“Yeah, of course. I do have a girlfriend. I have the sexiest, most beautiful girlfriend in the world, who is yet to give me the thank you that she promised me by text this morning.” He smiled his flirty smile at me and it felt like a thousand butterflies took off in my stomach.

I giggled and leant forwards until my mouth was almost touching his. “All good things come to those who wait,” I teased, winking at him and walking off.

He groaned and caught me up quickly. “You don’t think twelve years is long enough to wait?” he asked, faking shock, making me giggle.

“Hmm, not really. I think I’ll make you wait a little longer.” I blew him a kiss as I stepped through the doors to my history class. I heard him groan, but when I looked back he was smiling, watching me walk away. I purposefully swayed my ass, trying to look sexy; it must have worked because three boys from my history class whistled at me and made a comment about my sexy booty. I rolled my eyes. Boys!

I couldn’t speak to Liam much at lunch, we were sat at the same table but everyone wanted to talk to him. “So, you really have a secret girlfriend?” Tim, one of his friends, asked, looking at him like he didn’t believe him at all.

“Yep,” Liam confirmed, looking extremely proud about it. Every time he looked at me, I blushed like crazy, and was sure someone was going to notice.

“She must be one hot woman to have tamed the beast into settling down,” Rick smirked.

Liam laughed, his eyes shot to me for a split second. “She is the sexiest thing alive, man,” he said confidently.

“Really? She a good fuck?” Rick asked, picking at his sandwich.

“Dude, seriously, I’m not going to answer that about my girl,” Liam stated with a smirk.

“I bet I could blow her out of the water,” Rochelle flirted, running her hand down his arm.

He laughed. “You know what, you wouldn’t stand a chance. My girl is incredibly beautiful, both inside and out.” Liam shrugged, pulling his arm away, grinning. All the girls at the table aww’d and ahh’d. I smiled and tried to eat my lunch. I could feel Kate’s eyes on me so I looked at her, she was grinning at me from ear to ear. I rolled my eyes at her, chuckling.

“He hasn’t slept with her, she believes in no sex before marriage,” Jake interjected, smirking. I swallowed a laugh. Had Jake really believed him when he told him that this morning? Everyone gasped and looked at Liam, who was grinning like crazy.

“No shit! You haven’t slept with her?” Rick asked sceptically.

“No I haven’t, but that’s not really any of your business, guys.” Liam shook his head, grinning. “I’ve got to go. I need to speak to coach about practice.” He shrugged, getting up. Half of the boys got up too, following him out.

As soon as he was gone, all the girls started planning and scheming. They wanted to know who the secret girl was, and would stop at nothing to find out, then they each took out twenty dollars and put it into the middle of the table. I looked at them, confused.

“So, the next girl to nail him, wins the pot,” Jessica said, with a smirk.

I gasped. “Seriously? He’s just said he has a girlfriend and isn’t interested, and you’re betting on who’s going to sleep with him next? What if his girlfriend sleeps with him next?” I asked, shocked. I can’t believe these girls are betting on ha**g s*x with someone! It’s a damn competition!

“Well, if she puts in her money then she can win, but she’s obviously not giving him what he needs. He’ll stray eventually. The next one to nail him wins, but I guarantee it won’t be his girlfriend. He can’t wait. No sex before marriage, yeah right! This is Liam James we‘re talking about.” She rolled her eyes, grinning. She was obviously very confident that she’d win.

Then I had an idea, I pulled out a twenty and dropped it into their pile. “The next one to nail him, right?” I asked, barely able to contain my grin.

“Yeah right! Like you stand a chance, Emo!” Jessica spat at me nastily.

“So, how much does the winner get?” I asked excitedly, ignoring her sneer.

She counted the money that was in the pile. “Well, there’s two hundred and forty here at the moment, but once people hear of it…. well, I don’t know…. the last time we did this, it was for Chris. It got up to six hundred and twenty, but Liam is way hotter, and by the looks of him untouchable, well, for the moment anyway.” Jessica laughed, folding the money and putting it in her pocket, writing the entrants names onto a piece of paper. I laughed; wow, this is going to be easy money. Kate was laughing her head off.

“You going to put in as well?” Jessica asked Kate and Sarah politely.

“Nope, not me. I don’t stand a chance.” Kate shrugged, still laughing.

Sarah passed Jessica her money. “I’m in. Who could say no at the chance of all that money and they get to sleep with Liam James,” Sarah said dreamily. I grabbed my two friend’s arms and dragged them out of the lunch room to our next class.

I had to hang around after school, waiting for Jake and Liam to finish their hockey practice. I snuck into the rink and hid at the back so I wouldn’t be seen. We weren’t allowed in here during practice because their coach said that girls distracted the players. I loved to watch their hockey games; there was just something about the way they glided over the ice so fast and gracefully. They were doing sprints at the moment, skating from one line to the other as fast as they could, then they had to dribble a puck around a load of cones, and finally they were all taking turns shooting at the goal, with my brother doing his best to keep the pucks out. He was a really great goalkeeper, but he only played for fun. Liam on the other hand, had been offered a full athletic scholarship to one of the best collages in the country. He was hoping to turn pro - which apparently, he had every chance of doing because he had scouts falling all over him.

I found myself watching Liam skating. I’d watched him do this hundreds, if not thousands of times, but there was just something so beautiful about it. He took my breath away. I was watching the way his feet moved, the way his messy brown hair blew as he skated, the way the ice sprayed up as he stopped. And, of course, I noticed how unbelievably hot he looked in his uniform.

I snuck back out as practice finished and waited by Liam’s car for them to shower. Sarah came up as I was standing there. “Hey, girl,” she chirped, bouncing up and down a little in excitement.

“Hey, Sar. What’s up with you? You haven’t been sniffing those herbs again have you?” I teased. This was a running joke, Sarah had bought some ‘herbs’ from a friend of hers and lit them in her room to cleanse her aura or something. It had ended up being weed and she got high, running down her street half na**d whist calling everyone on her cell to come and see the parade. She never lived it down.

“Ha ha! No, I’ve just spoke to Ashley who said that the pot for Liam’s ass is now up to $1860! Can you believe that? So, I’m going to give it a shot when he comes out of practice,” she said, bouncing on the spot and looking around for them.

I almost choked. $1860. Was that a joke? Holy crap! That means over ninety girls are going to be begging my boyfriend for sex, offering it to him on a plate and I’m scared to let him touch me. Maybe this isn’t going to be as fun as I first thought.

About five minutes later, the boys came out. “Hi, Liam. Wow, you smell good,” Sarah purred seductively as she leant in close to him.

He looked at her, a horrified expression on his face. I bit my lip, hard, so I didn’t laugh. “Hi, Sarah. Listen, you might not have heard but I have a girlfriend, so….” he trailed off, shrugging.

“That’s OK, I don’t mind sharing,” Sarah purred, putting her hand on his chest to make him stop in front of her.

He looked a little annoyed. “Sarah, seriously I’m not interested, OK.” He moved her hand and got into the car, frowning.

I smiled apologetically at Sarah because she looked a little defeated. “There’s twenty bucks I’ll never see again,” she pouted.

I laughed. “Hey, when I win I’ll give you your twenty back.” I winked at her teasingly, making her laugh as I climbed into the car.

Today was one of the days that Jake worked, so Liam always dropped him at the gym where he worked Monday to Wednesday evenings. Then Liam usually drove me home. “Shit, man, I think I’ve been hit on more times today than I ever have been. What the hell is that about? I tell people I’ve got a girlfriend, and all afternoon people have been begging me to fu-” He abruptly stopped talking, looking at me in the mirror as if he’d said too much. I laughed, bless him, he had no idea nearly a hundred horny girls were trying to sleep with him for a bet! “What’s so funny, Angel?” he asked, raising his eyebrows at me in the mirror.

“You want to know why you’ve had all that extra attention today?” I asked, smirking.

“Yeah,” he answered, looking a bit apprehensive.

Jake turned to look at me from the front. I smiled. “Well, there’s a bet going around amongst the girls as to who can sleep with you first. The first girl to get you, wins the pot. It’s pretty good money,” I stated, still smirking. Jake burst out laughing, and Liam almost swerved the car into the other lane because he was so shocked.

“They’re doing what? Don’t they know I have a girlfriend?” he shouted, obviously really pissed off. His outrage seemed to make Jake laugh harder.

I nodded. “Yep, that’s why they’re doing it. They don’t like the idea of you being attached, seeing as you’re such a player, so they want to be the next one to sleep with you.” I shrugged dismissively, pretending it was no big deal when I was actually worried sick about it. How long would he be able to resist all of this attention for?

“How much is the pot?” Jake asked, amusement still clear on his face.

“Over eighteen hundred dollars.” I laughed. Liam nearly swerved us off the road again and Jake’s mouth dropped open. He looked at Liam with a look of pure pride in his eyes. “Yep, twenty bucks each. So that makes about ninety girls wanting to be the next one you screw, Liam.” I smiled at him in the mirror. He looked horrified, and honestly, a little scared.

“Holy shit, man! You know, you should just choose someone and screw them and split the money!” Jake said excitedly. Liam gave him the filthiest look in the world, like he’d just suggested skinning a puppy or something. Jake held up his hands apologetically. “Kidding. Jeez, I’m kidding!” he said quickly, but I could tell by his face that he was actually serious.

“So, that’s why Sarah just hit on me outside the car! Who the hell else is in on this, Angel?” Liam asked, sounding really annoyed about it.

“Well, Jessica’s arranging it. All of the cheer squad, most of the seniors, me, Ashley, Nadine,” I replied, listing off the people that I knew, but Liam cut me off.

“You?” he asked, with wide eyes.

I nodded, laughing. “Well yeah, eighteen hundred bucks is a lot of money. Mind you, it was only at two forty when I put in, but still, I like to gamble,” I joked, giving him a sexy smile in the mirror.

Jake looked like he was going to explode. “You? No freaking way! What the heck are you thinking?” he shouted at me, making me flinch. I hated to see Jake angry.

“Jake, it’s a lot of money I just thought, you know, it’d be a laugh. You never know, I may get to lose my virginity to the famous Liam James,” I teased, waggling my eyebrows at him.

Jake started to laugh, looking relieved; he obviously thought I was joking. I smiled and looked out of the window; I wasn’t good at lying, if he asks me if I was joking then I would have to tell him the truth. “Jeez, Ambs, you scared me then! I thought you were serious.” Jake laughed, slapping Liam on the shoulder proudly. “Eighteen hundred bucks that’s awesome, Liam. I wonder how many girls you could bang in one night, if they all thought they were the one to win the bet.”

I gasped. Oh crap! Great Jake, put that in his head, I’m sure that’s all he needs to hear since his girlfriend’s not willing to give it up! “Damn it, Jake, I have a girlfriend!” Liam cried, sounding a little exasperated.

“Yeah I know, but come on, girls are going to be pretty desperate to win, I bet you could get them to do anything,” Jake smirked, waggling his eyebrows.

“Jake, just stop. I don’t want anyone else; I’m crazy about my girl. I’m not going to screw it up with her,” Liam stated proudly. He smiled at me in the mirror and my breathing started to slow down as my panic started to recede. Trust. I needed to trust him and stop assuming the worst all of the time.

We dropped Jake off at the gym and Liam drove us home. “You put in twenty bucks betting you would be the next one to sleep with me?” he asked, smiling at me cockily.

“Actually no, the bet is to be the next one to nail you.” I shrugged, giggling.

He laughed and gripped my hand as we drove. “I can’t believe that this is happening. I thought that once people knew I wasn’t interested, that they would all leave me alone, not have more girls after me! I’m really sorry.” He frowned and kissed the back of my hand softly.

“Don’t worry about it; it’s not your fault. I guess that whole trust thing is going to be needed a lot from now on, huh?” I joked, smiling a half smile, pretending I wasn’t worried about all of the girls that would be throwing themselves at him for the foreseeable future.

We reached my house and he parked in his drive. “Hey, want to come in? We can tell my parents we’re together. I told them I have a girlfriend and my mom almost died, I swear,” he said, chuckling and nodding towards his house with a hopeful expression.