Pulse (Contemporary new adult/college romance) (Club Grit Trilogy) Read Online Free PDF Page A

my heart rate went up. Why did I say it? I was drunker than I thought if I was throwing around power words like that. Skylar, Skylar, Skylar, get that name out of my head and my heart, but fuck, Skylar.
    “Wow, how did you ever guess, mind reader?” So sarcastic. So negative. Such a challenge.
    “Mind reader, drunk, stalker, I do it all and more, but I can also disappear. I just need your number to prove to my friends that I can get it.”
    “Fat chance. Also, I think the proper term is sorority sisters , not friends.”
    “The same thing,” I said, confused.
    “Except they’re not. They’re not at all. If you think those girls are your friends, after last night? You’re not only bad at holding your liquor, you’re a fucking idiot, Anna.” At least he’d used my name this time. At least he’d remembered it.
    “Please, just play along,” I begged. I flashed my credit card. Even in the dim light of the club, it shone, the dark metal of the black card heavier in my hand than any plastic could ever be.
    “Believe it or not, you can’t just charge that by running it through my crack,” he said facetiously. “Ass rack.”
    I pulled out my wallet and took out a hundred dollars. “If I pay off the cab, are we even?”
    “That’s money you owe me anyway, but besides, I’m not that cheap. I’m a bouncer, not a whore, but you can ask one of the bottle service girls for that. Oh wait, you can’t, because they have too much class and dignity in their work to play these games either!”
    “You think you’re better than me?”
    “Honey, I don’t just think it. I know it.” I half expected him to cross his fingers in a Z formation, but of course he didn’t.
    “Please. Is there anything I can do?” I pleaded, running a finger over his firm pectorals. I wanted to fuck him but not out of obligation, but because the harder he ran, the faster I chased.
    He rolled his eyes. “If it gets you to leave me alone, fine. Let’s go over to the VIP.”
    In that moment, I swear Skylar transformed into another man entirely. He took me by the hand and led me through the crowd to the table. As we neared, I heard the girls hooting and I blushed. Skylar was so good at this, pretending to me something he wasn’t, that it almost scared me. He was smarter than he looked and so much of a mystery.
    “Hey guys, this is Skylar, the bouncer? He’s on break right now,” I lied as I smiled. I was literally lying through my teeth and I hoped to God Kim Lee didn’t notice.
    “If that’s Skylar, then who’s been texting your phone?” And of course, she’d already noticed I was lying before I’d opened my mouth. There was no fucking with her, especially over reputation. I couldn’t have fucked up worse if I’d ruined her best designer dress before a social with Beta Rho Omega.
    Shit. Logan must have kept texting. “Uh, that’s weird.” My heart was racing and I wanted to hold my hand up to my forehead, to check to see if I was sweating, but I knew that if I let the pulsing of my heart rule over my judgment, that I would be sure to out myself as a liar to the sorority. This wasn’t about to go so deep. Little did I know how deep it would get. I had never wanted to lie to them in the first place but I didn’t want them to think I was a loser that couldn’t even nab a bouncer. If I’d known back then what I knew now, that Skylar wasn’t like just any other bouncer, that he wasn’t going to play the games that girls like me, pretty and young, played with boys, that he was a man and that girls like me weren’t what men want, that they wanted women, then I would have never gone after him to begin with. I would have found someone else, anyone else, but not somebody I could never have.
    “No, I think that means you’ve been lying to us, Emma,” said Samantha as if she was joking but at the same time was not. I knew she loved to play these mind games, I just never thought it would be with me.
    “What? No, that’s the