“You’re still cold.” He rubbed my arm. “You ready to go home?”
I shook my head. “Let’s stay a bit longer, please.” I was willing to suffer the growing cold just to spend this time with him because I knew once we went back home, things would change. I needed to change. Just like how he loved that girl from afar, I had to love him from afar too.
He lifted the hem of his black t-shirt. “Get in, then.”
Laughing, I lifted my head. “I haven’t done that since I was fourteen.”
“And your point?” His lips tugged into a smile, his expression the serenity I was used to and nothing to hint at the depressing last couple of hours.
When I was four, Shay had taken me for a walk and we’d both forgotten our jackets. The weather turned colder and to keep me warm, he pushed me under his t-shirt until my head popped up the other side. He didn’t care that I stretched the neckline and held me that way until we reached home. Since then and up until I was fourteen, whenever he’d watch tv or lie on his bed, I’d sneak under his t-shirt to feel close to him. Sometimes listening to his gentle breathing, I’d fall asleep there.
“Get in,” he coaxed.
I knew I was asking for trouble when I nodded and pushed my head under his t-shirt. My cheek grazing his hard muscles on the way up, started a ball of fire that spread over every inch of my skin, combusting between my thighs. I bit my tongue to stifle the groan as my head came out at the neck opening, next to his. Oblivious to my heated body, he laughed and pulled the stretched t-shirt down over our bodies.
“Warmer?” he asked.
You have no idea.“Yes,” I whispered into his neck, slipping my hand over the bare skin of his stomach, praying he didn’t notice how hard my nipples were under the flimsy material of my dress. Or how fast my heart was beating, trying to keep up with my erratic breathing. Regardless, I couldn’t stop the tears, nor could I hide them, and he felt them roll down onto his skin.
“Don’t cry, Blue,” he said hoarsely. “I’ll always be here for you.”
If only I could live without you...
24. When You Say Nothing At All – Ronan Keating
Shay – 30 years; Skye18 years
Three weeks after I told Dad and Skye the news, I knew she still hated me. I’d gone back to base for a week and my return yielded nothing. Her behavior was all new to me. I’d lost the sweet, in my face, ‘what you doing’ Skye, instead, I got a quiet, reserved girl I didn’t know. There was fuck all I could do about it but seethe under my collar every time she ignored me. Meals had become awkward and quiet to the point where Dad had to fill in the silence that Skye and I previously monopolized.
Back at the base, my mood swings were mistaken for wedding jitters. Back here, my gym routine became more aggressive, and I’d pounded the fuck out of the punching bag more than a few times. It had little effect on my need to stay the fuck away from her. My showers got longer and colder. That didn’t help. The times I tried to make conversation, she’d come up with an excuse to leave.
The only person I could speak to was still away, finishing off an assignment. Both Griffin and I had joined the special ops team which meant we’d upgraded to on call twenty-four seven, odd hours if the need arose, more dangerous tasks that were classified and just about upending the lives we knew. Still, it was damn near exciting each time we were sent out.
If all that wasn’t enough to contend with, I had Ryleigh on my case about a wedding my mind was nowhere near to accepting. She wanted the ceremony before her tummy showed which meant in about two weeks’ time, I’d become a married man. Despite her arguments that almost a month had passed, I insisted we wait for Griffin to return home.
“We discussed this, Angel. We’re hosting a small dinner for Shay and Ryleigh tonight,” I heard Dad say as I walked in on him and Skye in the kitchen preparing lunch.
