When Summer Ends (40 page)

I looked around shocked, and he started to laugh. “Games
over,” he explained, shaking his head still amused.

Oh, was that the end of the paintball game?
I’d
forgotten that was what we were even here for. I was so into that kiss that an
earthquake could have occurred, and I wouldn’t have minded as long as Will’s
soft lips hadn’t left mine.

I looked at him disappointed, I didn’t want to go yet, we
still had a lot to talk about. He held out a hand to me, smiling happily. I
grinned and slipped my hand into his, sighing contentedly at how right it felt.
He felt like home somehow. He picked up both of our guns and helmets with his
other hand and gave me a little tug towards the opening of the rock. I pressed
against his side as we walked and couldn’t keep the happy smile off of my face.
He let go of my hand, snaking his arm round my waist, pulling me closer to him
as he kissed the side of my head tenderly.

“Want to do something with me tonight?” he asked.

I grinned and nodded. “Sure. What do you have in mind?” I
asked, fighting the urge to skip along beside him.

He shrugged. “Anything you want, but I think we should talk
some more. There are a lot of things we need to discuss.” He frowned thoughtfully.

I nodded slowly. “Yeah I guess.”

He pulled me to a stop. There was still no one around, but
we had to be close to the clearing and paintball hut because the trees were
getting a little sparser. “We need to act normal today, Cutie. We’ll talk some
more later and figure out what we’re going to do, but for now we just pretend
nothing happened back there, okay?” he instructed, looking at me hopefully.

I nodded in agreement. That kind of went without saying. He
smiled happily and nodded towards the path again. I grinned and turned to walk
off; as I turned something hit my ass making me yelp in pain. Will was laughing
wickedly. I span around to see he was still pointing his gun at me.

I look at him in disbelief. He’d just shot me in the butt for
the second time today. “What the hell?” I cried, making him laugh harder.

He stepped forward to me and gripped my upper arm. His eyes
were burning into mine as he slipped my last yellow band off of my arm, pushing
it into his pocket. “I told you I’d take your last life,” he whispered sexily.
He pressed his lips against mine again, making me forget the small stinging
pain where he’d shot me at close range. I discreetly rubbed my finger in the
fresh paint, getting a blob of it on my fingertip.

When he pulled out of the kiss, I quickly wiped it across
his cheek, laughing. “Now that’s sexy,” I mused, giggling at his shocked
expression.

He laughed and wrapped his arms around me tightly. “You’re
sexy,” he countered, pecking me on the lips again softly. I blushed like crazy,
and his smile became more pronounced as he traced his fingers across my burning
cheek. “I love it when you blush for me, it’s too cute.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed him away from me. We needed to
go and meet up with everyone else before they started to wonder where we were.
“Come on, flirt, let’s go. You can make me blush some more later,” I suggested,
grabbing my gun and helmet from his hand and nodding towards the path. I didn’t
trust him not to shoot me again if I was to walk in front of him.

“Oh I’ll definitely be making you blush later.” He grinned
at me cockily making my cheeks burn again even though I was trying my hardest
not to let them. He just had that effect on me though, I just couldn’t help
myself around him, and he damn well knew it.

He winked at me and walked up the path. I matched my step to
his and couldn’t help but steal little glances at him as we walked. He kept
brushing the back of his hand against mine on purpose as we made our way to the
clearing, his little finger hooking around mine subtly making my heart race.

We got to the clearing and I spotted Amy and Nick standing
there with Ryan, all chatting happily. I smiled at how happy Amy looked; I was immensely
pleased for her because she’d finally spoken to Ryan.

“I’ll speak to you later, Cutie,” Will whispered as he
walked off in the other direction to me. I watched him walk away as I fought
with my desire to do a happy dance in the middle of the clearing. He loved me,
he genuinely loved me. Nothing else mattered other than those three words. The
student and teacher thing, the minor thing, none of that mattered anymore, I
knew we could work through it. It’d be hard, but we’d get through it together.

Chapter Twenty-Six

I reluctantly dragged my eyes off of him and headed towards
my group of friends. I fought hard to keep the happy smile off of my face, but
I probably didn’t do a very good job at it. I had a feeling I would even be
smiling in my sleep tonight. I ran my tongue over my still tingling lips,
tasting him on the skin. My stomach fluttered, and I flicked my eyes to him
again. He was leaning up against a tree just looking around at the students
milling there.

“There she is, the disappearing woman!” Nick joked as I got
up to them.

I laughed and shook my head. “I didn’t disappear; you ran
off and left me!” I scolded playfully, slapping his arm.

He rolled his eyes. “I didn’t. I ran into the trees
expecting you to follow me, but you just crouched down, which was downright
stupid by the way. Then I watched you walk off in the wrong direction looking
for me, but by then there were another couple of people around so I couldn’t
shout you or anything. I assumed you got caught and were out, you only had one
life left,” he explained, laughing to himself at my obvious lack of paintball
skills. His eyes flicked to my upper arm. “And I was right by the look of it,
you were out. Where have you been though? Amy and Ryan were both out too and
said you didn’t come back to the hut.”

Oh no, what do I say to that?
I shrugged. “Got lost?”
I suggested, hoping he’d buy it. He did.

His eyes roamed my paint covered body, obviously checking
out the damage. He burst out laughing as he turned me around to look at my
back. “You got shot in the ass again? That’s so funny. Only you, Chloe, only
you!” he teased.

I laughed and pushed him back, pouting. “Obviously not ‘only
me’ because Amy and Ryan were out too!”

I looked at Amy, she had her hand on Ryan’s arm as she
giggled at something he’d said, looking at him through her eyelashes. I was so
proud of her I could burst; she’d been crazy about him forever. I personally
couldn’t see the attraction he held. He was cute, but not really my type. He
was a complete jock, with big broad shoulders, and a thick muscled neck.
Nothing like Will’s toned, yet not too over the top, physique.

As soon as I’d thought about Will, my eyes flicked in his
direction. Miss Teller was standing close to him, a seductive smile on her face
as she pulled her natural blonde hair down from her hairband, shaking it out
like one of those goddess women do on TV.
Oh my goodness, how can he be
interested in me while she’s doing that right in front of him? I’ve no chance
in competing with that woman at all. If I was a guy I would totally be drooling
over her too.

I looked away as I started to get a little jealous.
What do
I do if he cheats on me? He’s never had a girlfriend before; does he even know
what being faithful means? Is he going to get bored of me in a few weeks and go
after someone more deserving of his attention? Wait, wait, am I over analysing
everything again, like I was doing before?

I looked over to Will again at exactly the same time as he
looked at me. I smiled at him and got a heartbreaking smile in return before he
looked away again to Miss Teller. I sighed and decided I just needed to play it
cool. I needed to stop thinking about things too hard because most of the time
I’d been jumping to entirely the wrong conclusions about him.

I could barely wait for tonight. Just to be close to him
again, talk to him and just wrap my arms around him for a little while, it was
going to be like heaven on earth. And his body… now that I was thinking about
him, I couldn’t help but want his body, knowing how hot and incredible making
love to him was. I shivered with desire, and I felt something squeeze my arm.

“Chloe?” I looked up quickly, shaking my head to clear the
thoughts away. Nick was snapping his fingers in front of my face, obviously
trying to get my attention.

Oh no, was I daydreaming?
“Sorry, what?” I smiled
apologetically, making him laugh and roll his eyes. Ryan walked away, throwing
one last smile in Amy’s direction, which made her grin and bite her lip before
she skipped to my side and grabbed my arm, digging her fingers into my skin as
she looked at me with wide eyes.

“He asked me out! Oh man, he actually asked me out!” she hissed
excitedly, almost shaking me where she was so excited.

I laughed and hugged her. “I’m so proud of you! I can’t
believe you managed to talk to him finally,” I congratulated, grinning happily.
Looks like today was great for both of our love lives.
I sighed happily
and risked another glance at Will; he was talking to Mr Young and then headed
over to lean lazily against the door of the first coach.

“I know! Thank the lord for paintball,” she gushed, sighing
dreamily. I never thought I would agree, but I silently thanked the lord for
paintball too because this was one of the best days I’d had in a long time.

“So when are you going out? What did he say? Give me all of
the details,” I instructed, linking my arm through hers and dragging her
towards Mr Young so we could get checked onto a coach and I could gossip with
her about Ryan. I was dying to tell her about Will, but I really needed to talk
to him about it first to make sure he was all right with me telling her. The
last thing I wanted to do was upset him or ruin anything when we’d only just
gotten back together.

Amy sighed dreamily and began to tell me all about how she
had arranged with Nick to get paired with Ryan for the game. We joined the line
to get onto the coach, and I lost myself in her story about their time
together. I listened with wide eyes and an enormous smile as she talked
excitedly about them having a lot in common, how they’d flirted, and how she
hadn’t once make a fool out of herself in front of him for a change. I followed
the line of the queue until I was at the door, ready to climb on board.

I raised my foot to step on, just as an arm shot out across
the doorway blocking my entry. I looked up shocked to see Will leaning there
casually, his arm stretched out so I couldn’t enter the coach. A sexy little
smirk was on his lips that I just wanted to run my tongue over. Amy was
obviously lost in the story too because she crashed into my back not knowing
that I’d stopped. I blushed like crazy, and Will’s smirk became more
pronounced.

“I think I’m going to get a bruise on my shoulder where you
shot me, Miss Henderson. I may have to give you detention for it,” he teased,
chuckling quietly.

I laughed sheepishly. “You can’t give me detention, Mr
Morris; we’re not on school property. Besides, it was an accident, and I’ve
already apologised,” I replied, playing along with the whole teacher theme.

He looked at me thoughtfully. “Hmm, I guess you’re right.
But one step out of line on school property and your ass is in detention.”

I rolled my eyes at him; he obviously liked having this
power over me. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

He grinned and moved his arm from the doorway, nodding for
me to get on. I felt my insides tremble just because of the way he was looking
at me, playfully, teasingly.
My
Will was back with full force. I loved
it, I loved him.

I bit my lip so I didn’t say anything inappropriate and
climbed on the coach with Amy hot on my heels. She slumped down into the seat
next to mine, but she was obviously still off in Ryan La La land because she’d totally
missed the whole Will incident outside the door, and just continued her story
from where she left off. I watched as Will walked in a few minutes later and
sat up the front of the coach.

After half an hour of gossiping about Ryan and planning her
date for tomorrow night, we finally started getting near the school. My cell
phone beeped in my pocket so I pulled it out wondering who it would be from;
when I read the name I immediately felt my face heat up. It was from Will. 

‘I
have 2 drive Caroline home. Shall I pick U up from yours at 4?’

My heart jumped in my chest at the thought of seeing him. I
was so excited I could barely sit still in my seat.
Wait, four o’clock?
He said he wanted to do something tonight, I was hoping to have time to shower
and do my hair, make myself look a little worthier of his attention. But I
couldn’t really say no to him, if he picked me up and four then I got to spend
extra time about which I certainly wasn’t complaining about.

‘You’re
eager, thought we were meeting tonight’
I sent back to him.

Amy was looking at me curiously. I didn’t know what to say.
I wanted to tell her. I knew she would be crazy excited for me, but I just
needed to check with Will if he minded. He’d said I was to pretend like nothing
had happened and this really wasn’t a conversation I could have with her with
all of the other students around.

“It’s my mom,” I lied, shrugging and willing my flushed face
not to give me away.

My cell beeped with his reply so I opened it excitedly.
‘Definitely
eager! Is 4 OK?’

I sighed dreamily and looked at the time on my phone; it was
only just after three so at least I would have a little time to change into
something nicer than baggy jeans and T-shirt that I wore for paintballing.
‘Sure, c u then’
I sent back to him, barely able to type with my shaky hands where I was so excited.