Chapter Three
Haley’s eyes flittered open but they quickly closed again when the bright sunshine coming in through the window hit them. She tentatively opened them again, letting them adjust to the light before opening them fully. Rubbing a hand over her face, she suddenly seemed to notice that she wasn’t in her own bedroom and letting her gaze fall slightly, she saw a hand resting just underneath her breasts which were just barely covered by a thin white sheet. Lifting it up slightly, she saw that she was completely naked beneath it, something she had already guessed to be the case.
Her mind was foggy with sleep and… something else but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it. In that moment all she felt was a rising sense of panic and as carefully as she could, she shifted and turned over so she could see who she was sharing a bed with. A quiet gasp left her throat when she saw her best friend lying next to her and suddenly visions of exactly what had taken place the night before played through her mind like a movie. She felt her entire body heat up with a mixture of arousal and embarrassment as she remembered the intense kisses and scorching passion of their lovemaking.
When he moved a moment later, his arm searching for her in his sleep, she held her breath, not wanting to wake him up. For the moment she was content to watch him sleep, savouring the intimate details of what had taken place knowing that all too soon they would have to deal with the reality of the situation.
As the minutes ticked by, Haley didn’t know what to do. A part of her strongly considered getting up and escaping to the sanctuary of her own room but, deep down, she knew that would probably make things worse. Whatever happened, they needed to discuss what they had done and take it from there. The one thing she knew for a fact was that she wasn’t prepared to lose him. He meant too much to her and she didn’t know what she would do without him in her life.
Taking advantage of his sleeping state, she drank him in; her eyes roaming all over his beautiful, handsome face, and strong muscled arms. She felt herself blush as she recalled the way her hands had gripped his biceps in the throes of passion, how hot his skin had felt sliding against hers as he moved above her… inside her.
Despite not wanting to wake him up, she wanted to touch him one last time and as gently and softly as she could, she trailed her fingers up his arm, letting them slide up his shoulder before lightly running them through his mussed hair.
“Hi.”
Hearing his husky voice had her quickly moving her hand away and she felt embarrassed at having been caught. “Uh… hi,” she whispered, her eyes lowering and focusing on the sheet.
“How long have you been awake?” Nathan asked as he propped himself up on his elbow and rested his head in his hand.
“Not long.”
They both tried to think of something to say to break the awkward silence that seemed to be consuming them but nothing seemed to come to mind for either of them.
“Do you have any… um… plans today?” Haley asked him a few minutes later, letting her eyes flicker to his before once again looking away.
Shaking his head, he replied, “No. There’s no practice today so I thought I’d just hang around the apartment and relax. Maybe call Luke and see how things are back home. How ‘bout you?”
“No, no plans. I need to do laundry,” she said and she blushed when she remembered telling him that last night while he was undressing her.
Nathan obviously remembered it too because his lips curled up into a smirk and his eyes twinkled mischievously. “Yeah… I know.”
Again they lapsed into silence, each of them knowing they needed to discuss what they had done last night but neither knowing how to start that conversation.
“I guess we need to tal—”
“We’d better get up,” Haley interrupted, clutching the sheet tightly to her chest and slowly edging away from him. The last thing she wanted to hear was him telling her it had been a drunken mistaken. Before she could get too far though, he had grabbed her wrist and stilled her movements.
“Hales, we need to talk. What happened last night… we just can’t ignore it and—”
This time Nathan was interrupted by the phone ringing and he inwardly groaned. He debated whether or not to ignore it but he knew she wouldn’t so, reluctantly, he turned and picked up the phone from his nightstand, pressing the talk button.
“Hello?... Hey… yeah, yeah she’s here.” Covering the receiver with the palm of his hand, he held it out to Haley. “It’s Brooke.”
Making sure the sheet was secure, she gave him a crooked smile before taking the phone from him, trying to ignore the electrical charge she felt as their fingers brushed. “H-Hey, Brookie, what’s up? … Um… sure… that sounds good … What time? … Okay, I’ll see you then. Bye.” Handing the phone back to him, she then made to get up out of bed when his voice stopped her.
“What’s going on?”
Keeping her back to him, she replied, “Brooke’s asked me to go shopping with her and—”
“And you said yes. Yeah, I heard. Avoiding me isn’t going to help, Haley, you know that.”
“I-I’m not avoiding you,” she said weakly, knowing it was exactly what she was doing but wanting to keep the pretence up, she added, “If I’d wanted to avoid you I could’ve snuck out of here while you were still asleep. Look, I’ll only be gone a few hours and then we can talk.”
“Right. I’ll remind you of that when you call me later to tell me you’re spending the night at her place.” Throwing the sheet back, he swung his legs over the side of the bed and leaned forward to grab his boxers off the floor. Pulling them on, he got up and walked towards the door. He was just about to go through it when he turned and faced her. “And, just so you know, I wasn’t asleep,” he told her before leaving and the last thing she heard was the sound of the bathroom door slamming shut, causing her to wince.
With the sheet wrapped around her, she bent down and retrieved her discarded clothing and then quickly made her way back to her own room where she quickly pulled them on. Going into the kitchen, she opened up one of the cabinets and removed a bottle of aspirin. Taking out two tablets, she put the bottle back before going over to fridge and grabbing a bottle of water so she could wash down the pills, hoping they’d work their magic and that the pounding in her head would soon cease.
The last thing she felt like doing was traipsing around the shops with her sister but right now she needed to think and she couldn’t do that while being in the same place as Nathan. She needed some space to get her head together. The only problem was that her sister was very perceptive and was bound to pick up on her mood and she didn’t want to discuss things with her when she hadn’t had a chance to digest what had happened herself.
Hearing the shower come on, Haley knew she had a while before she’d be getting in there so she decided to make a start on her laundry and so going back into her room, she grabbed her hamper and carried it out to the utility room where she began sorting out her clothes. Deciding to do her coloureds first, she found that there was still plenty of room in the washing machine so she quickly headed to Nathan’s room and grabbed the coloured items from his own hamper and stuck them in with her stuff. Closing the machine door, she added the detergent and fabric softener before pressing the necessary buttons and switching it on.
While she continued to wait for the bathroom to become free, she tidied up the living room, disposing of the empty wine and vodka bottles and washing up the shot glasses. As she did so, she couldn’t help wondering how much of what had taken place last night was due to the alcohol and how much was due to them wanting to experience being together. She would be lying if she said she hadn’t noticed the occasions where their gazes had lingered on each other for a split-second longer than they should have done or that she hadn’t felt sparks of electricity shooting up her body when their bodies had brushed together, no matter how innocent the contact.
Satisfied that the kitchen and living room were tidy, she made her way towards her bedroom just as the bathroom door opened and she bumped into him as he was exiting the steam-filled room.
“S-Sorry,” she muttered, not failing to notice how gorgeous he looked with just a towel wrapped around his waist and droplets of water glistening on his chest.
“It’s okay. The bathroom’s all yours,” he told her as he made to walk away. He stopped in his tracks when he felt her small fingers wrap around his wrist.
“Nathan, I—”
“It’s okay, Haley. You should get ready.”
“I promise I’ll only be gone a few hours and as soon as I get back we can talk about what happened.”
“There’s no rush so don’t worry.” He tried to keep his tone light but in truth, it was killing him. All he wanted to do was crush her to him and kiss her senseless, making sure she knew just how he felt about her… how he’d always felt about her.
Haley nodded. “Um… is there anything you want me to pick up for you while I’m out?”
Turning to look at her, he saw the worry etched on her face and he couldn’t help feeling bad. Unconsciously, he reached out a hand and cupped her cheek with it. “No, but thanks for asking. I, uh, forgot to ask before but how’s your head?”
She smiled and couldn’t help leaning in to his touch. “Pounding but I’ve taken a couple of aspirin so hopefully they’ll kick in soon. How’s yours?”
“About the same. I’ll take a couple after I’ve gotten dressed. Speaking of, you’d better get ready. You know how much Brooke hates being kept waiting,” he said teasingly as he let his hand fall away.
“Uh huh. If she gets here before I’m done will you please be nice?”
“I’m always nice.”
“Okaaay. I’ll see you in a few. Oh, before I forget, I’ve put a load of laundry on and since I didn’t have that many coloureds, I put some of yours in. Hope that’s okay?”
He nodded. “Of course, I’m not about to bitch at the fact that someone else is doing my laundry.”
“Hmm, I thought not. Anyway, when they’re done, would you mind sticking them in the dryer and then putting in the whites? Everything’s in the utility room.”
“Sure, no problem.”
“Thanks, Nathan.” Giving him one last smile, she quickly stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her, breathing a huge sigh of relief that the awkwardness had lessened if only slightly. It was definitely better than nothing, she thought to herself as she stripped off her clothing and stepped into the shower.
* * * * *
“What is with you?” Brooke Jagielski asked her sister as they waited for their coffees and cakes. They had been shopping for the past couple of hours when she had decided she needed some fortification before they continued. “You’ve hardly said a word all morning. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t it be? I guess I’m just tired.”
“Didn’t get much sleep, huh?” Seeing the blush that crept onto her face, she knew that something was definitely up.
“Something like that,” Haley whispered, sighing gratefully when their waiter arrived at their table. After thanking him, she picked up her fork and dug into the rich chocolate indulgence cake she had ordered, savouring each delicious mouthful.
“Woah, slow down,” Brooke teased. “You’ll give yourself indigestion. Didn’t you have any breakfast this morning?”
Haley shook her head. “No, I didn’t have time.”
“Hmm, Pretty Boy hogging the bathroom as usual, huh?”
She couldn’t help laughing. Her sister and best friend had never really gotten on well together and only tolerated each other for her sake which she was grateful for. However, she didn’t feel up to talking about Nathan, not when things had suddenly twisted out of control.
After swallowing a bite of her apple cinnamon cake, Brooke asked, “So what did you get up to last night?”
The question threw Haley and she choked on a crumb which had gone down the wrong way. After coughing and clearing her throat, she picked up her coffee cup and quickly took a sip of the hot liquid. “Sorry,” she squeaked a moment later when her breathing was back under control.
“Seriously, Hales, what is with you? You’re definitely not acting like your usual self.”
“I-I told you, I’m just tired. This week has been long and exhausting and—”
“Uh huh,” she interrupted. “Why don’t I believe you?”
“It’s not my fault if you don’t believe me,” Haley told her, forcing herself to keep her big sister’s gaze.
“You know you can tell me anything and whatever you say stays between us, right?”
Haley felt the sting of tears prickling behind her eyelids and she squeezed them shut in an attempt to stave them off. Nodding at the brunette’s question, she finally opened her eyes and looked at her. “I-I think I’ve done something really stupid, Brooke. In fact, I know I have.”
Pushing her uneaten cake to one side, Brooke leaned forward and took her sibling’s hand in hers and gave it a reassuring squeeze. “I’m sure whatever it is isn’t as bad as you think and—”
“I slept with Nathan,” she blurted out in a whisper and she saw the other woman’s mouth drop open.
“Y-You mean slept as in just shared a bed or slept as in… did the nasty?”
Haley scrunched her face up at her sister’s choice of words. “Believe me, it wasn’t nasty,” she couldn’t help saying before clamping a hand over her mouth.
“Oh my God! I can’t believe you had sex with him! Finally!”
She cringed at Brooke’s loud voice and she gave her a kick under the table as her eyes scanned the other tables to see if anyone was taking notice of their conversation. “Why don’t you speak a bit louder ‘cause I don’t think the kitchen staff quite heard you.”
“Oops, sorry. So what happened? I mean—”
“I’m not giving you details so don’t even go there. All I will say though is that a helluva lot of alcohol was involved.”
“The little bastard got you drunk? I’ll kick his ass when I get my hands on him.”
“No!” She bit her lip at her own loudness and lowering her voice, she continued, “He didn’t get me drunk. We were having dinner together at home and we had some wine and before I knew it we’d opened another bottle before moving onto the vodka.”
“So you just woke up together naked this morning and realised what you must have done?”
Shaking her head, she replied, “Uh… no. I was aware of everything that was happening last night. I-It was almost like the alcohol heightened my senses or something.” Suddenly, she remembered what her sister had said a moment ago and tilting her head to the side, she regarded her closely. “Hey, what did you mean when you said ‘finally’?”
“Um… nothing.”
“Don’t give me that. You meant something and I want to know what it is.”
Sighing loudly, the brunette said, “I guess I had a feeling something like this was always going to happen. It’s obvious how you feel about him, Hales. How you’ve always felt about him. I remember how you never stopped talking about him after you two met. And I’ve seen the way he looks at you when he thinks no one is looking.” Seeing the incredulous look in her sister’s eyes, she quickly added, “Okay, from what I can tell, he’s always had an eye for the ladies but he looks at you differently.”
“Yeah, like I’m his best friend…”
“No, more like he wants to pick you up and carry you away so he has you all to himself.”
“Uh huh. He looks at all women like that.”
“No, sweetie, he doesn’t. He gives them the eye, gives them his cocky little smirk and uses his tried and no doubt tested pick-up lines on them but he looks at you in a completely different way. It’s almost like he’s petrified he’s going to lose you.”
“Don’t take this the wrong way but you don’t know what you’re talking about. You’ve seen the women he’s dated and they’ve all been gorgeous; tall and leggy with big boobs and—”
“And what are you, chopped liver? You’re beautiful and he’s well aware of that fact.”
“Whatever you say,” she replied before taking another sip of her coffee.
“Okay, remember that guy I set you up with a few months back? Uh… Mike something or other?” Receiving a nod, she continued. “I came over to help you get ready for your date with him and Nathan happened to be home. You should’ve seen his face when you came out of your room in that white strapless dress with your hair all done up. I thought he was going to have a heart attack. And oh, the look on his face when Mike placed his hand on the small of your back as he led you outside the apartment. I thought he was going to run after you and drag you back inside.”
“He didn’t look at me any different than he always does,” she argued.
“I’m telling you, Sis, he’s head over heels for you and you obviously feel the same, especially now that you two have…” She didn’t finish the sentence, instead choosing to wiggle her eyebrows suggestively which helped raise a smile. “You are in love with him, aren’t you?”
Haley’s eyes welled with tears as she nodded her answer. “Yes,” she whispered. “I think on some level I always have been.”
“Sweetie, don’t cry. This is good, especially for me as Jake now owes me fifty bucks,” she teased.
“You bet on me being in love with Nathan?”
“Uh… yeah,” Brooke replied sheepishly. “But forget about that. The main thing is that you have to tell him… it’s about time you two sat down and had a serious talk. The longer you leave it, the harder things will be and that’s when it could badly affect your friendship.”
She nodded, knowing that her big sister spoke the truth. “I-I know but I’m so scared. What if he tells me it was a drunken mistake?”
The other woman shook her head. “Believe me he won’t. But if he does, I’ll go over there and kick his ass into next year.”
The two women laughed and reaching into her purse, Haley grabbed a tissue and dabbed at her eyes. “Thanks, Brooke, I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“I know the feeling,” the brunette told her honestly. “Now, let’s finish up here and hit the shops again. I think we need to cheer you up a bit more and I know just the place.”
Seeing the sparkle in her eyes, Haley groaned. She shuddered to think about what her sister had in store for her.
* * * * *
Even though a basketball game was playing on ESPN, Nathan couldn’t concentrate on it. His mind was too preoccupied with thinking about Haley and what they had done last night. He couldn’t believe that his biggest wish and fantasy had finally come true and it had been even more amazing that he could’ve ever dreamed. Her body was incredible with curves in all the right places and then some. And God, her skin… it was so soft and silky and she smelt so damn good.
Even now, he could feel his body’s reaction to her and he groaned. Picking up his glass of orange juice, he took a long drink of it but it did little to cool down the intense heat he was feeling. After placing his glass back on the table, he checked his watch again and saw that only five minutes had passed since he’d last looked.
She’d been gone all day and he kept waiting for the phone call that he knew was coming from her, telling him that she was indeed spending the night at her sister and brother-in-law’s place. Regardless of what she had told him, he knew she was avoiding the situation and a part of him couldn’t blame her. But he knew that avoiding what had happened wasn’t the answer and they needed to have a serious talk. He just hoped that whatever happened, their friendship could remain unaffected. Yeah right, he thought to himself bitterly. How could their friendship not be affected by the fact that they’d had sex. Really amazing, intense, mind-blowing sex.
Quickly picking up his glass, he held it up to his lips and drained it in one go. What he really wanted was to grab a cold beer out of the fridge but after last night, he needed to keep a clear head for when she came home. If she came home, he quickly amended.
He suddenly heard the key turning in the front door and he took a couple of long, deep breaths in the hope of calming himself down. Shifting on the couch, he tried to look as relaxed as possible for when she came into the living room which she did a few moments later.
“Hey,” Haley said as she walked over to one of the oversized armchairs and flopped down into it.
“Hey,” he responded and if he had been planning on saying something else, it died in his throat as he took in her appearance. That was definitely not how she’d looked before she’d gone out for the day.
She bit her bottom lip and forced herself to keep her eyes on him as she watched him look her up and down which sent shivers of delight running through her. “Are you okay?” she asked a moment later when he hadn’t said anything.
Nathan couldn’t stop staring and somewhere in the distance he thought he heard her say something so he replied with, “Huh?”
“I asked if you were okay?”
“Y-Yeah… I’m fine.” His eyes seemed to be glued to her cleavage which was being nicely displayed thanks to the V-neck cut of her midnight blue, silk sundress. A certain part of his anatomy was as hard as a rock but he felt himself harden further when his eyes drifted lower and he was treated to a glimpse of her slim thighs before she smoothed the silk down over them.
“Nathan?”
Forcing his eyes back up her body, he met hers and he again saw the concern in them. “Sorry,” he muttered before asking, “Are you going somewhere?”
Haley shook her head. “No.” Giving him a shy smile, she continued. “Brooke insisted I buy this dress amongst a few other things and…” she trailed off.
“And?”
“And I thought I’d wear it home,” she said shyly waiting for his reaction.
“I’m glad,” he told her with a genuine smile. “You look amazing, Hales.”
“Really?”
“Really.
“It’s not a little too—”
“It’s not too of anything,” he quickly interrupted.
Coughing to clear her throat, she said, “So I guess we should… um… talk.”
“You expect me to talk while you’re looking like that,” he teased as he looked her up and down again.
She laughed nervously. “Do you want to go first or should I?”
“I will.” Holding out his hand to her, Nathan waited for her to take it which she did a long moment later, a long moment which had him wondering if she would take it at all. He couldn’t help breathing in a quiet sigh of relief when she did. Shifting over on the couch, he pulled her down beside him and he turned to face her, keeping her hand in his the whole time.
“First of all, I need you to know that last night wasn’t a mistake… at least not for me. I know we’d had a lot to drink but I wasn’t drunk… well, not that drunk that I didn’t know what I was doing or how I was feeling. If I took advant—”
“You didn’t!” she quickly interjected. “I knew exactly what was happening too and I…”
“You what?” he prompted when she didn’t finish.
“I didn’t want to stop… I wanted to be with you and I… I didn’t care about the circumstances or consequences… the fact that it could harm our friendship,” she admitted, keeping her eyes trained on her lap.
Placing his fingers under her chin, he directed her to look into his face and when she slowly tilted her face up, she saw he was smiling at her. “I didn’t want to stop either, Hales. I-I’ve wanted to be with you for so long,” he confessed in a low whisper.
“How long?” she couldn’t help asking.
Taking a deep breath, he said the words he hadn’t told anyone except for his brother. “Since we first met.”
“We were eighteen, Nathan.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know. I’d seen you around campus with a couple of the girls you hung out with and you definitely caught my eye. I’d never seen anyone before that I’d considered beautiful but…”
“Right,” she scoffed.
“I’m serious. All the other girls I noticed I tended to peg them as hot or sexy but…”
“Gee thanks.”
“Will you let me finish,” he said taking her other hand in his and giving both of them a gentle shake. “You’ve always been hot and sexy to me, Hales, but you’re also beautiful but it wasn’t until we were paired up for that assignment that I found you were beautiful inside and out.” He felt his face growing warm as he confessed that to her.
Haley’s eyes met his and her mouth dropped open in astonishment. “Oh my God,” she squealed when she realised he was telling the absolute truth. “I-I didn’t know.”
“I know and that’s the way I wanted it. The more I got to know you, the more I liked you and I had this crazy idea that if I went after you the way I did those other girls, that that’d be it and I’d have ruined it. I wanted you in my life and if the only way that could happen was if we were just friends, then I was going to take it.”
“Do you want to know a secret?” she asked him a few minutes later when her mind had taken in everything he’d just told her.
“Only if you want to tell me.”
“I’ve wanted you for almost as long, Nathan. I can’t tell you how jealous I was of all those girls you hooked up with and—”
“They didn’t mean anything, Hales. I mean it.”
“What about Charlotte?”
“I liked her but I… I wasn’t in love with her. I meant that when I said it last night. Sure, I liked her, she was easy to be with… well, at first anyway before she started busting my chops and dropping hints about commitment.”
“You were with her for months though?”
“I know but I, uh… I was—”
“Was what?” she prompted, curious to hear his answer.
“I was just making do until I could pluck up the courage to tell you how I felt. All those times that Brooke or one of your other friends would arrange dates for you… I was so scared that one of them would sweep you off your feet and I’d lose you.”
Reaching out a hand, she cupped his cheek in her palm and not being able to resist a moment longer, she brought her lips to his and kissed him softly. “You could never lose me, Nathan. Never. Why do you think my friends were always the ones to find me dates, huh?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Because I wasn’t looking for anyone but they obviously felt I needed a guy to be happy. They didn’t know that I’d already found my guy… even if he didn’t feel the same.”
“But I do, Hales. I really do.”
She smiled at him. “I know that now but I didn’t then. All I knew was that several nights a week you either didn’t come home or you’d creep back in during the early hours.”
“I’m sorry. But did you ever wonder why I never brought anyone home to stay over? This was our place and I-I didn’t want—”
“Shh,” she whispered before covering his mouth once again.
The kiss was even more passionate than those they had shared last night as the words they had exchanged made a world of difference. No more doubts lingered in either of their minds and they were able to let go fully, concentrating solely on the feel and taste of each other.
“As amazing as you look in this dress, it’ll look even better on the floor,” he told her breathlessly before nibbling on her jaw-line.
She giggled and said, “That’s so cheesy. I can’t believe those lines worked.”
“Well it’s a good job I won’t be needing those lines anymore, isn’t it?”
“Definitely,” she told him feeling her insides melt at what he obviously meant by that. Turning her head, she captured his smirking lips again.
They made short work of removing each other’s clothes and they were completely naked when he carried her into her bedroom and dropped her onto her bed, causing her to bounce. “Hey!” Looking around her, she realised where she was and she cocked her head to one side and asked, “How come we’re in here and not in your room again?”
“I figured we should christen this room, too,” he said, wiggling his eyebrows and causing her to laugh. Before crawling onto the bed to be with her, he asked, “Do you have—”
“Uh huh,” she interrupted before adding, “In the drawer of my nightstand.” Seeing the frown on his face, she couldn’t help smiling knowing why it was there. “I bought them today when I was out with Brooke. I know I was jumping the gun but I, uh, wanted to be prepared… just in case.”
Nathan grinned. “Good thinking. So, I’m guessing Brooke knows about last night?”
“Yeah… she picked up on my strange mood and refused to stop the twenty questions so I told her and—”
“And what? She’s going to kick my ass, isn’t she?”
“No, although she did offer. Apparently, she already knew how we felt about each other and just said ‘finally’ when I told her. Oh, and she’s won fifty dollars in a bet she and Jake had on us.”
He laughed. “Nice.”
“I know. Anyway, after she knew about what we’d done, she insisted we go to Victoria’s Secret which we did and let’s just say I picked up a few things in there.”
“What if we hadn’t talked like we just did and admitted how we felt? What would you have done with the lingerie?”
“Hmm, I guess I could have worn it on one of my next dates,” she teased.
As soon as the words had passed her lips, he practically jumped on her and sealed his mouth over hers, kissing her breathless. “No more dates with other people,” he said, panting harshly long moments later when the need to breathe had become an issue and he’d broken the kiss.
“No more dates… for either of us,” she said wrapping her arms around his shoulders and bringing his body down to press into hers, savouring the feel of their naked skin touching.
“Definitely.”
They both knew they had more to talk about and to work out exactly where things would go from here, but they knew whatever happened they would do it together.
Fin
Sequel : Unexpected