The Beating of Our Hearts

The following Saturday evening I was packed and ready to go on our adventure to London. We would be getting an early morning flight from LAX to Heathrow. Since we were leaving so early, the guys decided that it would save time and precious minutes that could be spent sleeping if I stayed over at theirs. Not that I was complaining.

The flight was long, and I got bored quite quickly. Granted we were in first class the whole way, that didn’t mean we were free from boredom; and weirdo’s.

The seating was set out in pairs, so Jared and I were in one set of incredibly comfortable seats/recliners, and Shannon and Tomo were behind us. Unfortunately, across the aisle from Jared and me was one of those corporate suits wearing a power tie who thought he was the shit. He started eyeing me like I was a piece of meat from the moment I sat down.

“You OK?” Jared whispered after he noticed my continual uncomfortable shifting.

“Yeah, it’s just that guy across the aisle is creeping me out.” I answered in a similar quiet tone.
I noticed him glancing at the man, seeing him staring right at my chest.

“What a creep.”

“Yeah, but there’s not much I can do about it.” I sighed.

“Yeah. But, there is something I can do.” Jared got that mischievous look in his eye.

“What do you mean?” I asked, before something warm, soft and calloused enveloped my hand. I looked down and saw that Jared had laced our fingers together.

“Just follow my lead.” He whispered while leaning into my neck as if to kiss it.

Reacting on instinct, I tiled my head a little to expose more of my throat to him, hardly any acting needed. I felt the very tip of his nose gently brush against my skin up to my jaw line before he leaned back into his own seat.

“See, it’s working.” Jared commented, his voice slightly lower and huskier than usual.

“Y-yeah.” I murmured, eyes half shut from the sensation of his skin against mine.

If such a small amount of skin contact could do this much to me, imagine if it were a whole lot more skin..... No, don’t imagine it, I wouldn’t be able to concentrate for the whole flight.

For the rest of the flight Jared held my hand, continuing to lean over occasionally to whisper what must have looked like sweet nothings or scandalous secrets to anyone else, but usually he was just checking I was OK. But it didn’t matter to me, this was pure bliss; the rest of the flight seemed to, well, fly by.

When we touched down at Heathrow Airport, Jared slowly let go of my hand to stand up and stretch, creepy guy seemed to notice this. As we were getting off the plane, Jared made sure to place himself firmly between me and creepy guy, placing his hand on my waist and making sure I stayed close to him. As soon as we were off, Shannon and Tomo were by our side.

“We saw that weird guy staring at your boobs the whole flight. You OK?” Shannon immediately asked.

“Yeah, Jared made sure nothing happened to me.” I smiled.

“Ah my little brother, the big protector.” Shannon said, giving me a sly wink.

“Well your troubles aren’t over yet Ri. The press know we’re coming in today, so there might be a few of them in the arrivals lounge.” Tomo warned.

As if acting on instinct, all three of the guys suddenly walked a little closer to me, as if to protect me from the hounding paparazzi. I was flattered. They must care about me if they’re trying to shield me from the tabloid reporters.

‘A few’ of the press was a major understatement. There were LOADS of them. As soon as the guys walked through the gate they were set upon by camera flashes, voice recorders and video cameras. We kept our heads down and tried to make our way through the crowd; Jared holding my hand the entire time so I wouldn’t get lost.

We finally made it out of there and into our awaiting car to take us to our hotel. We had two suites, each with two single beds, a living room, huge bathroom and kitchenette. It was the most amazing hotel I had ever stayed in.

“I call dibs on rooming with Riley!” Shannon suddenly yelled, throwing his hand into the air in victory.

“What, how come?” Jared asked indignantly.

“Cause I wanna spend some quality time with one of my favourite girls. You’re always monopolising her.” Shannon stuck his tongue out like a child.

“Ooo monopolising, big word. You sure you know what it means?” Jared teased.

“Shut up. You’re just jealous cause I get to sleep in the same room as Riley for a whole ten days and you don’t.” Shannon retorted.

Tomo and I just laughed at the brothers and began walking to the living room to watch some English TV. Five minutes later Jared came through with his bags.

“Our rooms next door. I’m gunna go put my shit in it.” Jared told us as he walked through.

“OK, I’ll come with you.” Tomo said, pulling himself off the sofa where he was sat next to me.
Moments later, his empty spot was filled with Shannon.

“Sooooo, how you liking London so far?” Shannon asked.

“I love it! Thank you guys so much for inviting me to come with you. You don’t get how much this means to me.” I said, wrapping my arms around the man for a big hug.

“Well we couldn’t leave our favourite girl at home all alone. We would get bored. And then probably driven crazy by Jared.” Shannon said.

“What do you mean?” I queried.

“C’mon, Jared hardly stops talking about you; I almost punched him to shut him up when we went to New York. If we came here without you he would be non-stop about you and grumpy.”
I blushed at his words.

“I’m sure that’s not true.” I said, trying to hide my embarrassment.

“Of course it’s true. It’s pretty obvious my brother has feelings for you. And my spidey senses are telling me you feel the same way.” So he did know how I felt, crap.

“He doesn’t have feelings for me.” I mumbled, choosing not to believe his words.

“He does, trust me.” Shannon squeezed my arm in reassurance.

I couldn’t help myself, a smile slipped through onto my face.

“Ahhh, so you do like him.” Shannon smiled.

“Please don’t say anything Shannon. Please?” I begged, turning on the full power of the puppy dog eyes.

“OK, OK. But I’m just saying, you should tell him before it’s too late. He doesn’t often really let himself feel anything for women, but they sure as hell feel a lot for him.” Shannon warned me.

“Noted.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me. I need a shower.” Shannon informed me and he went off into the bathroom.

Do I believe his words that Jared has feelings for me? Or do I protect myself and keep how I feel a secret.