“I wanted to tell you,” Nathan says in between breaths, his blue eyes piercing mine through the darkness of the room. “That I really fucking like you, kitten.”
I blinked at him and felt utterly frozen. I had guessed that maybe he liked kissing me, but I would never think that Nathan Rhodes would like me. I stared at him, unable to believe his words, unable to move from my state of shock, unable to respond. So he kept talking.
“I really fucking like that you wear my sweatshirts, and even more when you blush because I catch you in them,” Nathan continues as a smile flashes across his face. “I really fucking like that you’re stubborn as hell and you don’t take my shit,” He continues, his eyes as blue as I’d ever seen them. “I really fucking love your music taste, that’s for sure.” Nathan chuckles a little when he admits the last one. “I never know what you’re thinking and I always want to. You’re crazy sexy and you don’t even know it. Girls like you don’t exist, Lauren.”
My heart was pounding against my chest aggressively, and yet all my attention is on Nathan. The way his lips moved as he spoke and the words that shook me to the core.
“I tried to stay away from you because I didn’t want to fuck you up,” Nathan’s intense gaze is captivating. “A guy like me doesn’t deserve a girl like you.” My heart drops a little when he says this, but he immediately continues, “But I can’t stay away, because I really fucking like you, and I really fucking want you. All the time. I can’t just watch you get hit on at parties without physically restraining myself from making it known to everyone that you’re mine, even though you aren’t.”
Nathan pulls away a little so he can watch my reaction carefully, which was to be expected, but my mind was suddenly going entirely too haywire as his words resonated in me. Nathan liked me. Correction: Nathan really fucking liked me. I stared at him thoughtfully, and then a smile stretched across my lips, so big that I had to bite my lip to contain it. His eyes followed the movement and stayed trained on my lips as I spoke.
“Well, good, because I really fucking like you too,” Despite my attempts to control it, my grin was so wide to match the thundering of my heart as I finally tell him what I’ve been feeling for months.
A grin overtook his face immediately after seeing mine and Nathan leaned forward to give me a long kiss that caught me off guard and yet made my entire body feel on fire. My lips reacted before my mind caught up, but Nathan pulled away disappointingly soon as a somber expression overtakes his features.
He looks at me seriously. “Just so we’re clear, this means that I’m your boyfriend now,” He grins, his resolve breaking at the word ‘boyfriend’. “and you’re my girlfriend. I can hereby kiss you whenever I want, hold your hand whenever, and beat up any guy that hits on you. I grant you the same rights. We are together now.”
I grinned back at him even wider, feeling butterflies fluttering around in my stomach as he says this. Nathan was confirming us. The first thing I thought was, Am I dreaming? The second was, I have to tell my mom and Luke for their stupid bet. But all my frantic, scattered thoughts were diminished when I finally nod in agreement.
My cheeks hurt from the oversized and long overdue smile that I wore, but I could care less. I was happy. “But no obnoxious pet names, right?”
Nathan pretends like this is a problem as he narrows his eyes. “You mean I’m not allowed to call you shnookums?”
I, however, remain impassive as I give him a blank look. “Not even as a joke.”
After a long moment of considering this, he eventually nods, and that gorgeous grin spreads onto his lips once more. “Fine,”
His eyes are soft as they take in every detail of my face. “That’s a small price to pay for you.”
Just when my heart began to stutter, Nathan leans forward to press his lips against mine. I let out a breathy laugh against his lips and feel his curl into a smile before he depends the kiss. His hands graze my side slowly as mine wrap around his neck in an effort to bring him closer to me somehow. Standing there, kissing Nathan, was about the happiest I’ve felt in a long time.
And yet I felt more than just happiness. I was elated of course, nervous in a good way, surprised at his confession, and in awe that he had liked me at all. Nathan liked me for me, something I hadn’t known before. Thomas had merely used me for sex; he never truly cared. And that was the difference. Nathan cared, and it felt really fucking good.
It felt even better to be kissing him, hands all over each other, my back still against the wall. The word boyfriend shot a giddy, schoolgirl type of excitement through me. When Nathan leans back to give both of us an opportunity to catch our breathes, I take pleasure in the sight of his familiar smile as he studies me.
“What a hell of a night,” Nathan mutters under his breath with a small smile. When he lifts his gaze to meet mine, his smile grows. “I’m definitely sleeping in here now, by the way.”
I laugh and don’t dare to refute his words. I continue to smile because, frankly, I’m pretty sure that the recent events that had transpired will keep me smiling for the next ten years. Nathan instructs me to get into bed and I do as I’m told while a contentment resonates within me.
I climb under my sheets and lay on my side as the lights flicker off. I could see Nathan walking toward the bed through the sliver of moonlight pouring in through the window, bright enough to outline his approaching figure.
A weight climbs onto the mattress and I can feel the material from Nathan’s sweatpants brush against my leg from under the sheet before his arms pull me into him shortly after.
“Much better,” Nathan murmurs into my hair.
“Better than Asher?” I tease in a quiet voice with a growing cheeky smile.
I turn in his arms so I can face him to watch his reaction, but I’m struck when his bright blue eyes are only mere inches from me and I realize that we were so close that I could make out his face in the darkness.
He must realize this, too, because his eyes dart from mine to my lips before a boyish amusement lights in them and he catches my gaze once more. “I think you just want me to tell you how much I like you again.”
My cheeky grin returns as I whisper, “Maybe.”
“Don’t worry babe,” Nathan’s low voice sends a shiver through me as his eyes pierce mine. “I like you the most.” His lips quirk into his famous half smile and half smirk as he kisses me on my cheeks, nose, jaw, forehead, before speaking again.
“Happy?”
I grin at him. “Very.”
And I was. Here I am, laying beside Nathan in bed in this cabin with all of our friends, just happy. It felt like the only barrier between us had been broken so we could enjoy ourselves fully, without letting what-if’s hold us back.
Something about that just made me relax into Nathan’s arms and bask in the comfort that they provided me with. Despite the never-ending fluttering of butterflies in the pit of my stomach that came with our confessions, I felt my eyelids grow heavy.
I yawn before I can say anything else, and Nathan murmurs, “Go to sleep, Lauren.”
The idea is enticing, and I’m already extremely comfortable in Nathan’s arms, so I snuggle closer to him and let out a breath. “Goodnight, Nate.”
It’s quiet for a moment, and then Nathan mumbles, “Goodnight, beautiful.”
. . .
I woke up to the faint feeling of warmth spreading across my exposed legs as light pours from the windows and onto my skin. Half asleep, I moan tiredly at the prospect of waking up, and shift to press myself deeper into the cotton pillow. A breath that most certainly did not come from my nose is released beside me, and it wakes my senses immediately. My eyes open and I press my palms into the pillow- was that muscle?
I glance at the pillow and realize that it wasn’t a pillow at all, but instead a chest covered in a cotton black tee-shirt; my gaze followed up his chest to his neck and then his face and met a very sleepy Nathan. His eyelashes, dark and long, fluttered against his tanned skin until his blue eyed gaze met mine. I stare at him for a long moment, remembering everything that happened last night.
The dock, the sweatshirt, the kiss, the “I’m your boyfriend, and you’re my girlfriend”. I smiled a little wider as I thought of each thing until I was close to grinning. Nate’s eyes, although newly awake, were glittering and alive, watching me with a smile on his lips, too. I dropped my head back onto the pillow beside his, my cheek pressed against the pillowcase, and looked up at him.
“Good morning,” I say, my voice still raspy and heavy from sleep.
Nathan grins at me. “Good morning,” He reaches out to play with the ends of my hair with his fingers, but stops shortly to look at me and smile wider. “God, waking up next to you is never going to get old.”
Although my heart was pounding and body felt on fire all at the same time, I couldn’t help but take the opportunity to tease him.
“Being in a relationship has already turned you into a sap,” I mock with a smirk.
I could joke all I wanted, but the truth was, I loved seeing Nathan like this. Completely easy going and happy and open and alive. This was the real Nathan, without the tough guy exterior, and it was my favorite version of Nathan.
He smirked at me, his half smirk half smile, the dimple appearing and everything. “You love movies like Its A Wonderful Life; don’t act like you don’t love all that sappy shit.”
My heart warmed when he says this, because it reminds me that he actually pays attention to things I like and dislike. I smile at him because he’s right; I do love all of that sappy romance shit. And he knows he’s right, and he knows I swoon every time he says something thoughtful.
“Besides, it’s your fault,” Nathan continues, nudging me with his elbow. “You make me a sap.”
I open my mouth to make some sarcastic remark, but the bedroom door swings open instead, and I look toward the door. Standing in the doorway is Asher with a large smile on his lips as he examines our position: legs tangled together, lying in bed, faces inches apart. Behind Asher is Vincent, who is peeking in the room with Tess behind him.
Nathan follows my gaze and groans, and then pulls the sheet up to cover me, even though I’m still wearing his sweatshirt. I laugh at him but stop my laughter immediately after remembering the crowd gathered at my bedroom door. I move my gaze from Nathan, who is glaring at the door, to the doorway, where Asher, Vincent, and Tess were all watching.
“So?” Tess finally asks exasperatedly.
Asher is quick to speak next. “Were you two safe last night?”
Tired of the constant hazing, I look at Asher blankly. “No, we didn’t use a condom because I want to be pregnant. Nate and I are actually trying for our first child.”
Nathan chuckled from beside me, and I felt his hand grab mine. “What do you want to name him, babe?”
I turn around at the opportunity to mess with Nathan and raise my eyebrows. “You mean, what should we name her?”
“Her?” He echoes, his own eyebrows raised now.
“I’m the one having the baby so I get to decide the gender,” I conclude in a ‘duh’ tone. “It’s only fair.”
Nathan’s eyes are twinkling with the boyish mischief that has been so familiar lately, but he seems to give when he smirks at me. “Okay, anything for you, sweetie pie.”
I shake my head and let out a dramatic sigh. “Don’t you remember what we talked about last night? There will be no tolerance for the use of excessive pet names in this relationship.”
“So there’s a relationship,” Asher confirms slowly.
I sit up at the sound of Asher’s voice, once again reminding me of the people standing in the doorway. Nathan’s smile drops from his lips as his gaze shifts to Asher. His eyes narrowed immediately.
“Real subtle,” I mutter at the crowd.
“For everyone that’s wondering,” Nathan finally says, an edge to his voice. “Lauren Collins is now my girlfriend. No more questions.”
My cheeks warm a little at how the straightforwardness in his tone, and then warm a little more when the entire crowd smirks at me. I press deeper into Nathan, snuggling lower in the sheets to make myself as small as possible. He wraps an arm around my shoulder, a comforting gesture, and looks coldly at the doorway.
“Now get out of our room,” Nathan snaps finally.
I look up to see Vincent and Tess walking away, snickering with each other, but Asher is still standing in the doorway with a stupid smirk on his face. It’s not a condescending smirk, but rather a smirk crossed with a smile; I could see the genuine happiness and satisfaction in his expression.
Nathan narrows his eyes at him, but Asher doesn’t flinch. Instead, he says thoughtfully, “I’m happy you finally grew a pair, buddy.”
I raised my eyebrows and sat up in bed at the word “finally”, giving Asher my full attention. “Exactly how long has Nathan liked me?”
Asher opened his mouth, but Nathan was the one to speak quickly and fiercely. “We can talk about that later.”
I smirk a little and glance at Nate. For some reason, things felt so easy now. Being close to him and teasing him- it was all so easy because I was no longer wasting my energy dealing with the knots in my stomach or nerves in my brain. I no longer felt as nervous around Nathan; it felt like an imaginary weight had been lifted.
There is a blush crawling up Nathan’s cheeks, and my smirk turns to a genuine smile when I realize this topic made him nervous. Which, of course, made it all the more interesting for me. I decide to pity him and stop pressing it; I figure I can get an answer out of him when we’re alone anyway, without Asher watching us a few feet away.
So instead of asking again, I look at Asher and smirk again. “Now get out of our room.”
Asher laughed when I mimicked Nathan’s words, but this time he actually left, and closed the door behind him. I turn to Nathan immediately, determined to get an answer to my previous question.
“So,” I begin, and he groans in anticipation of my question. I smile a little and continue, “How long have you liked me?”
He glances at me blankly and tries to play it off by saying, “You sound like a middle school girl. I’m not answering such a lame question.”
I smirk and poke his arm, deciding to continue to tease him. “So that long, huh?”
Nathan’s carefree expression cracks when I see his lips twitch as he tries to hold back a smile. I grin at him and nudge him with my shoulder, and his smile finally breaks onto his lips.
“I’ve liked you for awhile now,” Nathan spoke so suddenly it surprised me. “That’s all I’m going to say.”
I grinned at Nathan, beyond pleased with his words, and nodded. I hesitate for a moment before I decide to say, “For the record, I’ve liked you for awhile now, too.”
He smiled at me widely, his eyes shimmering with happiness, his teeth white against his tan skin. I suddenly want to kiss him, and I’m about to start telling myself not to, but then I remember that he gave me the specific right to kiss him whenever.
So I leaned forward and pressed my lips against his.
I wasn’t thinking about morning breath or if he even wanted to be kissed. But still, I kissed him hard for a moment before pulling away. Nathan grinned at me boyishly as I leaned back to crawl off the bed. When I swung my legs over the edge and was about to stand up, I felt Nathan’s hand on mine, stopping me first.
I glance back at him and see Nathan pouting, his blue eyes large and imploring. “Where are you going?”
The smile couldn’t stay off my face for long, that’s for sure.
“I’m going to get changed and brush my teeth,” I tell him, my voice soft. “You should do the same.”
Nathan let me slip off the bed this time, but he stayed lying down. His hands were clasped behind his head and he was leaning up against the bed frame, just looking at me. He looked content, lying there with happy eyes; a beautiful picture.
I walk over to my suitcase, carefully discarded on the ground. Some shirts spilled over the open top, and I reached down to grab the first shirt I saw. I also took shorts and a bathing suit in anticipation for the rest of the day. I also grab my toothbrush and toothpaste for later, holding it in the ziplock bag I packed it in.
When I’m done fishing for clothes, I straighten up turn back to the bed, my gaze landing on Nathan. He was still watching me, the ever popular half smirk half smile dancing on his lips. I want to yell at him to go away so I could change, but at the same time I never wanted him to leave.
“Don’t mind me,” Nathan hums cheekily, his half smirk half smile stretching wider.
I rolled my eyes. “It’s time for you to deal with your morning breath.”
Nathan’s smirk drops and he pouts instead. “Morning breath?” He breaths into his hand and sniffs it, his brows creasing at me. “You think my breath smells?”
I try to keep my smirk contained and continue innocently. “It wasn’t that bad, but it made me never want to kiss you in the morning again…”
This got Nathan to shoot up out of bed and go straight for the door. I giggled, thusly breaking my resolve, and he realized I was just kidding as his hand froze on the doorknob. He turned around and I see the change in his expression the second he realizes I was messing with him, and the boyish fire lights in his eyes again.
He steps forward and grabs me by surprise, and then begins tickling my sides. I’m gasping with laughter, trying to push away from him, and eventually even drop my belongings, but he keeps me where I am. I figure it’s some sort of revenge for teasing him, so I try to catch my breath long enough to apologize, but he won’t let up.
“Nathan… I’m… Sorry…” I say in between uncontrollable laughter. “Please… Stop.”
He lifts one hand to his ear, his other still assaulting me with tickles. “What was that? I couldn’t hear you.”
That devil.
His other hand assumes position, already making up for the lost time. Still, I wriggle in his hold, gasping with laughter, breathlessly begging, “Please stop!”
Nathan begins laughing loudly, and then he stops, but doesn’t withdrawal his hands. He keeps them planted on my waist, smirking down at me as I pant heavily and push his chest, frowning at him. He’s unaffected by my lame efforts, and doesn’t even move an inch when I hit him.
“Sorry babe, but you deserved it,” Nathan winks cheekily.
I sigh and give up because I can’t even deny the smile making its way onto my lips. “No one deserves that level of assault.”
Nathan barks with laughter. “Assault?”
I drop my smile long enough to pout and nod, and all at once, he leans forward and kisses me. His lips suddenly on mine surprised me, but my eyes shut contentedly and I kiss him back for the second time this morning. His lips move with mine for a long, lingering kiss before he pulls away and smiles at me, and I return it easily.
“Did that help?” He asks, the traces of his smirk still on his lips.
I grin at him and lean forward to press my lips against his one more time, and then pull away. My grin is wider if possible.
“Yeah, now I feel better.”
Nathan grins boyishly at me and bends down to grab my fallen items: clothes, a bathing suit, and my ziplock bag. He hands it to me and shoots me one last smile before mock saluting me as he headed for the door.
“I’m going to move my suitcase in,” Nathan warns me. “I’ll be back in five.”
I smirk, thinking about what awaited him downstairs. “Or a little longer. I have a feeling everyone will have some questions.”
Nathan opens the door and looks back to smirk at me. “I’ll refer them to you.”
My smirk drops all at once, and then my stomach drops when I think of single handedly explaining to all of them that yes, we are dating now, and it happened like this. Nathan saw the look of horror on my face and broke out in laughter, doubling over.
“Your… face…” He supplements in between laughs, and happiness is restored when I realize he was messing with me.
I grab the closest thing to me, which happens to be a previously discarded pillow, and throw it at Nathan. It bounces off of him easily, and he doesn’t budge, but instead straightens up and smirks at me.
“I dislike you,” I mutter, grabbing another pillow to fling at him.
He dodges the pillow with ease. “Aw, don’t say that kitten.” He pouts, and the act is so adorable yet sexy that I want to yell at him for making me not mad anymore. “I would never leave you alone with those ravenous animals.”
I finally give in and nod, letting a small, satisfied smile reach my lips. “Okay fine, I take it back.”
Nathan grins widely and takes another step out the door. “Good. I’m going downstairs before you can change your mind.”
And then he shut the door behind him and ran away, down the hallway. I stood there laughing to myself, feeling overwhelmingly content and happy and I couldn’t stop smiling for the life of me. Life was good.
I snapped myself out of my thoughts by changing, putting on my bikini bottoms, and then jean shorts, then the bikini top, then my dark blue cut off shirt. I grabbed my ziplock with toothpaste and a toothbrush and head to the bathroom across the hall and was happy to see that no one was in there.
There were voices coming from downstairs, but I didn’t listen in on their conversation, well aware that it was probably about me and Nathan. I took my time brushing my teeth in an attempt to hide upstairs for as long as possible. Unfortunately, it was inevitable that I would have to go back downstairs, so I forced myself out of the bathroom to face everyone.
So I walked downstairs, toward the noise, but the second I stepped on the last step, everyone stop speaking and looked at me. Vincent, Asher, and Tess all had creepy smiles on their faces, and Nathan was shaking his head, looking irritated in the corner. I smirked a little at his reaction, and at the reaction of my friends.
“Thanks for making me the infinite fifth wheel,” Asher complained, but his smirk was anything but mad.
I smiled kindly at him. “Don’t worry, you can see your boyfriend sometimes too. You should set up a date night.”
Everyone laughs except Nathan, but even he has a smirk on his lips as he rolls his eyes at my comment. Asher grins widely at me and then turns around to face Nathan, and gives him a pointed look.
“She’s a keeper. Don’t mess it up.” Asher’s voice holds a surprising amount of finality.
“Trust me,” Nathan looks at me and smiles sincerely. His eyes are shining the oceanic shade of blue that I get lost in. There are crinkles in the corner of his eyes, like his gaze was smiling a genuine smile. “I won’t.”