Wonderwall

"Joe please get your girlfriend to bed," I said as we stumbled into the hotel room.

"I think she already is," he said carrying her passed out in his arms, "Good night you guys."

"'Nite," Pete and I called after him.

Pete began to go up the stairs to the bedroom we were sharing but I walked over to the huge floor-to-ceiling windows on the other side of the living room to look at the view some more. Six months ago I was working in a Taco Hut living in a tiny apartment with not much going for me. And now here I was in a Villa at the Palms Casino fresh from Jay-Z's album release party where I had sat around with a huge group of friends having th the time of my life.

"What's wrong," Pete asked coming up behind me resting his chin on my shoulder.

"Pete will you dance with me?"

"Now," he asked looking confused.

"Yes now."

He walked over to pick up the remote for the stereo system. He turned it on but made sure it wasn't too loud as to disturb Angel and Joe. Even though the music he had put on was was fast I didn't feel like dancing fast. I took the remote from him and found a classics channel. I wanted everything to go slow. I wanted to take it all in and savor it. So I pulled Pete close to me and we slow danced as "The Way You Look Tonight" rang through the speakers. "I'm not much of a slow dancer," said Pete breaking the silence.

"You're doing fine," I reassured him as I laid my head on his chest.

"What's going on Reina? Are you sure you're ok?"

"Yeah I just feel so at peace right now. I know that my mother's not here but I think I'm starting to come to grips with that. I know that everything is going to be okay and it's because of you. Peter you gave me my life back, you gave me a new one actually. I've gotten to meet so many incredible people and done so many incredible things since you've been in my life. I owe you so much. I don't know how I'm going to do it yet but I'm going to repay you some day."

Pete noticed the tears that escaped my eyes and moved us over towards the couch but instead of letting me sit down on it, he sat down first and then pulled me into his lap. I snuggled close to him burying my face in his neck. His warmth and his scent instantly calmed me. "You don't owe me anything Reina. I love having you with me and I wouldn't have it any other way." I pulled away slightly to look at him and found that his eyes were already on mine. He put his hand to my face wiping the tears away with his thumb. "You looked so beautiful tonight."

I tried not to blush. "You looked nice too Pete."

"No I really mean it Reina you were the most beautiful girl at the party including Beyonce," he said smiling. Then his smile faded and he put his hands to my face pulling me closer so that he could whisper in my ear. "But you know when you look the most beautiful? When you're walking around the house in your sweatpants, tank top and your fuzzy socks. You're hair is wild and all over the place and you don't have on a stitch of makeup. You are incredibly sexy like that."

I let out the breath I didn't realize I had been holding. My mind was racing, what were we doing? There was very little space between his mouth and mine and I desperately wanted there to be none at all. He must have been reading my mind because the next thing I knew his lips were on mine. I touched my hand to his face reassuring him that it was okay to deepen the kiss. Everything felt like a fairy tale, the kiss, the mood, the lights of the city, the fact that we were still in our dress clothes. But it quickly all melted away until there was nothing but Pete and I. Strangely enough that's how I felt about him and all he had done for me. He was all I had.

Before I knew it he had laid me down on the couch and his hand was up my dress working his way towards my thigh. He left my mouth and began to kiss me down my neck nibbling there as well. He made his way further down and suddenly it all felt overwhelming.

"Pete stop," I said quietly not knowing whether or not I really wanted him to.

"Is this okay," he asked immediately.

"No...I...what are we doing?"

"I don't know. " He sat up in an effort to calm himself down enough to think this through.

"I don't want do this if we're both going to regret it," I went on, "I mean you have a girlfriend and we're living together and I don't want this to become weird."

"I agree. I just..."

"What?"

"I just have to admit that I've been thinking about this since the first time I saw you," he said looking into my eyes earnestly.

I didn't know what to say. I had spent so much time trying to convince other people that I didn't have feelings for him that now I didn't even know how I really felt. "Ashlee," was all I could manage to get out.

I could see he was upset. "Why would you bring her up now?"

"Because you two have been together for too long for you to blow it on me. Especially when we don't even know what this is," I said motioning between us.

He sighed. "No, I know you're right," he conceded, "I think I'm going to go take a cold shower." He smiled weakly.

I stayed for a little while waiting until he actually got into the shower. The last thing I needed was to walk in on him again. If that happened I couldn't be held responsible for my actions. After a while I headed upstairs sifting through my suitcase to pull out my sleep clothes. I sat on the bed waiting patiently for Pete to finish. I couldn't wrap my mind around what had just happened. Pete had feelings for me from the very beginning? My mind thought back to when Tessa told me that Angel thought I had the ability to break Pete and Ashlee up. Maybe she had been right all this time, maybe she had seen something I hadn't. Pete exited the bathroom and I concentrated really hard on not looking at him since he was wearing only a towel. I gathered my things and began to walk into the bathroom but before I closed the door I turned back.

"I'm confused. If you had feelings for me why were you trying to set me up with Ryan," I asked.

He sighed and ran his hands through his wet hair. "It was easy for me not to act on my feelings for you when you had a boyfriend," he said simply, "but now you're single..."

I nodded. He wouldn't have kissed me if I was his friend's girlfriend. I took a long hot shower needing time to think. When I came out Pete had set himself up to sleep on the couch. "What are you doing?"

"Well, I just thought it would be better for me to sleep on the couch..."

I could tell he was punishing himself for what happened downstairs. "That's ridiculous you don't have to sleep on the couch." I walked over to him and took his hand pulling him from the couch and leading him to the bed. "Besides if anyone should sleep on the couch it would be me, you're the one paying for the room remember," I smiled.

I could tell he started to relax some as he climbed into bed. I went around the other side and climbed in. "Good night," I said as I turned off the light. As I laid down I felt Pete's arms enclose around me. I waited to see if he was going to try anything but he didn't. He simply pulled me close to him and wrapped me up like a cocoon. I missed having someone hold me like that at night like Alex used to do so I let him keep his arms there even holding onto his arms with mine letting our fingers interlace. "Good night Rey," he whispered.