Gossip Girl: It Had To Be You

S scores with two girls in one night!

"Remember cuddles in the kitchen. . ."

Nate listened to his favorite Arctic Monkeys song with a devilish grin plastered across his face. Damn, was this going to be a good night. Already he was at a party with a mostly naked gorgeous Italian countess and his two best friends, who were looking particularly hot themselves. Pretty soon he'd be all decked out in his Armani tux, ready to meet L'Wren, who was just about the horniest girl he'd ever met in his life. Of course, her parents would be at the cotillion, and he'd have to dance and make stupid polite conversation with some of the debs and their escorts. But as soon as they'd gotten through all the formalities, they'd be up in L'Wren's hotel suite, doing it.

He checked his watch. Five after seven. Time to start getting ready if he was going to be at the St. Claire Hotel in Midtown by eight. He glanced around the crowded suite in semi-stoned confusion. Kati Farkas and Isabel Coates were trying on Chuck's father's Hermès ties, wearing nothing but bras and jeans. When did they get so mature? Nate wondered, ogling them. Did Serena and Blair look like that in just their bras? Weren't they supposed to be helping him get ready—giving him dancing school pointers and rubbing aftershave on his temples? Where were they, anyway?

Donatella perched on the edge of the glass coffee table and spread a lump of black beluga caviar on a Triscuit. She took a tiny bite and then offered Nate the rest. "Okay?" she asked with a bright smile.

He took the Triscuit and devoured it, wondering if she was retarded or just foreign. "Have you seen my friends? The two pretty girls who were sitting here before? They were wearing clothes," he added helpfully.

Donatella's gray eyes lit up enthusiastically. "Cute!" She turned and pointed through the steam drifting from the hot tub.

The suite was crowded and noisy, and someone had turned up the latest cheesy Justin Timberlake dance song on the Bose sound system, but a series of hysterical giggles penetrated the din. The little hairs on Nate's lacrosse-toned arms stood on end. He'd recognize that sound anywhere. It was a sound that made more than just his hair stand on end.

Yikes!

Listening to Serena laugh was like being tickled. It gave him shivers and an adrenaline rush. It made him see stars and lose coordination. It made him feel like he had to go to the bathroom, which was exactly where he was going right now. Not the toilet part of the bathroom, the hot tub part of the bathroom—the source of the sound.

"Hello?" Nate called cautiously through the steam. More giggles, combined with the humming gurgle of the hot tub's jets. Bare pink skin glistened wetly beneath the surface of the churning water. "Who's in there, anyway?" He took a step closer. Two slick heads popped up out of the bubbles, one fair and one dark.

"It's just us, Natie," Blair called out. She smoothed her chestnut brown hair back against her head so that it was shampoo-commercial perfect. Her still-tan-from-Christmas-in-St.-Barts arms were crossed over her chest in a totally lame attempt to hide the fact that she was completely naked. "I was feeling yucky, so I decided to take a Jacuzzi," she explained, glossing over the more painful details of her absurdly depressing home life.

"Hot tubs are my favorite," Serena chimed in. She leaned her damp blond head back on the marble tile, exposing her long, perfect neck, among other things. "From now on, I'm conducting all my affairs from underwater."

Nate sat down on the edge of the tub, soaking his khakis. Jesus, Serena was so damned gorgeous. It made him unspeakably aroused just to look at her. Strangely, he was hoping his night with L'Wren would cure him of this problem. If he had sex with L'Wren and sort of got it out of his system, maybe he wouldn't think about Serena so much—at least not in such a horny way. After all, he was in love with her, and it seemed sort of wrong to feel that jacked up about a girl you were so in love with, especially when she was your best friend.