Our Own Protection

»Chapter Sixteen«

                       »Paris's POV«

We all sit at the table silently enjoying some beautiful and tasty cupcakes. I take a bite of mine and look over at Ashton to see him smiling cheekily at me. I raise an eyebrow at him. He points to his upper lip. I smile a little and get what he's saying and lick the frosting off of my lip and laugh a little quietly.

I look over at Eudora and notice that the frosting is still on the table and I get an idea. I sneakily dip my finger into the frosting, then I put the frosting from my finger on to Eudora's nose, giggling a little.

She looks over at me with a look of 'really?' with a smile tugging at her lips. I laugh and she quickly does the same thing to my nose then I dip my finger back in the frosting and rub it on her cheek. We both start laughing and she puts frosting on my cheek also.

We look over at Zane, Ashton, and Clarissa to find them all smiling at our childish behavior. Clarissa laughs and dips her finger into the frosting then licks her finger. Eudora and I laugh.

I look over at Ash and notice his face is a bit too clean. He needs some frosting.

I quickly dip my finger in the frosting and rub it across his cheek, then I start laughing.

He smiles at me before narrowing his eyes, causing my laugh to grow.

"You're so salty that you needed some sugar." I say, trying to contain my laughter.

"I could use some different kind of sugar." He says as he wiggles his eyebrows.

"Ok!" I exclaim before dipping my finger in chocolate and rubbing it on his other cheek.

Clarissa busts out laughing and Zane and Eudora laugh with her. I smile proudly at my comeback before giggling.

"Again, not what I meant." Ash says with a laugh escaping his lips. "But, your getting it now." He says and I automatically jump from my chair and run. Because I know what's coming. He's gonna tickle me. Gawd, I hate being tickled.

I hear his footsteps chasing me as I run into the livingroom. Oh no, I'm cornered. I quickly turn around and look at him with wide eyes. "Pleeeaaase, don't do it." I beg but he laughs and picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder. "No!" I squeal as he tosses me onto the couch. Then his hands start torturing me with tickles. "No!" I yell in-between laughs but to no avail.

Then my lower back shoots a blood curdling pain. I can only imagine my face whitening and a look of udder pain coming across my face. Ashton immediately stops what he's doing and freezes. A look of horror on his face.

I try to ignore the pain but I can't. It hurts so bad. My eyes squeeze together and my grip tightens on Ashton's hoodie sleeves.

"Are you ok?" He asks, his voice trembling. "What's wrong?"

"My back." I whimper quietly. "I have some Tylenol in my room." I add.

He nods before picking me up bridal style and carrying me to my room, massaging my lower back on the way. The pain starts subsiding a little.

He gently sits me on my bed and I grab the medicine from the drawer and take it with a water bottle that was in my room. It still hurts.

I look up at Ashton and silently ask him to massage my back again. He sits beside me on the bed and places his hand on the small of my back. I sigh a little as he begins to massage.

"I'm sorry." He whispers to me and I look up at him. "It's not your fault." I whisper back and he looks over at me, our faces inches apart. He glances at my lips then back to my eyes and I pretend that I didn't notice and lay my head on his shoulder as he massages the small of my back. The pain slowly going away.

After a few minutes of us sitting there in silence I stand up and stretch, looking over at him. "Thank you." I say with a smile and he smiles back.

"Paris?" I hear Eudora looking for me and I walk out of my room and see her in the hallway.

"Yes, madame?" I ask as I walk to her and put my hands on her cheeks.

"Would you like to go to the junkyard, m'lady?" She asks with a little laugh.

"I would love to." I say with a smile. I see her gaze look behind me and the look on her face changes. I look behind me to see Ashton leaning in the doorway of my bedroom, looking at us. This looks bad.

She looks back at me and raises her eyebrow a teeny tiny bit. I kiss the tip of her nose before grabbing her wrist and walking outside, changing the subject as we walk to our paradise.

Once we get to the junkyard, we play another game where she spray paints half the wall and I paint the other. This time, we drew our little doggo's with their names on the bottom of them. It looks pretty cool.

We were talking and laughing at our randomness when we heard footsteps. Oh, I wonder who they could be? Oh look! It's Ash and Zane! Who would've thunk it?

"Good afternoon, sirs." Eudora says, looking over at them and I laugh.

"Good afternoon, ma'ams." Zane replies and Ash just smiles.

"What brings you two here? You missed our company?" I ask.

"We got bored." Ashton states, still smiling and I laugh.

Eudora and Zane start talking about our paintings as me and Ash look at each other. He motions with his head a little for me to follow him. I raise an eyebrow and watch his back turn and walk behind the building. Curiosity killed the cat. I follow him behind the building.

I walk up to him and he looks a bit concerned. "How's your back?" He asks.

"It's fine now." I reply.

"I feel bad about it." He said, looking away from my eyes and to his shoes.

"Don't feel bad, Ash. It's been hurting for like two weeks now." I say.

"I know, but still." He says as he reaches out and holds my fingers. I don't think he's realized that he's done this.

"You're so beautiful, Paris." He says, out of the blue.

I feel my cheeks heat up and I try to walk away but he tightens his grip a bit on my fingers and pulls me back to look at him, but I look at the ground.

"Wait, don't go, I wanna look at you."

"Ok, now you sound creepy." I say and he chuckles a bit but I keep my eyes focused on the ground.

"I'm sorry." He whispers but I don't reply out loud but my mind screams, It's ok.

His finger lifts up my chin and just then I realize how close we are. We are literally sharing the same breaths.

"I really wanna kiss you." He whispers.

"Why don't you?" I whisper back.

"I'm scared."

"You're scared of me?" I ask with a smirk.

He smiles a little before saying, "Yes, I am."

"Why?" I ask.

"No one's ever made me think or feel the way you do. It's terrifying. But, I like it." He says as his eyes study my face.

"I'm starting to think I feel the same way." I whisper to him before gently kissing his lips. He kisses back and the kiss begins to deepen as my arms snake around his neck and his arms wrap around my waist.