By the time it got to the end, I was almost on his lap, much to his enjoyment. I could see the bulge forming in his jeans even though he put his arm over it to cover it quickly. I blushed slightly, knowing that I had caused that, because he was attracted to me and I was jumping all over him. My mind flashed to all the times that he’d been aroused near me before, in bed or dancing, and I wondered how many of them were caused by attraction as well. I bit my lip; maybe I’d ask him another time.

Finally, the stupid ass zombie movie was over and I breathed a sigh of relief.

“That was awesome,” Kate chirped, grinning.

“Yep, best movie I’ve seen in ages,” Liam agreed with a smirk, I knew he meant because I was sitting on him.

“I hated it! How can you say that was good? I mean, jeez, they’re dead people who eat live people and turn them into flesh eating zombies too. And now I have to pee, and I’m scared to go on my own!” I whined, standing up and pouting. Why did I watch that stupid thing anyway? I knew it would scare me!

All three of them laughed at me, but Liam stood up. “I’ll come with you and check the bathroom for scary un-dead before you go in, how’s that?” he offered, nodding his head towards the bathroom in the hall, smiling.

“Will you check my bedroom too? And my en-suite?” I asked hopefully. He laughed; he obviously thought I was joking. “I’m not joking, Liam.”

“Whatever you want, Angel,” he agreed, smiling and following me up the hall. I stopped outside the bathroom door and waited for him to go in first. He came out a minute later, chuckling to himself. “It’s a zombie free zone,” he said shaking his head, grinning at me.

“Thanks,” I mumbled, blushing and feeling like a little kid. I headed into the bathroom, leaving the door unlocked in case I needed to get out of there quickly. I knew I was being stupid but I just couldn't help myself. I washed my hands and stepped out, to see him leaning against the wall waiting for me, which made me smile.

“I thought I’d better wait for you. You never know what could be lurking in a dark hallway,” he said, looking around slowly with wide eyes. My heart jumped into my throat as I threw myself at him, wrapping my arms around his waist tightly, burying my face into the side of his neck. He laughed. “Yep, best movie ever!” he stated, putting his arms around me and walking down the hall to the lounge. Before we turned the corner he pulled away and kissed me lightly on the lips.

Jake laughed as we walked into the lounge. “Seriously? You made him wait for you outside the door? That’s low, Ambs. I hope you at least shut the door this time,” he teased as I sat back down.

I nodded. “Yep I shut the door, didn’t think he’d want to hear that,” I confirmed, grinning. “How about we play on the Wii?” I suggested, trying to change the subject from my zombie phobia. Everyone nodded so Jake set it up. They decided on sports so Liam and Jake played boxing first. Kate moved over to sit next to me; the two boys were standing and playing in front of us.

“Hmm, I just can’t decide which one has the cutest butt. Who do you think?” Kate said quietly but loud enough for the guys to hear.

“Ew! Seriously, what’s wrong with you? That’s my brother!” I cried, shuddering.

“Only one of them is your brother, Amber, the other is seriously freaking hot. And I think he has a soft spot for you,” she whispered too loud again, making me cringe. I saw Jake shoot a death glare at Liam who looked like he was pretending he couldn’t hear her.

“Right, yeah OK,” I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes. “Come on hurry up I want a turn,” I whined, trying to change the subject. Kate really had no idea how close she was.

“Here, Angel, you can take my turn. I’d better get going anyway, it’s almost midnight, my parents will be wondering where I am,” Liam said holding the controller out to me. Kate jumped up and grabbed it, smirking and nodding towards my brother, signalling she wanted to play with him.

“Liam, would you check my bedroom before you go?” I asked, feeling pathetic and like a scared little kid.

He smiled but didn’t laugh at me, which I found surprising. “Oh all right!” He forced a sigh, his eyes amused. By the look of him he actually quite liked the fact that I was asking him to do this, maybe he liked being all protective or something, maybe it was making him feel needed. He stalked off towards my room and I got up and followed him after a couple of seconds. I closed my door silently, and leant against it. I watched him as he actually walked around my room, looking under the bed, and in the closet, before heading into my en-suite. As he walked back into the room, his eyes landed on me, he honestly didn’t know I was there I could tell by his surprised face. Bless him; my boyfriend had actually checked my whole bedroom for zombies. My heart skipped a beat at the thought of him being my boyfriend.

“Hi,” I purred seductively as I walked over to my bed and sat down.

“Hi,” he replied with a small smile. He made no moves to come towards me; I think he was trying not to rush me. I patted the bed beside me and he eagerly trotted over and sat down.

“Thanks for checking my room,” I whispered, playing with the neck of his t-shirt, tracing my finger along the skin there.

“Anytime. I’m just sorry I won’t be here for you tonight. Try not to have too many nightmares, OK?” He looked at me with sad eyes; we both knew that I would have nightmares without him here.

I got onto my knees and moved to him, throwing my leg over his so I was sitting on his lap, straddling him. I wrapped my arms around his neck and looked into his beautiful blue eyes. He looked a little taken aback but his eyes danced with excitement.

“I’m sorry that Kate’s staying over. I’m actually really going to miss you half crushing me to death in the night,” I teased. I said it as a joke but to be honest I really was going to miss him tonight.

“Well, I’m really going to miss half crushing you to death,” he joked, rubbing his hands on my back.

“Try and get some sleep tonight though, OK?” I pleaded. I really hated it when he went without sleep, it made me feel guilty because he only started sleeping here in the first place to comfort me and now he was stuck with it.

“I’ll try.”

I suddenly had the urge to kiss him and maybe tease him a little, but I was scared to do it. OK, just do it, Amber, what’s the worst that could happen? It’s Liam; he’ll stop if you ask him to.

“Maybe I could give you a little something to dream about. Would that help do you think?” I asked, biting my lip and raising my eyebrows. He looked at me, his expression a little unsure; he obviously wasn’t expecting this much physical contact so soon. I could tell by the bulge in his jeans pressing between my legs that he wanted physical contact, but I could also tell that he was letting me make the first moves.

“It might help,” he said huskily, making my body tingle and my skin to heat up.

I leant forward and kissed him passionately, he made a small moaning sound as he slipped his tongue into my mouth. I ran my hands through his hair, loving the soft feel of it on my fingers. He didn’t make any other moves, he just kissed me, but I wanted a little more so I pushed on his shoulders, making him lay down so that I was on top of him. I ran my hands down his chest and slipped my hand under his t-shirt, tracing it over his sculpted abs, making him shiver slightly.

He rolled me so I was under him, he broke out of the kiss and looked at me, our eyes locked together trying to slow our breathing. I gripped his t-shirt and pulled it up over his head, making him seem to stop breathing altogether. I looked down at his chest. He really was beautiful; I ran my fingers down it marveling that this boy wanted to be with me. He still hadn’t moved, he just hovered above me, looking unsure what to do, so I put my hands back around his neck and pulled him back down to kiss me. He kissed me back eagerly. The kiss was getting hot; he broke it only to kiss across my cheek and down my neck. His hand moved slowly to my stomach and he slipped it under my top, tracing his fingers across the skin there. He continued to kiss downwards over my top until he got to my stomach then he hitched up my top and started kissing my skin. I felt his tongue trail across just under my belly button making me moan. I was getting a feeling down in my core it was like a burning ache but I tried not to think about it, the feeling scared the life out of me.

He pushed my top slightly higher and I felt him kissing the material at the bottom of my bra. I was still OK with this; I was enjoying it a lot more than I thought I would. I thought that this would just give him something to dream about, but I had a feeling I would be revisiting this tonight too. My top rose a little higher and I heard him make a soft moaning noise as it completely exposed my bra. His hand snaked up my stomach and he gently brushed his hand over one of my breasts, just once, before moving it away as if he was waiting for me to stop him. When I didn’t say anything, he put his hand back there again and cupped my breast. I moaned again. It felt so nice to have him touch me; he brought his mouth back to mine and kissed me tenderly, still massaging my br**sts gently.

I could feel his erection pressing into my thigh and I started to get a little panicky because this was getting too hot, too fast. Oh God I need to stop! I broke the kiss. “Liam,” I said breathlessly. His eyes snapped to mine quickly and he took his hands off me, pushing himself up so that he was hovering above me, not touching me apart from our legs which were intertwined.

“Stop?” he asked, his voice sounding husky and full of lust. I gulped and nodded. He immediately pushed himself off of me completely and sat back on the edge of the bed, pulling on his t-shirt.

I sat up, blushing, feeling stupid and like a little kid. Jeez, I didn’t even let him get my top off! “Sorry,” I mumbled, not looking at him.

“Angel, you don’t need to be sorry. We didn’t have to do that. I told you, whatever you want. I’m not going to say that I didn’t enjoy that though, because that would be a lie. That was the hottest damn thing that has ever happened to me,” he said, shrugging.

I giggled at that statement. “The hottest thing that’s ever happened to you? Yeah right, you’ve probably slept with over a hundred different girls and done goodness knows what with them and to them, and you didn’t even get my top off before I freaked out,” I said sarcastically, feeling like an idiot. He didn’t need to lie to make me feel better.

“Angel, trust me that was the hottest thing that has ever happened to me. It’s just you, you make me feel different. Even kissing you is different, it’s a thousand times better than anything I’ve ever felt before. You make my body burn everywhere you touch me. I can’t explain it.” He frowned and shook his head as if he was annoyed at himself for not having the right words.

“I know what you mean.” I smiled, kissing him lightly on the lips.

He grinned at me. “Now’s where you’re supposed to tell me that that was the hottest for you too,” he joked, knowing that I hadn’t kissed anyone but him and that jerk that kissed me at the party.

I pretended to think about it for a few seconds. “I’ve had better.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I bet you have,” he replied, shaking his head in amusement. I grinned at him and he sighed. “I guess I’d better go. Thanks for today; I had a really good time with you. Sleep tight, OK. Oh and by the way, that thing we just did that was supposed to help me sleep, well, I don’t think that’s going to have the desired effect. I think it’s actually going to keep me awake all night thinking about it,” he said, tracing his finger across my cheekbone.

I giggled. “Me too,” I admitted, making him laugh too.

He stood up and held his hand out for me, I took it and he helped me up, we walked down the hallway hand in hand. He stopped at the corner and kissed my forehead before he sighed and let go of my hand. “Right, guys, I’m off. I’ll see you tomorrow,” Liam called as he walked towards the front door.

“Yeah, see ya,” they both answered, still engrossed in their game of tennis on the TV. Liam smiled at me from the door but it was forced, I could tell it was almost hurting him to go, I smiled back and he shut the door. The moment the door closed my heart sank. The thought of having to spend two nights in my bed without him made me feel a little sick; it would have been horrendous even if we hadn’t just got together, but now it actually felt like torture. I sighed and went back to the couch to watch Jake whip Kate’s butt on the Wii.

That night was awful. I went to bed terrified of zombies, and even when I did go to sleep, I started to dream about my father. I hadn’t dreamt of him for over five months. The last dreams I had were when Kate and Sarah stayed over for Sarah’s birthday. Because the girls were here, Liam had to stay away, and I’d woken the whole house up with my screaming.

My dream tonight was bad. Jake was eleven and I was nine. We were playing in the yard to get out of the house because my father wanted to watch some football match on the TV. He’d been drinking all afternoon which made him even more temperamental. Jake and I were playing with his new soccer ball that he had got for his birthday a couple of weeks before. We weren’t supposed to play with it in the yard, only in the park, but Jake wanted to show me this new trick he'd learnt.

He was kneeing the ball to keep it up in the air; I was laughing and counting how many times he could do it, being all proud of my big brother. He lost control of it, and instead of letting it drop to the floor, he tried to save it by kicking it back up with his foot. The ball flew through the air and hit the window. Luckily, it didn’t smash, but it did make a loud bang. We both turned and looked at the door, waiting.