Hi again. Thanks for the wonderfully supportive reviews and all of the follows after chapter 1.

I forgot to mention last time that the title of the story is taken from "Dirty Little Secret" by All-American Rejects, and each chapter title will be another lyric from the song as well.

I'd call the rating of this chapter "T+". Next chapter will be M.

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For the rest of the day Finn replayed his kiss with Rachel over and over again in his head.

Unfortunately what stuck in his mind more vividly was the image of her walking away afterwards.

Had he done something wrong? Oh god, was he a bad kisser?! No one else had ever complained. And she seemed to enjoy the kiss when it was happening... but maybe not.

The day seemed to drag on endlessly. He looked for her after school, in the spot where she and her friends usually met up before whatever it was they did in the afternoons, but she wasn't there. She was probably still avoiding him.

So he slogged through practice, gritting his teeth as Beiste told him he looked sluggish and dismissing Puck's question about what crawled up his ass.

When he got home he had even less motivation to do his schoolwork than usual, and tried to distract himself by playing some Halo. This worked until the doorbell rang.

He ignored the first ring, but the second time the guilt overcame him (what if their sweet old neighbor Mrs. Smith needed him to reach a high shelf again?) and he trudged downstairs from his room.

When he opened the door to reveal Rachel on his front porch, he wasn't sure what to think.

Upon seeing him she spoke quickly. "I just came here to apologize for kissing you because it was a mistake and can't happen again."

"Hi, Rachel. Would you like to come in?" His words were overly polite in response to her rushed statement, but his voice was laced with thinly-veiled bitterness.

Her face softened and she looked down at the floor. "Yes, I suppose."

Maybe it was rude but he didn't offer her a drink or anything like the last time she'd come over. Instead he just sat on the couch and waited for her to join him.

"So...?" he asked with a shrug as she sat down.

"So." Man, she really wasn't giving him much to work with.

"You wanna maybe tell me why you think kissing me was a mistake?"

Rachel exhaled, her eyes closing for a moment. "Remember last week? When you said 'hi' in the hallway?"

"Uh, yeah."

"Well. Let's just say that my friends had good reason to be surprised that you and I are on such cordial terms."

He stared at her, not quite following what she was getting at.

"You're the enemy, Finn! Certainly you're aware of my crusade to elevate the visibility of music and drama at this school, and my main argument has always been that sports get too much funding and attention. And that's especially true for football, which is really just glorified violence. Two years ago the idea of even talking to someone like you seemed an absurd notion, and now..." She got a distant look in her eyes and smiled at him shyly.

Embarrassingly, Finn felt his cheeks burn at her silent admission that she wanted to do more than talk to him.

But before he could seize upon that, her face grew serious again.

"Similarly, wouldn't your teammates and the cheerleaders think it was weird if they saw us... together?"

Finn shrugged. "I don't really care what they think." He paused, smiling. "Which isn't something I thought I'd be saying two years ago, either. Yeah, we're different, but why is that the end of the story? If I like you and want to get to know you better, isn't that what matters?"

Rachel blushed and looked down at the floor. "Stop, you're making me want to kiss you again."

He reached over to lightly touch her chin, encouraging her to tilt her face and look at him.

"So kiss me again." Somehow he still sounded confident despite his pounding heart.

She sighed, her eyes full of conflict before she leaned forward all of the sudden, her lips colliding with his.

Finn gasped into her mouth, surprised by the force and fervor.

Their kiss in the hallway had been fairly sweet and cautious compared to this passionate and hungry display, Rachel's soft lips moving against his like it was the only thing keeping her alive.

Finn cupped her face on either side, trying to slow the pace down a little bit and make it last. Kissing her was addicting and he never wanted to stop.

She went along with the change of speed, inching closer to him on the couch and resting her palms on his chest.

Finn tested the waters by moving his hands to her hips, slipping his fingertips under the hem of her shirt. She bit his lower lip just as he stroked the smooth skin of her sides and suddenly his jeans felt super tight.

Feeling bolder, he slid his hand up her flat stomach and lightly touched the satin-covered underside of her breast, hoping to everything holy that his gasp wasn't too loud.

At the very least, Rachel's moan matched it and her hands fisted around his t-shirt as he rubbed her through the fabric. With his other hand he lightly clutched the back of her neck and resumed kissing her.

"We- we should stop," she panted suddenly after a moment, pulling back and straightening out her blouse.

At his disappointed expression she affectionately rested a hand on his thigh.

"Not forever," she assured him with a sly grin. "Just for now."

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The next morning, Finn's eyes flew open before his alarm even went off, smiling as he thought back to Rachel's afternoon visit.

He rubbed his eyes and grabbed his phone.

when ca again? he texted her.

His phone beeped only a few seconds later.

Tomorrow at 5:30, your house? she wrote back.

His heart did cartwheels at the fact that she answered so fast. He felt himself oddly hopeful that she had been thinking about him just as he'd thought of her as soon as he woke up.

He eagerly anticipated their next meeting, and of course he had to live through two full school days before it happened, he thought with a groan as he got up to get ready.

She liberally rolled her eyes at him when they passed in the hallway later that day, but he caught a cute smirk on her lips which told him that this was part of the game she thought they needed to play.

Finn was a bandit at practice on Thursday, drawing compliments about his hustle from Coach Beiste.

"You gettin' laid or something?" Puck asked out of nowhere when they were allowed a break on the sidelines.

"What?" Finn asked, panting, before swallowing a gulp of water.

"You're in an insanely better mood now than you were last week," his mohawked teammate explained. "Thought maybe you finally started tapping Berry."

Finn did his best to act natural as he laughed it off. "Nah man, she only gives me the time of day because we did well on that Health project."

"Yeah, she'll be a tough nut to crack, but I think you can do it if you keep trying." With that Puck smacked Finn's back with his helmet before jogging back onto the field.

Finn would've felt bad about lying if he wasn't kinda pissed about the way Puck treated girls like a competition. But he tried not to think about it as he refocused on practice.

Beiste kept them a little later than normal so Finn raced through his shower and drove home as fast as he could to make it there before 5:30. Luckily he made it there with a few minutes to spare.

Rachel showed up exactly on schedule, basically throwing herself at him the second he closed the front door behind her.

"Hello to you too," he teased her between kisses, pressing her back up against the door. She answered by increasing the suction of her mouth against his and snaking her arms up around his neck.

After several minutes of feverish kissing his neck started to hurt from leaning down to her height level.

"Do you, uh, wanna go upstairs?" he asked, trying to catch his breath now that they'd separated.

"Um, yes." Rachel answered, blushing. She followed him up the stairs after he turned on his heels.

"I didn't know you played the drums," she observed when they got to his room. While taking in the rest of her surroundings she shrugged off her coat and hung it over the back of his desk chair before sitting on the edge of his bed.

"Yeah, I do," he said, rubbing the back of his neck nervously. "Probably not well, but-"

"Finn," she began, voice serious, "everyone's musical abilities have to start somewhere. If you want to be better, just practice more. I'm sure the talent is somewhere in there simply waiting to burst out." She delivered her encouragement with a bright smile and continued beaming at him after she'd finished.

Something about it made him feel really good in a way he couldn't explain, and this time he threw himself at heras they resumed what they'd started downstairs.

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"Are your, um, parents coming home anytime soon?" Rachel asked later as she re-fastened her bra.

"Uh, it's just me and my mom. And she works late Tuesdays and Thursdays. 'Til 8." He paused. "Your parents aren't at home wondering where you are?"

"I have two dads, but they know how busy I am with extra-curriculars. If I'm out until dinnertime they assume I'm busy with a rehearsal or homework or something. But they can be extremely overprotective when it comes to boys, which is why I suggested we do this here," she explained as she slid her blouse back on. "Last year I dated a senior from Carmel and they were insufferable with their interrogations about where we were going and constantly calling to check up on me and-"

"A senior from Carmel?" Finn interrupted, quickly pulling his head through the hole in his t-shirt.

"Yeah, his name's Jesse, and he turned out to be kind of a jerk. He goes to UCLA now..." Her eyes narrowed as she looked up at him from the edge of the bed. "Finn Hudson! Are you jealous?"

He scoffed, trying to dismiss her accusation, but didn't say anything.

"I'm sure you've had plenty of girlfriends..."

He wanted to correct her and say that he'd never found any other girls worth the time a relationship seems to take up, but he was afraid that would make him sound like a dick instead of highlighting how much he liked her.

"And really, I don't care if you have," she went on. "But you can't blame me for being a little skeptical that you're genuinely interested in me when you have cheerleaders at your disposal."

"They're... ordinary," he insisted, wary of the turn the conversation had taken. "You're different. Special." God, words were failing him in the worst way.

Then again maybe it was all good considering how Rachel blushed and took his hand. "You're very sweet."

He raised a eyebrow as he reached for a pair of mesh shorts. "Sweet enough to drop this whole secrecy business? And go on actual dates and stuff?"

She sighed. "Please just try to understand where I'm coming from. Life is complicated enough; who wouldn't prefer a no-strings below-the-radar relationship to one with all the inevitable drama and broken hearts?"

He shrugged, letting the silence speak for him and sliding the shorts on over his boxers. "So, like, am I supposed to just ignore you at school? No saying hello in the hallway or anything?"

"You can do whatever you want," Rachel snickered. "Just don't expect me to respond in kind," she added with a flirtatious lilt.

The playfulness in her eyes made Finn's mouth twitch into a mischievous half-smile.

He certainly wasn't going to turn down what sounded like a challenge.

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To be continued! Reviews are wonderful!