Forever Love (10 page)

Chapter 11

Liv

What the fuck have I done? I can't have a boyfriend, I'm just gonna wreck his life. I feel the panic running through me. I want this so damn much though, more than I've ever wanted anything before in my life. I want to believe him when he says he'll protect me, that he'll take care of me but I'm having a hard time believing that. After all, I've heard that shit before and it ended up being the worst fucking mistake I could have made. I can't break again, I don’t know if I'll be able to stick myself back together a second time.

Then I think of the way Noah held my small hand tightly In his much bigger one, I've never had that feeling before. Most of the feelings I have with Noah, I've never experienced before. The butterflies in my stomach, my heart missing a beat every time he says something sweet, the electric shock that runs through me every time his skin touches mine. And his kiss, well shit, I didn’t even know kissing could be all consuming and hungry. Before, kissing has always just been a sort of necessity before the grand finale but with Noah it feels sacred and personal.

I feel as if I'm standing on a cliff edge and I'm either gonna fall to the bottom with a SPLAT!, or I'm gonna fly.

I lie in bed with all of these thoughts running through my head. At least I got to sleep in this morning, though I must admit I had the best night sleep I think I've ever had. I reach over to the bedside table to reach for my phone, I've hardly spared it a glance in the last day. I scroll through my texts, two from Trina, I'll have to call her back in a minute. There's a text from Mark, what the hell does this guy want.

Hey Liv, Missed u! When u coming 2 visit?

When am I coming to visit? Errrrrrrmmm NEVER!

I delete that and press on Trina's name to call her. I haven't spoken to her since Friday night, I was way too tired to call her last night so I just went straight to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

"Hey boo, I was beginning to wonder if I should file a missing persons report for your absent ass. Who was it?"

"Why do you always assume I was with someone?" I can't help smiling at how well Trina knows me, though she's a little off the truth. If she knew the truth she'd probably keel over.

"Were you?"

I can just imagine her face with her eyebrows raised and a cat ate the canary smile.

"Well yes-"

"HA! I knew it, you can't hide stuff from me Liv, I'm all seeing." I roll my eyes.

"Will you let me finish? As I was saying, I was with someone else but it was all strictly above clothing"

"What do you mean above clothing? Like a quickie in a bush?"

I burst out laughing at that statement. A quickie in a bush? You'd think she'd have a bit more faith in me.

"No there was no quicky, or slowy before you ask that."

"Oh my god Liv, do I need to put an ad in the paper?"

Though I don’t usually keep secrets from Trina, I haven't exactly been forthcoming in everything concerning Noah. She knows that we kissed but I played it off as a huge mistake that I didn’t want to repeat. To say she's going to be mad as hell when she finds out I've held out on her will be the understatement of the century.

My silence seems to be all the answer she needs as an ear piercing scream blares through the phone, causing me to pull it away from my ear before I turn deaf. Maybe I should go and make myself a sandwich while I'm waiting for her to calm down.

"Oh my god, oh my god. Mama was right, she had a feeling and you know how she is when she gets her feelings. I can't believe it, you're gonna have to send me a photo, no a video cause photos don’t really show you anything. Oh and make sure he's talking on this video, I wanna be able to hear his voice. You'll have to bring him to Savannah with you, I wanna meet him. Where did you meet him? Oh shit, is it the stepbrother? I just can't believe this is happening. You know what this is, don’t you boo? He's your forever love, there's no way you'd settle for anything if it wasn’t the real deal. And before you say anything, I feel it in my bones. Oh this is so exciting."

I wait patiently for her to stop rambling. Surely she's gonna need to breath some time soon.

"Trina, Trina, TRINA! Calm down woman."

"I'm so excited though."

"You haven't even let me explain."

"Explain then."

"Yes it's Noah."

Another scream.

"Cut it out with the screaming. Poor Mrs Travenagh next door is gonna think there's an axe murder going on." I take a deep breath. "He refused to sleep with me."

"He refused? You? Is he gay?" I chuckle at Trina's reasoning.

"No, he's not gay. He said I'm not some lay, I'm more than that. He asked me to be his."

And the screaming resumes. I sigh and roll my eyes while holding the phone in the air. I pull it back to my ear when I can't hear anymore screeching coming from the handset.

"That is soooooo romantic. Oh Liv, hes just what you need."

"Hey, for all we know, he could be a complete ass like the rest of the male population." Though I don’t think he's like that, I don’t want Trina to get ahead of herself here.

"Oh, we both know that you wouldn’t have agreed to be his if you thought that. You did agree didn’t you?"

"Yes."

"Well then roll with it girl. He's not Tommy, you need to stop thinking every guy in the world is Tommy. I can't believe you, Liv Preston, has a boyfriend. I thought this day would never come."

The mention of HIS name, has me wanting to end this conversation as soon as possible. I let out a completely fake laugh as I feel my heartbeat quicken. There's a knock at the door.

"Listen, Trina, there's someone at my door. I'll call you later ok."

"Don’t forget to send me that video. And I want a full play by play of events later on. Don’t think your getting off that easily."

"Yep, will do."

I rush Trina off the phone and hang up as I put my hand on my chest in a bid to calm me down. You would think that two years later, I wouldn’t still get that same reaction from just the mention of his name.

There's another knock at the door.

"Come on in." I yell, a little too loudly.

The door opens and Noah pops his head around it. He's in a gray v-neck tshirt with black jogging bottoms that lie perfectly on his narrow hips.

"I wasn’t sure if you were awake." He smirks.

That smirk erases all of the fears and doubts. The butterflies take care of every other bad feeling. It's been so long since I let Tommy Benson into my head, it's shaken me up that I have now. Maybe it’s the familiarity of the situation, of opening myself up for someone that’s done it. I'm not saying that Noah and Tommy are anything alike. Noah would never do what Tommy did, but the other ways in which they are alike jar me. Both handsome, though id definitely say Noah has him beat by miles, both into sports, both popular. Thankfully that’s it, since if their personalities were anything alike, id have my bags packed and be running in the opposite direction.

I put that asshole to the back of my mind, I will not let him get to me now, not after all this time.

"Sorry I took so long to answer, I was on the phone."

"No worries." He smiles and comes towards me. Id be lying if I said I wasn’t completely out of my element in this situation. I have no idea how to react, I've never had a boyfriend, not really. I have a hunch that my bed hopping and sneaking out in the morning aren't gonna help me out here.

He rubs his hands up and down my arms, looking into my eyes and suddenly I can't cope with the distance anymore, I need him to kiss me, to touch me, if only to erase that bastard out of my mind. I clutch the front of his shirt and pull him down to me, stepping onto my tiptoes to reach. I crush my mouth against his in a desperate and fevered kiss. I just can't get enough of him, as his tongue explores my mouth and plays hide and seek with my own. He lets out a low growl as his hands clutch onto my ass, squeezing.

He pulls his face away from mine, though his hands stay put. I feel like screaming at the loss of his lips but his smile erases that feeling of loss.

"I've been waiting to get my hands on your ass for far too long." His shit eating grin has me rolling my eyes.

I playfully punch him in the arm and he feigns injury.

"You’re an ass." I say, shaking my head in mock outrage.

"You love it." He wiggles his eyebrows up and down.

"So, is that all you came in here for, to grab my ass?"

His hand goes to his heart.

"How little you think of me Liv."

I laugh at his dramatics, what a goofball. He grabs me and pulls me into him and a look of pure hunger crosses over his face as his hands get reacquanted with my ass.

"I gotta say, now I've had a touch, I don’t think I've ever gonna be able to stop."

I think a little playing is in order here. I copy his movement and take his own behind in my hand, giving a firm squeeze. Well, I gotta say, he has a mighty fine ass. His nose nudges mine and the endearing action has my heart missing a beat. All these missing beats can't be good for it, at this rate I'll be down with a heart attack by the time I'm twenty.

"You're right though, I didn’t come here just to grab your ass, that was just a perk. I came to ask you if you wanted to come with me round Brady's. He's got a pool, saves spending time with the family." He rolls his eyes.

This is the first time since things have become somewhat official that I've thought about the fact that we are technically family. Well shit, that bursts my bubble.

"Oh fuck fuck fuck. Noah, what are we gonna tell them?" I say, pulling away and covering my eyes with my hands.

"Hey, hey, calm down, it's gonna be ok."

"How can you say that? Damn Noah, theyre never gonna allow this."

"They can't stop it. I figure we'll keep this on the down low for the time being and then in a couple of weeks, or a few months tops, we'll tell them. We'll have been together a while then and they'll see how much we want to be together, that this isn't just some passing fancy or some fling. It's not like we're related or anything, hell we only met each other for the first time the other week. We're doing nothing wrong and why should we not be able to be together, just because are parents decided that they should."

His words definitely make sense and they calm me somewhat. I'm sure that’s the first of many near meltdowns I'll have until this shit is out in the open. The fear of losing him, of losing this is too strong though. Shit, how can I feel like this after so little time. This is crazy.

"Wait, a pool?" Remembering that Noah said Dickwad has a pool soon has the subject changing. Do I really want to spend my Sunday with Dickwad? The answer would be no. The idea of spending it relaxing in a pool however, well that’s a definite yes.

"Yep and its huge." Noah smirks.

"Give me half hour and I'll be ready."

Noah backs out of the door.

"Girls are so damn predictable. I cant fucking wait to see you in a bikini though. Damn." He makes a low whistle that has me shutting the door in his face. Hes such a smartass.

***

We walk through the side gate to Dickwads house. To be honest, I'm still trying to pick my jaw up from the floor where it dropped when I saw it. I mean, my Dads house is no little cottage, but Bradys house is fucking huge. Its like one of those celebrities houses you see in the glossy magazines. The driveway is more like a fucking street and theres more windows in this place than Microsoft.

There are already a few people here, Brady's standing around talking to some guys that I'm guessing are on the football team, if their builds are anything to go by. Cindy's laying on a sunlounger in an Aztec cutout one piece. I look at the sun lounger with longing, all I wanna do is relax in the warm sun and top up on my tan. Especially since it's practically the end of Summer and soon it's gonna be cold again.

Dickwad comes strutting over with a grin on his face that makes me wonder how much Noah has told him.

"Well if it isn't the lovebirds. Blondie, how are ya? Noah, my man, we got beers coming." Well that answers my question and I give Noah the stink eye.

"Shit Brady, what part of don’t go fucking telling anyone don’t you understand?"

"Calm down brother, no-one can hear. Your secret is safe with me."

I roll my eyes and make my way over to Cindy.

"Your boyfriend is an ass." I say.

"Yeah I know but you should see what he can do with his tongue." She lets out a little giggle and I'm about ready to stab myself in the ears.

I pull my short denim cut offs down and take my top off before laying down. I decided on a halter neck bikini, it really shows off my girls and the bow between the cups is super cute. I can't wait to see Noah's reaction when he sees me in it.

"I love that bikini. You know Noah's gonna freak when he sees you." She wiggles her brows. Is there anyone that doesn’t fucking know. "Brady told me by the way, don’t worry I won't tell. I think it's totally cool by the way and you two are super cute together."

I give Cindy a reassuring smile though I'll be sure to have few words with Brady blabbermouth later and Noah for that matter. Noah walks over to us and crouches down next to my ear.