Fighting to Survive (Guarded Hearts Book 3) (5 page)

He kisses my neck, stopping in between kisses to dart his tongue out to taste me. Each time he does, he lets out a sound of pleasure which has me squirming after a couple of minutes. It’s insane what this man can do to me. I have never been so worked up in my life. Not even the times when I’ve actually had sex! He spins me around and lifts me so that I’m now sitting on the counter in front of him.

“I need you to guide this. You need to tell me when to stop, because if you don’t, I won’t.” He lowers his mouth back down to my neck.

Do I want him to stop?
I honestly think it depends on which part of my body you’re asking. I move my hands to his chest, enjoying feeling every muscle of his well-defined body. I know if I don’t say something now, there will be no going back and I’m really not ready for that. “I think we need to stop.”

As soon as the words leave my mouth, he backs off, and moves his head so it’s now resting against mine. He looks into my eyes, and I see a fire in his making me want to throw my morals out the window and drag him into his room. He gives me one last quick kiss on the lips and then moves back and leans against the other counter. “So what are you in the mood to eat?”

You.
Thank God I don’t actually say it out loud. I really don’t know what’s gotten into me, it’s like I’m drunk on him and can no longer make rational decisions. “Whatever you want is fine.” 

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.”

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 recognize 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.

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.