Forbidden Fruit

Chapter 18

We walked down to her car in silence before she stopped in front of me. "You can drive if you want, as long as you haven't drank too much." 

I shook my head. I wasn't going to let her butter me up.

She frowned and we got in the car, strapping ourselves in and driving off in complete silence. I knew my quietness was bothering Vic: she wasn't the type who liked to be ignored. 

My assumption was proved right when a few minutes later she let out a frustrated huff and broke the building tension. "Why are you mad at me?" 

I scoffed. "Have a guess." 

"Look I know I haven't been around so much lately-" 

"Around so much?" I interrupted her angrily. "You haven't been around at all! I haven't seen you for at least three weeks."  

She was quiet for a moment, but afterwards spoke with a timid but firm voice that made the situation seem clear to me. "I don't owe you a location update every five seconds, Jack." 

My nostrils flared. "Yeah you don't, especially when you're hanging with your new boy toy you found to replace me with." 

She gasped and took a sudden left turn, stopping in the lay-by besides the main road out of town that we were driving along. She turned to me, looking distressed. 

"What are you talking about? I haven't replaced you!" 

"Really?" I glared at her, clenching my jaw firmly once again. "All the signs point that way, don't you think? You take off for three weeks, don't contact me at all apart from a blunt text message and don't tell me what on earth you've done for all that time. It's pretty obvious I was the last thing on your mind!" 

"You're being ridiculous," she snapped right back at me. "Just because I went away doesn't mean I was hooking up with someone." 

I gave her an unconvinced look.

"Jack," she sighed, moving her face closer to me and lowering her voice, almost in a defeated manor. "I know that you've been cheated on recently and I understand you have a right to feel insecure about that kind of stuff, but trust me I'm not a cheater. Sure I've been with a few guys or whatever but I've made it very clear with them that it was a no strings attached kind of thing. You're different from them." 

Some of the anger swirling within dissipated at her words. "I mean...more to you than they did?" 

"Yes." 

I frowned again, not quite believing my ears. "But then what did you do for the past few weeks?" 

She looked away and bit her lip, reluctance showing all over her face. "I spent most of my time back home in L.A and travelled a bit. I can't really tell you what I was doing yet...but I will at some point. And I definitely wasn't involved with any other guy during that time period, okay?" 

I still felt unsure of what she was telling me. 

She sighed and took off her seat belt, before undoing mine and climbing over onto my lap. My arms went around her automatically. 

"Believe me, please." I looked into her eyes, those gorgeous, dark blue eyes, and I just knew there was no lie in them. They just looked so earnest, so pure, so honest. 

I nodded my head. 

"And please forgive me," she said in a voice barely above a whisper, as her hands spread across my chest and onto my shoulders. 

I wanted to. But something held me back. I guess she was right about me still feeling insecure from being cheated on, and because of it a part of me still felt suspicious. 

"Please," she begged in a breathy whisper, putting her face up to mine so that our lips were almost touching. 

It was the repeated plea that did it. Vic never begged. She always got whatever she wanted, whenever she asked for it. I doubted a girl like her ever had to ask for anything, and when she did it must've taken a lot. 

"Fine. Okay, you're forgiven." She beamed up at me like I'd just given her the best Christmas present ever. But I wasn't done. My voice became low and the residual anger from before turned it into a slight growl. "But this can't happen again. If you go off somewhere you keep in contact with me. You don't just leave me high and dry like you did this time. I'm not one of your mindless fan boys who will come running no matter what you do to them. If you ditch me I might not be around to come back to, okay?" 

"Yeah I understand." She nodded in all seriousness. "So does that mean I'm completely forgiven then?" 

"I'm still mad at you but yes, you are." 

"Good." She smiled and stroked my chest, her delicate touch teasing me as she kissed my neck gently. "I don't know if anyone has ever told you this but you're very hot when you're angry." 

I took her chin in my palm, tilting her face up and kissing her hard as I poured three weeks worth of lust and rage onto her lips with mine. She responded eagerly but I didn't let her have any control this time, letting her know she was in the dog house right now. 

As we ran out of breath she drew away sheepishly, looking up at me with a coy little smile. She had a good reason to be pleased with herself. She'd just got her way again and, maybe foolishly, I had forgiven her pretty quickly. Had I made the right decision? 

"My friends are throwing a small gathering right now. We could go if you want?" 

I frowned. "I'm not really in the mood to party right now, especially if it's with the fan club gang." 

She shook her head frantically. "No I'm talking about my real friends. It would mean a lot to me if you met them; you'd be the first person from uni that I'd ever taken to go see them." 

I raised my eyebrows in surprise as I considered the proposal. If that wasn't a step towards some sort of commitment then I didn't know what was, and that was exactly the kind of thing I needed from her right now. 

"Please?" She asked again, looking almost shy for once. "They're like family to me, and I want you to meet them." 

Wow. Was that the second time she'd ever pleaded with me? I definitely couldn't let her down now. 

"Yeah sure, why not."