“You’re – you’re engaged?” He ran his hands through his thick hair. “And you were going to tell me this when?”
“I wasn’t going to.” She replied.
“Oh, that’s great.” Nick let out a frustrated breath of air. “Are you trying to get me back for what I did to you?”
“God, would you get over yourself?” She raised her voice slightly. “I made a mistake, okay? I’m obviously no where near perfect. I wasn’t going to tell you because I’m a little stuck in this position and I...”
“You’re stuck?” Nick looked at her incredulously. His blood pressure was rising, and he didn’t know if that was because he was still incredibly turned on or if he was angry. Probably a little of both, all mixed up and waiting to explode.
“My father wants me to marry him. I didn’t have anyone in my life that was serious for about seven years after I last saw you. So my father just wants be to me happy. My father loves him.”
“So you’re going to let your dad dictate how you’re going to spend the rest of you life?”
“No,” She shook her head. “No, I’m not. Not anymore. It’s more complicated than that. I came here to clear my head and it’s clear. I know what I don’t want now. And that's him.”
“Do you know what you do want?”
Nick tried to track her cloudy thoughts as they rolled past her eyes. “I don’t know. It’s a little hard to tell right now. Do you?”
Yes. “No.”
“I met him when I was interning for Belmont East. He's on one of ABC's soap operas."
“A soap actor.” Nick scoffed.
“Why yes, he is. Do you have a problem with that, Mr. Teen Beat?” She raised her eyebrow at him.
Nick rolled his eyes. “I just thought you would want a guy with more depth than that.”
“Um – I want to be one of those ‘depth-less’ actors.” She countered. “And you don’t even know him; you can’t judge him.”
“No, but I already know you. And now I want to know the every day you again.”
Nick propped himself up against the tree with one hand, the other one resting comfortably on her hip. He felt her straightened up against his touch. He dared himself to kiss her again.
“Why do you keep doing that?” She whispered, a breath caught in her throat.
“Do what?” Nick asked, keeping an eye on her mouth.
“I get my head straight, and then you get close to me.”
“And what happens then?”
“I forget what the hell I was doing.”
They stared at each other, a contest to see who would make the next move. Nick finally went first, brushing his nose with hers. “What did you see in this guy?”
“I don’t know anymore.” She whispered back as Nick felt her stroke his cheek with her index finger. It rested on his chin, and when he looked into her eyes, he saw the same confused teenager he was inseparable with so long ago. That look on her face killed him every time. When her parents split up, when her mom never came back, when both parents remarried, and when he let her down. That was swelling up in eyes right now, and she didn’t have to say a word. He knew what she meant, no matter how shrouded in confusion and complications it was.
“I don’t want to hurt you.” She told him. “I just want you out of my head.”
Nick took a moment to himself to think this opportunity over. On the logical side, he didn’t know anything about Bree’s love life up until then. She could’ve been with a bunch of guys, sexual and not, and he wouldn’t have any idea. He could be just another guy caught in the moment with her and be disposed of in a couple of months.
No, that wasn’t her. He would bet that against anything.
She was careful to a fault. She was never the promiscuous type. Not after she saw how love could go down. Thinking back to AJ’s question about Nick being her first, he reconsidered his answer. Maybe he had been – but did that really matter? When you loved someone like they had loved each other as friends, was it so wrong that they had been together and she was convinced she wanted more? She had just told him that last time in Tampa that she thought she was in love with him. Nick backed up his train of thought when one phrase jumped out: thought she was.
Nick looked at her again, contemplating. She stared right back, prompting a thought or a word to come out of his mouth. He licked his lips and searched the non-logical side of things.
The non-logical side of things was that Bree was standing in front of him, right now. They had already gone farther than he imagined tonight. This wasn’t even in his realm of possibility when he decided to come and see her. Hell, he didn’t even know if it’s what he wanted. Nick thought about what would happen if he left her without exploring what he had been experiencing in his head lately. And hadn’t she been going through the same thing? It was too strange for Nick to ignore. He pictured a deck of cards before him, and the bright hand of fate dealing out a hand to him. He could pick this hand up and play it, or he could walk away from the table and be consumed with even more ‘what ifs’ for the time to come.
Nick had made up his mind. Nonsense had won.
“What did you just say?” Nick asked her, his voice hoarse.
“I said I just want you out of my head.” She repeated.
“I can take care of that.”
And just like they had never stopped, Nick snatched her up in his arms and melded his mouth with Bree’s. He heard a small sigh escape her lips, and he was a man long gone. He didn’t waste any time with seduction; that dance had already been done. He became dizzy with lust for her as she unbuckled his belt and followed with the buttons on his jeans. Nick cursed himself; of all the pairs of jeans he had to wear that day, the ones with buttons instead of a zipper made their hurried pace slow, but only for a minute. Nick took the impediment to gaze into her eyes, savoring this moment and whatever it was worth. He didn’t give a damn about meaning. That would be sorted out later.
He lifted one leg up around his waist and sped his hand up her thigh. Everything around him became fuzzy; he yanked off her panties underneath her dress and thrust himself into her. Nick felt her bury her mouth into his neck so as not to let out a sound; each motion he made into her made the crook of his neck sticky from her lip gloss. She moved her mouth up against her ear, and Nick shivered when he heard her rapid breathing. His paced quickened and they locked mouths again. She accidentally bit the inside of his lip, and although Nick tasted a little bit of his blood, he could care less. Their bodies began to dampen and he could feel her began to twitch from the same pleasure he was experiencing. Every movement between them was an attempt at trying to bleed out the misplaced desire for the other one. Their bodies were in sync and time seemed to completely dissipate all together. It was reckless, it was irresponsible, and it was playing with fire. Neither Nick nor the woman he was holding gave a thought to those circumstances; Nick felt an intense warm tingle travel up his spine and she finally let loose a groan of pleasure. In a sweaty blur they collapsed onto the dewy grass.
Nick’s heavy breathing match the thudding of her heart he could feel against his breast bone. He smoothed out her hair as she looked up at him and gave a sweet smile. He reflected it as he gently rolled off of her but kept his palm against her stomach. She looked over at him, still trying to catch her breath. Nick’s mind was racing; did that really just happen? Something was coming over him, but he couldn’t find a name for it inside his mind. His eyes wandered over her and their environment that was finally coming back into focus.
She put her hand to her forehead and sat up slowly. Leaning back on his palms, Nick couldn’t help but lean over and attempt to place a soft, gentle kiss on her cheek. She turned her head at the moment Nick’s lips would’ve made contact, and they both froze. Looking at one another, dead in the eye, it was like the harsh light of morning.
“Did we just mess everything up?” She asked earnestly.
“I don’t know.” Nick replied. “I don’t know at all.”
Chapter End Notes:
Sorry this took so long to update. I've been way too busy but I will try to update as much as possible. I love to write this story regardless, so I won't leave it hanging for very long. Originally I was going to make it a short story but now I've got the ideas flowing...I don't know if I should cut this one off and pick it up with another story. Something to think about :) This update itself is short, but I promise there will be more to come in the next week...
