Living In The Shallows (UK Crush #1)

Chapter Forty-Three

"I've been alone for so long, looking out for myself. Now, suddenly, I have a fairy godmother who wants to step in and take care of me, take care of everything, make my life, for the first time, only about the music, something I've wished for forever, and all I have to do is relinquish control, all I have to do is let him take care of me. Remember when I said you were right to call me a coward?"

He closed his eyes and nodded, a little line of pain appearing between his eyebrows.

I stroked his face and rubbed the line away with my thumb, waiting until he opened his eyes before continuing.

"So this is me, continuing to try to grow and be brave and not be a coward, okay? The thought of being stranded in London with little money and no way home is scary, even if it is unrealistic."

"Very unrealistic," Teddy said softly with a smile. "Any of the boys would charter a jet like that and be there in a heartbeat for the privilege of taking you back to LA and you know it."

I smiled. "That's true. I can just see Ronan riding through the streets of London on a horse, like a knight to the rescue of a damsel in distress. He is such a darling," I sighed.

"That he is," Teddy agreed.

"Can I ask something now?" Teddy asked, pulling me in, tucking my head under his chin.

"Mmm?" I was beyond happy. The champagne, the watch, the necklace, flying first class, these things were fabulous, but beyond these material things, I was with the person I loved most in the world, might as well admit it, my future was rosy, at least for the next six months, my life was wonderful, no other word for it.

"So here's the thing." He was tap dancing around something, I could tell, something he was embarrassed about, something he really wanted. "We're on a plane." I waited for him to continue, but I realized after a couple of minutes that he wasn't going to.

"Yes," I offered.

"It's pretty public," he said.

"Yes," I said again, since it seemed to work so well last time.

"There's no chance of anyone having sex here, you'd have to agree, right?"

I untucked my head from under his chin and looked into his eyes. Where on earth was he going with this?

"Yes, I would say it would be pretty impossible to have sex here," I agreed.

"Right, yes, impossible," he blinked. "Well, here's what I was thinking."

Ah, now we were getting to it. "We've kissed before, and it was marvelous, wasn't it? I mean, really a fantastic experience, wouldn't you agree? Hmm?" He rubbed noses with me, a very intimate and at the same time friendly gesture.

"Yes, I would definitely agree," I said, smiling at him. "It was wonderful, probably one of the best hours of my life."

"I think it was one of the best hours of my life too!" Teddy said with a gigantic smile, dimples on huge display. "So glad to know you feel that way as well. Wow. You can't imagine how happy that makes me.

"Anyway, what I was thinking was, since we've already done it, and there's no chance of things going any farther, and the plane is nice and dark, obviously they're wanting us to be sleeping right now so no one is going to be coming by to bother us, maybe we could kiss a little bit more, now." He touched my lip again, with his forefinger this time, producing similar results, just a little zingy feeling this time, in my stomach.

He looked at me, biting his lower lip. "I've thought of nothing but kissing you for days, Birdie, I swear. And kissing you at the party only made me want to kiss you more. I'm not trying to put pressure on you for sex, I swear I'm not going to put pressure on you after we get to London, I swear I meant what I said about never doing that, I swear it, but I feel like if I don't kiss you soon I'm just going to die.