❀Azalea❀
"His room isn't far from this one, I'll help you," he nods, standing up. The comforter falls off of him and I cover my eyes.
"Put clothes on, Lord help me," I whisper. He laughs at me, muttering a sorry for only sleeping in his boxers. I've already been through so much this morning I don't know how much more I can handle.
The only boxer-wearing man I like to look at is Grey. Mostly because he's nice and juicy. And because I love him and whatever.
"Okay, I'm good now," he tells me and I remove my hands from my eyes to see him with a pair of pajama pants on his lower half now.
We leave his room and go out on the search. After searching two rooms and determining that the guys in them weren't Grey, we walk to the door at the very end of the hallway. I walk to the bed and place my hand down on a butt accidentally. I almost pull away but it feels familiar. And nice, of course.
I lean down and catch his scent. It's Grey.
"I found him, Oaklee!" I whisper excitedly. I walk back toward Oaklee and flick on the light. I don't care about waking Grey up. He'll get over it or I'll make him get over it. Because he's my b-word.
I look around our room and it's safe to say we got the master bedroom. The room is pretty huge. And at the end of the room, there's a balcony. I look at Grey who's still fast asleep on his stomach, facing away from us. I grip onto the coffee Oaklee was holding for me and I walk to Grey.
I sit the cup down on the table beside the bed and I climb onto Grey's back. Oaklee laughs from the doorway. Little does he know, I do this to Grey almost every morning.
"Wake up darling," I stick my finger in his neck, wiggling it. I know it tickles him. I laugh evilly internally.
He scrunches his shoulders up.
"I brought you a coffee Sugar," I tell him.
"Alright, y'all have fun," Oaklee tells us goodbye, closing the door on the way out.
"Get your gluteus maximus up. I want to watch the sunrise with you," I pat his shoulder. He tilts over and I fall off his back. He pulls me closer to him and lays his head on my chest.
"Oh and I slept with someone else," I tell him. He jerks away from me and sits up quicker than I've ever seen him move in my life. I'm not saying he's a lazy person because he's not. He's just never in a rush to do anything. I'm always go-go-go-go and he's always like stop-wait-a-effing-minute-god-darn-it.
"What?" he says lowly. His eyebrows furrow down almost into those stupid old glares he used to give me. I'll kiss him on the lips right now.
"I know right!" I sigh, shaking my head. I pick up his coffee.
"Here, c'mon, drink it so you will be happy," I hand it to him. He's never happy in the mornings. He looks at the coffee in my hand like I've poisoned it.
"Are you fucking serious?" he questions almost angrily. My eyebrows raise.
"Yes, I'm freaking serious," I reply. What the heck? Does he think he's not grumpy in the mornings? He needs coffee.
I roll my eyes and sit the coffee back down. If coffee won't make him happy then I guess a little hug/snuggle will have to do.
I scoot closer to him and he leans away from me.
"Get away from me," he glares. I lean back, tilt my head, and hold my heart.
"I swear if you're sleep talking again, don't be surprised if I slap you to get you out of it, okay?" I warn him.
"Azalea, I'm really about to cry," he says quietly. My heart falls. Why on earth?
"What?" I say softly, "Why?"
"You just fucking said you slept with someone else," he replies.
"I did, sleep with someone else. I don't even know which guy here it was yet," I shake my head, still not being able to believe myself.
"You cheated on me?" he says in the most hurt tone I've ever heard. My mouth drops open slightly.
"Of course not! Why would you think that? I'd never do that to you," I explain.
"You said you slept with someone else."
"Like sleeping, like closing your eyes and sleeping. I said I slept with someone else. Oh wait," I realize that I probably should've explained that first thing.
"Azalea," he groans and placing a pillow over his face.
"Oh yeah, that's my bad right there," I wince. He removes the pillow from his face.
"You can't say things like that. You need to think about what you say before you say it, oh my God," he grips his hair, running his hands through it.
"I'm sorry," I say sadly. I lean to him and he leans to me. He lays his head on my shoulder and I hug him to me.
"Were you really going to cry?" I ask softly. He doesn't respond. Only about ten seconds later does he just slightly nod his head.
~~~
Freshly showered and feeling great, Grey and I walk out onto the balcony. I convinced him to watch the sunrise with me. He's still sad about earlier. And I feel absolutely terrible. Now he's very clingy and touchy since I accidentally made it sound like I cheated.
I made sure to apologize twenty times but I still can tell he's upset even thinking about getting cheated on.
"Holy guacamole! It's freezing cold out here! My nipples could cut diamonds Grey, don't look," I tell him and he looks.
I rush back inside and grab the comforter off the bed. I wrap it around Grey and he sits down in the chair we brought out from inside. He opens it up and I take a seat on his lap. He wraps his arms and the comforter around me and sits his chin on my shoulder.
"Online it says sunrise is around eight-thirty," I tell Grey. I found my phone. Apparently Grey had it since I left it in the car last night and he plugged it up for me.
We also figured out how we got separated.
I walked into the house first once it was unlocked and I laid down in the first room I could find. Or I might've chosen that room because it is closest to the kitchen, I don't know. Well, Grey came in with our bags and he got the master bedroom. We were all really tired so Grey went straight to bed, on top of the covers, waiting for me to finish exploring like he thought I was doing.
I feel like the guy I slept in the same bed with did the same thing because when I felt his back and stomach, he was still wearing a flannel shirt.
At least it felt like flannel.
But I can't remember to save my life who was wearing flannel so it's still a mystery as to who it was.
Grey and I sit back and watch as the sky changes colors and the sun rises over the mountain range.
"It's so pretty, isn't it?" I question aloud, not expecting any sort of reply from Grey. He's not really one to sit back and enjoy nature's beauty. He's more the type that does what I tell him to because he's my b-word. I told him to come out here and watch the sunrise with me and he did.
"Love me?" he mumbles quietly. I smile softly, turning my head to look back at him.
"Always," I nod, "I love you."
"Lilah?" he questions. I hum in response.
"When do I ask you to marry me?" he questions softly and my whole heart stops beating. Is he serious?
"...Why?"
I can't fathom the reason why he would want to marry me. If that's why he asked that question. I still can't believe I'm dating him and now this?
"Why do you think?" he responds, amusement in his voice.
I might as well be honest in response to his first question.
"At least a year from now. Let us be together for a while just to make sure that this is what we really want, okay? And I need to stop being a teenager before you ask me. And when you ask, make sure I don't know you're going to ask," I tell him truthfully. I look back to him to gauge his reaction to my words.
A small smile, his own little smile, sits on his lips as he looks back at me. Then he slowly nods.
"Okay," he says softly.
"You're crazy, I swear," I shake my head at him.
"Yeah, I'm crazy."
"You're the one who wants to marry me," I defend myself. It's crazy to want to marry me, in my opinion.
"You're the one who wants to marry me too," he replies. I pause. I bite back a smile. I do want to. But I'm not going to admit that to him. Not yet at least.
"What do you think about me getting a tattoo?" he questions and my eyebrows furrow. I open the comforter and take a look at his tattooed up arm that hangs loosely around me.
"Hm, Grey. I don't know. Are you sure you want a tattoo? I mean, you don't really have any so you might be scared to get one," I respond sarcastically and he rolls his eyes at me.
"Shut up."
He lifts his arm out of the comforter and he turns it over showing the narrow almost empty space beside the large dead tree on his forearm.
"Flowers," he mumbles.
"Flowers?" I question. That's surprising. Something alive on his death-themed arm sleeve.
"Alive flowers?" I question just to make sure he's not gonna put dead looking flowers on his arm.
"Fully alive ones," he nods, "Azaleas."
"Say what?"
"Azaleas," he repeats. The flower I was named after. Oh my gosh, he actually loves me or something.
Don't cry. There's no reason to cry so don't.
"Why are you about to cry?" he questions and I smile. I turn around on his lap and wrap my arms around him in one of my famous hugs.
"You make me happy," I explain and his arms tighten ever so slightly.
"You make me happy."
With the sun now fully up, I lead him back into the bedroom where we lay down and just hold each other for a bit. Neither of us falls back asleep, we just stay in each other's embrace.
Me in his embrace for a while then we switch and he's in my embrace. It goes on for probably an hour and a half.
I don't even worry about exploring the house or the fact that I could eat a horse at the moment.
Our door suddenly is thrown open. At this point, Grey is laying with his head on my chest so we are both able to look at who came in.
Theo and Oaklee.
"There's an indoor pool in this fuckin' house. Let's put that bitch to use," Oaklee calls out to us. Theo nods beside him enthusiastically. Oh yeah, I forgot Grey told us that a few days ago.
Too bad I can't mothertrucking swim.
"Oh, and the food's cooked downstairs so eat," Theo mentions.
They shut the door with smiles on their faces and I sit up. I roll off the bed and bend down to get my bathing suit out of my suitcase. Then I get Grey's, of course, black colored swim trunks out of his suitcase.
"Come on, put them on," I throw them at him. He sighs and gets up slowly.
"I gotta piss-"
"Excuse me?" I raise my eyebrow at him and he pauses at the doorway to the bathroom.
"My bad, Lilah. I gotta tinkle babe," he shoots me a look before going in, not even closing the door or anything.
I strip and put on my light blue two-piece bathing suit. It's tied in the front even though you can't untie it and the rest is normal. I stand up on the bed and look in the large mirror that's directly across from it.
The scar on my ribs immediately catches my attention. It's especially noticeable during the winter when I'm paler than normal. Then my eyes fall down to the scars on my leg. They're horrid. And all around are smaller but still noticeable scars from the glass and the impact of the crash.
I sigh and plop down on the bed, slipping under the covers to hide myself from the mirror.
Grey comes out of the bathroom looking as gorgeous and as confident as ever with his juicy thighs and toned muscles.
"What're you doing?" He questions me.
"Wallowing in self-pity," I mumble as he comes closer. Gosh he just looks so good. He rips the covers off me and tosses them to the other side of the bed.
"Why?" He asks.
I look down at myself. Then I point to the huge scar on my rib that is exceptionally visible. His eyes travel slowly to where I'm pointing.
"What about it?"
Then I point to every other one, which is a lot and his eyes never stray from mine.
"What about them?" He questions almost daring me to say I think they look horrid.
I turn my head away from him, looking out the balcony at the mountains. He grips my jaw with his whole gargantuan hand and turns it back to him.
He leans down and kisses me harshly.
"Beautiful," he pulls away, "you're so beautiful."
"Now come on before I decide to fuck you instead of going swimming," he grips onto my hand and helps me up. Vulgar man.
He picks up one of his t-shirts and he throws it at my face.
"Put that on 'cause you turn me on too easily," he mumbles. I pull the oversized shirt over my hand and he grips my hand as soon as I'm done.
"Where even is the pool?" I question. I know it's indoors because hello this is Montana but I'm not sure where since I never got to explore.
"Over yonder," he shrugs. Great answer.
"Oh okay, now I know exactly where it is, thanks so much love," I say sarcastically, patting his booty. He decides to ignore my comment as we make it down to the kitchen.
He slaps my butt as hard as ever and the sound just resounds throughout the house, I'm sure.
"Goddamn, I heard that," Lincoln says as he exits the room I came out of earlier this morning. Oh Lord, I slept with Linc.
I melt down to the floor and mourn over the loss of my buttcheek. When I start getting feeling back in it, I rise back up and take a seat at one of the tall stools at the kitchen island.
"See what I have to deal with?" I question Lincoln and he nods.
"I feel bad for you," he gives me a smile.
"You should feel bad for me," Grey grumbles in disagreement.
"You don't know what you're talking about," I tilt my head over at him.
"You make my hair gray," he sets his chin on his hand, his dark eyes focused on me.
"I do not! You make my hair gray because you make me want to strangle you sometimes," I flick his hand.
"You're the one who talks my ears off."
"Oh yeah? Well you're the one who just apparently needs to be babied when you're sick," I scrunch my nose at him. Gosh he's the biggest baby in the world.
"You're the one who leaves your damn hair all over the place."
"Listen here, hoss. I can't even help that! And you love to leave the stupid toilet seat up in the middle of the night. I've almost fallen in because of you!" I point at him.
"You don't know how to keep your fuckin' frozen feet off of me during the night."
"You're always warm you donkey! At least I don't snore!" I raise my eyebrow at his gorgeous face.
"Oh, bullshit. Your ass snores every now and then. And unlike you, I don't find it fun to watch the comedy movies you make me watch."
I scoot my stool closer to him and he watches me come closer.
"At least I don't watch the world's scariest freaking movies and find amusement in them like you," I narrow my eyes at him.
"You love your flowers more than you love me," he turns his head away from me, hiding his sulky expression.
"Not true! You're just saying that because I always make you get up off me in the morning so I can go water them. And you don't like fixing yourself coffee so you always get me to do it by saying you don't know what to do, even though you do."
"That's 'cause you make it better than me," he turns his head back to me, "you don't like making it for me?"
His eyes flit between both of mine. I tilt my head low and give him a soft smile.
"I'm just teasing, I don't mind it."
~~~
"I'm scared," I admit, looking down at the heated pool in front of me. The past hour, I've sat with my feet in the water, watching all the guys have fun in the pool.
Now just recently, they've all gotten out to get lunch and do other things.
They all tried to coax me into the pool but I'd rather just sit and watch everyone have fun. But now that they're all gone, I have no excuse to keep me from getting in other than 'I don't want to.'
"You think I'm gonna sit here and let you fuckin' drown or some shit?" he rolls his eyes.
"Come on," his voice turns softer, "I've got you Lilah."
"What if you accidentally forget I can't swim and you let me go and I sink like a rock?" I come up with probably the most realistic question in the world.
"I won't let anything bad ever happen to you, okay?" he gives me one of his baby smiles. I sigh softly and pull off the t-shirt I have on. I sit it on one of the chairs by the pool and I walk to the stairs. Grey grips onto my hand firmly and doesn't let go as I walk into the pool.
"Not so bad," he tucks my hair behind my ear as I still cling to him even though we're in the three-foot part of the pool.
We walk a little deeper and I cling tighter.
"What would happen if I peed in the pool?" I question aloud. He sighs softly.
"I'd feel the water turn warmer beside my fucking legs."
"It's not like I'd actually do it," I tell him.
"I wouldn't put it past you," he grumbles.
"Lean back," he tells me and I shake my head rapidly.
"No ma'am."
"Shit ass," he grumbles under his breath.
He bends quicks and hooks his arms under my legs. I close my eyes like the scaredy cat I am.
He lays me flat on the way, holding his hands under me. I'm stiff as a board.
"Relax," he touches his hand to the top of my chest and I get a little turned on. I peep open one eye and give him a little smirk to which he rolls his eyes at.
"I can't relax, I feel like I'm going to sink like the Titanic," I breathe out slowly.
"Worst case scenario, you sink but you'll only stay under for a bit 'cause I'll get you," he shrugs like what he said isn't a big deal.
"That's exactly what I'm scared of! You're helping my situation zero percent!" I squint my eyes tighter closed.
He places his hand under my shoulder blades and pushes it up slightly. He raises my legs up to the surface of the water and before I can even start to say anything, he lets go of me.
I almost pee in this pool. I remain calm but on the inside I'm having a heart attack.
"Look at you," his amused voice sounds muffled since there's water in my freaking ears.
"So brave, aren't you?" He continues and I internally give him the middle finger. I'm too scared to move. And I'm not sure if I've taken a breath since he's let go of me.
"You want me to grab you?" He questions and I still don't move. I feel like if I move a muscle, I'll sink.
"Lilah? You know you can stand up here, right?" He questions quietly and my eyes open. From the corner of my eye, I see we're not very far from the ladder in the three-foot part of the pool.
I must've floated back here.
I let my leg sink down and I stand up. Grey looks down at me like he's silently making fun of me.
"Don't make fun of me you boob."
♢ ♦♢ ♦♢ ♦♢ ♦♢ ♦♢ ♦♢ ♦♢ ♦
I'm gonna be honest, I've had a rough day. I'm sure y'all know how rough days are. After going back and reading some previous comments on this story, I decided to finish this chapter (which had been halfway done for four days). So don't thank me for this one, I want to thank y'all <3
*Not edited*
Word count: 3631
-Ashlyn Montgomery