Chapter Four
After their bath, they had proceeded to dry each other with the soft, fluffy towels before ending up rolling around in the king size bed, laughing and joking as well as making out. Before things could get too heated, Nathan called room service and ordered a large bowl of strawberries and a bottle of champagne so they could celebrate their engagement in style.
Now, lying in bed naked, barely covered by a cool white sheet, their feet playfully caressed each other’s ankles as they fed one another the plump and juicy fruit. Taking another sip of her champagne, Haley ran her forefinger around the rim of the glass as she worked up the courage to voice her fears regarding what she had been thinking about earlier.
“You okay?” Nathan asked, instinctively being able to tell that something was bothering her from the expression on her face.
“Um… I-I need to ask you something and…” her voice trailed off and she brought the glass up to her lips and took another sip of her drink as she quickly tried to think of the best way of starting this conversation.
Reaching out to her, he took the glass from her and placed it alongside his on the nightstand before turning back to her and taking her small hand in his. “What is it? You know you can ask me anything.”
“I know, it’s just… What happens now?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, what happens when we leave here? We’re engaged now and… I’m just wondering if we’re still going to be living apart from each other or if we’re going to be making some changes.”
He couldn’t help smiling at her but that was obviously the wrong thing to do.
“You think this is funny?”
Quickly shaking his head, he said, “No, of course I don’t.”
“Then why are you smiling? I don’t know about you, Nathan, but I don’t want us to be living so far apart… not now we’ve decided to make this commitment to each other. And I know it sounds stupid since it’s worked out okay for us while we’ve been dating but…”
He gently squeezed her fingers which were intertwined with his. “Hey, it’s not stupid. I’ve hated being so far away from you just as much as you’ve hated being away from me.”
“I know but…”
“But nothing, Hales. I probably should have mentioned this earlier tonight but I wanted to—”
“Surprise me?” she interrupted, giving him a smirk and tilting her head to the side.
He chuckled. “Uh yeah. I promise after this no more surprises… at least not for tonight.”
“Okay. What’s the last surprise of the night?”
“I’ve… uh… I’ve quit my job.”
“What!? When?” Haley stared at him open-mouthed as she waited for him to tell her more.
“I handed in my resignation just before I flew out here to see you. I knew that if you agreed to marry me that I couldn’t continue with things the way they were.”
“You were pretty sure I was going to say yes then, huh?”
He smirked and shook his head. “Actually I wasn’t but I figured I could wear you down and convince you eventually.”
Her palm cupped his cheek and she drew him in for a sweet and gentle kiss. “No convincing necessary,” she whispered against his mouth before she pressed her lips against his again.
“So, what’s going to happen now?”
“Well, I’ve got to work six weeks notice but while I do that I’m going to be checking out jobs down here. My boss gave me a couple of contacts to try which kinda surprised me but he knew from day one that I wasn’t going to be staying there forever. That as soon as I knew where you were going to be based I’d be moving on.”
“So in about six weeks time you’ll be coming to live here with me?”
Gently pulling her forward so she was straddling his thighs, one hand cupped the back of her neck while the other fingered the engagement ring he had given her just a few hours earlier. “I sure will.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, Haley practically pounced on him. Pushing him backwards so he was lying back amongst the pillows, she fused her lips with his and kissed the hell out of him. “I love you… I love you… I love you,” she chanted as she peppered his face with butterfly kisses.
“So you’re happy about it then?”
Pinching his side, she teased, “Not so much. You could have given me some warning.” She squealed when he flipped them over and pressed the length of his body against hers. “Nathannn!”
Nuzzling his nose against hers, he said, “I was thinking, maybe I could come up next week and we could start checking out apartments. What do you think?”
“I think that’s a great idea but shouldn’t we maybe wait until you’ve found another job? I mean, what I earn at the coffee shop isn’t much and…”
“Hales, you’re forgetting that what I haven’t been spending on plane tickets to come and see you, I’ve been saving plus, don’t forget, there’s my trust fund from my grandparents.”
Trailing her fingers over his cheek, she sighed quietly. “Should you be touching that money yet?”
“Why not? It’s mine and I can do what I like with it and what I want to do is put it towards getting our first place.”
“Yeah, but we don’t know how long we’ll be staying in Boston.”
“We know we’ll be here until you graduate which isn’t for another year and we can figure the rest out after that. We can just rent a place, and then once you’ve finished college we can decide where we want to move to. It’s not that big a deal.”
“I… I just don’t want you to feel like you have to follow me. I know you liked working at the agency so maybe it’s not too late to change your mind and we can discuss me moving to be with you in California.”
Nathan frowned at what she was saying and he moved from his position above her to lay beside her, propping himself up on his elbow. “What are you saying, Haley? Don’t you want us to be together?”
“Of course I do,” she cried. “I-I just don’t want you to be the one to make all the sacrifices.”
“It’s not a sacrifice to move here to be with you. Yeah, I liked working there but I wasn’t completely happy. How could I be when I was there and you were here and we only saw each other every few months if we were lucky?”
“Nathan…”
“We’ve been dating for three years and survived a long distance relationship and now that we’re engaged, don’t you think we’ve earned the right to actually be together in the same place at the same time?”
Smiling shyly at him, she nodded. “Yeah, we have.”
“Good.” Leaning towards her, he licked a path around her lips before pulling her bottom lip into his mouth and nibbling on it.
Once the kiss had ended, they drew back from each other and Haley said, “What do you think my parents are going to say? You know, about us living together?”
“I think they’ll be okay about it.”
“Really, and why’s that?”
“It might have something to do with me mentioning it to them when I paid them my visit.” Seeing the look of surprise on her face, he continued. “I told them I was thinking of resigning and moving to be with you, and I think it made them realise just how much I wanted to be with you.”
Haley chuckled. “I think they might have already been clued in to that when you used to climb into my room when we were both back visiting in Tree Hill.”
He laughed along with her. “Yeah, you might have a point there.”
“So, we’re really going to do this? Moving in together and then eventually getting married?”
Lacing his fingers with hers, he nodded. He turned her hand over and pressed a kiss into her palm before pulling her closer so her body was flushed against his. “We’re really doing this, and I can’t wait. How great is it going to be just doing simple stuff like having our meals together and watching TV on the couch not to mention all the other fun stuff we’ll be getting up to,” he said wiggling his eyebrows which caused her to giggle.
“Hmm, I wonder what on earth you could be referring to by that.”
“How ‘bout I show you,” he suggested as he rolled her onto her back and covered her with his body; the sounds of happy laughter ringing throughout the room.
* * * * *
“Wakey wakey, rise and shine!”
Opening one eye, Nathan looked down at his fiancée who was lying on top of him, her chin resting on her arms which were folded across his chest. “Morning,” he mumbled in a voice still heavily tinged with sleep. “What time is it?”
“Seven-thirty,” she informed him.
“Damn, I’d forgotten how much of an early bird you are. Maybe I should reconsider my decision to live with you.” He yelped when she pinched his side.
“Sorry, but it’s too late to change your mind. You’re stuck with me.”
Wrapping his arms around her, he pulled her up so her face was level with his. “That’s the only way I want it,” he told her, pressing a kiss to her full lips. He smiled at how sexy she looked first thing in the morning with her tousled hair and not a scrap of make-up on her porcelain skin. His fingers threaded though her hair as he brought her mouth down to his for another kiss.
“We… we should get up,” she whispered breathlessly against his lips as she felt the heated blush on her face.
“Why? I’m very comfortable where I am, thanks.” He was already hard and his hands slipped under the bed covers to press her naked body even closer to where he needed to feel her the most.
“I, uh, just thought that maybe we could take a look at some apartments today.” She watched the smile on his face broaden and she felt her stomach flip-flop in response. “While you were asleep I was thinking about us living together and… I can’t wait, Nathan. I don’t think it really sunk in last night but this morning… I feel so happy and excited.”
He grinned at her before his smirk reared its head. “Speaking of excited…”
Haley could feel him literally throbbing against her and moving her legs either side of him, she straddled his waist and moaned when she felt him brush against her sensitive lower lips. Her hand circled his hard flesh and she stroked him slowly before picking up the pace. She kept her eyes locked on his and took in all the different expressions that flittered across his face as he laid back and enjoyed her ministrations.
One hand gripped her hip while the other cupped her breast and palmed it, his thumb brushing over her aching nipple. He repeated the action a few times before switching to her other breast and lavishing it with the same attention. The sensation of her small hand pumping his slick cock became too much and he couldn’t help but close his eyes and savour the feeling of it. Feeling her shift her position, he waited for her to sink down on him and take him deep inside but that never happened. Instead, he felt a different kind of wet warmth surround him and opening his eyes, he saw her suckling on the tip of his cock while her eyes remained firmly fixed on his.
Her tongue came out and circled the head before licking the shaft from top to bottom and then back again; repeating the motion a few times before sucking him deep inside her mouth. He still remembered the very first time she had done this to him way back when they were using the pretence of lessons for their slowly developing relationship. All he could think was how she had gotten even better and that was saying something considering how great the first time was given her inexperience.
When her teeth gently grazed along his cock, he bucked his hips and let out a deep groan at the exquisite sensation and his fingers involuntarily went to tangle in her long, auburn hair. His thumb brushed the side of her face and he bestowed her with a soft smile as she continued to suck and lick him.
Haley loved doing this to him… with him. There was just something about having him under her control that was a total turn on and she knew he loved it too. Over their time together, she had learned all the little things he liked having done to him and she had memorised the responses he gave whenever she would do them. Like, for example, how he would practically purr when she would rub her thumb back and forth over his lower stomach while her tongue flicked over the sensitive underside of his cock. Doing just that, she smiled around him when she heard the soft noises he made as a direct response.
“H-Haley… you… you gotta stop…”
“Nuh huh,” she mumbled around him.
Gently tugging on her hair, Nathan directed her to look at him and the smouldering look he gave her pretty much made her melt.
“C’mere,” he commanded and he watched her hesitate for a moment before she released him from her mouth and then crawled up his body. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he pulled her on top of him and seized her mouth in a fiery kiss; pouring every ounce of passion and love he felt for her into it.
Flipping them over so he was on top, he bore his weight on his forearms as he stared down into her face and smiled. “I can’t wait to marry you,” he told her dropping a kiss onto the tip of her nose.
She scrunched up her face and giggled. Bringing her fingers up to his face, she trailed them along his jaw-line and returned his smile. “I can’t wait either.”
“I know it seems ages away but how about we do it after you’ve graduated?”
Her arms wrapped around his neck at the same time that she brought her legs up and hooked them around his waist and pulled him down so he was completely pressed against her. “That sounds great. With us living together, it won’t seem like such a long time and it’ll be another thing to look forward to. Just promise me one thing though?”
“What’s that?” he asked as he peppered her face and neck with light butterfly kisses.
“You have to stop me from giving in to Brooke when she starts going crazy wanting to plan the wedding.”
Shaking his head, Nathan smirked. “Sorry, babe, but you’re on your own there.”
“Aww, honey, c’mon. You know how I can never say no to her or Peyton…”
“Don’t ‘honey’ me. Brooke is your problem,” he said chuckling.
“Fine, well I guess that means no more sex for you until after the wedding.”
“Woah woah woah! Don’t let’s get carried away. You know I was only joking… I’ll do whatever you need me to,” he backtracked.
Haley burst out laughing at the look on his face and he soon joined in with her. “Don’t worry, sweetie; you know I wouldn’t be able to hold out that long.”
“Thank God for that,” he muttered under his breath. “So, where were we?”
“Hmm, right about here I think,” she mused before her lips met his for another powerful kiss.
* * * * *
A few hours later, they checked out of the hotel and made their way back to where they had parked the car. Nathan carried their overnight bags as Haley walked beside him with her arm looped through his.
“Thanks again for bringing me here. I’ll never forget it, Nathan.”
Lowering his head to hers, he met her lips in a chaste kiss and smiled at her warmly. “It was my pleasure.”
“I’ll bet,” she teased. “Why is it you manage to turn everything into something…”
“Dirty?” he finished for her.
“I was going to say naughty, but dirty works too.”
“Just a gift, I guess.”
“So, any more surprises up your sleeve, Mr Scott?”
“Nah,” he replied shaking his head. “I’m all surprised out… for now anyway.”
“That’s a relief,” she said before adding, “Not that I didn’t love all of your surprises because I did.”
Arriving back at the car, he unlocked it and after placing their bags inside the trunk, they climbed into the car. Before he started the engine though, Nathan turned to her and asked, “Which part was your favourite, Hales?”
“Do you even need to ask?”
“I just want to hear you say it,” he admitted.
“My favourite part was when you proposed to me. It was amazing and so beautiful and I’ll never ever forget it. I so wasn’t expecting it to happen.”
“You must have known I’d ask someday though, right?”
Haley looked at him through her lashes and gave him a crooked smile. “I hoped, but I didn’t know… not for sure. But I’d never have thought you’d ask me at this point in our lives.”
“You’re happy though?”
Bringing her hands to his face, she rubbed her thumbs over his cheekbones. “Happy doesn’t go halfway to describing how I’m feeling. I feel like… like I’m floating on air or something. And knowing that we’re finally going to be living together is just the icing on the cake. I seriously don’t know how you’re going to top my next birthday,” she teased.
Inching closer to her, he kissed her softly before whispering against her lips, “Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll think of something.”
Before their kisses could get too out of control, Haley moved back over into her seat and fastened her seatbelt as Nathan did the same. Once he’d started the car, he turned to look at her and gave her his sexy little smirk which caused her to blush and look away before driving them away to start the next phase of their lives together.
Fin
Sequel : Always and Forever