Anywhere With You (9 page)

“Liam,” I breathe. “What are we doing?”

Liam kisses my forehead as he proceeds to tell me that he is
“kissing the most amazing girl he has ever met”
. I melt and right then I lose a piece of heart to him. I know he can never be mine, but he has a part of me, which is crazy because we just met, all I know is that he just does. I am glad that I am still in his arms or I would be a puddle of lust on the bathroom floor.

I can feel his chest rising and falling. I can feel the steady beat of his heart. I look up into his eyes getting lost in a sea of deep blue emotions. He proceeds to tell me that our kiss is basically the best kiss of his existence. My resolve is beginning to crumble. I am so tempted to throw caution to the wind and have a fling with Liam. Instead, I put on my big girl panties and do the responsible thing. I tell him that if he ever decides he can give me all of him that he knows where to find me. I give him one final quick kiss on the lips and leave him there in the bathroom.

I walk back into the kitchen and take my seat next to Hailey. She looks at me in question and I shrug my shoulders. She smiles at me like she just discovered the cure for cancer. It’s Aiden who breaks the tension.

“Ash, you have got to taste Mrs. Mac’s dirt cake,” he says as he shovels in a humongous bite.

Mrs. Mac smiles at me, “Would you like a bowl?”

“Yes, please dinner was great,” I stand up to carry my now empty plate to the kitchen.

Liam appears at my side. “I got it,” as he grabs my plate and walks to the kitchen. Mr. Mac stands to follow him.

The remainder of the day is uneventful. We all sit down to play a game of back alley 13, Liam, Aiden and Mr. Mac play their guitars and we all sing. We laugh and joked until it’s time to leave. Aiden and Hailey keep giving me questioning looks. I smile at them to let them know that I am good. Liam continues to dote on me. Grabbing me drinks, holding my chair for me. All of my senses are on high alert. When we leave, he holds the door for me again and helps me into the backseat of his Pathfinder. The drive back is quiet as we are all full and worn out. When we arrive at the dorm, Liam hops out and opens my door for me. I smile and say “Thank you”. I give Aiden a hug, then link arms with Hailey as we head to our room.

We are barely through the doors of the building before Hailey is pouncing on me for information.

“What the fuck was that?” she says with a huge smile on her face.

I look at her as if she is crazy. “What was what?” I can tell that she isn’t buying my poor attempt to evade her questions.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Allison Hagan. What is that chemistry with you and my brother? Holy shit sparks were flying all damn day!”

“You’re crazy, there were no sparks. Liam was just being … nice that’s all,” I say, my voice cracking.
Yeah that was real convincing.

“I call bullshit! What you’re forgetting is that he is my brother and I know him all too well. Never in my life have I seen him be attentive to any girl unless he was trying to hook up. He ran from the table to chase after you to see if you were okay, and he was in that bathroom with you for a while,” she winks at me.

I throw myself down on my bed and cover my head with my pillow. I contemplate how much I should tell her. Liam is her brother after all, but she’s my roommate and I need someone to talk to about all of this. Ace would never understand. I take a deep breath remove the pillow and say, “We kissed,” and quickly cover my face back up.

“SQUEEE!!!”

Before I know what’s happening, Hailey is on my bed pulling the pillow away. “You kissed him?” she questions.

Unable to speak and feeling the heat engulf my cheeks, I nod my head yes and look up at the ceiling.

“This is awesome. Wouldn’t it be great if you guys ended up getting married, we would be sisters for real.”

“Seriously, you’re not mad or think this is weird?”

“Well, when things start to heat up with you two spare me the graphic details, but no, I’m cool with it. Liam is a great guy he just has his priorities all out of whack. I would love to see him get serious and what better person than my new roomie BFF?”

“I’m sorry to disappoint but it doesn’t mean anything. Liam has made it clear he would never consider a relationship and I don’t want to waste my time on a fling, so it’s never gonna happen with us.”

Hailey laughs, “Oh it’s so gonna happen just like I told you earlier. I am going to enjoy watching this play out. The show so far has been AH-MAZING.” She sings as she hops back to her bed.

The first week of classes go smooth. Hailey and I had already mapped out where we needed to go so we could ensure that we would be on time. That is yet another thing that she and I have in common, neither one of us like to be late. Thursday night we are hanging out in our room to celebrate our first week. Neither one of us has classes on Fridays so we will always have a three day weekend.
Hell yeah!
I haven’t seen Liam at all this week. Of course, I have gone out of my way to avoid him and Aiden. I gave Aiden the excuse that I was busy with diving into my classes. He bought it, thank god!

My cell phone starts singing LMAFO “I’m sexy and I know it”, Aiden’s calling. He programmed his own ringtone. He is quite proud of his selection and often calls when we are together just to tell me.

“Hey Ace,” I chirp.

“Hey you! What are you and Hales into tonight?” he asks.

“Well, we were actually just discussing that. How about you?” I want to say how about you and Liam but I don’t want to be obvious. It has been a week since I have seen him.

“Nothing really, Liam and I are just sitting around, thinking about going out for pizza, wanted to see if you and Hales wanted to come with?”

I pull the phone away from my ear, “Hey Hales? Aiden said that he and Liam are going out for pizza and they want to know if we want to come with.”

“Hell yeah, how much time do we have?” she responds as she jumps off her bed and starts rummaging through her closet.

I laugh, “Yeah, we’re in. Where do you want to meet?” I listen to Aiden tell me that he and Liam will pick us up in twenty minutes. I quickly say goodbye so that I can get ready.

“They will be here in twenty minutes to pick us up,” I tell Hailey as I laugh at her throwing clothes around our room.

“Get your ass in gear missy. We only have twenty minutes, make that nineteen. What are you going to wear?”

I shrug my shoulders. I’m a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of girl. I want Liam to want me, but I want him to want the real me. I refuse to pretend to be someone that I am not in order to earn his affections. “What’s wrong with what I have on?” I question her.

Hailey rolls her eyes at me. “Nothing I just think that you should change it up a little is all. My brother is chomping at the bit for you and we just want to give him the little push that he needs.”

“What do you mean he’s chomping at the bit for me?” I question her, hands on my hips.

She sighs, “He has called and texted me more this week than he has in our entire lives. He wanted to make sure that you were okay after Sunday.”

“Wow, okay well I guess that’s a good thing. I told him I wanted more, Hales. Do you think that he will ever be able to give me that? Give anyone that?” I ask her, sadness in my voice.

Hailey nods her head yes. “I do, he’s really into you. Liam is just working though his emotions right now. He has never wanted anyone like this before, or cared how they were doing. This is all new to him. Give him time to adjust to the thought of being in a relationship.” She brings a pair of distressed capris jeans and a spaghetti strap tank over to me. “Put these on with some flip flops. They will show of your curves, but it’s still really casual so it won’t look like you’re trying too hard.”

I don’t respond. Instead I make quick work of changing my clothes then let Hailey touch up my makeup and hair, which I had straitened today. We just finished when we hear a knock at the door.

“Come in!” we both yell at the same time as we giggle.

I pester the shit out of Aiden until he finally breaks down and calls Allison and invites her and Hailey out for pizza with us. Luckily, they agree. Aiden and I are on our way up to their dorm room to pick them up. Aiden knocks on the door and a chorus of “Come in,” and a lot of giggling rings through the door.

Aiden turns the knob and walks in. I am ready to lecture Hales on leaving her door unlocked even though the dorm had security, but Aiden beats me to it. “Ash what the fuck? Why in the hell was your door unlocked and why did you just yell for us to come in without checking who it was first?” he asks her angrily but you could also hear the concern in his voice.

Allison rolls those emerald eyes at him. “Chill out Ace, don’t go getting your feathers all ruffled. You said that you would be here in twenty minutes and it’s been twenty two, so I knew that it was you. Besides, even if it wasn’t you, I knew that you and Liam were on your way.”

“Allison,” Aiden growls.

She walks up to him and gives him a hug. “Relax, Hales and I are fine, nothing is going to happen.” She steps back and turns towards me.

“Hey Liam,” she says with a smile.

“Hey, you guys ready to go? I ask her and Hailey looking back and forth between the two of them. That is really my only option. If I stare at Allison any longer I am going to have huge issues in the land down under that I will have to deal with. She is always beautiful and tonight is no exception. She isn’t dressed up and I think that is honestly what makes her so fucking sexy. She is just Allison, beautiful sexy Allison who wants more. I shake my head to clear my thoughts.

“Yep, we’re good to go,” Hailey says as she links her arm through mine. She leads us out of the dorm and to Aiden’s the car.

Hailey looks behind us then leans into me. “She’s really into you,” she says with a smirk.

I raise an eyebrow in question.

“She is, she just doesn’t want to be another notch. I think the two of you would be great together.” She winks and climbs into the front seat of Aiden’s car.

Aiden and Allison reach the car and see that Hailey has claimed the shotgun position. Aiden just shakes his head and laughs. He is used to her antics. I smile at Allison and shrug my shoulders as to say, “What do you do?”

She laughs and climbs into the backseat. I follow suit and immediately I am aware of how close we are. Her hand rests on the seat just inches from mine. I want to lace our fingers together. Fuck, if the guys could hear me now, I would so be handing over my man card. I cannot understand why I am so consumed by this girl. Well, that’s not true. I can still feel her lips on mine, the taste of her on my tongue, fuck I’m getting hard. I need to think of something else, or this is going to be a long ass night guaranteed to end in a cold shower.

We arrive at the pizza place and luckily it isn’t packed yet. We make our way inside and Hailey tells the hostess that we prefer a booth. She grabs Aiden’s arm and drags him with her, he doesn’t seem to mind. Hailey scoots into the booth and pulls Aiden down beside her which leaves me to sit beside Allison.
God I love my little sister.
I motion for Allison to slide in the booth, she does and as she passes me, her hand brushes mine and I am hard. Just like that. A simple touch from this girl and I have the ability to hammer nails with my cock. I slide in quickly, hoping to hide the evidence of what she does to me.

We all decide to share a pizza and bread sticks. Hailey decides that we need a little get to know you session. She thinks it’s a good idea for everyone to learn more about each other. She smiles sweetly at me. I know that she’s doing this to help me learn more about Allison. I have bugged the shit out her this week as well. Conversation flows well and I actually learn a lot about Allison and she of me, I’m sure. I learn that her major is still undeclared and that she struggled with going to college to begin with. Her favorite color is purple and her favorite flowers are daisies. She loves all music from Nickelback to Taylor Swift. She enjoys scrapbooking, which she said is something that she and her Gran do together. The more that I learn about her, the more I want her. I can’t explain it and at this point and I’m not sure that I want to.

Aiden and I go to the counter to pay. When we make it back to the booth, there are two punks in our seats. The punk beside Allison is leaning his shoulder into hers, obviously flirting with her. The other has his arm on the back of the booth behind Hales. I don’t know the fuckers but I recognize them from around campus. I am channeling all of my inner calm, so that I don’t beat the shit out of these two. Aiden and I step up to the booth and I see the worried look in Hailey’s eyes. She knows I was about to lose my shit.

“Hey hun, are we all set?” Hailey asks Aiden. I’m not sure what she is playing at until Allison speaks up.

“Hey babe, Are you up for some ice cream?” she asks me with the sweetest smile on her face. I can see tension in her eyes.

The two douche bags actually look offended, like the girls are leading them on. They huff as they get up and make their way to the back of the restaurant. I clench my fists at my sides. I want to punch them, just once was all it would take with those two. I see Hailey grab Aiden’s arm and lead him toward the door. He is having pretty much the same reaction as I am. I’m seething mad and turn to follow the two goons when I feel soft hands encircle my arm.