We settle on Chinese and decide to just hang out and watch TV until the delivery guy shows up. “So, tell me something about yourself. I know you and Holly have been friends forever, but aside from that I don’t know much.”
“Well, there really isn’t much to tell. I spent a lot of my time dealing with boring work events for my dad. Then my mom would constantly drag me to all of these mindless parties at the country club. I remember I would try to escape whenever I could. The club has a big garden, and in the middle of it, there’s a gazebo. I used to always hide out there when I got sick of putting up with all of my mom’s friends. How about you?”
“My dad owns a construction company. Carter, Jason, and I have been friends forever, and I’ve always been interested in medicine.”
“What kind of doctor do you want to be?’
“I want to go into pediatrics, I’ve always loved kids.” Can he be any more perfect? “Okay, I have another question. You said the other night you had a crush on me for a while. Why didn’t you ever say anything to me?”
“I don’t know. You always seemed really distant and untouchable, plus Nicole had warned me to keep my distance.”
“What? Why?”
“Because no one knew what was going on with you. You should have heard some of the theories.” I start to laugh as I think about all the different conversations we had about him.
“Like what?”
“Well, the biggest one was that you were dealing drugs. And maybe you had an abusive girlfriend. Then there was the theory that you were a male escort and allowed dominatrixes to beat you up.”
Apparently, I chose to tell him that when he had a mouthful of water, because he lets out a choking sound. “WHAT?”
“Hey, don’t kill the messenger. Maybe you shouldn’t be so secretive next time.”
The delivery guy knocks on the door and Shawn retrieves our dinner. We eat and talk the rest of the night, and then head into his room to watch a movie. I’m lying down with my head resting on his chest and his arms around me–I feel so comfortable and at ease.
“Hey, Shawn, have you—” I open my eyes to see Jason and Nicole standing at the edge of the bed.
“Hey hooch! I guess we have the answer to our question now.” Nicole is grinning at me, probably assuming things that never even happened.
“What question?” Shawn says from behind me.
“Holly called us, acting all worried, because Christen never came home. I told her I would check with you to see if you had dropped her off,” Jason says as he looks like he doesn’t know what to make of the situation. I look over at the clock and see that it’s almost two in the morning! “I’ll see you guys later, I’m going to take Nicole home.”
“Wait! Can you give me a ride, too?”
Nicole raises her eyebrows at me. “You sure you don’t want Shawn to give you a ride? Or did he already?”
My mouth drops open in shock. Nicole usually doesn’t have a filter, but I can’t believe she just said that! Jason grabs her by the arm and pulls her out of the room. “We’ll wait for you in the living room.”
I turn back to Shawn, completely embarrassed, only to find him smiling. “That wasn’t funny!” He starts full-on laughing and I grab one of the pillows and hit him over the head with it.
“Bad idea.” Before I know what’s happening, I’m on my back and Shawn is hovering over me. He has my arms pinned on the side of my head, and his face is only inches away from mine. The laughter dies as we realize how close we are to each other. The familiar heat between us starts to come back full force. “You. Are. So. Beautiful.” Between each word he places a kiss on my lips.
He stands up and reaches his hand out to me, helping me to my feet. When I’m standing, he pulls me so I’m pressed against him, molding my body to his. His head dips again, capturing my mouth, and making me want to pull him back down to the bed.
“Come on, I’ll walk you out.” I walk out into the living room where J and Nicole are waiting. Nicole smirks and winks at me before she walks out the door. I swear I’m going to kill her when we get home.
Shawn leans down to give me a kiss and then I follow them out to the car. As I’m walking to Jason’s truck, I can’t stop myself from smiling. Tonight went better than I thought it would, and I feel like we really clicked. I climb into the backseat and reach up front to smack Nicole on her arm.
“Hey!”
“I can’t believe you said that!”
She just laughs and turns the radio up. “Judging by the smile you can’t wipe off your face, I don’t know if I was wrong. Whatever happened, he must be really good at it.”
Chapter Six
Shawn
I walk up to the cafeteria to meet J and Carter for lunch. They are already at the table so I grab my food and go sit down.
“Hey, Rocky,” Jason says.
“What the hell? Why is everyone calling me that all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know, dude. Nicole said it and now it’s caught on, so you better get used to it.” They start to laugh. Jason and Nicole really are one person, they’re both such ball breakers, it’s ridiculous.
Carter stops laughing first. “Don’t forget we are all meeting at Shattered Glass tonight at eight.”
“For what?”
“Seriously?” I looked at him with complete confusion. “It’s Christen’s birthday. We are all meeting at the club to hang out.”
“Fuck, it’s her birthday?” How did I miss this?
“Yeah, we told you about it at least two weeks ago. She thinks she’s just meeting Holly there, but we are all going to surprise her.”
“What am I supposed to do? I mean, we just started seeing each other. Did you guys get anything for her?” I know when you have a girlfriend, birthdays are usually a big thing. We haven’t even been together for a week yet, does that relieve me from the gift giving duty?
“The girls got her stuff and just signed our names, too. I can barely shop for Nicole much less for another girl.” For Nicole’s last birthday Jason took her to dinner, and then to quote him ‘gave her a good time afterward.’
“I’m going to text Holly and see what she thinks. I’ll see you guys later.” I get up, throw out my trash, and start to walk toward the parking lot.
Me: Hey, I need some advice…
Holly: What’s up?
Me: Should I get Christen something for her birthday?
Holly: It’s up to you! Why are you asking me?
Me: Because I don’t know if I should get her something since we just got together. I don’t even know what I would get her, either…
Holly: Flowers are always good but it’s up to you.
Me: Alright, thanks.
* * *
I get to the club about ten minutes early and everyone is already here except for Holly and Christen. I stopped on the way and got her a dozen roses, hopefully that’s good. I don’t know any of these stupid relationship rules. Nicole got here early and saved us one of the big booths. They already have a line of drinks on the table, waiting for the girls to get here.
“Ah, there she is!” Nicole and Madison run up to Holly and Christen. Christen has on a black dress that hugs her in every right way possible.
She walks over to me and I feel my heart start to speed up. I hand her the flowers and bend down to give her a kiss. “Happy Birthday,” I whisper in her ear and give her another quick kiss on her neck. She sighs in a way that makes me want to take her back home with me.
Christen and I sit down, but all of the girls walk toward the stage in a group. She looks over at me, “What are they doing?”
“Don’t ask me.” The DJ announces the girls and all of them walk up onto the stage wearing blonde wigs.
The music starts and Christen groans. “Oh my God.” I look over at her, confused. “They are not doing this to me.”
“Why? What’s up?”
“I’m going to kill them for this.”
“What song is it?” I don’t recogniz
e it at all.
“Sandra Dee, it’s them making fun of me for being a goody-two-shoes.” The girls are laughing and singing the song while Christen hides her head. When they finally come back to the table they’re all in hysterics. “I can’t believe you guys did that!”
“Aw, come on, Sandy! You know we love you!” Nicole throws her arms around Christen. The girls spend the rest of the night dancing and drinking.
“You ready to go home, babe?” Jason has been itching to leave for the last half hour but he’s had no success in trying to get Nicole off the dance floor.
“I’m not going home with you!” She throws hers arms around Christen and Madison. “We are having a girls’ night, Tarzan. No boys allowed.”
“Hell no, you aren’t! We are going home and having drunk sex. I didn’t listen to all of these tone-deaf idiots all night just to go home alone.”
“Well, too bad, buddy!” She then decides to sing the song You and Your Hand by Pink to him. The look on his face is priceless.
Christen comes over and settles herself against my side. “You okay?” I ask her.
She nods her head. “Just tired.”
The girls had supplied her with an endless amount of birthday shots all night and I think they’ve finally caught up to her. She rubs her face against my shirt. “You always smell so good. And you taste even better.” She stands on her tip-toes and drags her teeth over my earlobe.
My hands tighten around her. “That is not a good idea here, babe.”
“You make it so hard to be good.”
She has no idea how hard she is making it on me right now. I look up to see Carter watching us and laughing. We head out to the parking lot and Jason is still trying to convince Nicole to go home with him.
“No! We are going back to our house to watch sexy man movies, eat popcorn, and talk about all of you boys!”
I laugh. “Just give it up, J.”
We all get into the cars and make our way over to the girls’ house. Jason walks them in, reluctantly returning a couple of minutes later. I’m about to drive away when he yells for me to stop.
“Come over to my truck,” he yells from a few feet in front of me.
When I walk over, Carter and Jason are already in the truck. I hop into the backseat. “What’s going on?”
“Jason is out of his damn mind, that’s what’s going on.” Carter is just shaking his head. “We forgot to leave our walkies at work the other night and this idiot just hid one in the girls’ living room.”
“Why the hell did you do that, J?”
“Because I want to know what Nicole meant when she said they would spend the night talking about us. You might benefit from this too, lover boy. I know you’re interested in finding out what is going on in Christen’s head.”
This is gonna end badly.
Chapter Seven
Christen
Nicole plugs her phone into the speakers and turns on some music, but I can barely keep my eyes open. I haven’t had this much to drink in a really long time. I can’t get Shawn out of my head, either. I don’t want to be the girl that gives it up fast, but I also don’t want to wait anymore.
Holly jumps on top of me and we both go crashing to the floor. “Wake up, birthday girl!”
We start laughing hysterically. Nicole turns the volume up so loud that we all throw our hands over our ears. She’s jumping up and down, putting her finger over her lips, like she’s telling us to be quiet. Not that we could even hear each other say anything over the music. She waves us all into the kitchen.
“Nic, what the heck is going on?” I go to reach for the volume on the speakers and she grabs my hand to stop me.
“The boys are spying on us!”
“What are you talking about, Nicole? Carter and the boys left like ten minutes ago.” Madison looks out the window at the driveway.
“No, they didn’t. I just found one of their walkie talkie things from work behind the couch and it’s on!”
Seriously? Are we in grade school? I can’t believe that they would actually spy on us.
“I’m calling Carter right now.” Madison goes to get her phone but Nicole stops her.
“No, Mads, wait. I wanna have a little fun.” Oh no. This cannot be good. “Just follow my lead.” Nicole grabs the walkie, puts it in the middle of the floor, sits down, and motions for us all to join her. “Ugh! I am so over Jason ordering me around. Mads, you are so lucky that Carter isn’t as much of an ass. By the way, how are things going?” She winks at Madison, I’m guessing to let her know to play along.
“Ehhh, they’re okay. He is so hot, but sometimes I want him to be a little more manly. I mean, crying at movies? Sometimes I just want to give him a good punch and tell him to man up!”
She instantly puts her hand over her mouth to stifle the laughter and Holly seems to be having trouble keeping quiet, too. “You know, there are some really cute guys I know. If you girls ever get tired of them and want some new meat, just let me know.”
Now we’re all cracking up, Nicole even has a pillow over her mouth to hide the laughter. “What about you, Chris? How is Rocky?”
I want no part in this little game at all. “Everything is going good. We had a really great time last night.”
Holly punches me in my arm and whispers in my ear how much of a chicken I am. I don’t care, though, I do not want to be on the receiving end of the backlash.
“Girls, listen, I need some advice.” Nicole gets closer to the walkie. “There is this guy in my English class and he is so damn hot. He asked me out the other day, and I obviously told him I had a boyfriend, but it made me think. Jason and I used to be so hot and now things are just so-so. I mean, I don’t know what it is, but he just isn’t as good as he used to be.”
The next thing I know, the front door flies open and Jason and Carter are standing in the living room looking more pissed than I have ever seen them.
Holly stands up. “I’m gonna go up to my room.”
Shawn is standing behind the guys and is the first one to notice the walkie talkie on the floor. He starts to laugh and then walks over to the couch and sits down. I decide to get out of dodge and join him.
Carter is the first one to speak. “Really, Mads? I cry too much?”
She giggles and walks over to him. “We were just having fun. Come on, let’s go home.” She and Carter walk out the door.
Jason still hasn’t moved and Nicole is staring him down. “I can’t believe you spied on us, you—”
He storms over to her and picks her up. “Not as good as I used to be, huh? We’ll see about that.” He makes his way upstairs with Nicole. The entire time she has the biggest smile on her face.
Shawn and I are the only ones left. “If you want to come back to my place and escape the show that they are going to put on, you can.”
“That sounds good.”
We walk out to his car, and the entire time all I can think about is what’s going to happen when we get to his apartment. I know I’m probably putting too much thought into this, but I really don’t want him to think I’m easy.
When we get to the apartment, I walk right into his room. I lie down on the bed, not realizing how tired I am until now. Shawn laughs when he walks in and sees me. “Finally crashing?”
“Yeah, I just realized though I forgot to grab a change of clothes before we left.”
He walks over to his dresser, puts down a glass of ice water he grabbed when we came in, opens some drawers, and then turns back toward me with clothes in his hand. “They will probably be huge on you but, if you want to you can wear them.”
He hands me a shirt and a pair of pajama pants. “Thanks.” I go into the bathroom and put the clothes down on the sink. I reach around my back, trying to unzip my dress, but I can’t get it. It’s so tight there’s no way for me to get it off without unzipping it.
I walk back into Shawn’s room and he’s standing there with no shirt on. “Hey, I thought you wanted to change.”
&nb
sp; It takes me a second to remember how to speak. I’m drawn to him like a magnet and my willpower is barely there anymore. “I, um…I couldn’t get my zipper. Could you help me?”
“Sure, come here.” I walk over and stand in front of him. When I look into his eyes I see passion and fire. I want him and I can tell he feels the same. I place my hands on his chest. His skin is so warm, and I love the feel of his muscles moving as I skim across his chest. I move my hands up and lace them through his hair, making eye contact with him once again. I can see the question in his eyes and I’m ready to answer it. I pull his head down and our lips connect.
It’s like a firecracker exploded and we become so frenzied with need for each other. He runs his hands all over my body, tracing every curve, and giving me goose bumps. He pulls back, “Are you sure about this? Because if you aren’t, we need to stop now.”
“I want you.I’ve been fighting my desire because of some notion concerning the amount of time to wait, but now I realize it’s how we feel not how long we’ve felt it.”I slam my mouth back against his, causing him to let out a sound that can best be described as a growl.
He pulls his mouth away from mine and turns me around so my back is now to him. His hands move around to my hips and he pulls me against him. I can feel him through the thin fabric of my dress, and the anticipation of what is about to happen makes me squirm. He sweeps my hair completely to one side, then lowers his mouth to my shoulder. Kissing and nipping along the way, he finally reaches my back.
His hands slowly make their way up my side and over to my zipper, pulling it down so slowly it’s like pure torture. Moving away from me for a minute, he’s back before I can turn around to see what he’s done. He places his lips just below my hairline, but this time when he kisses me there is an overwhelming cold sensation. I look back over at the dresser and realize he must have put an ice cube in his mouth.
He slowly kisses me all over my back and neck, every once in a while opening his mouth and dragging the ice across my skin. His hands find the sides of my dress, gently pushing it down until it falls around my feet. It isn’t the type of dress I could wear a bra with, so I’m now standing in only my lace boy shorts. He turns me back around to face him, smiling at the expression of lust I must have on my face.
Fighting to Survive (Guarded Hearts Book 3) Page 4