Unfiltered & Undressed (The Unfiltered Series) (5 page)

“No!” he shot back. “That’s not it at all! What I’m saying is that it’s not fair to the other students. I need to focus on them.” He hesitated again, and again it drove me crazy, that hedging thing. He shook his head. “And I can’t do that with you there.”

I waited a second, to make sure I hadn’t misunderstood him. And when I was sure I hadn’t, I cocked my hip to one side, studying him with a wicked grin. “So it’s not that I suck, it’s that I’m…
distracting
…?” I let the last word dangle there, thinking how much easier that was on my ego.

Will’s mouth fell open, and he shook his head. “That’s not even close to what I said. And you said
I
think highly of myself.
Really?
” He gave me a look that made it clear I was the pot calling the kettle black. “It comes down to class size, and right now I have one student too many. If only little Gracie would’ve dropped out.” He gave me an apologetic shrug. “But, since you were the last to enroll, I’m afraid you’re the one who has to go—simple as that.”

I wanted to tell him he was full of shit, but he’d already turned his back on me and was walking away. Besides, it’s not like it would have made any difference to tell him what he already knew. I couldn’t
make
him teach me how to swim, and I couldn’t tell him why I needed to learn so badly.

Basically, I was gonna have to figure it out on my own.

WILL

I crept in carefully and slid the deadbolt in place, listening to see if Tess had waited up for me. When she didn’t call out, I figured she’d crashed for the night.

As quietly as possible, I set my keys on the counter and went to check on her. She was in the same place she’d been every night this week, curled up on the couch, probably pissed that I hadn’t bothered letting her know how late I’d be.

I thought about waking her so she wouldn’t have to sleep there all night, or at least tucking a blanket around her—things that might, in some small way, make up for letting her down again. Instead, I went to my room and collapsed on the bed, not bothering to strip out of my clothes.

I shouldn’t have stayed out. I should have been thinking about Tess and my obligations, and how I would be better from now on. Not driving around all night thinking about Lauren—the girl with the hot temper and the coffee-colored eyes. The one who made me question my own sanity, and my vows not to mess around with anyone once I’d decided to come home—back to Tess.

But somehow I couldn’t stop picturing Lauren stretched out on top of the bar at The Dunes with all that smooth skin of hers bared for me, or again today, while she’d floated on top of the water at the pool as I’d had my hand on her back. I wanted to see what she had under that ugly one-piece swimsuit of hers. I wanted to bury myself inside of her, and forget all about bills and work and commitments I should never have made in the first place.

Jesus, fuck!
She was exactly the wrong kind of girl to be thinking about. The kind that would get me into all kinds of trouble if I let her.

I crammed my fists in my eyes and let out a heavy sigh. This wasn’t the way I’d planned my life. Sometimes life sucked.

I’d done the right thing when I’d told Lauren I couldn’t give her lessons any more. Even if I didn’t have Tess at home, what kind of instructor would I be if I couldn’t even concentrate on the kids in my class because all I was thinking about was her? Worse, what if, next time, I couldn’t contain myself and ended up with a serious hard-on? That would just make me look like some kind of deviant in a class full of kids.

I had to get the brown-eyed girl out of my head and wrap my brain around the way things had to be. I wasn’t going to have her. Hell, I didn’t even deserve her. I had to focus on Tess and sorting shit out at home.

Getting up, I went back to the couch and brushed aside the silken strands of sun-streaked hair that hung in Tess’s face. I shook her awake gently. “Sorry I didn’t call.”

LAUREN

Emerson came out of her bedroom, securing a simple silver hoop in her ear, but the hoops were the only simple things she had on. “Okay, for real? You’ve been moping around all day. You’re not really gonna stay here all by yourself tonight, are you? Get your ass up and come out with us.”

“I’m just not up to it tonight. Besides,” I said, casting a meaningful glance at my worn sweatpants. “I’m not exactly dressed for…well, for anything.” Em, on the other hand, would easily blend in with the rest of the crowd at The Dunes, in her body-hugging neon pink dress and strappy heels.

“Mm-hmm.” She assessed me with a skeptical eye. “I see that. You got this whole bag lady vibe goin’ on. What up with that? I think a night out is exactly what you need.”

“I’m just tired, that’s all.”

Em rolled her eyes. “You’re so fucking lame I can’t even stand it.”

“Whatever,” I threw back at her, because the eye roll was a dead giveaway. She so wasn’t mad at me. “You love me and you know it. Besides, I’ll try to do better, I swear.”

Her mood buoyed at my promise, and she squeezed my hands tightly. “Good, because Lucas has a roommate. And he’s hot. And now you owe me, so you know what that means.” She raised her perfectly tweezed brows at me.

Perfect
, I thought, realizing I’d just roped myself into a double date of some kind. Em was always setting me up with the friends of guys she was either hooking up with, or trying to hook up with. Worked out great for her, but for me it was nothing short of painful. Most of them were nice enough, maybe even on the boring side. But occasionally, some douchebag couldn’t imagine there was a girl on this planet who wasn’t falling all over herself to jump into bed with him.

Yet, there I was, wanting to go home by myself.

Those guys made the rest of the set-ups unbearable.

Still, this was Em I was talking about. Em, who’d moved here with me, practically on no notice at all, just because I’d asked.

A small smile found my lips, not an answer exactly, but Emerson knew.

“
Yes
?” she asked, her voice rising hopefully.

I shrugged. “Yeah, fine, whatever.”

Emerson squealed and threw her arms around me, rocking me back and forth in one of her famous scream-hugs. “Youarethebest!” Her high-pitched words bled together. She planted a big, glossy kiss on my forehead. “And I swear you won’t regret it!” She stepped back and wrinkled her nose then, giving me an
Ooh! you’re-not-gonna-like-this
look. “And I almost forgot to tell you. Your mom called my cell today.” She clenched her jaw, revealing her lower teeth with a hiss. “You seriously need to stop avoiding her. At least call her back and tell her you’re alive. I didn’t answer, but half her message was in Spanish.” Her eyes widened. “I’ve never heard her use
the Spanish
before.”

I cringed. Emerson was right. It was kind of an unspoken rule of my mom’s: all English, all the time. If she was breaking her own rule, she was either super pissed or super worried.

“I’ll call her,” I promised, not sure if I was lying or not, because I didn’t think I’d ever be ready to tell my parents that I’d up and left Arizona the way I had. They’d never understand why I couldn’t just be happy living the life they had so carefully planned for me.

In typical Em fashion, she immediately forgot all about her brush with
the Spanish
as she plucked her sparkly purse from the counter and blew an air kiss at me from the door. “Don’t wait up. If I’m lucky, I’ll be getting
lucky
,” she gushed.

“Be safe,
tramp
!” I shouted to Emerson at the open door.

“Be reckless,
virgin
!” Em fired back, using her favorite insult, and then we both giggled as Emerson closed the door behind her. I waited until I heard Emerson’s heels clicking against the sidewalk, followed by the sound of Lucas joining her as their voices tangled together, rising and falling until they were indistinguishable, and eventually, faded into oblivion.

Making my way to the sofa, I pulled out my cell and counted the number of missed calls from both my parents’ numbers. Seventeen, and that was only since yesterday.

I braced myself and pressed Enter.

When my mom answered on the other end, I plastered on my falsest smile. “Mama?” I said, as cheerfully as I could manage, and had to wait until my mother stopped berating me for not returning her calls. “Everything’s great,” I managed to squeeze in between reprimands. “I’m sorry. I’ve just been busy,” I said, trying to talk over the top of her. And when I finally got more than a word in, I out-and-out lied to her. “Yeah, it’s hot here. You know, Arizona in the summertime…”

By the time I got off the phone, I knew what I had to do.

I texted Emerson:
Meet you at The Dunes in 20!

I waited until I got the
YAY!!!
back from her, and then dragged a chair to the almost-unnoticeable opening in the ceiling so I could pull my duffle bag down. It only took a minute to count out the money I’d need, and to tally how much I still had left—over $100,000, including the money I’d saved from stripping online—before I zipped it closed and hoisted it back to its hiding place.

My heart didn’t stop pounding until the money was safely tucked away, and even then I had to take several long breaths to calm myself.

I might not be ready to tell my parents the truth about where I was, but I wasn’t ready to let my dream die.

And now I had a plan.

‡

In just twenty minutes I’d managed to fix my hair, throw on some lipgloss, and shimmy into one of Emerson’s dresses since hers were already unpacked. Of course, I was curvier than she was, so her dresses fit me…
differently
than they did her.

By the time the cab driver deposited me in front of The Dunes, I felt halfway hot, which was saying something considering I’d been dressed for Dumpster-diving less than half an hour earlier. I could feel the eyes on me even before I reached the door, but that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. Maybe Emerson had been right. Maybe I really did need a night out.

When I passed my fake ID to the bouncer, my heart pounded extra hard—the way it always did—until he gave me the green light—which they always did. I slid it back into the small gold purse I carried, right next to the plain white envelope I’d stuffed inside.

Emerson was waiting for me inside the door, and when she wrapped her arms around my neck, I could already taste the Fireball on her breath. “Shot!” she shouted in my ear, and from out of nowhere, someone was handing me the same drink she had.

I downed the cinnamon whiskey, wondering for the millionth time why Emerson loved it so much. Making a face as it burned a path down my throat, I asked. “Can I get a beer now?”

Em giggled. “Of course!” She took my hand and placed it in some guy’s, but not like a handshake. It was more like she was making the two of us hold hands. “Zane,” she shouted, because it was even louder tonight than it had been the first time I’d been here. Music was pulsing and the people were jammed together. “Lauren wants a beer. Go get her one!”

Zane, who was apparently the guy whose hand I was holding, flashed me a gorgeous smile, and it might’ve been the Fireball talking, but there was a little bit of that panty-thing again—the one where the California boys started fires down there. He pressed his free hand to his chest and did a little bow. “I’m Zane,” he explained, in case I’d missed the part where Emerson had screamed his name in my ear. “Apparently, I’ll be your personal butler this evening.” It didn’t escape my notice that he hadn’t yet released my hand.

It also didn’t escape my notice that his eyes had wandered several times to my chest, not that it surprised me—
the girls
were barely contained in the little blue number with the deep-V I’d pilfered from Emerson’s closet.

“You don’t have to do what she says, you know?” I nodded toward Emerson, who was rounding Lucas up and dragging him toward the dance floor, her obligation to me complete now that she’d found someone to fulfill my drinking needs.

He grinned, leaning close in a hush-hush kind of way. “To be honest, she kind of terrifies me. I’ve never seen a girl wrap Lucas around her finger the way your friend has.”

I laughed. “You must be the roommate.”

“Guilty,” he admitted, while his thumb moved over the back of my hand. He held my gaze like he was trying to hypnotize me, and I wondered if I shouldn’t clue him in that I was only in this for Emerson’s sake. His seduction moves—while not half-bad—were being wasted on the wrong girl.

I lifted a brow. “About that beer…”

“I wouldn’t want to keep you waiting.”

We waded through a sea of bodies until we reached the bar. The dark-haired bartender spotted us first, giving me a nod. “Hey, Body Shot! What can I get ’ya?”

“Corona,” I answered, pretending I didn’t just feel Will’s eyes shoot my way from where he was working at the other end of the bar, or that I hadn’t noticed the cluster of girls converged there, just for him.

From behind me, Zane’s hand landed just above my hip.

“Make it two!” Zane called out to the girl behind the counter as he dropped the money for both our drinks on the countertop.

My cheeks burned as I recalled the last time I’d been here, at this very bar—
on this very bar
—with Will’s lips roving over my skin.

Whatever humiliation I felt, I needed to get over it. I needed to make peace with Will if my plan was going to work.

Taking a breath and forcing my gaze upward, I glanced Will’s way. But he wasn’t paying attention to me anymore. I watched him work for several seconds, trying to figure out why I was so confused by him. Everything about him exuded confidence and magnetism, and every girl here wanted a piece of him. But he also had an aloofness, a coolness in his demeanor, that made it clear he didn’t let anyone get too close.

I’d recognized it right away, maybe because I understood it. It was exactly how I’d always felt—never wanting to let anyone in. It was the same thing that made me think he was a jackass that first night when I’d demanded my keys and he’d all but ignored me.

I guess that was the thing, part of the appeal. Most girls wanted what they couldn’t have.