Let's Pretend It's Love

The bed was soft, and warm and empty, which was probably why he hadn't moved in the last past ten minutes. Rhi had just hopped in the shower a couple minutes ago, teasing him for just a minute before throwing her clothes at him and jumping into the bathroom. He rolled his eyes, stretching on the girlishly, pink covers and inhaling the scent of fresh laundry. He flipped on to his stomach, burying part of his face under one of the calm peach pillows and inhaling deeply. He was tired, his body was spent after the long and tiring exercise he'd done at the pool. His back and shoulders were a bit achy but he couldn't imagine how Rhi must now be feeling after the conditioning he'd seen the lacrosse girls doing. The team was relatively small but they were good and harsh, always trying to one-up the last thing done, always brutal. He stretched his arms out and looked up when he felt something scratching his palm instead of fluffy softness.

He pulled himself closer to the center of the bed, his sock covered feet touching against the end of the mattress when his fingers came across something that crumpled against his hand. It sounded like paper under the pillow so he moved his head a little to the side and let his fingers search under the satin pillowcase to find the cause of discomfort.

He pulled out a somewhat crumpled piece of paper and didn't think it was anything more than maybe a term paper or a homework assignment so he unfolded the corners and looked at it, surprised to find a blacked out account number and a recurring name he felt like he should've remembered. Was someone withdrawing money from Rhianne's bank account? He knew that she'd mentioned having to take care of her account and her savings numbers but he didn't know why anyone would need to take such large amounts of money to pay anything. He knew she didn't pay for a house or mortgage or even rent and all her dues for college had been taken care of by her hard work before school had even started up a few months ago.

The door squeaked a little alerting Liam that Rhianne had stepped back inside from her bathroom. There weren't many bathrooms in the sorority house so in exchange for having her own bedroom (since she was the odd one out from her sisters), she also shared her bathroom with the others.

"What's that?" Rhianne asked, letting her hair fall before pushing up one of her towels onto her head and then winding it around so her hair was hidden with the fluffy coral towel. Her High School Musical 2 towel was wrapped tightly just under her arm and her smile faltered a little when she saw what he held in his hands.

"I just found it under your bed," Liam said, feeling like a deer in headlights, although he had no idea what he had done wrong. He only needed to see the tension on her face to realize that something was wrong.

She walked tersely and contained herself, although she felt like jumping on the bed and ripping the paper into shreds.

"It's okay, I'll just put it away," she murmured with a fake smile and pulling the paper from his hands and pushing it behind the clutter on his desk.

"I was just looking. I thought you were on a half scholarship. Why does your bank statements have so many-"

"Don't worry about it, amour," slipping into her second native tongue, hoping that would conceal her discomfort. She pulled out her clothes for the rest of the day since it was only a few hours after noon and she planned on getting frozen yogurt with some of the girls. "It's not important," she assured Liam with a

She turned to the mirror and first put lotion on her face, rubbing the gentle moisturizer into her skin since her she tended to be dry around her face. She took her body lotion (Into The Wild from Bath&Body) and sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing the lotion into her legs and arms before she pushed the lotion his way and let her towel drop onto the bed.

"I can help if you're having money problems," he offered, wondering if she was in debts or was giving someone loans or something.

"I don't need your money," she said proudly and then feeling a bit remorseful so added a small smile as she turned to him. "Just need you."

That part she knew was true at least.

"Why are you so secretive Rhianne, huh?" he murmured, the words slowly drifting Rhianne's way just after his fingers pushed into her back, just below her shoulders. The lotion was cold but his hands were hot, just as they always were. She closed her eyes, her forehead wrinkling as her train of thought suddenly came to a sudden stop and swerved off the railroad lines. She couldn't even answer as Liam's calloused hands trailed lower until he was massaging her shivering back. He had moved closer, his legs around hers with her back just inches away from his chest.

"Why don't you let me in? I won't push you, just- it's okay," he tried, desperation in his eyes. In the last couple of weeks she had been slowly detracting from him, and she may have done it well but he knew her inside and out by now and he was smart enough to see the signs.

"Liam, I- I can't."

"You can't or you won't? I don't think it's a silly ex so I can't figure it out on my own."

He capped the lotion and put it on her dresser. She turned and crawled closer within the little space that was left in between them. Brushing her cheek against his five o'clock shadow on his chin, her fingers pulling on the inlining under the cloth of his long sleeved shirt, her lips parted, soft skin brushing against his sensitive earlobe but he remained still.

"I had to work so hard to stop you from thinking this was just 'casual' and now you won't even tell me things?"

She rolled her eyes, trying to move away from him but not before his hand clasped around her wrist and his arm wrapped her back into his chest, his nose touching the clavicle pushing against her tan skin, her collarbones pushing against the bridge of his strong jaw.

"Stop overreacting, it's not even serious."

This time when she pushed away, his fingers loosened and the towel fell from her lithe body, as she pulled on her bra and panties, her eyebrows still furrowed from whatever kind of shit conversation was going. She found a pair of lazy harem pants and pulled them on, slipping on a lacy top above her trimmed white bra with a pink ribbon in the center.

"I'm not gonna let you be a sweet nothing. I want us to matter, but I guess I'm the only one," Liam spoke to her back as she adjusted her clothes in front of her mirror.

"I didn't know I already was," she said softly, her eyes turning colder than they had before.

He scoffed. "Look I know you're a player, okay? If you're getting bored of me already you really don't have to drag it out and hide your secrets in dark corners away from me."

"Is that what you think this is about?" she laughed, humor lacking in the sweet sound flowing from her lips. It took two steps and a little jumps before her body crashed against his, her lips crashing against his, her teeth scraping against his as she pushed into him. It was passion and anger, and he didn't resist as he pushed a hand through her her, his legs tangling in hers.

"Sex won't make me forget," he pushed under her shirt, his thumb sweeping over his sides.

"I'm sick of ," he breathed out in between kisses, "your games and," she pulled down on his lip before he could continue, "pretending like," her fingers brushed against his hipbone, "everything's perfect."

It was like nothing could stop them, as if they only had the last five seconds to ever see each other, as if the only source of air left was within the other's lungs.

"Don't lie to me," Liam growled, pushing up the lace top that she had put on just minutes ago.

"I'm not," Rhianne purred against his touch.

"Tell me the truth," he spoke against her stomach, lips pressed to her navel, making her shake with every word spoken to her skin.

"It's not anyone else," she started before she had to inhale and stop Liam's fingers from wandering down any further. "It's family problems," she explained shortly.

"Then tell me," he pushed her again, his body covering hers as the linen underneath their frantic movements became rumpled and stressed.

"I can't," she sighed, her hands wrapped around his waist, on leg hooked over his calf. She could feel his well-built, swimmers body through the thin denim and linen of his clothes. Her eyes had caught sight of the bright pink briefs she'd bought for him as a joke a couple weeks ago.

"Then call me when you can," he said, his body heat disappearing and leaving her cold. Pulling up his pants and smoothing over his shirt, he moved away from the bed, not sparing her a second look as he closed the door behind him.

She closed her eyes tight, ignoring the churning in her stomach.

She got up, her clothes quickly back on before she grabbed the crumpled paper on her desk and angrily crumpling it back into a little ball before flattening it against the flat wooden desk once more and staring at the bank statements, before using her fingers to rip it to shreds. The torn paper fell to pieces on her floor before, her fingers pushed back her wild hair and an anguished whimper left her lips.

"Fuck," she cried out in a mix of emotions before her fingers pressed to her lips, and stopped the train of slurs she was ready to unleash.

Fuck.