Author's note: This chapter runs alongside @__highflying's chapter 18.
Tully stirred the next morning curled up with her back pressed against Jacob's chest, feeling warm and rested. Sleeping tangled up in the arms of a gorgeous boy will have that effect.
She noted with a vague frown that she was still wearing all the same clothes as yesterday. They'd literally got back to the hotel, put the movie on and then promptly fallen asleep from built-up exhaustion not even half way through.
A small, bitter little voice in her head was congratulating her sarcastically for at least not sleeping with him. 'Yet...', it added mercilessly.
"You should call your brother." Jake murmured sleepily as he sighed against her neck, "Before you're on the news or something."
"Just one more hour alone with you." she negotiated with a yawn, tilting her head back towards him to give him better access to her neck.
"Mmkay." he smiled sheepishly, running his lips down her jawline.
"Go back to sleep." she breathed, tilting her head even further until she found his lips. Jacob chuckled quietly as she tugged his bottom lip through her teeth playfully before rolling over to face him and tucking her head under his chin. Completely content, he sighed as he pulled her in close and stroked her hair until he felt his mind falling back into a sleepy haze.
---
Suffice to say, Heikki was not amused at Tully's overnight disappearance.
In fact, after she'd returned home around lunch time and their screaming match escalated to the attention of the neighbours, their father Otto had had to step in and separate them.
If it wasn't for the sorry sight of her exhausted, teary mother, Tully would have high-tailed it straight back to the city to be with Jake.
Jake.
To say he was filling up her every waking thought since... well, since she woke up, would be an understatement. It was torturous to know he was within touching distance but she could hardly go back to the city again that day without arousing some serious suspicion.
Jake was only set to stay in Finland for two nights as he had to get back in time to attend a memorial that Red Bull were hosting to commemorate all of their fallen teammates. It was lucky he'd told Tully about it, as it completely changed her attitude towards the subject when Heikki bought it up later that day.
She'd agreed to go immediately, to the complete bafflement of her brother. All Tully could see was another chance to be around Jacob.
And so it was that two days later, she found herself striding through Heathrow customs with Heikki in tow. Jacob had flown back the day before and the memorial was due to be held the following day in Milton Keynes, she hadn't been able to see him again before he'd had to leave.
"I need to go shopping in London for something to wear tomorrow." Tully stated casually as she and Heikki hailed a taxi at the airport cab rank and piled their luggage into the boot.
"You didn't bring anything you can wear?" Heikki replied dubiously.
"I lost a lot of my clothes in the crash it seems." she replied stiffly.
"Oh..."
Yeah, that'll shut you up.
"Do you want me to come with you?" he asked as they piled into the cab and the driver pulled away from the curb.
Tully scoffed and shook her head, "Get a grip, Heikki."
"Fine. Just for the love of god, please don't run away."
"I won't." she snapped in annoyance, glancing across at him and immediately feeling bad as his tired, worried face stared back at her. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap. I'll be back at the hotel by 10pm, how's that?"
"Alright." he replied quietly, "Because I don't think Aiti can survive another disappearing act from you."
She looked back out the window, swallowing guiltily as visions of her teary mother filtered through her mind.
---
Later, as evening crept over London, Tully strode down the street confidently, pulling her hood down over her face ever so slightly and making sure her blonde hair was safely tucked down the back of her shirt. She could not get noticed, not tonight.
She could already see Jacob leaning against the wall of a decrepit storefront across the street where they'd agreed to meet, one Converse planted against the wall behind him as he fiddled with his phone.
Tully's phone buzzed in her hand and she glanced at it.
"I'm here."
She smiled as she came to a stop and gazed at him for a few seconds, feeling her heart fluttering in her chest as he looked up, his too-long fringe falling into his eyes perfectly. He didn't spot her at all and returned his attention to his phone.
Tully smirked, guessing her disguise must be good enough if even the boy who knew to look for her couldn't see her. She quickly darted through the traffic and made it to the other side of the street.
Jacob looked up again as she stopped directly in front of him. A heart melting smile instantly spread across his face. "You're here." he sighed contentedly.
"Hi." she replied, reaching up to place her palms either side of his jaw and kiss him softly. His arms were around her waist immediately, pulling her against his chest tightly as he urged her to kiss him harder.
Tully was happy to comply, tangling one hand into his mess of brown hair as she ran her tongue along his bottom lip.
Jacob let out a little muffled moan and pushed his tongue between her lips. She followed his lead and felt his heart racing in his chest, not to mention other signals betraying his body and revealing what he really wanted to be doing with her.
She finally broke the kiss and rested her forehead against his, catching her breath and stroking his jaw with her fingers.
"I missed you." she whispered, closing her eyes and taking in his presence, his fresh-linen scent, his firm hold on her waist, the tightness in the front of his jeans.
"That was a hell of a kiss." he replied breathlessly, smiling back at her with sparkling emerald eyes.
"I've been thinking about kissing you since you left." she replied with a coy grin.
"I thought I might be lucky to get a hug." he shrugged, pulling a lock of her blonde hair from beneath her hood and twisting it around his fingers happily.
"Are you ready to go?" she asked, kissing him again between words.
"Uhhm." he replied, distracted by her newest assault on his lips, "You're going to have to stop doing that... and give me a minute." he finally stammered.
Tully broke out into a mischievous grin and slipped her hands down to his hips, running her fingers along the waistband of his jeans seductively until they reached the middle.
"Not helping." Jacob whispered, closing his eyes and leaning his head back against the wall, earning himself a few strange looks from passing pedestrians.
"Is that what you want to do, huh?" Tully murmured against his ear as her hands slipped under his shirt and rested against his chest.
"What?" he mumbled, clearly playing dumb.
Tully smirked, Jacob was English after all, making him far too polite to cope with being propositioned in the middle of a busy street. A Finnish boy would be marching her into the nearest hotel by now.
"You heard me, Reed." she purred, leaning in to place a slow trail of kisses down his neck. She was sure she felt his knees buckle a little bit.
"God. Just stop talking or we'll be here all day." he muttered, smiling as she laughed at him and kissed his lips again gently.
"I'm just so happy to see you." she grinned, slipping her arms around his neck tightly. Just seeing his gorgeous face made her chest want to explode with adoration. Somewhere in the back of her mind it registered that her feelings for Jacob seemed irrationally intense. She was never like this over anyone. But suddenly, she was 4000% besotted with this man. What was that about?
"I think it goes without saying that I'm happy to see you to." he grinned sheepishly.
"Yeah, I worked that one out somehow." Tully replied with a raised eyebrow.
"So how did you get away?" Jacob asked, determining that it was safe for him to drop his leg and push off the wall. Tully took his hand and laced their fingers together before leading him back up the street.
"Heikki thinks I'm shopping for something to wear tomorrow."
"Do you actually need to buy something?"
"Well, kind of, yeah. And you're coming with me." Tully grinned.
"Okay but you have to protect me." Jacob bargained warily, "Every time I went shopping with my ex-girlfriend, she'd leave me outside the changing room to get harassed by the shop staff for bloody hours."
"Nobody will dare lay a finger on you." Tully winked, "Not to mention you certainly won't be left outside the changing rooms. Was your ex completely brain damaged?"
"No, her brain was totally intact."
"Well I have certifiable evidence that my brain is questionably working at best and even I know that you're much better utilised inside the changing room."
Jacob laughed to himself, his cheeks flushing slightly as his shy smile made an appearance.
"Come on." Tully said happily, kissing his cheek and pulling him along after her.
---
"Fucking hell. How can they charge this much for a dress?" Jacob made a face as he dutifully carried Tully's 'potential' pile around the store floor.
"I know, it's disgusting right? I would normally rather shoot myself than spend that much on a scrap of cloth but..." she trailed off as she skimmed her fingers over various silk creations hanging on the racks beside them.
"But?"
"But apparently Sebastian was paying for me to have one hell of an income protection insurance plan." Tully replied awkwardly.
"What's that mean?" Jake asked in confusion.
"Well, until I'm deemed fit to return to work, whenever or whatever that might be nowadays, around 7000 euros turn up in my bank account every Tuesday."
Jacob stopped walking behind her and stood with his jaw hanging open, "I feel kind of sick."
"That money is supposed to be going to medical fees and whatever. The problem is apparently he already pays the hospital bills before we even get to see them." Tully said exasperatedly as she looked back at him over her shoulder.
"Sounds exactly like Seb, to be honest." Jacob muttered warily.
Tully spun around to face him properly, "Please don't do this. Don't think about him, okay? And please don't be sick on that dress, I kind of like it."
"Oh god..." Jacob mumbled, staring at the floor wide-eyed. Tully could see one of his guilt attacks surfacing.
"Jake. You make me happy." Tully whispered, leaning in to kiss him gently, "I want you, how many times will I need to tell you that?"
He groaned quietly as he returned her kiss, "This whole thing just scares me."
"What part?
"That I'm getting attached to you very, very quickly and that I will also lose you any moment." he mumbled.
"That's not true." Tully growled, reaching up to kiss him fervently, caressing his tongue with her own and not caring that the two girls at the register were shamelessly staring at them.
Jacob was slightly breathless as she released him again. He tried and failed to think clearly with Tully's all-consuming presence within reaching distance. The way his body reacted to her was getting unbearable to ignore, "So, you said something about a changing room?"
---
Five minutes later, Jacob found himself pushing Tully up against a floor length mirror in a small cubicle that definitely was not built to accommodate two. Her legs were wrapped tightly around his waist as she gasped for breath and arched her neck back, shivering violently as Jacob's lips covered every inch of her throat in frustratingly slow, gentle kisses. He had her arms locked against the wall above her head, making her completely dependent on him to hold her up.
To say things had escalated since their shy encounter in Finland would be something of an understatement.
"You're so fucking perfect." Jacob marvelled at her underwear-clad body, mesmerised by how bloody toned everything was. There was definitely something to be said for being with a personal trainer. Were they seeing each other? He had no idea. The thought of giving it a proper label scared the shit out of him even more. If they gave it a title and she did wake up one day remembering Seb, it would only hurt that much more when she left. Then there was the small issue of her technically still being Seb's girlfriend regardless of her remembering it or not.
Somewhere in the back of his mind, that ever-present nagging voice was whispering to him that the skin beneath his fingers was not his territory, it never would be. Seb's hands had been there first and at any moment they would be back there again.
"Erm, excuse me Ma'am?"
Jacob and Tully froze.
"Uh, yeah?" Tully called back, hissing quietly as Jacob nipped the skin at her collar bone.
"The store is closing in a few minutes, if you want to make any purchases you'll need to make your way to the registers before they're turned off for the day."
"Right. Um. Okay I'll be out in a sec." Tully replied to the incredibly awkward-sounding store clerk.
Jacob's eyes were sparkling with life as she gazed back at him, still hitched up around his waist with her fingers trailing across his bare shoulders.
He was the most perfect boy she'd ever seen, in every single way. The chocolate hair, the green eyes, the shy smile, the broad shoulders, the slim waist... every inch of him.
"What are you doing after the memorial tomorrow?" Tully whispered, pressing herself against his bare chest eagerly as he let her slip back down to the floor.
"Nothing but... I mean won't you have... other things to deal with tomorrow?" Jacob asked warily as Tully's hands traced around the waistband of his jeans. He tried not to shudder as her hands trailed dangerously close to his fly. God, he wanted her. He couldn't deny it anymore. Nothing seemed like a better idea at that moment than unbuttoning his jeans and pushing her back up against the wall.
Tully grimaced at Jacob's question. He was referring to Sebastian, who would undoubtedly be there at the memorial the next day. Heikki had failed to mention it but she wasn't stupid. Brain damaged, technically, but not stupid. Of course Sebastian would be there.
"I'll figure something out." she mumbled, mesmerised by the heat radiating off his torso, "But apparently, we're being kicked out of the store so get your shirt back on, or not, I'm really not fussed."
Jacob snapped back to reality as Tully kissed his shoulder playfully before gently pushing him away and turning around to begin getting dressed herself.
He sighed shakily, banning himself from entertaining anymore thoughts of Tully whimpering his name as he pinned her body beneath his. Give it up Reed, you will not go there. You will not do that to Seb. This is already unforgivable.
Ten minutes later, they were back out on the now darkened street.
Tully sighed dramatically as she checked the time on her phone. Heikki would start hassling her if she didn't get back to the hotel soon.
"I'll walk you back." Jacob smiled softly, lacing their fingers together.
"If I wasn't sharing a suite with Heikki, you wouldn't be getting away from me so easily." she teased, squeezing his hand.
"Something tells me I wouldn't put up much fight." Jacob replied exasperatedly.
Tully squeezed his hand affectionately as they continued walking, as slowly as possible, back towards her hotel.