Moving On Up

“Ah, nothing like getting back to your own bed.” Nick smirked, resting his hands behind his head and stretching his bulging biceps over the pillow. “You lasted about two seconds before giving into temptation.”

I scoffed and hit his bare chest, trying to cover my own. “Nick, you were hardly subtle with what you had in mind for our ‘welcome home’ activity.”

“Babe, I had to go two weeks with you looking gorgeous but knowing that I couldn’t have you. Damn you and your morals about having sex in my parents house.”

I laughed and nuzzled my face into his neck, smiling as he pulled my body on top of his. “We used to do it as kids.” He smirked, biting on his bottom lip.

“Yes, but never when your parents were in the house.”

“We also did it in the family jacuzzi.” He grinned.

“Ok, Nick. I don’t need you to forever remind me of how weak I am when it comes to your seduction.”

He chuckled and smoothed his hands down my back and cupped my bare behind. I readjusted myself when my hip clicked and then realised the result my movement had had on him. I looked back into his eyes, dark with lust and a knowing smirk on his lips.

“Nick, we really need to go and pick up Bella. I told Rachel we’d have picked her up an hour ago.”

Within the blink of an eye he had flipped me and his hard member was hitting my thigh. He leant down and growled into my ear; “Fuck it.” He nibbled on the top of my ear and I grasped onto his broad shoulders as I felt myself falling to his ways again. “Or better yet...fuck me.”

“Nick!” I screeched, watching as his gorgeous smirk revealed itself once more. He snatched my lips in a fiery kiss that had me digging my nails into his shoulders as I struggled to contain myself.

“Any objections?” He breathed heavily, his lips brushing mine as he spoke. All I could do was shake my head once before he made me his.

...

“You know, I think your nail marks will leave a scar.” Nick smiled as we walked up the path to Rachel and Tim’s house. I chuckled and linked my arm through his, taking in the fresh air. Spring was on its way.

“Just marking my territory.” I smirked.

Nick rang the doorbell and looked at his surroundings, taking in the white picket fence and the pregnant couple. Rachel opened the door, beaming like the soon to be mother that she was.

“Hi Rachel.” I smiled widely, giving her a big hug as Nick hugged her husband Tim. I brought my hands down to her belly and rubbed it gently, smiling at how big she’d gotten. “How long now?”

“3 weeks and the nerves are killing me.”

“Do you know the gender yet?” Nick asked, watching them both closely. Tim shook his head.

“We’re keeping it a surprise.” Tim smiled, wrapping his arm around Rachel.

Nick just nodded and glanced over at me.

“You want to come and see Bella?” Rachel smiled, holding out her hand for me. I nodded and stepped into the house, hearing Nick and Tim holding a conversation and laughing as they followed. I pushed open the sliding patio doors for Rachel, not wanting her to strain herself and made a loud ‘aww’ when I saw Bella sitting in a flower bed at the end of the garden.

“She only seems to go for that flower bed.” Tim laughed from behind. He and Nick stayed on the patio chatting whilst Rachel and I ventured further down the garden. Bella turned her head to see what the noise was and let out a loud bark when she saw me. She bounded onto her paws and sped in my direction, barking loudly.

“Hey baby!” I cooed, lifting her up and hearing Rachel laugh as Bella licked all over my face.

“All she did was whine and howl for the first few nights. Seems like someone missed their mummy.” Rachel smiled, rubbing beneath Bella’s head which was pushing against my chin.

“Oh no, was she a lot of bother?”

“No no, not at all.”

Coming from Rachel, that meant very little. Rachel was the biggest optimist you could ever meet. Nothing was ever too much for her.

We began walking back to the guys and Bella began to get a bit out of control as we got closer to Nick. I placed her on the ground and smiled as she approached him, bouncing at his feet. He hoisted her up and rubbed her head, both he and Tim laughing at how excited she was.

“You’d both make amazing parents, you know.” Rachel said simply, not expanding on the comment at all. All she did was look at me and smile. Nothing more.

“Well we’re a million miles off that topic right now. We’re still getting used to be together again.”

She nodded and looked up into the sky, squinting at the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. “He’s the one though.”

“What do you mean?”

“He’s the one you’ll always want. You were never so gushy when you were with Mark. Nick’s your true love and it’s very very clear that you’re his.” She finished as we began to close in on Tim and Nick. I opened my mouth to respond to her but I didn’t want to bring it up in front of the other two.

“I don’t remember her liking me so much.” Nick laughed as Bella continued to pound her tiny tail against him and bounce in his hands.

“Despite the fact that Tim denies it, I heard him holding strangely deep conversations with Bella on quite a few occasions.” Rachel smugly said which caused Nick to roar with laughter, Bella jumping at the noise. I smiled and scooped her from his hands and into my arms, cuddling and calming her as her tiny body shook.

“Do you want to stay for lunch?” Tim asked, stepping back to his beautiful wife and placing a hand on her stomach.

“We’d love to.”

Nick and Tim worked together on the barbecue whilst Rachel and I remained in deck chairs, sipping our drinks and talking about life in general. She had been one of my rocks through all of this drama and I would never be able to thank her enough.

“Does Nick have any tattoos?” She asked abruptly. I raised my eyebrows and turned to look at her.

“Where did that come from?” I laughed. She chuckled and looked over at her husband, a concerned look on her face.

“Tim wants to get one.” She sighed.

“Well Nick has two tattoos already.”

She turned her head and with a smirk asked, “Are they hot?”

Without meaning to I let out a girly giggle and nodded. “God yeah. He wants to get one on his bicep now.” I sighed, staring at Nick who was smiling and laughing whilst he cooked with Tim.

“Oh dear.”

“What?” I sighed happily, still staring at Nick.

“You’re completely whipped.”

I laughed and tilted my head to the side to look at her, having to force myself to tear my eyes from the gorgeous man on the other side of the garden.

“Whipped? Really, Rachel?”

“Any mention of his name and you smile...Nick.” Again subconsciously I smiled warmly at his name. “See!” She yelled, laughing loudly to herself.

“I am not.” I whined, laughing at the same time. Our noise had attracted the attention of the men and I glanced over at a smiling Nick. He winked and a huge grin spread on my face, causing Rachel to laugh once more.

“And I’ll bet you guys are at it like rabbits too.” She muttered with a smirk. I hit her shoulder playfully and smiled, not being able to deny it. “We’re not idiots. We know why you were late getting here this morning.”

My face burnt with embarrassment and the knowing smile on her face just made it worse. I buried my face into my hands and groaned, Rachel’s laughter loud and vibrant as she rubbed my back. After a while I gained the courage to mutter, “how embarrassing.”

“What’s so embarrassing?” I heard Nick ask. Great...

I brought my head up and he did a double take when he saw how red I was.

“Just informing Charlene that we’re well aware of your frisky antics.”

Nick tilted his head back in amusement and the next thing I know, he’s lifting me up and slinging me over his shoulder.

“Looks like they’ve caught onto our extra curricular activities, baby.” He laughed and hit my butt, causing a squeal to leave my lips. I wriggled on his shoulder but he was too strong and I knew there was no way I could be set free.

“Lunch is ready.” He said cheerfully to Rachel, still refusing to set me down. I screeched as he carried me back towards the house, still not letting me down.

“Nick, I need my feet on the ground right now.” I protested.

“Nope, I’ve got a pretty nice view up here.” He said smugly, referring to his prime sight of my butt.

“Pervert.”

“Now now my lady, I’m just appreciating what the good Lord gave you.”

Meet my charming boyfriend ladies and gentleman...

...

“Bloody hell, babe.” Nick breathed heavily, rolling onto his side of the bed and bringing my tired body with him. “This was definitely worth the five year wait.” He breathed, squeezing my body again. I chuckled and kissed his lips briefly, still breathing hard.

“You’re a bag of hormones at the moment.” I smiled, kissing his lips once more.

“You do little to deter them, Mrs.”

I smiled and gazed down into his eyes, running my fingers down his face and neck and resting them on his chest. “Nick, we need to talk.”

His face fell along with his smile. Those words were never good. “And the award for biggest mood killer...dun dun dun dun.”

“Nick, I’m serious. It’s been playing on my mind since last week when I had lunch with my mum.”

His gaze turned soft yet wary and he turned me over so we were lying facing each other. “What is it?” He asked, still holding me close and wrapping his arm around my waist.

“What are we going to do when football starts up again?”

He opened his mouth to speak but then closed it and appeared confused. “I haven’t thought about it.” He mumbled, looking at me oddly as if I had tricked him into something. “Shoot, how can we have not thought about that?”

I shuffled even closer to him and lay my hands on his chest, frowning as I ran my fingers along his upper torso. “I want things to stay like this, Nick.” I whispered.

He sighed and rubbed my back, pressing a kiss to my forehead. “I know baby, I do too, but it won’t.” He sighed out of frustration at the situation and his inability to know the simple answer to make me relax; the one thing he’d always been able to do. “But look at what we’ve been through together, hey?” He held my chin and tilted my head upwards, smiling weakly down at me. He was trying. “Surely no hurdle can be too big now.”

“So what’s going to happen? You can’t live here because your job is stateside. What am I meant to do? Up and leave everything and everyone here?”

He sighed and stared into my eyes, not knowing the answers to any of my questions. “I don’t know.”

His honesty hurt more than I should have. I wanted him to hold me and explain step by step how this was going to work. But he couldn’t do that; it wasn’t realistic. “Well the football season is only for 3 or 4 months, and pre season training on home turf is usually 2 months.” He scrunched up his nose. “We could commute?”

“For six months of every year ? We would rarely be together; who wins from that situation?”

“Charlene, I don’t have a solution to this. Don’t jump down my throat at the first suggestion. It sounded better in my head.”

I didn’t say anything in response and only stared at my fingers as they made shapes on his chest. He let out a deep breath and tightened his grip on me.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get angry. I just don’t know what’s the best plan of attack right now.”

Still I said nothing and as a result Nick ducked his head to look into my eyes which were now slightly bloodshot. “Baby-”

“I just want to be with you, Nick.” I whimpered.

“And you will be. You honestly think I’d let you go after all we’ve been through? We’ll find a way, I promise.”

“But Nick I don’t simply want to be the girlfriend of an NFL player who has to uproot her life with every new football season. I want to make friends and be able to see them, rather than using skype. I’ve lived in Oxford for almost five years now and I love it here. I love our life here because no one knows our business. In New York you can’t leave the house without being hounded. Here we can just be together without anyone else giving a shit.”

“Charlene, you alone should know how much I hate packing...hence why I’ve played four seasons for the New York Giants now because I can’t be bothered to move. I don’t care about how much money I get offered from other teams, work is no longer everything. You will always be my number one priority and I don’t want to move you all around the US every few months; it’s not fair.” He linked his fingers through mine and held my bare chest flush against his. “One day we will expand our little family and bring little people into the world and I don’t want them resenting me as they grow up for moving them around so much. I don’t want you resenting me either.”

He wiped the few stray tears from beneath my eyes and sighed, running a hand through my hair and watching his fingers twirl around a strand. “You know that perfect life we planned to lead together when we were teenagers?”

I nodded and he smiled, still watching my hair before turning his eyes to mine and continuing. “We are still going to have that; even more so than now. We’re going to be happy regardless of where we are because we’ll be together.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

“Pinky swear on it?”

He chuckled and shook my pinky with his. “Pinky swear.” He smiled as he kissed me, holding my face in his hands. “I love you.”

“I love you too.” I smiled back, pressing my lips to his once more. He suddenly pulled back with a knowing glint in his eyes.

“You know, we’re already a few steps into that life we planned out.”

“And how’s that Mr Jonas?” I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck.

“Well, we’re living together in the city...sure it’s not Chicago and we didn’t buy this place together, but still.”

“Number two...” I chuckled.

“Number two, we have the puppy we always said we’d get.”

I grinned and brushed his nose with mine, laying my forehead on his. “Do we already have a number three?” I asked.

“Number three...I promise to love you for eternity.” He pressed his lips to mine, my own responding instantly. He then pulled back only slightly, speaking softly and lovingly; warming my heart. “But that’s nothing new.”

“You’re such a cornball.” I smiled, giggling as he began tickling me. “Nick, stop, stop!” I screeched, laughing hysterically. A whimpering from outside the bedroom door made Nick pause and smile.

I snuggled deeper into the duvet as I watched his naked body leave the bed and head for the door. Bella was sitting perfectly still outside of the door, gazing up at Nick and still whimpering softly.

“I’m sorry, Bella.” Nick said, picking her up and bringing her back to the bed. “But mummy wouldn’t let me leave the bedroom until she got what she wanted. She can be very selfish.”

I scoffed and hit his arm once he’d placed Bella on the duvet, laughing at the smirk on his lips. “You’re so full of it!”

Bella moved up onto my lap and I felt the duvet slide down to my waist, revealing my chest. “Nick, can you get me one of your baggy shirts please.”

“And why would I want to do that?” He continued to smirk. He was such a man.

“I repeat, you are such a pervert.” I picked up a pillow and hit him right in his face, using the opportunity to dart for his closet. I slid into his oversized Elvis Costello shirts and picked up a pair of his boxers which I again threw at his head as I got closer.

Bella beat him to it and grabbed onto the waistband of the shorts. Nick tried to pull her off but she was surprisingly strong. She began growling and pulling at the boxers again. “Nick, she’s only tiny how can you not get them off her?” I laughed.

“I don’t want to hurt her.” He said, resorting to lifting Bella up and gently prying her mouth open himself. As he pulled his boxers onto his body, Bella looked at me and it almost looked like she was pouting.

“Aww, come here baby.” I cooed, bringing Bella to my chest. She licked my hand and continued to glare at Nick. “He’s such a bad, bad man, isn’t he Bella?”

“Hey, you weren’t complaining earlier.”

“Sshh.” I covered Bella’s tiny ears. “Don’t dirty her little ears with your sex talk.” I grinned. Nick slid over to me and reached up for my face, bringing it down to his.

“I think she already got an ear full with all the racket earlier.”

I brought my hands to his face whilst we kissed, smiling as his tongue flickered against mine. “I love you.” We both said at the same time, causing us both to laugh. I pressed a final kiss to his lips and pulled back, noticing Bella was no longer on my lap.

“Nick, where’s -”

I looked down to see Bella lying between Nick and I on her back, her head moving quickly between the two of us as her tongue hung out of her mouth. Nick smiled and rubbed her tiny belly with his pinky, looking up at me with those warm eyes of his.

This was my family now. My little family that I loved with all of my heart. I sighed happily and ran a hand through Nick’s hair. “It’s good to be home.”