Chapter 20 - Niall - Bumping into You
Chapter 20
Niall
When I knock on the door adjoining Gwen’s and my rooms, I wait for a beat before Gwen opens it. She looks beautiful in a yellow skirt and a white shirt tied in a knot, giving off a brief view of her stomach. My hand itches to reach out, to touch her, to pull her close to me so I can feel the softness of her. Just the thought of touching her causes my body to react.
Taking control of where my mind is going, I say, “You look perfect.”
She instantly blushes, a light pink brightening her sun-kissed skin.
“Well, you don’t look so bad yourself,” she replies, her eyes roaming over me.
I feel the grin breaking out across my face at her attention. “Since I’ll be your cupcake decorating partner, I thought we’d walk there together.”
Nodding, she slips her phone into her pocket and slides her sea pass lanyard around her neck. Not wanting anyone to be suspicious if they see us leaving the same room together, I step back into my room and close our adjoining door. With our friends having rooms right next to ours, it would be way too easy to run into the others.
Gwen and I meet in the hallway, then we make our way to the class. I can feel my nerves running, no, rampaging around inside me. What the feck is going on with me? We’re just walking together, and my insides are going crazy.
I smile when I notice Bradley and Tammy are in the class. I’m happy my excuse is confirmed. Time to play boyfriend.
After we meet up with the others, we partner up for the class.
“Sully,” says Trent, “want to be partners?”
Greg shakes his head at Trent and motions toward Gwen.
“Oh, right,” says Trent.
“I was actually thinking the same as Greg,” I tell Trent. “With these two here,” I motion slightly toward Tammy and Bradley, “maybe this would be a sound time for me to hang out with Gwen. Let some of my Sully energy help them not ruin the class for her.”
“Dude, good call,” says Trent. “Hey, Margot, want to be partners? I promise I’ll let you eat your fair share of the icing.”
“Ha,” says Margot, “someone’s got to keep an eye on you, or we’re not going to have any icing at all. Right, Gwen?”
Gwen is typing intently on her phone.
“Right, Gwen?” Margot repeats.
“Hmm?” Gwen asks, not looking up from her phone.
“You would have heard me if you weren’t stuck with your nose in your phone,” says Margot.
“Sorry,” says Gwen. “I was just checking in with work. I’m all yours now. What’s going on?” She puts her phone in her pocket.
“It was nothing,” says Margot, already heading to her cupcake station.
Our cupcake stations are equipped with ingredients to make our own frosting, colored dye, and a whole array of decorating pieces. I am clueless to the differences between them all.
“Thank you for this,” Gwen says. “It was so thoughtful of you to think about Bradley and Tammy being in this class and suggesting we be partners.”
“No worries,” I say genuinely. “That’s what fake boyfriends are for.”
Patting my arm, she says, “Right, and now I can show Bradley how much better off I am without him.”
“You sure are,” I reply quietly, watching her smile and a lightness ease into her.
Holly stops by our station. “You two ready for some fun?” she asks.
“Of course,” I reply happily.
“She just wants to show off how amazing her decorating skills are,” Gwen teases. “Ten bucks says Holly’s decorations are better than the instructor’s.”
“Oh no, I’m not touching that bet,” I say. “I’ve heard all about Holly’s baking prowess from Greg.”
“Stop it, you guys,” says Holly, feigning embarrassment as she turns and walks back over to her station with Greg.
Nancy, a sweet older lady, is the instructor of the class. She walks us through how to make the icing base.
I’d say we did a fairly decent job. Vivian and Tammy were supposed to be partners, but with Bradley, the three of them are sharing a workstation. Glancing over at them, it looks like they’ve managed to make icing soup, so while the instructor helps them thicken their icing, Gwen and I separate ours into multiple smaller bowls so we can mix in the colors.
“What colors are you thinking?” she asks me while eyeing Bradley and Tammy.
“Red, for sure,” I say.
Quirking her eyebrow at me, she says, “For all the fires you put out?”
“For the red of the most beautiful woman in this room,” I say.
She swats me not so lightly on the arm.
“Ouch,” I say, rubbing my arm.
“That’s what you get for trying to distract me with silly, flirty compliments.”
“Who said I was talking about you? Maybe I was talking about Nancy,” I say, pointing to Nancy, who is trying to help Miles and Gillian, as they somehow managed to make their icing too thick, so much so that their spoon is stuck in it.
Gwen swats me on the arm again. “Not funny.”
“Ouch, you’re right, your hits are not funny. I think I may have a bruise now.” I rub my arm even more dramatically.
She turns to face me, placing both hands on her waist and giving me one of her best glares.
Hands up in mock surrender, I say, “Okay, okay, I surrender. It’s really you. You’re the most beautiful woman in this room, Rose.”
“Aww, now aren’t you two the sweetest things,” says Tammy as she walks by and picks up a bowl from the extra supplies Nancy had out.
“Err . . . thanks,” says Gwen, her cheeks growing pink.
Rolling her eyes at me, Gwen turns back to face the color options, but I can see the small smile crinkling her eyes. She picks out a light blue, a yellow, and a sage green.
After we mix the colors, Nancy shows us all about the different decorating tips we can use, giving us examples of what each would look like. Then she instructs us on how to add the icing to the piping bags without making too much of a mess. Proud of myself for not getting icing all over the place, I glance over at Gwen, who has managed to get her icing in the bag with less mess than me.
“Show off,” I mutter, bumping her with my hip.
“You better watch it, Niall. I have a piping bag full of icing, and I know how to use it.”
“Oh, is that so, Rose?” I lean in close to her.
“Yes,” she says matter-of-factly.
Before she has time to react, I take my piping bag and leave a dollop of the red icing on her nose. Scrunching her face, she doesn’t even miss a beat as she places a dollop of blue icing on my nose.
Nancy clears her throat, having appeared right in front of our table. “Now, the icing is supposed to be for the cupcakes, not noses.”
“Yeah, Gwen, didn’t our mother teach you manners?” says Greg from a few tables over, smiling. He’s one to talk. The icing is coming out of the top of his piping bag no matter what Holly does to try and help him.
Gwen looks alarmed at what she’s done, but the whole thing has me cracking up, and before I know it, she is laughing right along with me.
“Here, let me get that.” I reach over, holding her face in my hands. Her laughing immediately stops, shock at my touch causing her beautiful hazel eyes to grow wide.
“Don’t worry, Rose, I’ll be gentle with you,” I say.
She makes a slight nod and lets out a breathy, “Okay.”
Holding her so close, it would be so easy to just kiss her. Her full lips are lightly parted after her reply, her breath warm against me as I stand close to her. I take one finger, tracing her nose as I remove the icing from it. I plop the dollop of icing in my mouth. “Tastes delicious. We make a mean icing.”
She nods, still frozen. Then, she reaches up and wipes the icing off my nose and licks the icing off her finger in what feels like slow motion. The pop of her mouth and finger sets off a gentle whirlwind of emotions within me. Oh feck, what she does to me.
I clear my throat. “Thanks.”
“Now about these cupcakes,” she says, “it looks like we are the ones behind now.”
Gillian and Miles have already iced a handful of cupcakes, and Trent and Margot aren’t far behind them. Holly is already on her eleventh perfectly iced cupcake.
“Right,” I say, “let’s get to icing.”
After we finish, we each eat one of the cupcakes.
“We did good work,” I say between mouthfuls.
“We sure did,” says Gwen.
Next on the itinerary is laser tag, which sounds like something definitely added to the wedding activities by Greg. On the way there, Greg drops back to talk to me. “So, tomorrow Holly and I are going to the couple’s yoga class. I was thinking you should take Gwen since she loves yoga so much.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” I say.
“Great,” says Greg, catching up with Holly.
When we walk into laser tag, the whole group is here except for Bradley and Tammy. Maybe they won’t show up, which I know would be a nice break for Gwen.
The set up of the arena is truly amazing. Each group is a separate alien race, the Kriphits versus the Phevaihs, trying to take over the new world so their species can live on it.
We decide to do a boys-against-girls game. “We’re going to be the Kriphits,” says Holly. “It sounds like Griffins, which of course I love.” The girls all nod in agreement.
“Sounds perfect to me,” says Trent. “You won’t stand a chance against the Phevaihs.”
“Oh, there you are!” exclaims Vivian.
We all turn to see Tammy and Bradley.
“I wasn’t sure if you two would be making it,” says Vivian.
“Oh, girl,” says Tammy, “we wouldn’t miss it. Bradley was so happy when he found out the cruise would have laser tag. Right, Bradley Boo?”
“Right,” says Bradley. Then looking at Gwen, he says, “I hope you don’t mind that we’ve joined you.”
“Of course not,” says Gwen.
But one glance at Gwen doesn’t have anyone convinced. Yep, she’d definitely gotten her hopes up that they wouldn’t be here.
“Well,” says Holly, quickly changing the subject, “we are playing guys against girls, but the guys are already one short. Would you mind being on the guy’s team, Tammy?
“No worries,” Tammy says cheerfully. “I’m horrible at this and can be on the guy’s team. I’m just here for my Bradley Boo.”
“Alright then, let’s play,” says Trent. He stars humming “Night Fever” by the Bee Gees. Greg, Miles, and I jump in to sing when he gets to the chorus.
Laughing, we all suit up.
Gwen makes eye contact with me, and I head over to her.
“How can I be this unlucky?” she says. “I thought they weren’t going to make it. Why couldn’t they have missed this event? It’s like I can’t avoid them at all.”
I place my hands on her arms. “No worries, Rose, we can handle this.” I turn and stand next to her as the instructor goes through the necessary safety talk. The space is dark with minimal lighting overhead in the labyrinth of the arena. The walls and fake rocks give off a slight glow, adding to the eeriness of the arena.
We’re given a moment to run in and find a place to start the game. A beeping overhead counts down before the final buzzer sounds, letting us know the game has begun. Our vests and laser tag guns come to life.
Cutting around a path, I’m quick to get points for our team, finding Margot first, then Gillian. I keep inching around through the arena. A few minutes pass before I see her. Auburn hair zooming around a corner toward the back of the arena. I backtrack and cut through a path, hoping I’m heading to the same place as Gwen. She is sly though and is crouching behind a rock as I come around the corner. I’m open fire for her. She stands and shoots me square on the chest, and my vest lights up.
“Gotcha,” she says then smirks at me.
Unable to fire until my hit wears off, I stalk toward her, backing her against the wall. “Oh, you do, do you?”
“Yes,” she says, lifting her chin in stubbornness. My feisty Rose.
I drop my laser tag gun and let it dangle down next to me as I place both hands on either side of her, essentially trapping her in.
“Looks like I’ve got you now,” I say, lowering my face slightly to line up with hers.
“Looks like it,” she says, biting her lip, her chest still rising and falling rapidly from the adrenaline of the game. The sight of it makes me moan with want.
A sudden change in expression zips across her face, shock followed by frustration.
“Kiss me,” she whispers.
Why would she ask me to kiss her? Don’t be an eejit. A beautiful beore asks you to kiss her, you kiss her.
I lean down and place my lips against hers. Gwen presses into the kiss. I slide one hand from the wall to the back of her head pulling her in closer to me, kissing her deeply now. Our mouths dance in their own rhythm, exploring and enjoying the taste of each other. My desire for her overtaking all my brain cells, I don’t know what to make of her suddenly asking me to kiss her, but I am going to enjoy this kiss, here and now.
The sound of my vest’s sensor resetting breaks the bubble of our kiss. Pulling slightly back, I smile down at her, resting my forehead against hers.
“I like kissing you,” I admit.
“Me too,” she sighs, but then quickly adds, “I saw Bradley and Tammy coming around the corner, so . . .”
“Bradley and Tammy?” I ask.
“Yeah, it’s one of our rules, kissing when necessary. I thought they were coming our way, but they must’ve gone a different direction.”
Right, the rules, the agreement. Is that the only reason Gwen asked me to kiss her? For show in front of Bradley and Tammy?
“You’re right,” I say, giving her a soft kiss to her cheek and letting go of her. “That was one of our rules.” Sounds of the arena bring me fully back to the moment. Laser tag arena, the game, right. “But I haven’t forgotten we’re in the middle of a game.” I give her a playful smile and aim my laser gun right at her.
“You wouldn’t,” she says.
I only respond by pulling my trigger.
“Just you wait,” Gwen says, crossing her arms. “I’m going to get you back for that.”
I laugh as I turn the corner. “I hope you do.”