Three Months and You're Mine (In Too Deep) (5 page)

I'd been holding her by the arm, and
I jerked my head around when she stopped walking like a stubborn mule. "I was having
fun
, that's what I was thinking. I
just
managed to lose Collin. I didn't expect
you
to sweep in and play the role of asshole."

"You're the one who's making an asshole of yourself letting that guy stick his grubby little tongue in your face."

"His tongue wasn't grubby," she protested. "It was soft and wet, and if you want to know the truth, I loved having it shoved in my face."

I was literally nauseated. I wanted to scrub that kiss off her. I wanted to scrub it off her lips and out of her memory, and most of all
, out of my memory.

Chapter 5

Meredith

It was my birthday, and I was planning on doing things I'd probably regret with guys I didn't really care about just to try to get Zack's attention. I hoped the watch I gave him earlier in the night would get his attention, but it didn't seem to be doing the trick. It served part of its purpose, though, since I also wanted to remind him that I was still holding him to our agreement.

T
he watch timer thing was a total lie. I was reasonably sure you couldn't set a watch to countdown three months, and even if you could, I wouldn't begin to know how to do it. I hadn't
touched
the watch besides taking a good look at it before I asked the sales clerk at Macy's to wrap it.

We'd been at The Yard for over an hour and Zack was paying attention to another girl
. She caught sight of me checking them out and gave me the mean girl glare. Zack was oblivious. I knew it would take extreme measures to get Zack's attention, but I was willing to do what I had to do. I chose an unsuspecting guy out of the crowd on the dance floor. I was careful to target one who was checking me out. I thought I might as well make things easy on myself.

It was my first t
ime at The Yard, and I
loved
it. The dance floor was jam packed with beautiful people, and it felt like everything was going at half-speed as I danced to the beat. It was a little bit slow for a rap song, and I moved toward the unsuspecting pawn with all the swagger of a true seductress. It was like taking candy from a baby. Or maybe giving it to a baby was more accurate—let's just say it was easy.

The shaggy, blonde beach baby I chose was all over me like white on rice.
He was a looker too. Even if Zack didn't respond the way I hoped he would, at least I had a nice looking guy to hang out with for the night. Not that I would ever let it go past hanging out at the club, because I wouldn't. I had no interest in doing it with anyone except Zack, and you know how it is when you get your mind set on something.

Anyway,
I was hoping my plan would work and I wouldn't have to worry about me and Surfer Guy or him and the Barbie he was with at all. I strategically moved closer and closer to Zack and his current companion until I thought I was in his peripheral vision. I had just led the guy I was dancing with halfway across the room one step at a time, so it was nothing to get him to kiss me. I just reached up and put my hand around the back of his head, and kissed him.

It was packed, the music was blaring, and nobody was paying attention to us. All I could do was hope that a make out session on the dance floor would be enough to catch Zack's eye. I'd positioned
myself where I thought I had the best shot at catching his attention, but I knew it was a real possibility that he wouldn't even notice us. I kissed the guy for a good, long minute before I felt a hand like a vice grip on my shoulder. I'd been expecting it, hoping for it, but it still startled me and made me gasp. I looked up to see an angry Zack staring at the guy I'd been kissing. The guy started to protest, but backed off when he saw how serious Zack was.

Zack
stormed off, holding me by the arm with a good amount of force. Somehow the numbness I felt from the alcohol and loud music made his brute force feel good to my nerve endings. I found that I loved the feel of his strong hand around my arm. He looked back at me.

"What were you thinking?" he asked. His face was a mask of
frustration. He had the bluest, ice blue eyes that shone bright even in the dim light of the club. He turned, and continued stalking off in the direction of the table. I stopped in my tracks, and he jerked to a stop before turning and looking at me like I was crazy. I was so glad he was mad, but I had to continue the charade, so I acted disappointed about being ripped away from the kiss.

"I was
having fun
, that's what I was thinking. I just managed to lose Collin. I didn't expect
you
to sweep in and play the role of asshole."

"You're the one who's making an asshole of yourself letting that guy stick his grubby little tongue in your face."

"His tongue wasn't grubby. It was soft and wet, and if you want to know the truth, I
loved
having it shoved in my face." I was lying, but Zack was obviously pissed off, and I was in the mood to push him.

He looked sickened by the idea of me with that guy, and maybe it made me a bad person, but I loved seeing him in that state.
I had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from smiling as I waited to see what he'd say next. He started to say something, then changed his mind and thought for a second before saying, "Collin would have gone crazy if he'd seen his little sister out there being a ho."

I gasped and shoved at his chest hard enough for him to have to take a step back. "
Well, for your information, I didn't need rescuing," I said. I tried to look angry, but it was hard when he was so beautiful. Those eyes were just mesmerizing. I tore my gaze away and looked around him, pretending to search for the other guy. He moved in front of me and took me by the shoulders.

"You can just forget about it."

"You can't tell me what to do, Zack. Neither can my brother. I don't know what makes
either
of you think you have the right."

"You said you weren't going to mess around for three months, remember?"

He was looking at me like he was totally serious, so it really took him by surprise when I busted out laughing. "No, you’re a little confused.
I
said I wanted to sleep with you.
You
said I have to wait three months. Nobody said
anything
about what I can or can't do in the meantime."

I realized he still had a light grip on my shoulders and I jerked out of
it defiantly. I looked at him, waiting to hear what he had to say.

"I'm your friend, and I don't want you making a fool of yourself."

"Oh, well, I
appreciate
your concern, Zack, but I'm a big girl and I know what I'm doing. Maybe sometimes I'm okay with acting the fool."

Zack threw his hands up in frustration. I could tell he was close to giving up on me. He made like he was going to walk away, and I stuttered out a few words in an effort to get him to stay. "You're, I think you're right. I'm sort of glad you
did that."

He gave me a sideways stare asking me to explain.

I couldn't tell him I'd only kissed the guy to make him jealous in the first place.

I shrugged. "I was just
mad that you came and broke us up, so I overreacted. I wasn't that into it if you want to know the truth." I gave him a sheepish grin. "I'm sorry," I said. "Maybe you did rescue me a little."

"That's even
worse
, Meredith. I can't believe you were acting like that and you weren't even into it. What do you do if you
like
a guy? Just go ahead and get it on in the club in front of everybody?" He was looking at me with more than a hint of disappointment, and it made me really regret my techniques. I'd managed to make him think I was a total slut when in reality I was a freaking virgin. Go figure.

I wasn't quite ready to tell him I was
untouched, so there was nothing I could really say to defend my actions on the dance floor. My only choice was to stun him with the truth. "I just kissed him to make you jealous," I said.

Zack huffed out a laugh
, letting me know he thought I was joking.

"It's true. I was mad that you were paying attention to that girl, who isn't even as pretty as me, by the way. I just picked a guy and kissed him hoping you'd come tear us apart."

Zack's eyes narrowed and he looked me over. "Let me get this straight… You wanted to see if I'd stop you from embarrassing yourself and I did. Is it as good as you imagined?"

"Not even close," I said.

He gave me an injured look. "What am I missing? The white horse?"

"The kiss."

"The kiss?"

"I imagined a kiss. I thought you might drag me off to a dark corner where you could show me how a real man kissed a girl."

"Don't tempt me, Meredith."

"What?"

"You know
what
. I can't play along. Your brother would
mur-der
me."

I shrugged shyly and
stared up at him through my lashes. "It's my birthday, Zack."

"It's my birthday too."

"Even better. We both deserve a birthday kiss."

"I thought you've already had yours."

"That one didn't count."

Zack laughed. "If what you were doing back there doesn't count as kissing, I'd
be curious to see what your definition of kissing is."

"That's not the reason it doesn't count," I said. "That was definitely a kiss, it just didn't count because I didn't
want
to be kissing him. Zack stood there and took me in. His expression was slightly puzzled.

I
shamelessly stared at his perfect, chiseled face. His dark brown hair was almost black in the club lighting, but his blue eyes reflected what little light there was. They took my breath away. I did what any girl in her right mind would do. I reached up and grabbed the back of his head, pulling it down so our mouths could meet in a kiss. My lips hit his harder than I expected, but that's because he was giving me no resistance whatsoever. He backed me into a nearby wall, and stood over me continuing the kiss the entire time we moved.

"If we get caught, I'm telling him you started it," Zack said.

"Who cares?" I said. I felt reckless, and I wanted him to quit talking and keep kissing me.

"
It's still three months, and your brother
can not
find out."

No sooner had he said it than I heard my brother's voice coming from behind Zack. "What the hell Zack?"

I closed my eyes and let out a defeated breath. The sound of my sigh made Zack take his eyes off my brother and look down at me. "Go ahead and tell him it's all my fault," I whispered. "No doubt he assumes it's true anyway." Zack turned toward Collin, leaving me protected at his back. He put a hand out to stop Collin from advancing on us. The gesture made me feel like there was about to be a fight.

"What's it matter, Collin?" I said, walking around Zack and standing between the two of them. They
were so much bigger than me it was almost comical. I wasn't intimidated. I stared up at Collin with utter defiance in my eyes. "I tricked him into kissing me because it's my
birthday
and I wanted to be kissed—
and
I like Zack, so you can just mind your own business." Collin looked at Zack.

They stared each other down for a few tense seconds before Collin spoke. He never took his eyes off Zack. "Keep your hands off her."

I stomped on my brother's foot to get his attention. "Shit Meredith, what's your problem?"

"My problem is that I'm
in my twenties and you're still acting like you have some sort of authority over me, Collin. I wanted to kiss Zack, so I did it. It was really good, too. I definitely think I'll do it again."

"You're not going to do it again." He shifted his gaze to Zack. "She's not going to do it again, right?"

Zack held us his hands in surrender as he scooted past Collin headed back toward the dance floor. "Whatever, boss. You need to chill a little bit, though."

And just like that Zack was gone.

My freaking older brother! I could have just screamed! Collin had the nerve to look perturbed, like
he'd
been inconvenienced. "What in a mother fucking thousand universes makes you think you have the right to tell me who I can and can't kiss Collin?"

There was a few seconds of silence. "Not Zack, Meredith." Collin was looking at me with such a sweet, sincere expression
, and doing a good job of it too. "I know you're all grown up, and I'm not trying to keep up with your every move. I just love you and I care about your feelings, and well, just please no Zack, okay?" He was saying it with such tenderness that it was hard to keep hating him, even though he humiliated me in front of Zack.

I looked back at him with what I hoped was an equal amount of sincerity. "I'm just friends with Zack." I was basically surrendering, but I'd figured
I'd just do it again as soon as his back was turned. What could he do to us?

"He'll hurt you Mere. He's had too many girls to care abo—"

"I don't want to hear about any of that," I said. I clapped my hands over my ears. "I'm the one who does the hurting around here, Collin. I wish you could see that."

"I don't doubt it, Meredith. You're beautiful. Guys love you. Whatever. Just listen to me when I say you're out of your league with Zack. Seriously. Leave him alone. Please Mere."

"God Collin, you don't have to get all dramatic.
I kissed your friend—get over it," I said.