MAEVE’S POV
I went upstairs, yawning, leaving the happy couples in the living room. They were so absorbed in their game and each other, pretty sure they didn’t even notice me leave. Besides, it was close to midnight and Brock, Tyrone and Luke had already gone to bed. There was a faint flickering light coming from a door down the end of the hall. Okay, so maybe they weren’t all asleep.
I crept past everyone else’s doors and pushed his open, quietly in case he actually was asleep. But no, he was sitting up in bed on his phone, the TV on quietly in the background. He looked up as I came in and smiled, a little confused.
“The couples are getting mooshy,” I said, leaning against the doorway. “Oh and I can’t sleep, still a little freaked out.” He laughed, patting the mattress beside him and lifting up the covers. I smile gratefully and slid into the bed, letting the cover fall back over me.
“What are you doing up?” I looked up at him, turning over onto my side so I could see him properly.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged, putting his phone down and looking down at me. “Just thinking.”
“About what?”
“Everything,” he sighed, leaning back. “Just about the guys, and this record thing, and Mitchel and Taylah, and Georgia and Christian.”
“Do I get a mention?” I asked jokingly.
“Yeah, you’re in there somewhere,” he smiled warmly, ruffling his curls. “You’re definitely in there.”
I rolled back onto my bag so I could smile without him seeing, biting my lip to stop myself from grinning too widely. I looked to the TV seeing what was on, and apparently it was some old crime show from a billion years ago.
“Should I go?” I asked, feeling a little awkward.
“No,” he said quickly. “I – um, I like your company. It’s nicer than being up all night alone.” I nodded my agreement and turned back over, ending up a little closer to him than I’d started. There were only a couple of inches between us.
I tried to stifle a yawn but was unsuccessful and probably looked like some kind of demented animal, but hey it was half dark. Great, last thing I needed was to go and fall asleep in his bed.
“You’re cool to sleep here,” he said, reading my mind. “I mean, if you wanted to.”
“Well, Georgia and Taylah do take up the whole bed,” I laughed, throwing caution to the wind and resting my head on his stomach. His arm fell comfortably around me and I was so comfortable I thought there was every chance I actually would fall asleep right then and there.
“This is nice,” I said absently, looking up to find him looking down at me. By the look on his face, he was having some kind of internal fight with himself. He glanced down at my lips and looked away just as quickly. “You can do it. I mean, if you wanted to.” He chuckled and leant down, touching his lips lightly to mine.
I twisted around to make it easier, so that our chests were against each other. I kissed him again and his arms came around to rest on the small of my back, warm and firm. The kiss deepened, his tongue running along my bottom lip, asking to be let in.
He flipped us over so I was lying on my back and he was hovering over me. My hands went to his hair, his curls running between my fingers. His lips met my jaw, my neck, back to my lips. One of my hands travelled down the length of his toned back, slipping up under his t-shirt to rest on his warm skin.
“Hey Luke do you want to – Holy shit!” Luke moved off my so fast I would have missed it had I blinked. Christian was standing in the doorway, his mouth opening and closing with the words he couldn’t get out. “I um – okay – well…”
I jumped up off the bed, turning between Luke and Christian trying to figure out what to say. I ended up just shaking my head and hurrying out, brushing past Christian and going back up the hall to Taylah’s room. Thankfully they weren’t in there yet so I could fall face first onto the bed without being bothered.
About a minute later, I heard Christian and Taylah outside. Pretty sure Christian was telling them not to come up yet. Then her footsteps disappeared and the door opened.
“Want to talk?” he asked. I stayed silent. “Grunt once for yes, twice for no.” Reluctantly I grunted once. He sat on the edge of the bed and I rolled over onto my back. I was doing way too much of this turning and flipping and rolling stuff for one night. “Okay, what the hell?”
“Whatever do you mean?” I asked sarcastically.
“You like him, I know you do,” he pressed. “And it looked like you guys were having fun. Why’d you run out?”
“I freaked okay,” I threw my hands over my face. “I don’t do that kind of thing and it’s Luke and we just got caught in the moment and I didn’t know what to do.”
“Here’s what you do,” he said seriously. “Right now, you’re going to get some beauty rest, then tomorrow morning you’ll wake up, go downstairs and make him remember why he was sucking your face in the first place.”
I whacked him on the knee but couldn’t help laughing.
“Right, now is the time to pretend you’re asleep before the others come up,” he leant down and kissed me on the forehead before getting up and walking out. I crawled under the covers and closed my eyes, just hearing the girls come in before I actually did go to sleep.
The whole getting some sleep before I had to see Luke again idea was actually really good, because I don’t think I could have done anything without the full function of my brain. I made sure I was the last one to ‘wake up’ giving myself the opportunity to take some deep breaths and get up the nerve to go downstairs.
When I did, everyone was at the table eating cereal. Christian smiled at me encouragingly and jumped up to get me a bowl. Luke walked over to the sink to clean his bowl.
“Morning,” I said cheerfully, albeit a little awkwardly.
“Yeah morning,” he said icily. To say I was surprised is an understatement; I was kind of just standing there staring at him. “Was there something else you wanted?”
“I uh – No,” I managed to get out, managing to make my voice even somehow. “Don’t worry about that Christian, I’m heading home anyway. I’ll talk to you guys later.” I grabbed my phone from the bench and went to walk out.
“I’ll walk you out,” Christian offered. Please don’t. Just let me leave with my dignity. “Maeve, he’s just a little- ”
“You heard him Christian,” I cut him off, opening the door. “I don’t know if he regrets it or what, but whatever it is, there’s not going to be a repeat. I’ll see you later, alright.”
“Yeah, alright.”
