I smile and hold my hand out. “I hope you didn’t send that to your mother, because I’ll tell her what you did with the nanny.”

  “You’d do that?”

  “In a heartbeat.”

  “You are a cold-hearted bitch. I like it.”

  He snakes both arms around my waist and pulls me in. His fingers curl under the edge of my shirt, as he stands unreadable in front of me. He doesn’t seem to understand the concept of personal space, or maybe I am a nun. I bet he’s used to women submitting to his every desire. He has all the moves to turn them to mush. I wish I could tell what he is thinking. His dark brown eyes search my face.

  “I’ve had a really good time with you tonight. Can I have one last kiss before we go back?”

  I nod. I’m sad our time together is ending. If he wanted me to go home with him, he wouldn’t ask for a last kiss. His lips brush mine and I’m sucked back in. They’re soft, but commanding. His tongue grazes just inside my lips and goes no further. My whole body tingles. It is the most sensual kiss I have ever experienced.

  I fight to keep my thoughts coherent. If I break it off first, I’m still in charge. I don’t want to, but I pull back just as he pushes forward. “We should get back,” I say against his lips.

  He cocks his head slightly, like he can’t believe I just broke off the kiss, and looks out into the club. I take off toward the table before he can kiss me again, his hand finds the small of my back, and he tucks a finger under the waistband of my skirt. He’s right beside me as we reach the table, but something is different. The familiar
ity he showed me minutes ago is gone.

  Chapter 9

  Liam

  I’M SO SCREWED. I admit it. Megan intrigues me. She’s different than what I expected. She’s one of Sarah’s best friends and I thought she would be more like Jonathan’s fiancé, smart, but sweet, and a little naïve. Meg’s fierce, though, and not in a street cred sort of way, but in an I can read every thought in your head because I am so smart and I will always be ten steps ahead of you—so don’t even try to hide behind your brooding persona. It won’t work with me. Yeah, that’s definitely the vibe I get from her.

  If I’m being honest, I just needed a blonde to buffer for me. It’s the first time I’ve seen Tara and Tina since the night Tina drugged me and I needed to get away from the evil twins. I’m not about to forget anytime soon how they used me. But, leaving the safety of the VIP area and joining the masses downstairs without a girl on my arm is never a good idea. Yeah, she’s beautiful. Her long legs and hauntingly gorgeous blue eyes drew me to her and she was just sitting there—the only blonde in the group besides Leslie, and it looked as if my roommate had already reclaimed his ex. I’d be lying if I said her comment about not being some plastic chick didn’t catch my attention. She’s got this antagonistic playfulness that is so hot and from the second she opened her mouth, I knew she was trouble.

  Normally, this wouldn’t be a problem. I’d just hook up with her and get her out of my system, but I can’t do that with this girl. First, she’s probably too smart for me, and second, she’s off limits. A couple of weeks ago Jon, Sarah, and I were talking over drinks about their upcoming wedding. Sarah had just finished telling me about her bridesmaids. It’s not the first time she’d talked about her friends. She’s very close to them and pretty much trusts them with all her secrets. Suddenly, Jon got really serious. “Sarah’s friends are like sisters to her. That makes them like sisters to me, too. No sleeping with them. Just so you know, I’m talking to all the groomsmen, not just you.”

  At the time I thought, wow, that’s blunt and a bit unforgiving, like my parents. It’s not as if I’m our buddy Nick. I don’t sleep with every girl I meet, not even every blonde. But the look on Jonathan’s face when I asked her to buffer for me, reminded me quickly that she’s a protected class, not to be messed with. He nonverbally told me with just the tone of his voice to keep it PG, or better yet G, and I planned to do just that. But, she kept taunting me, challenging me, as if she wasn’t scared of me at all. That’s when I slipped. I wanted to prove to her that maybe she should be more careful with guys like me. So I leaned in for a quick kiss just to exert my dominance and she met me with the same fierceness I had seen in her taunting. And when her tongue slipped into my mouth, it sent an unexpected shock right to my dick.

  PG, PG, I chanted in my head, even as I kissed her the second time, cupping her perfectly rounded breasts, and thumbing the tips to stones. I couldn’t help myself. When she grabbed my hands and stopped me, I wanted her even more. What is wrong with me? I’m so used to girls just giving me whatever I want that when one challenges me, it turns me on. It’s got to stop.

  And I tried to stop it. I brought her out on the dance floor hoping she had no rhythm. Okay. I may have chosen the one dance area whose monitors can’t be seen from the VIP area, because I didn’t want Jon to see us, but I wasn’t trying to be deceitful, just cautious.

  Nothing turns me off more than a girl who has no ability to dance. You can tell a lot about how a girl is in bed by the way she dances. If a girl just stands there barely moving while I dance around her that’s how she’ll be in bed. If she flails wildly with no direction, that’s how she’ll be in bed. But Meg? She blew me away with her ability to match my moves and anticipate what was going to happen next. And when I brought her up on stage, she didn’t even care that she was on camera. The dance was for me, not the audience. Now I can’t stop thinking about being inside her and that can’t happen. She’s like Jon’s sister for God’s sake.

  I’m pretty sure I’ll be camping out at Jon’s tonight, now that Nak’s abandoned me at the club. Nobody is going to want to drive all the way out to Malibu to bring me home. I could take a cab, but I hate cabs and cab fare to Malibu is ridiculous. Maybe I can sleep at Jake’s, but it would make more sense just to stay at Jon’s. I stay there all the time. I even keep a toothbrush there. The only problem is, Meg is staying at Jon’s. Which means I’m going to need to work harder to stay away from her, even if I don’t want to abstain.

  When we finally get past the paparazzi on the sidewalk and load into the back of the oversized SUV, the girls are at each other’s throats. I’ve never seen Sarah mad before and I don’t think I ever want to see her mad at me. She starts ripping into the redheaded chick about the kiss she and Jake posed for on the sidewalk. The paps blocked our exit on our way out. One of the bouncers had mentioned they were shorthanded tonight so it didn’t surprise me when the paparazzi overtook our exit. The guys with the cameras were all jacked up because Jonathan rarely comes out to the clubs and they all wanted to be the first to document it. All the camera guys want is something they can sell and in all honesty, I was getting ready to strip naked if it would satisfy them enough to let us through to the car. Fortunately, Jake dipped Red back in an impressively intense lip lock to get the vultures to open our path and they did.

  That was what Sarah was upset about. We all knew the pap shots would be online within the hour, but I didn’t understand why that was a problem until Meg explained it to me.

  “Alli’s parents are crazy overprotective. If they find out about the pictures online they will go into lockdown mode.”

  I give her a questioning look.

  “I’m serious. She will probably have to move home or something. The girl had a ten-thirty curfew on weekends in high school. If they were my parents, I would have made a sex tape at sixteen just to piss them off.”

  Her explanation doesn’t help my predicament. Now all I can think about is making a sex tape with her.

  “You’re thinking about the sex tape, aren’t you?” she whispers in my ear.

  I laugh because she obviously read my mind. “It would be good,” I say with a cough to cover my words. I want to tell her exactly what the video would include but I need to keep it PG, especially in front of Jon. PG. I join into the conversation discussing the photos hitting the internet. Red is not only worried about her parents seeing the pictures but also concerned about how the shots could affect her after she finishes her degree and becomes a doctor. She seems to think kissing a movie star on the sidewalk outside a club may come off as less than professional. I suggest that she becomes a plastic surgeon because the pictures could help her credibility that way.

  Gorboni can’t understand why Red is embarrassed to have the pictures go public and shakes his head in disbelief. I don’t blame him. I’ve never dated anyone who was ashamed to be seen with me. I wonder what Meg’s thoughts are about pictures of us. It’s strange to me she didn’t take a selfie of us together. That is the first thing most girls do, but she didn’t even ask for one. If I hadn’t taken the shot outside the bathroom and texted it to myself I wouldn’t even have one of her.

  With Jon distracted giving instructions to the driver about going back to his place, just as I predicted, I pull out my phone and take a picture of her.

  “You’ve got a great smile. You should show it off,” I tell her and it’s true. Her lips are perfect, not the too big, artificially plumped ones that girls try to convince the world are beautiful, but in reality just look like a blowup doll’s. Meg’s lips fit her face perfectly and her blue eyes sparkle with brilliance. She can tell stories with just her eyes. I stroke the back of her neck with my thumb and she shivers. I hope no one notices our subtle touches. I can’t help that I’m drawn to her.

  When we get to the house, I feel a bit more relaxed sitting around the pool. I find I like talking to Meg and even when I can’t touch her, she still intrigues me. Such a foreign concept.

  Chapter 10
r />   Megan

  I CAN’T BELIEVE Alli and I are playing strip poker with Liam Nordstrom and Jake Gorboni. This is crazy. I’m good at poker and they don’t stand a chance. My brothers taught me how to play at the age of four and I’ve been beating them ever since because I count cards.

  Here we sit in our swimsuits, under a wood and fabric pergola—the dark illuminated only by the glow from the pool. At least Alli and I have suits—Nordstrom and Gorboni are in their underwear. It’s going to be a quick game. I almost feel bad for them. Jake just dealt our first hand and I somehow pulled off a full house without any pickups.

  “Explain it again, the order of the cards. Two pair isn’t as good as a straight, right? And does a straight have to be in the same suit?” I ask trying to make them believe I don’t know how to play.

  “Come sit on my lap and I’ll talk you through it. We can work as a team,” says Liam.

  “No. I want to do this myself.” He’s warming up again since Jon and Sarah went to bed. He hasn’t kissed me once since we got back to the table at the club and he’s barely touched me, except for during the game of chicken in the pool. Now his feet are entwined with mine under the table and his dark brown eyes are burning holes in my skimpy swimsuit.

  Liam explains how the cards play out and I ask another stupid question just for fun. Alli rolls her eyes at my question. She and I have been in this position a few times before. I know she will drop out early and even if she loses, she probably won’t give up all her clothes.

  Liam reaches for his button-down shirt and slips it over his shoulders. I can tell he has nothing or he wouldn’t be trying to load on the layers.

  “Uh uh. We play with what we start with. You can’t add clothes as you go,” I say.

  “Then you take your top off and we’ll be even. Otherwise, I’m going to start with just as many as you,” Liam says without a hint of humor. He definitely has nothing in his hand.