Rushed by Gina Robinson
Publication Date: June 30, 2014
Genres: Contemporary, New Adult, Romance
Synopsis: A girl who has everything. A guy who has everything to lose.
Some things can't be…
RUSHED
Alexis
Like there has ever been any doubt which sorority my family expects me to pledge. I'm a third-generation legacy. On the first day of rush, I realize I'm in trouble. I'm not like the other girls in the house. But as long as my parents control my college funds, resisting is futile. Until Zach, the live-in houseboy, who's quite possibly the hottest guy I will ever meet, serves me a cupcake and flashes me a sympathetic look. With one enigmatic smile, he flips my heart and my world upside down. My parents will cut me off if they even suspect I'm interested in a house guy. But I can't stay away from him. And so I pledge the house for all the wrong reasons.
Zach
Living in a sorority? I get flipped a load of crap about being a live-in servant, the help. Easy access to the hottest girls on campus? Not with the unbreakable rule—get caught with one of the girls and you're fired. Immediately. Lose this job and I can't afford college. I sure as hell can't ask my parents for help. They wish I'd never been born. Considering what I did, I don't blame them. I've learned to think of the girls like sisters. Until Alexis pledges the house. Now sister is the last thing on my mind.
*** Standalone novel. No cliffhanger. ***
This is a contemporary romance with mature themes, language, and situations. Readers should be over 17!
Excerpt
Alexis
My mom called it rushing. The university
called it recruitment. I just called it hell. Dressed in a short, bright
sundress and ridiculously high platform pumps, I stood in the hot August
sunshine in front of the Delta Delta Psi house. I was surrounded by my Rho Gam
group of nervous, excited girls all hoping for the chance at instant
popularity. Was I the only one who wished she were anyplace but here? And not
out of fear, but genuine desire not to become a Double Deltsie?
The Greek system was supposed to be about
finding a house where you fit in. About choice. About joining a group of
likeminded girls who would become your sisters. Not about being forced into a
certain house because of family pressure. A house where you were sure you would
feel like a misfit.
Delta Delta Psi, with its tall, stately,
columned white house and manicured lawn, was the top sorority on campus and
ridiculously crazy hard to get into. The Double Deltsies, as they were
popularly known, were the hottest, richest, blondest, hardest-partying house on
campus. They led the Greek system with the most homecoming queens,
cheerleaders, and heiresses. They got astronomically top scores on
GreekRank.com. So high, even sniping trolls from lesser houses couldn't bring
it down.
Get into the Double Deltsies, and not only
did you have drop-dead gorgeous sisters for life, you had connections that
could not be bought. And access to the hottest frat guys at the university. The
guys who would inherit their parents' fortunes and businesses. Guys who, if my
dad's friends were any indication, would become the fat old dipshits of the
future.
I was blond enough, skinny enough, dressed
well enough in the right designer brand of clothes, and passably well off
enough to be a Double Deltsie. I certainly didn't feel gorgeous enough. But
that didn't matter. Because I held the trump card. I was a third-generation
legacy. The only way I had a prayer of not
getting into the house was if I intentionally blew the recruitment process or
didn't preference their house.
Tempting. Very tempting. And a totally
stupid, futile show of defiance. My parents held the purse strings and were
paying for college. Which meant I toed the line. Even if I sabotaged my
interviews and the Delta Delta Psis didn't invite me back after the first
round, my parents would raise hell and get me in. They had the connections to
do it.
I would be a Double Deltsie even if I dropped
out of recruitment week. Probably even if I dropped out of college. That's how
serious my parents were about this "opportunity of a lifetime," as
they called it. And upholding the family Double Deltsie tradition.
The morning sun was parching. It was already
past eighty in the shade. The breeze did little except feebly rattle the leaves
overhead, like the heat had exhausted it, too. Our Rho Gamma, Molly, the
sorority girl assigned to shepherd my group around, looked uncomfortable as we
waited for our appointment. We weren't supposed to know which house she was
from. But we'd pretty much figured out she was from one of the lowliest houses
on campus. The misfit house, the house that took anyone. No one wanted to be
there except social outcasts desperate to be Greek at any cost.
I felt for Molly. She was tall and big-boned
with fine, mousy brown hair and eyes that were set too close together. Soft at
the middle. Dressed in the obligatory Rho Gam T-shirt for the first day of
house visits. And awkwardly sweet and conscientious to the point of trying too
hard. At least she attempted to coach us and give us good advice and
encouragement. Some of the snootier Rho Gams didn't.
But she was out of her element here and a
liability as far as getting into the Double Deltsie house. Or any good house,
really. She'd tried to take me on as someone she wanted to impress. So she hung
by my side as often as possible, trying to be my friend in a way that reeked of
desperation.
The house she was rumored to be from was
trying to up its prestige by getting a higher caliber of pledges. They needed a
good pledge class or they would fall further in the rankings. Their alums would
cut off their support, and without them, the house would close. I was
apparently in their crosshairs.
I'd heard some of the girls make unkind
comments about Molly. Most of them were unhappy about being assigned to her
group.
I was already tainted with the scent of
Double Deltsie-ness as far as Molly was concerned. That's why she was after me
for her house. At the same time, she was skittish and wary when I was pleasant
to her, doubting my motives and wondering if I was just trying to make fun of
her. And ridiculously pleased with herself at the same time.
The door to the house opened and the
homecoming queen from last fall, now the chapter president, opened the door to
welcome us in. Looking at her, and how perfect and pretty she was, I thought
that if it wasn't for being a legacy, there was no way I had a prayer at this
house. I had to fight my insecurities.
A line from my AP Lit class, from Dante's Inferno, came to
me: "Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate" or "Abandon
all hope, ye who enter here.
Yes, I was in the ninth circle of hell,
trapped by my parents' vision of what was right for me.
About the Author:
Gina Robinson is the award-winning author of the contemporary new adult romances Reckless Longing, Reckless Secrets, and Reckless Together and the Agent Ex series of humorous romantic suspense novels. She's currently working on Crushed, the second book of this series featuring a surprising couple from Rushed. Look for Crushed in early fall 2014.
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