by Louise Hall
Suddenly, she heard the door open behind her. “Cate?” Just the way he said her name twisted her stomach up in knots.
Cate didn’t turn around.
“Cate” he tried again as if she hadn’t heard him the first time. Still, she tried to ignore him.
Then she felt his hand grab hold of her wrist and she was being pulled down the dark alleyway at the side of the club.
Kian shoved her hard up against the wall, the rough brick grazing her bare back, and pinned her wrists up above her head. Before she could say anything, his lips were on hers. He parted her lips easily, pushing his tongue inside her mouth. Cate hated how her body reacted to him. As his chest crushed her breasts, her nipples tightened painfully. She could feel the hard ridge of his erection against her stomach. Cate squeezed her thighs together, trying to relieve the throbbing ache between her legs.
“You’re driving me crazy,” Kian grunted, pressing his forehead against hers. “Why won’t you answer my calls?”
“I’m seeing someone,” Cate struggled to catch her breath. She’d never felt so turned on.
“That guy,” Kian said with an edge to his voice. “Does he kiss you like this?”
He kissed her again, this time so slowly and tenderly, Cate thought she might cry.
“Why do you care?” She asked him, struggling to free her hands from his restraints. “You have a girlfriend.”
“I don’t,” Kian said, his eyes locked with hers. “Unless it’s you?”
It was all too much for Cate; she wrestled her wrists free from Kian’s grasp and pushed him away. “Stop, okay, just stop. How am I supposed to get over you if you keep doing this?”
Kian looked pained, “you’re trying to get over me? Why?”
“You’ve moved on, you’re with Alice now.”
“Why do you keep saying that? Alice and I are just friends.”
“Have you slept with her?”
Kian nodded and Cate felt a sharp pain in her chest. She made to run away but Kian stopped her. “Wait, it’s not like that. We hooked up a couple of times but it was last year, way before you and I got together.”
Cate stopped; she wanted to believe him. “What about you?” He asked. “You and that guy?”
“Is that what this is? I offered myself to you and you turned me down. Now, you think I’m having sex with someone else, suddenly you want me again?”
“That’s not true.”
“Yes it is,” Cate insisted. “It’s all just a game to you. If I break up with Zeke and we go back to doing whatever it was we were doing, you’d just get bored again.”
“I didn’t get bored.”
“Then why didn’t you call me? I waited for you and then your sister tells me that you’re dating Alice fricking Devereux.”
“Geez, Cate,” he smacked his hand against the wall, “will you listen to me? I’m not dating Alice. You’re the only girl I want to be with.”
“No,” Cate shook her head, “I don’t believe you.”
Kian pulled her into his arms. “Believe me,” he whispered in her ear. “I watched you tonight with that guy…”
“Zeke.”
“I don’t care what his name is. I was watching you with him and it was making me crazy. I want to be the guy you dance with.”
“Then why didn’t you ask me?”
“Your brother would kill me,” Kian stroked her cheek. “Why are you so young?”
“I’m 18,” Cate said, “it’s not that young.”
Kian shook his head, “for what I want, it is.”
Cate went back to the party and caught up with Zeke at the bar. “You okay?” he asked, catching the look on her face.
“Yeah,” Cate said as nonchalantly as possible. “Where’s Alice?”
“She’s over there,” Zeke pointed at a table on the other side of the room, “texting her boyfriend.”
“Oh.”
“Duh,” Zeke said, nudging Cate. “Her boyfriend who isn’t Kian.”
Cate smiled a little bit. “Are you sure?”
“Oh yeah, me and Alice are real tight. She said she and Kian are just friends. Wait a second, why do you look so upset? I thought this would make you like super-happy?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Cate said.
“Spill,” Zeke said.
They went and sat at a deserted table in the far corner of the room and Cate told him what had happened. “I still don’t get what you’re so upset about – he said you’re the only girl he wants to be with?”
“He also said I’m too young.”
“Then show him that you’re not,” Zeke said.
CHAPTER 15
The day after the wedding, Ben and Erin went off on their honeymoon and Cate moved into their house.
She hadn’t realised how isolated it was until she was alone in the house. Kian’s house was just across the courtyard but apart from that, there was nothing else for miles around. As it got darker, she checked all of the doors and windows were locked and bolted and went up to the guest bedroom, which was at the back of the house. Out of the bedroom window, she could see nothing but blackness, there were no lights anywhere. Cate shuddered and quickly closed the curtains. Kian’s right; you are too young.
Cate got into bed and leaving the lamp at the side of the bed switched on, she tried to go to sleep. She’d just drifted off to sleep when suddenly she heard barking. For a second, she wasn’t sure if she was still dreaming. No, she was definitely awake and it was Monty downstairs barking. She could feel herself starting to panic. The barking didn’t stop. She forced herself to get up and looked around the room for anything she could possibly use as a weapon. There was nothing. She grabbed her phone from the bedside table and gingerly made her way down the hallway to the stairs. I hate this.
The downstairs was all in darkness so she quickly flipped the lights on in the hallway. The barking was coming from the kitchen so she went towards the closed door. Cate tried to hear if there was anything on the other side besides Monty but her heart was beating so loudly. She quietly opened the cupboard under the stairs and picked up the metal attachment for the vacuum cleaner. She turned the handle on the kitchen door really slowly. Why did I agree to this?
“Aargh,” she shouted loudly, throwing open the kitchen door. Monty stopped barking for a second and looked up at her in surprise. She opened her eyes and looked around, there was nobody there. Then Monty started barking again and she looked down at the kitchen floor.
“Oh my God,” Cate gasped. There on the kitchen floor was a little grey mouse. That’s what Monty had been barking at. Cate almost started crying with relief.
Cate knelt down on the floor and Monty immediately came to her side. The poor little mouse looked terrified. She found a container in the kitchen cupboard and carefully manoeuvred the mouse inside. Then she put a lid on it and unlocked the back door, ready to release it back into the wild.
As she opened the back door, there was a really loud, blaring sound and Cate suddenly realised that she’d forgotten to turn off the alarm. Shit! She put the mouse still in the container on the kitchen counter and shut the back door but the alarm didn’t stop. She ran back to the hallway and found the alarm panel but the noise was so loud, she couldn’t remember the code. Monty was running circles around her and she remembered that she hadn’t locked the back door. Don’t panic. She tried really hard to remember the code, was it Ben’s birthday? She tried that but it was wrong.
Then she heard the back door creak open. Who was that?
Monty pushed closer up against her. She heard footsteps coming down the hallway towards her.
She couldn’t turn around. The footsteps kept coming.
“Please don’t kill me,” she whimpered.
But it was a familiar voice. “I’m not going to kill you,” he said softly.
Cate had never been more relieved to see Kian. He leaned in front of her, punched in the alarm code and the noise stopped.
“Oh, thank God,” Cate said, cover
ing her ears, which were still ringing.
“What happened?” Kian looked concerned. He put a hand on her arm and she jumped. “Oh my God, you’re shaking, come here.”
Kian wrapped her up in his arms and she buried her face in the safety of his chest.
After she’d stopped shaking, he guided her to the kitchen table and sat her down. “Let me make you some tea.”
As he went to reach for a mug from the draining board, he saw the container with the mouse inside. “What the…?”
Cate quickly explained what had happened. “I’d better get rid of it,” she said. “Will you come with me?”
“Okay.” Kian held her hand as they went outside into the field at the back of the house. Cate set the box down and carefully opened the lid. The mouse quickly jumped out and went running off into the blackness.
When they got back inside, Monty was hiding under the dining table. “It’s okay,” Cate said softly, kneeling down to see him. “It’s gone now, you can come out.” He gingerly padded his way towards her and she ruffled his head and tickled behind his ears.
“Here you go,” Kian said, “I’ve put extra sugar in it.”
As she took the mug from him, she noticed he was looking at her strangely. “What is it?” Cate asked.
He quickly turned around and busied himself putting the box of teabags back in the cupboard.
Cate looked down at what she was wearing. It had been a warm evening so she was wearing a pale pink vest and her pyjama bottoms. The fabric of the vest was thin and when they’d gone outside it was cold so…
Embarrassed, she quickly folded her arms across her chest.
“Sorry,” Cate stumbled over her words. “I, uh, I didn’t realise. I’ll go and get my robe.”
“Thanks,” Kian exhaled, keeping his back to her.
When Cate came back with her robe belted tightly around her waist, Kian was sat at the kitchen table. Monty was curled up at his feet. She sat down with him and they drank their mugs of tea in silence.
Kian said he couldn’t leave her and Monty alone in the house after their scare so he slept on the couch downstairs. When Cate came downstairs the following morning, he was still asleep. She watched him for a moment.
“Hey,” he said, opening his eyes.
“Hey,” she quickly turned away, embarrassed that he had caught her watching him.
He got up and stretched, his t-shirt riding up a little and Cate caught a glimpse of his skin. It felt like all of the air was pushed out of her lungs.
“We should have bought them a more comfortable couch as a wedding present,” Kian said, rolling his shoulders. “That thing’s so hard.”
“Thanks for staying,” Cate said. “Can I get you some breakfast?”
Kian looked down at his watch, “shit! I’ve got to go.” When he got to the back door, he stopped, “are you two going to be okay?”
Cate looked down at Monty who was noisily tucking into the breakfast Cate had just laid out for him. “Yeah, we’re fine. Thanks though for everything.”
“Okay,” Kian walked across the courtyard and Cate leaned on the doorframe, watching him go. Halfway across, he suddenly stopped and turned around. When he saw she was still there, he smiled. “Come over for dinner tonight?”
Cate thought about playing it cool, pretending she had plans, for like a millisecond and then said “Okay, what time?”
“Seven?” Kian asked and Cate nodded.
She waited for him to go inside his own house and then shut the back door. Yes! She punched the air. Monty looked up from his breakfast as if to say what are you doing?
“I’ve got a date,” she grinned at him.
He wasn’t impressed and went back to his breakfast.
CHAPTER 16
“Earth to Cate, come in Cate,” Zeke said, waving his hands in front of her face. “Houston, I think we’ve lost her.”
Zeke had come over to Ben and Erin’s house and they were supposed to be studying for their Government and Politics exam but Cate couldn’t stop thinking about Kian.
“Ugh,” Zeke threw his hands up in the air. “You’ve got that gooey look on your face, you’re thinking about him again, aren’t you?”
Zeke was the only person she’d told that she had a maybe-date with Kian tonight. “I’m sorry,” Cate said genuinely.
Zeke closed his textbooks. “Come on,” he said, pulling Cate up to standing. “Let’s take a break and go into town. We’re not going to get any studying done today anyway. You can buy me a Frappuccino.”
After a quick pit-stop at Starbucks, Zeke wanted to go to Afflecks Palace. Cate was embarrassed that she’d lived in Manchester her whole life and she’d never been there before.
They were walking around the 2nd floor when a girl with dyed-purple hair and a nose ring recognised Zeke and beckoned them over. The boutique she was working in was tiny with just enough room between the racks of clothing to squeeze by.
As Zeke and Purple Hair Girl chatted, Cate browsed through the racks of clothes, there was some cute stuff. She found herself drawn to a black dress with tiny red cherries all over it. She picked it up to have a closer look. “That’s cute,” Zeke said.
He and Purple Hair Girl came over to have a look. “Yeah, I’ve got that,” Purple Hair Girl said, “it’s super cute.”
Cate went to put it back on the rail but Zeke stopped her, “why don’t you try it on?”
“Here?” Cate looked panicked.
“There’s a changing room over there, behind those boxes,” Purple Hair Girl pointed out.
“Oh, okay,” Cate felt like an idiot.
It was really more of a changing cupboard, it was so small and there was just a flimsy orange curtain for privacy. Cate put the dress on over her jeans and looked in the mirror. It was cute. She didn’t wear dresses very often.
“Let’s have a look,” Zeke said, tugging on the curtain.
Cate pulled open the curtain. Purple Hair Girl was still there, which made Cate feel even more self-conscious.
“You might want to try it without the jeans,” Zeke said, laughing.
Zeke persuaded her to take off her jeans and then she came back out again. “You look so different,” he said, making her turn around so he could see her from all angles.
“Good different or bad different?” Cate asked. She felt really exposed with her legs bare.
“Definitely good different,” Zeke said. “You should get it.”
“Totally,” Purple Hair Girl chipped in.
As Cate handed over her debit card to buy the dress, she wondered what Kian would think of it. She decided to wear it to dinner that night. Except this time, she’d wear tights with it. And perhaps a cardigan as well?
After Zeke dropped her back at Ben and Erin’s house, Cate took an extra-long shower. She couldn’t stop thinking about what might happen that night, it made her hyper aware of her body. It was like in anticipation, all of her senses had settled close to the surface of her skin. She pinched a little bit of Erin’s fancy body lotion and as she rubbed it on her skin, it came up in goose bumps. Calm down, she admonished herself.
As she walked from the bathroom to the guest bedroom, she even walked a little differently; like somebody was watching. She swung her hips a little from side to side. While Zeke had been distracted, she’d stolen off and bought some new underwear. It was nothing like the women in the kiss and tells wore but for Cate it felt a little risqué; every other bra and panties she owned were plain, simple and black. These were still black but the bra was padded; when she tried it on, it gave her cleavage. She couldn’t stop looking at herself in the mirror, she had actual breasts. The panties matched the bra and were adorned with threads of white lace. Cate thought they looked classy but still sexy?
Cate thought for a second about going without tights but she chickened out, she wasn’t quite ready for that. She put on a pair of black tights and her new cherry dress. Then she blow dried her hair and curled the ends a little. For make-up, she put on a
little mascara and a hint of lip gloss. As she was about to leave the house, she checked herself one more time in the mirror. Was it too much? What if it was just a friendly dinner? Cate ran back upstairs and grabbed her black cardigan. There, that was better. If she was right, she could always take off the cardigan later.
You’re really going to do this? She’d never felt so nervous and yet so excited. She felt sure she was giving off sparks.
At seven, she walked across the courtyard to Kian’s house. “Hi,” he opened the front door and his eyes widened when he saw her, “wow, you look amazing.”
Cate blushed a little, “thanks.”
Kian gave her a tour of the house since Cate had only been there once before, the night of the Ryders concert.
They skirted past his bedroom but as she passed by the open doorway, Cate couldn’t help but look at the huge bed. Her cheeks flushed and she put the backs of her hands against them to try to cool them down.
He showed her one of the guest bedrooms and Cate thought it was the most beautiful room she had ever seen. It was on the corner of the house and had windows on two sides. The first set of windows looked out over the vast expanse of countryside at the back of the house. On the other side was a Juliet balcony with an intricate stained glass panel above the doors. The colours were mesmerising as the late sunlight shone through, sending twists and strands of reds and blues, greens and purples onto the carpet. Cate went to look more closely. As she stood in front of it, the vivid swirls of colour splashed all over her. She raised a hand and looked at the patterns of reds and blues, greens and purples on her skin.
“That’s so beautiful,” Cate marvelled.
“It’s strange,” Kian said, standing behind her. “It was here when I bought the house; it’s the only room in the house with stained glass.”
Cate was aware of how close he was, she could feel the heat coming off his body. Kiss me, she thought.
“What does your boyfriend think of you coming over here tonight?” he whispered.
Cate felt his large hand curve around her hip.
“My boyfriend?”
