Best Friends With Benefits

Chapter Thirty

Gale stood in front of me with a black eye and tousled hair with sweat beads on his forehead, his nose was bleeding also. I was right, Aiden went for him and all I could think about was Gale and caring for him, Aiden had no right to attack an innocent defender of mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he tightly squeezed his around my waist. I led him inside without a word and sat him down onto a stool in the kitchen and took a medical kit from one of the cupboards. My brothers were always having injuries so a first aid kit was essential.

"What happened? Was this Aiden?" I sat onto the stool next to him and dampened a cotton pad to press onto his bloody nose, he winced at my touch.

"He got mad because I admitted that I kissed you" His voice was strong but I could see him trying not to show that the pain ached at him.

"Is that it? He flipped out over that?" I was finished with his nose and I rested a tender touch to his eye and caught his eyes glistening at me. Him being vulnerable was sexy. 

"I also told him that he ruined your relationship and that..." His voice faded out when our gaze held and I couldn't figure out the end of the sentence.

"That?" I urged him on and he swallowed before continuing.

"I also told him that I wanted to be with you" I leant back with surprise and he looked to the floor in embarrassment, my breaths were quickening and I had to calm myself to stop my hands from shaking.  Even though he was beaten, battered and bruised, he was gorgeous. I placed my index finger onto his chin and lifted his head to mine where I leant in and kissed him gently on the lips. He kissed me back and I put down the medical kit to position my hand into his hair and he did the same to me, his hand was large and guided my head into place to fit into his lips better. He parted his mouth allowing me to part mine also where we deepened the kiss, even the kiss in the corridor wasn't as intimae as this. This time there was a genuine connection and his lips felt almost desperate for more. When we parted I stood to put away the kit but he grabbed my wrist and I turned to see him smirking at me.

Gale stood and planted several kisses onto my neck which was very satisfying and caused a soft moan to escape, his body stiffened at the sound and he paused. He looked into my eyes and I knew what he was thinking so with once swift motion I led him slowly up the stairs and into my room. He carefully laid down onto my bed and I climbed on top of him being careful to not out any weight onto his bruised ribs and began to kiss again. With a hand that wasn't so bruised he sat up and slipped off his shirt, his abs were glowing with sweat and very defined, not as defined as Aiden's but his biceps were larger. I slipped off my own shirt and carried on the kiss, we rolled so that he was now on top of me and I giggled as he trailed kisses downwards from my neck, he knew what he was doing. When he reached my belly button he winced again and I sat up to cup his face in my hands.

"Maybe we shouldn't, you're in a pretty bad way" I smiled at him and he forced one in return, I knew it was not what he wanted but he agreed and we lay there in each other's arms. Bruises were forming by the minute on his ribs showing the full extent of Aiden's actions. This was the first step, Gale had publicly admitted that he wanted to be with me and at this moment in time, laying in Gale's arms I was definitely going to take him up on that offer.

"So, what do you say?" Gale chuckled from underneath me and I lifted my head to see his face.

"Say to what?"

"Being my girlfriend" Gale smiled at me and I smiled back at him, his smiles were infectious.

"Um" I looked away for a moment to gather my thoughts before I answered.

"Oh no, you hesitated" He was joking with me but there was doubt in his voice.

"I do! But... just let me sort things out with Aiden first, I don't want to lose him" Gale did understand, I knew he didn't want me to have contact with Aiden, not since he kissed me at lunch but I knew Aiden all my life, he was my best friend and I wasn't going to let him go for anyone. The truth was that I needed to clear the feelings between Aiden and I because if I didn't, I knew that all I would feel would be guilt and that wasn't fair for Gale.

"That's cool... just don't leave me hanging" Gale smiled again and I couldn't help but kiss him on the lips once more.

"You need to shave" His stubble was prickling my lips as we kissed and it was a weird feeling to be honest.

"You don't like the feeling of a true man?" He was grinning and he pressed his lips hard onto mine.

"Ouch!" I complained when he released me and I ran my finger over the tiny hairs.

"You're beautiful" Great, compliments. I flashed him an embarrassed smile and he laughed. "What? You are!" I pressed my hand onto his ribs in disapproval. "Ouch!"

"No compliments!" I demanded and rested my head onto his chest once more feeling it rise and fall with his breaths. Just as I was almost fully relaxed the front door slammed shut shaking the whole house and a wild giggling and chattering filled the silence. It was a girl and I could hear... Charlie. The girl was Alex, now I recognised that laugh. When Gale was just about to question I shoved my hand over his mouth and he groaned with pain from his nose and I mouthed 'Sorry!'. Sliding my t-shirt on I crept to the crack of my open door pushing my ear against it to hear the commotion downstairs. When I was in position, a hand snaked around my waist and I wanted to giggle but put a finger to my lips. I whispered the words 'my brother and Alex' and Gale's eyes widened, he obviously didn't know about their relationship.

I could hear laughing and it sounded that their location was the sofa, gross. If I heard anything other than talking and giggling I was going to fly out of my room faster than they would ever expect. They didn't know I was in the house and I planned to keep it that way as long as I could simply because I didn't want them to know I was with Gale, not while I was sorting things out with Aiden still. Gale continued to plant kisses on my neck while we were still perched at the door and I was resting the urge to groan so instead I turned to face him and met his lips with mine. The warmth was intoxicating and beyond addictive and I started placing kisses onto his neck which had the same effect as it did on me. I had no idea why we were turning each other on near the door where I was trying to keep our cover but it was too irresistible to stop.

Gale and I were getting too carried away, I hadn't realised that I had begun to climb on top of him once more and he was gripping my hips above his own until he leaned back and bumped into my dresser. A can of hairspray fell over making a heart stopping 'chink' as it fell overand a 'thud'  to the ground. I froze in my space only millimetres from Gale's face as the hairspray came to rest by Gales face. The laughing below us had stopped and I could hear movement. In a panic, I hauled Gale up and sent him into the bathroom to hide and threw myself onto my bed in the final seconds that remained before my brother Charlie, entered my room.

"Peyton?" In a quick thought I slowly raised my head from my position and continued to pass off that I had been asleep.

"Oh, hi Charlie, I didn't know you were back, I was just taking a nap so didn't hear you come in" I was sugar-coating it but he seemed to buy it, his expression was mortified but relieved since he didn't know that I knew that Alex was here. I was more than tempted to 'go and get a drink' so that he and Alex would be on the spot to explain why they were here, I would have, if Gale wasn't hiding in the bathroom so instead I tried my best to hurry my brother out. "Well, I would like to continue my nap so can you leave?" He nodded and closed the door behind him. I sighed with relief and whispered for Gale to come out, Gale's hair was messy and in a styled quiff as if he had just walked out of an eighties movie and he leant onto the bed reaching for a kiss. Just as I was closing the distance of the kiss my brother decided to enter once more.

"Peyton, I was..." He stood in the doorway with an expression showing confusion, anger and shock all in one. I reflected the same emotion back to him. Gale stood and just stared at my brother who hadn't moved yet. Charlie had a smile tugging at the edges of his lips. "I guess, I'll leave you two" He closed the door again and I knew I would never hear the end of this.