PERIPHERY | NH |

TWENTY FOUR

Hunter

"I like this shirt."

Niall's index finger traces the row of buttons along the font of the button up shirt that I'm wearing, slipping it in between two of them to tug me closer. Pressing his lips to mine, my hands slide up his torso as we walk backwards until my ass runs into the bathroom counter, the cold marble making me pull away from him with a gasp.

"Well, I hope so. Considering it's your shirt." Leaning up on my tiptoes, I place a quick kiss to his lips and turn around to face the bathroom mirror. "We're going to be late if you keep fucking around."

Resting his chin on my shoulder, Niall slides his arms around my waist as I pick up my mascara. "What if I don't want to go anymore? What if I just want to keep you here all to myself?"

The words get muffled against my skin as he drops his head down, brushing his lips against my neck and making me shiver.

"Niall."

Placing a kiss to my neck, he looks up grinning like the devil he is, meeting my eyes in the mirror.

"Hunter."

Relaxing into his hold, I use a smaller compact in order to be able to see up close so that I don't manage to take my own eye out while I apply the mascara to my lashes, smiling as Niall rests his chin on my shoulder as he watches me as his thumbs draw back and forth across the fabric of the shirt.

"We have to go to Parker's." If he kept it up, my resolve was going to crumble and then we really won't ever make it out of his house. "It'll be fun. Besides, we already had to reschedule twice."

Niall lets out a low laugh as he turns his face into my neck once again, leaving playful kissing along the skin before nipping at my earlobe. "So? What's a third time?"

Turning in his arms, I place a kiss on his cheek. "Come on, we are going."

I laugh as the action of me pulling myself away brings a low whine from him. Rolling my eyes I step back into the bedroom looking for a pair of jeans I brought with me.

Niall comes out of the bathroom running his hand through his brunette hair, bicep flexing all along the way until he disappears inside of his closet to get changed. "Parker better know how much I love him for this."

"I'm sure he does. You said he likes game night anyways." Putting in a pair of gold hoops I smile as he walks out buttoning his jeans as the blue and white vertically striped shirt hangs open over the white undershirt. "It'll be fun."

Shaking his head as he meets my eyes, I watch in a trance as his tongue slips out over his bottom lip. "No. I'm talking about how he better know how much I love him for not cancelling and fucking you senseless in that bathroom instead."

"We're going to, um, we're going to be late." I swear that the sound of my increased pulse is the loudest thing I've ever heard as Niall steps up to me, a smirk on his face that could inspire a thousand songs.

Trying to turn on my heel, Niall reaches for me only to pull me right back into him as I look up at him through my lashes. "This isn't over, bookworm."

As he releases me with a smack on my ass, I force myself out into the hallway in order to put on my shoes, finally ready to get out of the house and to game night with the rest of Niall's close friends.

And away from the sexual tension flooding my judgement.

•

You would think that after all of the people I've worked with and all of the people that I've met that when meeting new people I wouldn't get nervous at all anymore.