The Bet

Chapter 3

Aiden ambushed Louise at her job the next day.

She worked at a small coffee shop, and even though they were competing against Starbucks, they still had quite a bit of traffic. Louise didn't even have to get a job if she didn't want one, she had a f*****g trust fund, but she was tired of hearing everyone call her the spoiled little rich girl. Besides, it gave her something to do when she wasn't at class. The money didn't hurt, either.

She was in the middle of working on someone's pumpkin spice latte ('tis the season) when Aiden came up to the counter. He looked a little pissed.

"What's this I hear about you and Hale?" he asked, not even bothering with a greeting.

Louise finished the coffee, handing it to the customer. Yelling back to Julie that she was taking a break, she took Aiden by the hand and led him to the break room. She needed somewhere private to talk to him, and even though it wasn't exactly in the rules, Julie was laid back enough not to care.

"Tak and I made a bet," Louise said, when they were away from prying eyes and ears. "It was his idea, and I thought, why the hell not?"

"He told me. In fact, his scent is all over you. I always thought that the two of you were something that would never happen. He's part of your pack."

Louise nodded, "His idea. I just want to prove to him that I can sleep monogamously with someone and not fall in love with them. Besides, he bet me his f*****g car. That will be mine."

Aiden looked a little surprised, "You got him to bet the Camaro?"

Louise shrugged, "Baby, I'm just that good."

Aiden laughed at her choice of words before saying, "I still can't believe you're doing this. You're not monogamous to anyone. You don't do relationships."

Louise shrugged, "It's not really a relationship. It's just f*****g. It's nothing different than what I do now."

"I heard Kali approached you at the party last night," Aiden said, changing the subject. "She was pissed because you turned her down."

"Everybody knows my rules," Louise said. "I don't f**k people who are in relationships already. She's got a boyfriend."

"You do realize that Ennis wouldn't have cared, right? In fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he would've asked to watch - or, hell, even join. I know it wouldn't have been your first threesome."

"My first threesome with a monogamous couple. I don't f**k people in relationships. That's just the way it goes. And you know that I don't bend my rules for anyone."

"So I guess this means that you and I are not happening for a while," Aiden said finally. Watching him, Louise nodded.

"Don't worry," she told him. "I am going to win this bet. Things will go back to normal soon."

-x-

Things were definitely not going to go back to normal, Louise decided, lying in bed with Tak after some amazing s*x. Seriously, it had been incredible, just mind blowing. She'd never had this good of s*x with anyone she had ever been with. Her heart was pounding and sweat was pouring off her body, but she felt like her nerve endings were on fire. She felt almost high from the pleasure.

"It's actually pretty disappointing that you don't kiss anyone on the mouth," Tak said, leaning against the headboard, watching her. "A good make out session is just the right foreplay to s*x. It's the prelude."

"I don't like it."

"Why not?" he asked, taking a finger and stroking it down her arm. Louise pulled her arm away, "That tickles. Stop it."

Tak just shrugged

"Kissing is too intimate," she said, answering his question. "I mean, sure, kissing in other places is fine, but kissing on the mouth? It's what people who are in love do. Somehow, it seems a hell of a lot more intimate than f*****g someone."

"You think sucking on a tongue is more intimate than sticking a c**k in a p***y?" Tak asked bluntly. Louise giggled.

"You don't have to say it like that," she said, but he just gave her a look. Yeah, okay, so whether he said it like that or not didn't matter. Louise may have been a little thing, but everybody knew she could outdo any guy on campus when it came to crudity and vulgarity.

"It's just something to think about," Tak said. Deciding that she had enough of his talking, Louise hoisted herself up so that she was sitting beside Tak, and then straddled his lap. She started kissing down his neck, leaving nips and bite marks that faded almost as soon as they showed up. She'd said it before, but sometimes she really got sick of werewolf healing.

She was still very wet, and she could feel him hardening under her touch. She reached over and grabbed a condom out of her purse on the nightstand before rolling it on him. She climbed back on top of him and slowly slid onto him. She wouldn't have been slow, mostly because she was so f*****g turned on, but Tak was a little bigger than she was used to.

He hissed as she slid down on his length, and Louise smiled. She was glad that she could do that to him. It was a source of great pride for her. She started slowly raising herself up and roughly coming back down, but pretty soon, Tak had decided that he had had enough of that. He grabbed her hips roughly, digging his fingers into them, and started using his werewolf strength to make her go faster and harder. Deciding that wasn't enough, Tak grabbed Louise by the waist, him still inside of her, and flipped them over so she was lying on the bed and he was on top of her. He started thrusting in and out, more roughly than before, and grabbed her hair, slightly pulling it. It wasn't enough to cause pain, so Louise grabbed his hand for a moment.

"Harder," she moaned out. "Pull my hair harder."

Tak wasn't sure why she wanted that, but he did as she asked. He got his answer after only a few more thrusts, though - she was coming around him, and the tight feeling was what sent him over the edge, too. Tak sat up and took the condom off, tying it off and throwing it in the trash can beside Louise's bed. Louise laid there for a moment, trying to get her breathing back to normal. Out of the corner of her eyes, she glanced at the alarm clock that said five o'clock.

"s**t," she said, rolling out of the bed and scrambling for her clothes. "Is that the right time?"

Tak was confused, "Yeah. Why?"

"My shift starts in twenty minutes. I don't even have time for a f*****g shower. If I'm late again, Julie's gonna fire me."

"Are you really late that often?"

"Sometimes. When a f**k is really good and I can't pry myself out of bed in time I am." She struggled with her jeans, which the shop required for her to wear, almost falling over trying to get into them. She didn't even bother with socks, she just threw on her tennis shoes and grabbed her bright yellow t-shirt out of her dresser, throwing it on. "You can show yourself out, yes? Unless you want to spend the afternoon here with Kira and Allison."

"I can manage," Tak said with a big grin on his face. Louise just rolled her eyes, of course he'd be like that.

"Text me when you get off," Tak yelled at her when she ran out the door and down the hallway. "We're not finished here."

-x-

When Tak walked into the house he shared with his sisters and cousin later that day, he saw Malia, Laura, Cora and Stiles sitting on the couch, talking with each other. When he walked through the front door, all of their heads popped up. It kind of reminded him of the meerkats in those discovery channel documentaries that Malia liked to watch.

"So," Stiles said, watching Tak as he took his coat off and and hung it over the recliner, "How was Louise last night? And this afternoon?"

Tak was surprised it was Stiles, the human, instead of his sisters and cousin, the were-creatures, that picked up on that. He decided to play dumb, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Of course you do," Stiles said.

"Okay, I give," Tak muttered. "How do you know about me and her?"

"Well she told Kira and Allison, who told their boyfriends, who I live with. Word gets around."

"Okay, yes. She and I are f*****g. But that's it."

Cora made a face, "Are you sure that's it, Der? I mean, you don't want something more?"

"I'm sure," Tak said. "Louise doesn't date. I made a bet with her to prove a point."

"Really?" Laura asked. Dammit, they were going to gang up on him. "Because everyone who has a working werewolf nose knows how you feel about Louise Martin."

"Not that we blame you," Stiles added. Tak glared at him and Cora gave him a look, so Stiles said, "What? She's f*****g hot and everybody knows it."

"It doesn't matter," Tak said. "I know Louise doesn't date. But I'm trying to prove to her that everybody can fall in love given the right time."

"I don't know, Der," Laura said, taking a swig of the beer that Tak didn't even know she had. "I mean, I don't want you getting in too deep and not knowing how to work your way back out."

"Guys," Tak said, looking at all four of them."This isn't going blow up in my face, okay? She is going to fall in love with me. I'm just that good."

-x-

Louise was bored. She was so very, very bored. The last time she glanced at the clock, it was going on ten thirty. There was only an hour and a half of her shift left, since the coffee shop closed at midnight and opened at five AM. Julie had a rule, however, that if it was over thirty minutes since the last customer came in, they could close early. It'd been almost twenty minutes, and Louise was contemplating closing early when someone came in.

"Hello?" a voice said, and when he turned the corner, Louise froze in her tracks. It was someone who Louise hadn't seen in years. Jackson Whittemore and his stupidly perfect blonde hair, his stupid charming smile, and his stupidly beautiful blue eyes. Just one look at him and she was back in high school, sixteen years old, just getting her heart ripped in pieces for the first time.

"Jackson?" she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

"Yep, Lyds, it's me. Wow," he said, his gaze going up and down her body, "You're still gorgeous."

"Uh, thank you?" she said uncertainly. "Jackson, what the f**k are you doing here? I thought you lived in London."

"I do. I came over here to visit Danny. I'm on break right now and I haven't seen Danny face to face in a while." He stopped for a minute, sighing and then giving her a coffee order.

"Seriously? You want coffee right now?"

He just shrugged, "I came here to see you, it's true, but coffee won't hurt."

She made his damn caramel latte before saying, "I don't want to see you, Jackson. You broke my heart, you know."

"And apparently I turned you out from relationships. You just sleep around now, Lyds? Is that because of me?"

Louise shook her head, "Sorry, Whittemore. You might be good, but you're not that good. I had a few failed relationships after you left, but nothing worthwhile."

"Really," he said. It was a statement, not a question, and it made Louise want to bash his pretty face in.

"Yes, really. After you left, I had two boyfriends, one girlfriend and a surprisingly lengthy threesome with Allison and Isaac. We decided just to stay friends, though."

Jackson just raised an eyebrow.

"So," he said after taking a drink of his coffee, "what is this I hear about a bet?"

Louise froze, "How, uh, how do you know about that?"

"Danny's boyfriend told him, who told me. Now answer the question."

"Jackson, you stepped out of my life a long ass time ago, when you moved from Beacon Hills to London. I don't even care about you anymore. You used to be my friend, my boyfriend, but you broke my heart and I honestly don't give a f**k about you anymore. You want to know the details, go ask Danny or Ethan, since everybody on this whole goddamn campus seems to know everything about my personal life. Now, just go."

"Chill, Louise," Jackson said, holding his hand up in surrender. "I didn't mean anything by it. But I'll leave, okay? See you on the flipside."

Louise rolled her eyes; Jackson always seemed more suave and smooth than he really was. Seriously, he always accused Stiles of acting like a dork? Jackson had been a lot worse than Stiles, but nobody but Louise ever saw it. She took a deep breath, trying to figure out how this altered the game. Seriously, what was he doing here? And did he come to see Louise tonight just to torture her? She had spent a lot of time hoping they could be friends again, but seriously, what the f**k did he want?