Finding Freya

They Need To Stop This

A/N: Hello everyone, thank you all for reading this far! I'll be posting the last few chapters soon. After that well, I'm not sure yet but I'll either start rewriting this and editing a few things - I'll keep the original posted but I'll make a new book for the new version - or post the other books I've been working on and finish Finders Keepers or I Love You Cedar Blue.

- Chloe

"Ow," Luke complained, wriggling under my grasp. He was shirtless in my bathroom, sitting on the bench next to the sink. I was currently attempting to clean him up, but he was proving difficult.

"Stop squirming, it will only take longer," I scolded, resting a hand on my hip. I reached forward to dab at one of his bruises with my rag but he caught my hand.

"Maybe if I had some motivation..." he said slyly, his half smile appearing on his face. I was very aware of his bare skin showing and how close we were in this small space, but Luke proved to make things worse by constantly teasing me about things like this.

"Quicker this is done, the quicker we can go back to the guys," I told him, trying to wiggle my hand out of his grasp but he only hung on. Right now, with him sitting down we were almost eye level.

Luke didn't respond, he simply pulled me closer to him now and I couldn't find the urge to fight him. His breath tickled my cheek. "Why did you come for me?"

I bit down on my lip, leaning into him. "How could I not?"

He paused, looking down at my lips. "You tell me," he whispered, pulling me closer and connecting our lips. He locked his arms around my back, pulling me closer and my hands wandered up into his hair.

Luke pulled away, grunting as I leaned too far into him and must have hurt one of his bruises. "Oh gosh, I'm sorry," I gushed.

He chuckled, shaking his head. "Don't be," he said quietly, looking down at the ground.

***

After cleaning him up, Luke and I returned to the group hand-in-hand. Now that we were official, it was okay to hold hands in front of them although I felt extremely awkward doing it. I knew we'd be teased for the first few times, but hopefully everyone would get used to it eventually.

Sam, of course, was the first to notice it, a smile lighting up on his face. "Oh my, oh my, what do we have here? Public affection? In front of us?" He playfully gasped, and Luke punched his arm lightly for that.

"Someone finally popped the question, eh?" Alex asked, raising an eyebrow at Luke.

"It's about time you guys made it official instead of sneaking around in places where we'd catch you kissing," Alex added, wrinkling his nose.

I blushed at that, hiding in Luke's chest. "Shut up, 'tard," Luke lamely defended, holding my back. As much as this situation was awkward, I knew the everyone approved; or at least I hoped they did. Despite the messy scenes I've seen them in, I was grateful to be accepted by them.

"Okay, now being serious here," Zac said, bringing the playful banter to a halt. "What happened today?"

Luke's smile dropped from his face and he walked over to a nearby couch with me. As hard as he tried to make it look like he was fine, there was a slight limp in his walk. "Connor just knows how to get under my skin," he practically growled, his voice turning cold. "He shot me text saying how he had Freya drunk with him and how he was going to..." he trailed off, looking almost shyly over at me before returning his gaze to the boys. "It threw me off, and of course I couldn't leave it with that. In my mind, I thought he actually had her. So I just kind of rushed over there."