(The Platters - Smoke gets in your eyes)

"Dude… girls are bitches. It's like one rule for them and another rule for us…" Dick Casablanca's complained as he stormed into the Neptune Grand Penthouse that they shared.

Logan stared at his phone again, a little disappointed. Veronica's shift in the library this evening at Hearst Campus was going to be running later than intended due to a biochemistry final tomorrow, so she was being inundated with laboratory geeks wanting help with their text books. She would be fingering through index reference cards for the evening and he wouldn't be getting to finger her at all he thought sullenly.

No Booty call tonight. Halo it is. To be honest, it was kind of a relief… he was still sick with nerves at the thought of how he was going to propose.

Keith Mars had a gaze as sharp as his mental acuity. He had suggested another double date with Veronica's father at the street fair this weekend, and honestly this anxiety of finding the right time to bring up his desire to acquire the mans first born gave Logan a deep appreciation for arranged marriages.

"Trouble in Paradise?" Logan asked as he picked up the other Xbox controller and tossed it to his roommate.

"Paradise? More like Purgatory… she saw me having lunch with that Nadia chick today in the food court… which was totally platonic by the way, I was only getting her digits for Chip Wheeler because he's into red heads but guy has seriously no chill without some Brewskies" Dick explained as he picked up the controller and sat down on the couch.

"Mac saw you with another girl and now you are in the Dog House?" Logan asked. This little fling between Mac and Dick had been going on for about a month now in secret and he honestly couldn't remember the last time a girl had ever gotten so far under Dick's skin… well perhaps except for his brief flirtation with Jackie the lesbian hospitality staff.

"She completely blew me off…" he complained. "We were supposed to be going for some play time down in that new hotel by the Neptune Plaza, Serenity Inn? I'd got the room key and everything… then she stood me up" he grumbled. "I waited there for like an hour"

"Sorry man" Logan sympathised as he selected his armour.

"That's not the worst of it… I saw her just now, she's on a date with that Max guy who hooks folks up with Finals Papers?" he complained. "It's like she can go and talk all Nerd over Coffee and Chocolate Cakes but I can't even do a favour for a buddy"

"Isn't that Cobra Starship concert this weekend?" Logan asked as he hinted at the CD player, Dick had been playing the Mix that Piz had burned for him on a loop almost everywhere he went. He had even went out and bought himself an ipod shuffle so it would stop driving his roommate insane.

"Supposedly.. I talked to that facialist from the spa downstairs whose boyfriend is like the Roadey for the basest of a guy who shares a flat with the lead singers sister to get VIP passes and everything…" Dick sighed. "But I don't know.. I think I'll just give them to Piz to like put on the show this week for like help the musically obsessed or something" he sulked.

Logan looked at his best friend again, this was developing far faster than he had thought possible. Dick had started petitioning the hotel management to start providing better vegetarian options on the hotel room service menu when he had learned that Mac was vegetarian. He had stopped chasing parties and sitting in on a Friday night encase she called and wanted to take advantage of him. He had missed several classes this week because she had used Parkers current absence of visiting her brother and his new wife after she became an aunty for the first time to throw him naked around her bedroom at her leisure. He was falling hard for the cyberpunk hacktivist and it was starting to take its toll.

Logan had been sworn to secrecy, even though Veronica was now becoming suspicious about Dick's activities when he began to disappear at odd hours.

"Do you think he's like joined some secret frat brother cult?" she had asked Logan just yesterday.

"Have you tried speaking to her about this?" Logan asked quietly as Dick came back to the couch with a beer and handed one to him.

"What am I a chick?" he scoffed as he took a swig from the bottle and picked up his controller again. The two of them played for several minutes and then Dick paused the game. "Last time I tried to have a conversation with her, she shoved her panties in my mouth and told me to shut up" he sighed.

Logan absorbed that information with mild shock… Mac was always adorkable and generally very quiet. She was always so sweet and shy when she was around everyone else.

"Then.. don't you think its time you put your foot down a little?" Logan suggested.

"Feet down, legs in the air.. its all the same to her" he lamented. "As long as she get Dick Junior, she doesn't wanna hear what I have to say unless its Go Time"

"Then… perhaps you should stop for a while?" Logan advised as he looked at his friend seriously. "Date other people.. get back on your board" He knew from the morning after their first night together that Mac had been less than thrilled about their little hook up. She hid Dick away like a dirty little secret.

"Absence would make her booty calls fonder?" he repeated as he nodded.

"I'm pretty sure that's not how the saying goes…" Logan corrected.

"No… this is perfect…. If she won't play fair… then she isn't getting any" Dick declared a determined look growing over his face. "The Dickilicious store is closed for business"

"Please… don't ever call yourself that again… and good for you man.. you deserve to be treated better than….." Logan began before he was interrupted by Dick's phone alert.

Hey… my room 15 minutes. Cindy

"Dude… I have to go" Dick said as he downed his beer and put down his controller.

"What happened to closed for Business?" Logan reminded him.

"Dude… its rude to keep a lady waiting" he argued as he headed out the door.

Logan shook his head and exited the game… perhaps it was time he had a serious conversation with Dick in the morning about his little tryst?

Wallace had asked to hang out again tonight… and she'd blown him off to, well blow Dick off, again. She was not this person, she didn't sneak around and make excuses and lie to her friends.

She didn't take pregnancy tests, and talk to Neptune clinic nurses about her far too active sex life. She lived her life out in the open and not in some shame closet.

'Your attitude determines your direction' her green t-shirt hadn't helped strengthen her resolve today. Maybe that other one she'd picked up from Freshmen Orientation 'you can have results or excuses, not both' would have been more successful?

Relying on motivational slogans was definitely the last refuge of a desperate mind.

Mac bit her thumbnail as she paced the room nervously. Dick would be here soon, she'd stood him up earlier at the Serenity Inn… determined that she would be strong enough to get control of herself and not give into this again today… but emotions were messy and unpredictable and if you were to ask Mac how she felt about Dick Casablancas… that was just as messy and unpredictable. The push-pull of Dick, the way he moved in time with her felt like a song they were built to dance together.

The steps she couldn't stop taking in his direction no matter how hard she tried to forget the words. When she looked at him, she stopped thinking… and everything got messy and clear all at once.

You can't just pause Game… this thing refused to go quietly into the friendzone no matter how many times she tried to say goodbye… they were like fire on fire... why would she keep reaching out for the gasoline?

She'd been committed to calling this no-strings insanity off today… yet here she was, primped, polished and shaved to perfect summoning him over, yet again.

Why did she always surrender to this craving? It was an irresistible passion beyond reason to belong to me… and if she did that.

She'd get lost.

"Hi," she said opening the door as he stepped inside. There was none of his usual cocky cat got the cream grin, he didn't touch her, just walked to the middle of her room, he didn't say a word until she had closed the door. His expression was veiled as he turned before sitting down on the end of her bed. "I'm sorry…"

"You didn't even show… enjoy your date?" he declared angrily.

Was he jealous? Date? A small crease furrowed her brow before her mouth opened in a small 'o'. She'd told him she was going for coffee with that computer hacker guy Max to fix the last of the bugs from her laptop before she'd bailed early and went to the student health centre.

He certainly hadn't seemed too lonesome at lunch with that Beta Gamma Pi chick Nadia today.

"I've been trying not to take it personal, this little game you play of pretending you don't like me… I know this is just sex… I don't regret a fucking second of it… but…" he continued, his blue eyes fixed somewhere at her feet.

She hadn't realized how much she'd missed him being here until he was there, filling up the space like he owned it. Her pewter-grey eyes drank him in.. his lean, muscular build made her feel minute in comparison.

"This feels like an ultimatum," she said stepping closer to the bed, threading her fingers through his hair and cupping his face. His eyes snapped to hers in challenge, the unspoken message was clear. We are either all in, or I'm done…

"Maybe it is… maybe I need someone I can actually be with.. you're gonna miss me so bad when I'm gone.." he told her firmly but his fingers grazed the back of her thighs, pulling her between his long powerful legs.

Smooth and practised. For a rich boy he had callused hands…

"What if we gave it a shot?" she said, something hot and shivery moving through her body. A spasm of lust gripped between her legs and bit her lower lip to reign in the raw desire.

Mutual combustion…

When he was gone, she felt like she was teetering at the edge of a canyon, but when he touched her… all those doubts from before melted away.

She hadn't realised she was staring until his hands gripped her slim hips and tugged her down onto his lap. Her hands still buried in his head of thick blonde hair. His cheekbones would have made a woman weep, the sculpted lines of his face and long lashes were just the frame of those ocean-blue eyes.

This man could make her drift out to sea…

"It's rude to stare…" he teased squeezing her ass and pulling her against the hardened length of him.

"It's rude to ignore my question," she countered breathlessly.

Before she had the wits to stop him he was reaching out and for her and pulling her t-shirt off over her head, leaving her clamping her legs around his waist to anchor herself.

"Much better," he grinned.

"Parker will be home tonight…" Mac said regretfully, her whole body still sizzling from where his fingers trailed down her back to her hips.

His hot gaze swept up and down her chest and he nuzzled at her neck.

"I kept the key," he said throatily tugging her earlobe between his teeth.

She'd have to lie to Parker like a kid lying to their parents sneaking out to a party…

"If I stay with you tonight…" she swallowed tense in the circle of his arms. His gaze was intent on the gentle swaying of her breasts, beautifully rounded and pert, their sexy nipples pointed… begging for his mouth. His eyes were a dark blue now, the pupils were huge. He knew she wanted this, a soft moan as his fingers brushed over the eager flesh, a primal, urgent request.

The cherry flush on her pale skin was like a fire of under the surface reaching out begging for his touch, his mouth, his tongue… His thumb tracing the two dimples of venus above her ass, weighing up how much time they would have to wait before her roommate came home vs how long the drive to his room at the Serenity Inn.

"Not here," he said roughly, his breathing uneven. He knew if he started she'd come apart in his arms into oblivion and he'd have to carry her to his car.. the thought of redressing her again made everything in his groin rebel and he could almost feel his balls start a riot. It would be a torture he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy… if he had one of those.