The Hazards of Skinny Dipping (5 page)

“What do you think your friends at Phi Omega
are going to think of this?” Cara asked before we got up to our
floor.

I groaned. “Dylan’s just going to love it,
especially when I cancel our dinner plans.”

Cara patted my shoulder. “Oh, the drama.”

“Night.” I waved and walked into my room.

My roommate was still out, which was good. I
needed to call Dylan. It’s not like we were serious or anything,
but canceling dinner with a guy to spend the day at a different
frat wasn’t an easy thing to explain to anyone.

I hoped he wouldn’t pick up. The party would
still be loud. I took a seat on my purple comforter as I hit
call.

“Hey, where are you?” he yelled over the
music.

“I’m back in my room.”

“Oh. Hold on a sec.” I heard some muffled
talking before it got quieter. “Sorry, I went up to my room so I
could actually hear you.”

“You live in the house?”

“Uh huh. I’m looking forward to showing you
my room tomorrow night.”

“About that…”

“Oh no. That’s not a good way to start a
sentence.”

“I have to cancel. It’s a pledge thing.”

He sighed. “Fine. It sucks, but I know it’s
not your choice. When do you get out? Maybe we can get drinks
instead.”

“I should be done at nine.”

“Okay, I’ll pick you up at your house.”

Great. I wouldn’t be at my house. “I’ll need
to change, why don’t you meet me outside my dorm at
nine-thirty?”

“What dorm?”

“Maude.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at nine-thirty then.”

“Great. Good night.”

“Good night, Juliet.”

To: [email protected]

From: [email protected]

Subject: Hey back

Dear Juliet,

I have that shirt, but I got it in an extra
small by accident. Maybe it’ll fit you since your boobs aren’t as
big as mine ;) JK, we all know you’d win that contest. Have you met
any guys?

Your Beautiful and Perfect Cousin,

Amy

I got out of the shower and put my hair back
in a bun before pulling on a black skirt and a pink tank top. Every
part of me wanted to rebel and wear jeans instead, but that would
probably get us all in trouble. I didn’t bother with makeup. I
wasn’t trying to impress anyone.

I went down the hall and knocked gently on
Cara’s door. She slipped out into the hallway. “Ready for some
fun?”

“You mean hell?”

She laughed. “Amanda had better be there,
too. If she isn’t, it would be like feeding us to the wolves.”

“And she wouldn’t do that to us? Why do they
call her a pledge mom if she’s going to treat us like crap?”

Cara locked her door. “I don’t think they’re
usually like this. Amanda’s just a bitch.”

“Aren’t we lucky?”

We met up with Mallory and headed to the
Kappa house. Amanda waited outside. “Good, you all followed
instructions.”

I wanted to say something like, “Yes, we can
handle dressing ourselves,” but I kept that to myself.

“You all look so uptight. This is going to be
fun.”

“Great,” one of the other girls, Claire, said
with enthusiasm. Suck up.

We walked inside, and the muscle guys from
the night before waited along with another dozen guys who looked
just like them.

Guy number one smiled. “Welcome,
welcome.”

We tentatively moved toward the center of the
room. Even Claire slowed down a little. The house was trashed. I
had a feeling our job would be to clean it. Now the skirt part made
sense. We’d be bending over a lot to clean. Fabulous.

I was trying to brainstorm a plausible way
out of spending the day as a maid when Mr. Baseball Cap stood up,
only he wasn’t wearing his hat. He had dark brown, longish hair and
these piercing green eyes I hadn’t been able to see in the darkness
of the laser tag room. “Hi, girls. It’s so nice of you to join us
today.”

I snorted. That was a bad idea because every
single guy turned to look at me.

“Hi, there.” Mr. Baseball Cap closed the
distance between us and held out one of his large hands. “Great to
see you again, Annie. I’m Reed, by the way.”

Amanda made a really fake forced laugh.
“That’s actually Juliet. She’s quite the comedian.”

“Juliet?” His eyed widened slightly. I knew
what was coming next. “Have you found a Romeo?”

Original. So original. I forced a laugh of my
own. “No, not yet.”

“Good luck with that,” Reed said over his
shoulder as he walked away.

When he reached the front of the room, he
started up again. “I’m sure you’re wondering what kind of work we
have for you, and the answer is a little of everything.”

Cara nudged me, and I rolled my eyes.

“As you can tell, we need some help cleaning
the place, but we also have some other jobs.”

“We needed five girls, but it seems my
friends selected six.” Reed looked right at me, and I knew
something bad was coming. “Since we don’t want to send anyone home,
I think I’m going to take one of you as a personal assistant for
the day.”

No-freaking-way.

“Juliet, how would you like that honor?”

Amanda probably expected me to curse Reed out
because she answered for me. “She’d love to. But remember the
guidelines.” She gave him a warning glance. I hoped the guidelines
were for my benefit.

“I’ll be a perfect gentleman.” He grinned at
me.

My stomach flipped. Great. I had to open my
mouth—or, okay, make a noise, and now I’d be stuck spending twelve
hours with baseball cap.

“The rest of you, report to Aaron.” He
gestured to one of the guys from the night before.

Aaron told us where all the cleaning supplies
were, and I started to follow the other girls when Reed touched my
arm. “You’re with me, remember?”

“How could I forget?” Cara and Mallory gave
me sympathetic looks while Reed led me away.

“What am I going to be doing exactly?”

“I thought I made that clear. You’re my
assistant today.”

I put a hand on my hip. “What does that
mean?”

“You’re about to find out.”

I shivered.

He laughed. “Ready for your first job?”

“Sure.”

“It’s upstairs.”

“Upstairs?”

“In my room.” He cocked an eyebrow.

“Hell no.”

“It’s not anything that exciting. Trust
me.”

“It has nothing to do with removing
clothes?”

“I’m afraid that would violate Amanda’s
rules. But it does involve clothes.”

“Okay…”

I tentatively followed him upstairs. He
pushed open the door to a room that was a total disaster. “You’re
going to find all my dirty clothes and bring them down to the
laundry room.”

“Wait, you want me to do your laundry?”

“I told you it wasn’t exciting.” He sprawled
out on his bed, propping himself up with a pillow.

“Are you just going to watch me search for
your dirty clothes?”

“Yes.” He put his hands behind his head.

“Great,” I mumbled.

“Would you rather be cleaning up down there?
Do you want to have a room full of guys hollering at you while you
scrub a floor?”

I turned to him. “No. I’d rather be home
sleeping.”

“If you’re tired, you are welcome to join
me.” He patted the bed beside him.

“Really? Oh my god, I can’t believe you’d be
so generous.”

“I like you, Juliet. You’re feisty and fiery,
and I just know we’re going to be good friends.”

“Friends? That’s likely…but what are the
rules today?”

“I can’t force you to do anything of a sexual
nature.” He grinned wickedly. “But you know, if you really want to,
it’s fine if it’s your idea.”

“Oh yes, because I’m just dying to rip my
clothes off and have sex with you.”

He laughed. “I was just putting it out
there.”

“Don’t put anything out there. I already have
enough on my plate trying to figure out one frat guy—”

“Another one? My, you’ve been busy in the
week you’ve been here. Who is he?”

“None of your business, and it didn’t happen
this week. Ugh, why am I even telling you this?”

“I don’t know. Why are you?”

I laughed, not sure what to say. “I’m going
to take care of your laundry.”

I searched his floor for dirty clothes,
careful to avoid bending over in front of him. I refused to make it
any more enjoyable than I had to.

After a few minutes of silence, Reed spoke
again. “Who is he?”

“Why do you care?”

“I don’t, but I’m bored.”

“Then go do something.” I finished putting
the last of his dirty clothes in a hamper. I was careful to make
the most minimal contact possible with his underwear. “Where’s the
laundry room?”

“The basement. I’ll take you.” He hopped off
his bed and opened the door. “After you.”

I hoisted the overflowing hamper. Couldn’t he
at least lug it?

“I believe in equal rights,” he whispered in
my ear from right behind me. He was enjoying this way too much.

“Equal rights. Sure.”

“What? Don’t girls like that?”

“No comment.”

I groaned and headed downstairs. I quickly
realized I had the good job. Reed wasn’t exaggerating. My friends
were cleaning with a bunch of guys watching, making obscene
comments, and drinking beer. Yes, drinking beer at ten a.m.

“This way.” Reed opened another door.

I thought about how I could be walking into a
torture chamber, which made me think about walking into Christian
Grey’s playroom. I laughed. I was sure plenty of girls would like
doing that with Reed, but I wasn’t one of them.

“What’s so funny?” He flipped on the
light.

“You don’t want to know.”

“I bet I do.”

I put his hamper down on the floor. “Do you
usually separate your darks and lights?”

“Why would I do that?”

“Okay… I’ll just do lights.” Most of his
boxers were dark, so I wouldn’t have to touch them.

I sorted through the hamper and threw clothes
in the washer.

“Where are you from?”

I figured it couldn’t hurt to make
conversation. “Maryland. Right outside D.C.”

“Yeah? I have cousins there.”

“Where are you from?” I poured in
detergent.

“I went to high school in Charleston.”

“Cool, where?” I turned on the washer. It was
an old model and extremely loud.

“West Ashley.”

“Oh, that’s cool.” I leaned back against the
dryer.

“Ready for your next job?”

“Sure. I can’t wait.”

“We’re going back to my room.”

“Why?” I wasn’t worried this time. If he was
going to try something, he would have done it already. He’d been
surprisingly well-behaved.

“I need to change.”

“I’ll wait downstairs.” I definitely didn’t
need to watch him change.

“Not a chance. Let’s go.”

“Fine.” I followed him back upstairs. It was
quiet. “Where is everyone?”

“Out back, hanging out.”

“What?” Maybe I did get the bad job.

“You didn’t really think they were going to
clean all day, did you?”

“Then can’t I go?” I started to head toward
the back door.

Reed gently touched my arm. “Nope. I’m not
done with you yet.”

“This isn’t fair.”

“Life isn’t fair.”

I followed Reed upstairs where he promptly
pulled off his shirt. Wow, the guy was in incredible shape. He
could have been on one of those exercise equipment commercials
where you know the guy wouldn’t be caught dead using the stupid
equipment he’s selling. Every inch of his chest and abs was
perfectly sculpted. It wasn’t my fault—it was impossible not to
gawk at him.

He grinned when he caught me staring. “Like
what you see?”

“Nope. I’m not into the ‘roid look.” I
preferred my men fit but not too built—like Dylan.

“It’s all natural, baby.”

“Do you live at the gym?”

“Funny you ask that…”

“Why?”

“That’s our next stop.”

“We’re going to the gym?” I took a step back,
nearly tripping on a sneaker.

“Yup, you’re spotting for me.”

“What? I can’t spot you.”

“Sure you can. You kick ass at laser tag and
can carry tons of dirty clothes. You’re capable.”

“Oh, this is going to be fun.”

He smiled. “It will be.”

I followed him out through the house. The
streets were fairly empty as we headed to campus. I guessed most
people were sleeping off their hangovers. I liked the emptiness,
though. There was something relaxing about it. “What year are
you?”

“I’m a junior.”

“Oh, I thought you were a senior.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.” A car raced by. I took a step closer
to Reed to move away from the street. In the dorms, it was easy to
forget we were in a city, but if you left campus at all, you got
the reminder real quick.

“I know the real reason you’re asking. Yes,
I’m twenty-one.”

“Why would I care about your age?”

“You’re probably already coming up with ways
to ask me to buy you booze.”

“Excuse me?” I crossed my arms. “I’m dating a
senior. I don’t need your help with that.” I didn’t mention that I
also had a fake ID. I wasn’t going to use that more than I needed
to.

“Oh... mystery frat guy again, huh?”

“His name’s Dylan if you have to know.”

“I don’t have to know, but it’s good to know.
Dylan Bradley?” He said the name with distaste.

“Uh huh. You know him?”

“Unfortunately…”

“I’m sure there’s a story there.”

“Not as good as the one you have with him.”
He glanced at me.

“That’s not one I’m going to share.” Not with
Reed or anyone else if I could help it. I still couldn’t believe
I’d hooked up with him like that.

Reed laughed. “Oh, come on. Now I have to
hear it.”

“It’s not that good. We’ve known each other
for years, and we’re kind of dating.”