Distracted By You: Book 1 in The Exeter Running Girls Series

by Eliza Bradley

  It didn’t take long to get back to his flat after I had packed a bag, but it probably didn’t feel too long because we were both smiling all the way. Even when we got in to find the flat was freezing cold, my cheeks were still sore from the smile.

  “How about a hot chocolate?” I asked, opening cupboards as I bobbed up and down on my toes, searching for cocoa powder. “To warm up.”

  “I can think of another way to warm up!” Tye called as he took my bag to his bedroom.

  “Don’t tempt me!” I joked back as I popped the kettle on.

  He returned a few minutes later in pyjama trousers and a tight white t-shirt. Did he not own any baggy t-shirts? The short sleeves revealed a little more of the tattooed words wrapped around his bicep. I itched to remove the t-shirt from him, then chastised myself for such thoughts.

  “Can I ask you something?” I found two mugs and began to spoon out the cocoa. Benji’s behaviour earlier that evening had popped into my mind and it was suddenly bugging me.

  “Shoot,” he pulled out one of the kitchen island stools and sat opposite me as I worked.

  “The day I first saw you,” I let the spoon drop into one of the mugs, steeling myself for the question I really wanted to know the answer to. “When you came into the mechanics lecture. Did you notice me? I mean, at all?” I held his dark eyes with my own, but all I saw was confusion.

  “What do you mean ‘notice’ you?”

  “Well, notice me,” I felt embarrassed and turned to the fridge to get the milk, regretting I had asked the question. “Did I register as existing? That I was even sat next to Leonora at all? Or was I just a blob? Benji, who I’ve been in lectures with all year, and who dated one of my closest friends, had no idea who I was. Oh yeah, and he still doesn’t. I guess I just want to know if I passed you by too.” I turned back to him and fiddled with the milk bottle, keeping my eyes down.

  “Ivy, do you really want to know what I was thinking that day?” He folded his arms and leaned on the island counter, accenting his tattoo. I had the urge to lift the sleeve up further.

  “I think so,” at my words, he raised his eyebrows at the uncertainty. “Okay, yes. I do want to know.”

  “Alright, I was late if you remember, and had already argued that morning with my dad. Overhearing Leonora gossip about me was just… fuel to the fire.”

  “You were annoyed.”

  “More like pissed off. I was just fuming, wanting to yell at the world, the gossiper, and her pretty friend for talking about me. That was until I saw you laughing at her trying to sweet talk me.”

  “Was I that obvious?” I poured the milk and hot water into the mugs.

  “Not obvious, but you struck me.”

  “Struck you?” I paused with the milk bottle hovering in the air, unfamiliar with what this meant.

  “I guess you surprised me. Especially when you brought Benji’s ego down to size. I liked that,” he smiled in memory. “He could do with it a little more. When I saw you at Mandy’s,” he shifted, as though uncertain how to put the feeling into words. “I realised how much you had lingered on my mind after all.” His cocoa eyes crinkled with the smile.

  I think I stood a little straighter as I returned the milk to the fridge, his words had sent a little thrill through me.

  “Thank you, that was nice to hear.” I handed him the mug.

  “Your turn.”

  “What?”

  “What did you think of me that first day?” He asked with a knowing smirk.

  “I made no such transactional deal,” I said very quickly as I walked round the island and headed for the bedroom, trying to hide my face as I blew on the cocoa.

  “Ivy,” Tye was laughing as he followed me. “Why can’t you tell me? I just told you.”

  “Because I can’t.” I put the cocoa down on the bedside cabinet. As I turned round, I was surprised to find Tye directly in front of me, leaning round to put his mug down in the same place. He straightened back up and stared me down, mere inches away and refusing to move.

  “Why not?” He didn’t even bother trying to hide the smirk on his handsome face. Though I was tall, he was definitely taller, significantly obvious in this position where I suddenly felt quite small, but in a kind of nice way. Tall and strong, what was not to like?

  “Because it’s embarrassing.” I tried to move around him, but he caught my arm and gently drew me back towards him.

  “Ivy, it’s me. You don’t need to be embarrassed with me.”

  “You’ll laugh at me. I know you will. I know you quite well by now,” I attempted to wriggle away, but he just kept gently recapturing my arms in a little game.

  “We’re always laughing anyway, what’s the difference?”

  “Believe me, it’s different,” I swiped away one of his hands. As I turned to escape, I only managed a half turn before her grabbed me, so my back was to his front with his arms crossed in front of me. Oh wow.

  “Trapped now.”

  “I can get out easily.”

  “I know you can.” His mouth was right next to my ear, sending vibrations through my body as he whispered playfully. “Tell me anyway.”

  I gave up trying to play fight and rested my head back on his chest.

  “Ivy,” he continued in my ear. “The day in the mechanics lecture, did you notice me?”

  I closed my eyes, scrunching them so tight I could feel my face wrinkling as I built up the courage to speak.

  “I couldn’t help but notice you.” At my words, he dropped his head into the crook of my neck. I could feel his warm breath dancing across my skin lightly.

  “And? What else?”

  “And…” I turned round in his arms, this time his arms fell loose, and he let me. If I really was about to spill my thoughts, confess it all to him then I needed a way to run as fast as possible. I waited until his arms were wrapped loosely around my waist. “I thought I had never seen such a good-looking guy.”

  He only had time to look surprised before I delivered a firm shove in his chest, pushing him back onto the bed where he fell. Then I ran.

  “Ivy!” He laughed, scrambling back up as I grabbed my bag and sprinted from the room. He gave chase, but he wasn’t quick enough, and I had a good head start. I didn’t even look back as I bolted into the bathroom, just locking myself in when I heard him collide with the other side of the door. “Ivy, you can’t run away from me after saying that!”

  “Yep, definitely can. I have the training to do it. I need to get changed for bed,” I called back through the door as I tried to waft my suddenly on-fire cheeks – bold red with embarrassment. I grabbed the clothes from my bag.

  “In there you can’t see the smile on my face you’ve just caused.”

  “I’ll see it when I get out,” I didn’t want to see him laughing at me. That would just be painful. I looked into the bathroom mirror where my cheeks had blushed scarlet red. I started to change, swapping my clothes for my white shorts and baby blue pyjama top.

  “Ivy, how do I get you out of the bathroom?”

  “I might just stay in here for the night now.” It sounded like a good plan as I pulled on the pyjama top.

  “And sleep in my bathtub?”

  “I could use the towels as a blanket.”

  “Would it get you out of there if I told you that you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen?” His voice was very close to the door.

  I paused, my hands hesitating over the bag.

  “I beg your pardon?” I tried to hide the fact my voice cracked. “I think you’re looking at someone else.”

  “You can’t be serious. Come on, Ivy. Platinum blonde hair, smoky grey eyes, legs that go on forever, funny, smart, and a laugh that’s… well, I don’t know how to describe it.”

  “That’s what I look like to you?” My breath had hitched as I looked up into the bathroom mirror and tried to see his description. Yet I couldn’t. All that was there was the plain face I’d grown up with and the ‘old lady hair’. I too
k the brush from my bag and started to comb out the curls.

  “Everyday.” His voice spoke softly through the door.

  Speechless.

  I opened the door then leaped back – Tye had been sat with his back against the bathroom door, so he fell through the gap and onto the tiled floor.

  “Tye!” I had to really jump out of the way not to be hit. He clearly hadn’t been expecting me to open the door. He looked up from the bathroom tiles and smiled slowly.

  “What?” He asked innocently, then his eyes settled on my pyjamas and he covered his eyes. “God, Ivy, are you trying to torture me?”

  “Torture you?” I picked up my bag and climbed over him into the corridor. “With what?”

  “With what you’re wearing.” He must have clambered back up off the floor because he followed me into the bedroom.

  “What’s wrong with it?” I dropped the bag and stood looking in the mirror at my shorts and top. “It’s what I wear to sleep.” My eyes kept flicking back to my face in the reflection, still trying to see the girl Tye had just described.

  “Nothing wrong with it at all,” Tye appeared behind me in the mirror, his voice low pitched as he appraised my outfit in the glass. The pitch sent my thoughts to other places. I dragged them back out of the gutter.

  “Then what’s the problem?” I asked, straightening the creases in my top.

  “The problem is that I can’t seem to be with you, the way I want to be. Ridiculously short shorts, do not exactly help the temptation.” This time he did not couple the flirtation with a wink. His eyes were serious. He meant what he said.

  My mouth went completely dry.

  We’d reached that barrier again. Except this time, it was Tye who was taking the risk. I turned round to look at him without the mirror in the way.

  “Tye, I-”

  “Oh shit,” he ran a hand at the back of his neck and looked away. “You really were just joking earlier in the pub, weren’t you?”

  “No, Tye-”

  “Shit,” he said again, completely turning his body away and refusing to listen to me as he ran his hands through his hair. “God, I’ve ruined it.”

  “Tye-”

  He still wasn’t listening to me. He just continued to rant to himself. About what, I don’t know as I wasn’t listening to him either. There was only one way I could think of to cut him off and make my point. His words had sent me into a spiral of happiness.

  I ran round to get in front of him and grabbed the neck of his white t-shirt, pulling him swiftly towards me and shutting him up with a kiss.

  He stood frozen. Just for a second with surprise before he responded. Oh boy, did he respond. Both of his arms wrapped around my waist, pulling me as close as possible to him and his lips parted to deepen the kiss.

  I had only had one boyfriend back in sixth form, but Tye was leaps and bounds a better kisser. This was something completely different. This was electric.

  A few minutes later, I pulled away slightly to look up at him. We were both breathing heavily, his arms were still around my waist and my hands were resting on his chest.

  “Finally,” he whispered.

  “Finally?” I smiled, moving my hands to tangle together round the back of his neck.

  “I’ve been imagining what it would be like to kiss you since I first drove you home from Mandy’s,” his cocoa eyes were twinkling with his smile.

  “You have?” My stomach did flips. Here I thought I was the only one going mental in that car with desire. “Then why haven’t you kissed me before?”

  “Scared of scaring you away,” he placed a gentle kiss on my lips, seeking them again, but it soon grew deeper, we were both pulling closer to one another.

  How was this happening?

  When we parted again, he rested his forehead against mine.

  “You couldn’t scare me away,” I said softly, holding his gaze. “I’m kind of hooked on you.”

  “Hooked? Thank god for that. I think I was completely hooked when I saw you come back from that run in that Lycra outfit of yours,” he smiled, gesturing down with his eyes.

  “My horrible running kit?” I giggled.

  “Horrible? You need a better mirror.” He shook his head like I’d lost my marbles. “God you don’t want to know what I was imagining that day.” He laughed and looked up, using the opportunity to plant a kiss on my forehead.

  “Oh on the contrary, I think it might be quite fun to know.”

  “Well, I was very tempted to make a move that evening at yours.” He returned his eyes to mine. “Then I walked in carrying a temper, snapped at you and you looked so deflated. You also didn’t exactly appear jealous at the mention of Ellie. I thought you just wanted to be friends.”

  “Not jealous?” I shook my head. “Blind boy. Do you have any idea what jealousy looks like?”

  “Green-eyed monster I always heard.” He laughed.

  “Ellie’s gorgeous. When she went after you, it just seemed so…” I struggled for words, not knowing what to say. It didn’t matter, Tye stopped the need of them for a minute with another kiss. This time I trailed my hand up into his hair, finally getting to fulfil a fantasy. Yes it was just as soft as I had imagined. When we pulled back, one of his hands was down on my hip, holding me against him.

  “As I said, she’s not my type.”

  “I did want to see if you could resist her though,” I said with a cheeky smile.

  “Wait a minute,” his eyebrows shot up. “You were testing me?”

  “No! Ellie went after you herself, I just wanted to see if you would fall for her charms or not.”

  “Very much not my type,” he still laughed with fake evil eyes that softened very quickly. “My type seems to be standing in my arms, so let’s stop talking about Ellie.”

  He kissed me again, before I had really registered what was happening, I was pushed up against his bedroom wall and the kiss had deepened further, hands wandering. When he lifted his head, I felt certain the smile would never drop from my cheeks again.

  “We should probably get some sleep or I’m not likely to stop,” he shook his head, tearing his eyes away from me. I kind of liked the idea of seeing what would happen if I didn’t stop him, but it was late. I peered over his shoulder at the clock.

  “It is two o’clock.”

  “Damn it.” He shook his head. “Couldn’t we have figured this all out at a different time?”

  “What, like really early on a Saturday morning?” I offered.

  “That would have been good. Would have given me all weekend then.”

  “Do I dare ask for what?”

  “You really shouldn’t,” his voice dipped low as he gave me yet another kiss. This time I was the one to pull away.

  “I look forward to finding out,” I kissed him softly on his cheek. “Yet I do have a nine am lecture.”

  “Annoyingly, so do I.” He dragged me away from the wall. “We should get some sleep.”

  After ignoring the cocoa, brushing our teeth and Tye drawing me to the bed with a promise to be good, it wasn’t exactly completely chaste.

  “Tonight should be a lot easier than the last time you were here,” he sighed in relief as he settled into the pillow.

  “How come?” I climbed into the bed next to him.

  “Seriously, Ivy? You were drunk, sleeping in my bed, wearing your underwear and one of my t-shirts. Knowing I couldn’t touch made for a very hard sleep.”

  “Pun intended,” I giggled as I laid on my side facing him.

  “Oh yes.”

  Despite our efforts to be good, we did not go straight to sleep. There were a few more wandering hands and kisses in the dark before we finally did drift off.

  Chapter 12

  When I woke, Tye was already up and getting changed, giving me the briefest glimpse of tattoos across his shoulder blades before the long-sleeved grey t-shirt came down to cover them up. I must have groaned out loud as Tye’s head snapped round to look at me.

  “M
orning,” he was wearing a ridiculously wide smile.

  “Morning,” I stretched in the bed, still disbelieving I was there at all and hopelessly wishing I had got a better look at the tattoos.

  “Time to get up if you want to make your lecture,” he offered his hand and pulled me sharply up from the mattress.

  “Staying here sounds like much more fun than a lecture,” I complained as my feet touched the ground.

  “Don’t tempt me, princess,” Tye threw back his head and closed his cocoa eyes. “I can think of many a thing to do with you here rather than go to a lecture, but I can’t keep missing stuff.”

  “Then you better stop imagining it or we’ll never get out of here.”

  He laughed and took my hand, leading me out of the bedroom and down the corridor for breakfast. As we reached the living room, he stopped walking and placed a finger to his lips to be quiet.

  Savannah and Sam were by the door and hadn’t noticed our arrival.

  “I am telling you. Those were the boots she was wearing last night,” Savannah said firmly, pointing down at my high heels discarded by the doormat. “It’s time to pay up loser.”

  “Not yet. They could be anyone’s shoes. Tye could have picked up some random girl for all you know,” Sam was shaking his head, refusing to listen.

  “Sure, tell me when did Tye turn into a man slut? I’ve never seen him do that. I’m one hundred percent positive that Ivy was wearing those boots last night. So pay up, mister. I win the bet.”

  “What bet?” I asked loudly, making both Savannah and Sam jump to high heaven and flick their heads round to realise we were there.

  “What’s going on?” Tye asked as Savannah’s eyes drifted down to our linked hands.

  “One second,” she gestured towards us. “Can we call this a thing now? Rather than will they, won’t they, get the hell on with it?”

  “Savannah!” Sam tried to look angry and failed miserably.

  “I’m sorry, but we were all thinking it. It took us just two days of knowing each other.”

  “More like two hours.”

  “Shut up. So?” She looked back at us.