Lightweight

Chapter Twenty-Two

*Warning: Mature Content*

The breeze from the nearby ocean ripped against Annie's skin chilling her to the bone, still soaked from the beer. Her leather jacket didn't do much warmth wise but she hugged it against her skin anyways and focused on the sidewalk and the way the sand from the beach had made its way onto the cement and crunched under Annie's black Vans as she walked.

"Here," Niall said and shrugged out of his jacket and draped it over Annie's shivering form. It was already warm from having been on Niall all night and Annie snuggled her face into the side, smelling Niall's scent and inhaling deeply the manly scent of his cologne that she had become to love so much.

"Thanks," Annie managed to say; even with Niall she was still unable to accept help comfortably.

"Anytime," Niall replied and continued to walk back to the hotel, hand in hand with Annie.

Annie could feel the raw and tender skin of Niall's knuckles as she walked in time with him and her heart began to race double time. Her mind wandered back to the foreign feeling that had ripped through her earlier. Seeing Niall look so fierce and intimidating stirred something with Annie and turned her on even more. His cute, care-free persona had been completely wiped away and replaced with a polar opposite that excited Annie for reasons unknown to her. She looked up at his face now and tried to picture it again but it just didn't add up. She couldn't get the features of his face just right and the darkness and fierceness in his eyes just wasn't there anymore. Only when Niall had been so passionately hell bent on protecting Annie could he summon that part of him.

"You know," Annie began to say innocently, "I honestly didn't think you had it in you."

"What?" Niall laughed, his white teeth becoming apparent with his smile in the darkness they were surrounded by as they made their way down the sidewalk.

"I didn't think you could beat the crap out of somebody the way you did. It was kinda hot," Annie admitted with a shrug.

"You're not the only one who can throw a punch," Niall laughed again and Annie elbowed him playfully in the stomach, hitting the spot where Viper had landed the hard punch on him earlier and Niall winced in pain.

"Oh, Niall. Fuck, I'm so sorry," Annie gushed and reached her hands out to him in an effort to make the pain go away, quickly realizing that there was nothing she could do.

"Don't worry about me," he smiled through the pain, "You thought it was hot, did you?"

"Don't get cocky," Annie scoffed at his cheeky smirk. She couldn't help but notice the way his dimples shown when he smiled like that.

"Oh, that's exactly what I'm gonna get," Niall laughed and poked Annie's sides.

"I'm increasingly becoming turned off," Annie joked, even though that was the exact opposite of what was happening.

Niall stopped walking and stood face to face with Annie, having to bend down just a bit to equal her height. "Annie I didn't do what I did to impress you. I did it because I love you and because I promised you that I would never let anything hurt you. I was keeping my word," Niall said.

There was that love word again. Niall had not brought it up since the first time he had said it and Annie was perfectly fine with that. It didn't have the same traumatizing effect that it had when it was initially uttered but she still wasn't completely comfortable with it.

"I know," Annie replied and rubbed her thumb on the back of Niall's hand while she held it.

"But, like, if it turns you on in the process I'm totally cool with that," Niall smiled down at her, biting his bottom lip and looking cute as ever.