Dani woke up shivering.
“It’s so cold,” she thought as she snuggled closer to Kevin.
He wrapped his arms tighter around her. She realized he was awake. She looked up at him, smelling his cologne, Paco, the stuff she bought for him for his birthday.
Kevin lowered his mouth to hers. She let her lips part, welcoming him. She sank closer to him, melting a little more every time his fingertips brushed her skin. He moved her head a little, positioning it so he could kiss her with more intensity. Without breaking the kiss, he eased over her. She kissed him over and over, seemingly telling him that she’d been waiting for this for a long time.
He drew away from her slowly. He studied her, as if memorizing every part.
He kissed her again, pulling off his shirt. He helped her remove hers. She trailed her fingers down to the button of his jeans and paused, looking over at the door and then the phone.
“What?” he asked.
“I’m waiting for Lori to burst in. She always manages to interrupt us at this part.”
He smiled,” We’ll just ignore her then.”
He kissed her again, moaning softly. She ran her fingers through his hair before finishing with his jeans. As she unzipped them, he stopped kissing her.
“What?”
“Are you sure about this?”
She pulled him back down to her, telling him with every ounce of her being just how sure she was.
------JUST BEFORE JANE PICKED UP NICK------
Angie walked to the door adjoining to Nick’s room, drowsy and not wanting to go back to Sandra’s house. She would have slept on Jane’s bed, but Aaron was there and his bed was too messy even for him. The only other choice was Nick’s room because A.J. was shopping, Howie was out with Vanessa, Brian was playing basketball with Lori, and no one knew where Dani and Kev were. She found the door unlocked and walked in. She collapsed on the bed and fell into a troubled sleep.
Howie and Vanessa finished their shopping spree and went to get some ice cream. As they were eating their snack and chatting, Howie felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Yeah?” he asked,turning around.
“Hey, Howie, don’t you think this is a little dangerous?”
“Come on, Eric, I’m a little busy.”
“Look, I’m just paid to keep you safe and in line. Right now, I don’t think you’re very safe.”
“Why?”
“Look over there,” he said, pointing to a group of girls.
One was wearing a Backstreet Boys tee shirt. The others chatted excitedly. They were talking about the concert from the previous night.
“Oh shit. Vanessa, we’d better go. Thanks Eric.”
“Yeah, whatever,” the bodyguard said as he walked away, making himself invisible again.
Howie started to get up when he noticed that one of the girls was about to look over towards them. He didn’t have time to run, so he pulled Vanessa to him, kissing her.
After a minute or so, she pulled away, slowly.
“Sorry about that,” he said, “I thought we were gonna get caught by those girls.”
“Oh…” she said, shocked by the tenderness of his mouth.
He stood up and help his hand out to her. She took it and they walked out of the mall hand in hand.
“Can I take you home? I know we took separate cars, but Brad or Eric could drive yours.”
“You have two bodyguards?”
“Yeah, for right now I do. Brad is usually Kevin’s or Nick’s bodyguard, but they both didn’t want a bodyguard today.”
“Oh…I guess you can drive me home,” she said, smiling.
She tossed her keys to Brad, who seemed to pop out of no where.
Nick walked into his room and fell onto the bed, narrowly missing Angie.
“What the fuck?” he muttered when he saw the dozing Angie.
He didn’t say anything, else. He just rolled away from Angie and fell asleep.
Angie ran for what seemed like 100 miles. She ran into Aaron, who began running along side her.
“You know he likes you,” Aaron said.
She looked over at him, surprised.
“You know he does,” she heard Jane say on the other side of her.
She looked over at Jane while she was still running. Suddenly, there were a hundred voices telling her different things about Nick. But one drowned them all out.
“Angie?”
“Nick?” she asked, reaching out to try and find him. But the sea of voices was too thick. She tripped and fell. She fell for what seemed like an eternity. She screamed all the way down.
“NOOOO!” she screamed, jolting awake.
Nick was staring at her with a concerned look on his face.
“Are you okay, Angie?”
“Yeah, bad dream I guess.”
“You seem to be having a lot of trouble with those lately, don’t you?”
“Kinda.”
Angie laid her head back down on the pillow.
“So…how was San Fransisco?”
Nick groaned.
Danica fell onto Kevin’s chest, utterly exhausted. She could hear his heart beating. It sounded so soothing. She found that her heart was beating as fast as his was.
He pulled her closer to him and then pulled the covers over them. She was dosing again.
“I love you,” he whispered as he too fell asleep.
“…He really didn’t know who you are?” Angie asked.
“No, even though there were posters everywhere, ‘As Long As You Love Me’ was blaring on the radio, and I bought a copy of our cd!”
Angie laughed so hard her sides hurt.
“So, did anybody recognize you?”
“Not that I know.”
“Man…”
“What?”
“You suck,” she said, laughing.
Nick stared at he for a second, open-mouthed and shocked. He recovered quickly and plastered a cocky grin on his face.
“I can still best you in Mortal Kombat.”
“Yeah, right, not if I’m Sonya.”
“So don’t pick Sonya. Let the game choose for you.”
“I don’t feel like kicking your ass right now. I’m too tired.”
Nick laughed and then stared at her.
“What?”
Nick didn’t answer. Instead, he began his chicken clucking technique again. This time, Angie attacked him instead of running for the game. She lunged at him, knocking him off the bed and onto the floor. They rolled around for a second and Nick somehow managed to pin her.
“Give it up, Angie.”
“I think not!” she said and squirmed out of the pin.
She rolled on top of him and put him in a headlock similar to the one Brian had him in earlier.
“DAMNT! What’s everyone’s deal with headlocks?”
Angie couldn’t help but laugh. Sensing that she had dropped her guard, Nick squirmed out of the headlock and re-pinned her. By this time, they were both out of breath and even more tired than before. But out of pure stubbornness, they continued to fight.
“Give up, Angie! We’re both tired, so if you give up now, we can go back to sleep. I’ll even let you stay in the bed.”
“What makes you think I’m gonna surrender to a pint-sized 19 year old –“
He covered her mouth with his own, cutting her off. At first, she didn’t respond, shocked. She finally gave up trying to talk and kissed him back.
“This is gonna be hard to explain,” she thought, “Very hard.”
Chapter 8