Page 31 of Pucking Good Girl

I run out of the Zeta House, glad that none of them decided to follow me outside. If they did, they would see that the man waiting for me in a sleek Lincoln SUV isn’t Macklin but Becks.

Maybe next time I should meet Becks in town. Having him pick me up from the Zeta House is too risky when everyone on campus thinks I’m dating his brother.

“Talia,” he gets out of the car before I reach the curb he’s parked at. “You look beautiful.”

“Thank you.”

He looks handsome too, so tall and muscular. His button-down shirt stretches over his shoulders and can’t do anything to hide the excellent shape Becks is in.

But it’s the way his blue eyes darken when they rove over my face and body that causes my pulse to quicken.

The blue of his irises darkens, reminding me of the stormy color of Macklin’s eyes.

I should have figured out that they were related the second I saw Becks at Joe’s on the night we met. His eyes crease at the corners when he smiles in the exact same way Macklin’s do, and they have the same high cheekbones and chiseled jaw.

He opens the passenger door, his gaze firmly locked on me the entire time.

Becks comes closer as I step forward to get inside the car, effectively trapping me between the car frame and his body. “I know I should try to play it cool, Talia. But you have no idea how long I’ve been dreaming about this. About taking you on a date. Since the second you refused to serve me at Joe’s, to be honest.”

He’s leaning closer, to the point that I can smell the clean scent of his cologne.

“I’ve been hoping you’d ask me out, too.” I admit.

His eyes leave mine to focus on my lips, and for a second, my heart stops. Is he going to kiss me?

God, why do I feel so nervous? Becks and I did a lot more than kiss. He’s been inside me, he’s seen everything there is to see when it comes to my body.

But Macklin was there every time Becks and I crossed the line between friendship and something more. This is entirely different because it’s just the two of us. Macklin isn’t here to coax his brother to get closer. Whether Becks and I hit it off or the attraction between fizzles out, it’s up to the two of us.

Macklin makes me feel more confident in myself. When I’m with him, I don’t think about the millions of hang ups I have about the way I look, if my clothes are couture or from the sales rack at one of the stores in the mall. When I’m with him, I feel like I’m enough.

The feeling that Macklin is my lifeline is unfair to Becks, though. Becks has always been nice to me, even before we spent that night together in Macklin’s room. All my feelings of inadequacy are rooted in my own insecurities. Feeling that I’m not pretty enough, that my social status isn’t good enough is nothing but my own way of self-sabotaging. And dating is nothing but a way to get to know one another. If Becks looses interest in me after tonight, I guess it would mean that we weren’t meant to be together.

Just the thought is enough to make me feel nauseous, and I realize that my crush for him grows with every look, every word, every interaction. The same way it happened with Macklin.

“We should go,” Becks says, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear, but not moving an inch. “I made a reservation for seven and we can’t be late. Apparently, I was lucky to get a table at this new place.”

His eyes drift down to my lips again, and I have to fight the urge to grab him by the front of his shirt and rise on the tips of my toes to kiss him. “Let’s go, then.” I get into the car, smiling at him when he closes my door before running around the hood to get into the driver’s seat.

I already regret not kissing him, but it’s probably for the best. The Zeta House is just a few yards away, and while I didn’t see anyone outside, you never know who might be watching.

The truth is that even though we didn’t kiss, if anyone saw that the one who picked me up isn’t Macklin, the gossip mill would go insane.

I’m not ashamed of my feelings for these two men, but I’d much rather not have to explain my complicated relationship with the Shayba brothers.

Becker

If when I came to Star Cove anyone had told me that I would be taking my brother’s girlfriend on a date, I would have thought they were insane.

And yet here I am, fighting my brother for everything that matters in my life. Fighting him for a spot on the team of my dreams and for the woman I haven’t stopped obsessing over since the second she asked me what I wanted to drink.

I almost chickened out a couple of times and canceled tonight. Telling myself that Talia is Mack’s girlfriend, and that means that I already lost the war before it even began. But then I realized that she could have said no when I asked her out.

If Talia hadn’t been interested in me, if the night in Mack’s room was just a moment of temporary insanity, she would have turned me down. I was honest about my intentions. I told her without any room for misunderstanding that I want to be with her. If she already knew that she didn’t want me, she wouldn’t be sitting in my car in the prettiest dress I’ve ever seen.

Once we leave Greek Row, Talia seems to relax. The tension in her shoulders visibly eases and she turns to look at me.

“Would you like to listen to some music?” I ask.