Innocent Intentions

It had started out innocently enough. The little sister of his best friend worming her way into his small circle of friends. He didn`t really mind at first because it was harmless. They all treated her like one of their own and were just as protective of her as her own brother was. It had been a bit weird at first, letting someone so young tag along. But then again, they were all pretty young, despite all of them having varying age differences. Almost four years wasn`t a huge difference. Though at times it felt like a lifetime between them. And yeah, Mark got embarrassed sometimes by having such an innocent around. But they had all gotten used to carefully wording things around her. Some didn`t give a damn whether she picked up foul words or not, she`d hear them eventually. If she hadn`t already. But big brother had always put them in their place. And eventually, they all became fiercely protective of the youngest in their group.

The second Tyler found out she`d gotten her first boyfriend, he`d gone straight to Mark and blabbed. He was almost as protective as her brother. Mark had been furious, thinking that not only keeping her by his side but surrounded by his friends would keep her safe and innocent. He was so very wrong. That first boyfriend only lasted two months under the scrutinizing gaze and brutal words of the group of friends. The poor girl had been furious and more than a little disappointed in how short her first relationship lasted. Though, in later years, she ended up debating with herself just how much of a relationship two fifteen year old`s could possibly have in two months.

The group of friends only seemed to get more protective over her after that. Any boy she talked to, let alone attempted to date, was thoroughly questioned and subjected to more than few scare tactics to prove themselves worthy of dating Lily Andrews. Most hadn`t lasted more than three or four months at best. And then, along came Andrew Parker. The boys had teased her relentlessly for dating a kid who`s first name was so close to her own last name. She had blushed and weakly protested their teasing, mostly due to finding it a bit funny as well. Unfortunately that relationship had ended in her in tears and Pete coming to the realization that letting her into their group was no longer harmless. They had lasted not quite a full year before he ended it. But not before falsely claiming he loved her just to get into her pants. Now that had been a hard pill for the young woman to swallow.

Pete had come home from a grueling show, only to find a sobbing young one on his doorstep, soaked to the bone from the three hour down pour raging around them.

"What are you doing here, Love? And why aren`t you inside?" He questioned as he quickly unlocked the door and motioned for her to go in.

Lily scrambled into the house with a wince before she answered, "I don`t have a key yet."

Now it was his turn to wince. He`d bought a new flat earlier in the week and had planned on giving two or three people a key. Unfortunately he hadn`t gotten around to it, what with moving in and wrestling every night. He didn`t bother to apologize though, it was pointless by now. He did, however, quickly usher her to his private bathroom. That had been a major selling point on this place: a bathroom for anyone he actually let into the flat to visit, and one connected to his bedroom reserved just for him. He could finally masturbate in peace.

"Since you`re going to avoid my first question, I`m gonna guess it has something to do with that boy of yours, yeah?" He instantly regretted his words when a fresh round of tears came through. He wasn`t good with crying females. Especially when it was her. "Shit. Uh, why don`t you take a bath or a shower? You`ll feel better." Upon her nod of agreement and specification, he started the bath and somewhat reluctantly left her alone.

Three cups of hot chocolate and a sobbing session later, they were curled up in Pete`s new bed, facing each other on their sides. While it had all been very therapeutic, she had yet to address what happened.

"You gonna tell me what`s wrong, Love? Or do I have to go beat it out of him?" Pete asked, trying to tread gently on what was obviously a touchy subject.

Lily nervously chewed at her bottom lip, debating if she should tell him the truth or not. But this was Pete. He`d always taken her feelings into consideration first before reacting to anything. Though he seemed like he`d be the last person to do so. But, maybe it was just with her. That was a nice thought.

"We slept together and he dumped me right after." She instantly slapped a hand over her mouth as if she could shove the words right back in and act like she hadn`t blurted them out.

He jerked back with wide eyes. "He did what? Fuck! Are you okay?" He moved to cup her and gently massage the abused flesh only to jerk away upon realizing what he was doing. It was a stupid notion stemming from a want to make her feel better. But it would not make her feel better and she was not his to touch.

"I`m okay," she murmured, bringing him from his self doubting thoughts, "The bath helped."

Pete ran a hand over his face with a tired sigh. "Did you at least get something out of it?"

"Get something out of it?" She echoed back, a look of confusion scrunching up her features. "What do you mean?"

He smirked. "Oh come on now, Love. You know exactly what I`m talking about. You`ve heard us bragging enough over the years about getting our girlfriends off."

She turned a pretty shade of pink at that, in both embarrassment at his words and what she was about to admit. "No. I didn`t."

"Well I`m definitely going to have to kill him now."

"Peter!"

"What? If he`s going to be a bastard about it, he should of at least gotten you off. It`s not that hard. It takes five minutes."

Lily blinked up at him owlishly. "Five minutes? Really?"

He playfully leered at her. "I know what I`m doing."

Pete had waited until she`d fallen asleep before texting Trent, a relatively new addition to their group, gave him a brief explanation and told him he was going to beat up Andrew, but wanted someone there to make sure he didn`t kill the boy. Trent had been all for it, even got a few hits in as well. Despite only knowing her for two months, he was already very protective of Lily. After threatening the boy to never come near her again, Pete had gone home and slept for a few hours with her curled up on his arms and then made the heartbroken eighteen year old breakfast the next morning.

It was that night he`d discovered just how much of a jealous bastard he was when it came to her. And he did a fairly bad job of hiding it over the years. Especially after that night. While Mark never did learn the exact reason as to why the break up happened, he did let it go when Pete told him he`d taken care of it. Perhaps it was the bruises on both his and Trent`s knuckles that put her big brother at ease.

Lily hadn`t dated much after that. Partly due to her friends being too over protective, and partly because of Pete. He always reacted badly to the men she`d taken to, no matter how sweet a couple of them had been. But then again, it could of also been due to the fact she`d had the biggest crush on him for years. She knew he couldn`t possibly think of her in such a way, so she spent quite a bit of time desperately trying to get rid of her crush. It didn`t work. It could arguably be called love at this point. It was a wonder Mark hadn`t picked up on it yet. The others had, though. Specifically Tyler and Trent.

And that is what lead to a rather interesting twenty first birthday for Lily. The day was spent celebrating with family and watching wrestling. A rather normal night. But this time, instead of going home after the show, they went to a club to celebrate. Which resulted in a tipsy Lily sandwiched between Trent and Tyler on the dance floor while Pete watched from the bar, silently brooding. By the time Trent went for more drinks, the Bruiserweight was ready to throw something.

"So, are you going to let us dance with her all night, or are you going to go after her?"

An incredulous "What?" was all he got in response.

Trent snickered at his friend. "You do realize we aren`t just dancing with her to keep the others away? We`ve been trying to make you jealous."

Pete frowned. "Why are you trying to make me jealous? All you`re going to do is piss me off."

The older of the two sighed. "You are doing a terrible job of hiding how much you like her. I`m shocked Mark hasn`t tried to kill you yet because of it."

"He won`t kill me. I won`t let him." The shock had worn off and the cockiness was back.

"Look, Pete. I don`t know why she likes you back, but she does. So you need to do something about it before she finds someone else to finally take her mind off you. Because it`s going to happen sometime. And as much as he`ll hate it, I think Mark would prefer someone he knows and trusts to go after her, rather than some idiot who just wants to fuck her."

Pete sighed and looked back at the dance floor, the sight of Tyler dancing with her made his blood boil despite knowing it was completely harmless. "She really likes me?"

"She does," Trent confirmed with a nod. "Think about it, who does she go to for everything? It certainly isn`t us or her brother."

It was true, she`d always gone to him for everything. Be it something simple like being nervous about how she`d score on a test at school, or going to him for comfort because her boyfriend had taken her virginity and dumped her minutes later, as that was apparently all he`d wanted in the first place. Pete had seriously considered murdering someone that night. It was one thing to be an asshole, but it was a whole other thing to be that kind of asshole. Even he wasn`t that kind. Sure, he`d done his fair share of damage over the years and had plenty of one night stands. But he`d never taken a girl simply because she was a virgin and he saw it as a challenge. And he certainly wouldn`t of dumped her right after.

Though he would of given her plenty of orgasms before and during their coupling. Andrew had been a fucking moron in more than one aspect. And he was lucky to be alive after that ordeal. If Mark and Tyler had found out, then he wouldn`t a held back. None of them would. And he doubted any of them would of felt guilty about it afterwards. It would of been seen as protecting one of their own. Besides, it wasn`t like it was hard to bury a body these days.

Pete sighed and ran a hand through his hair, not bothering to straighten it out at this point, and downed the rest of the whiskey he`d been drinking. He easily slid off the bar stool and looked to Trent. "If this doesn`t work, it`s your fault."

"Don`t you worry about that," Trent laughed. "Now, are you two going to be okay to go home?"

He paused to do a mental inventory of his body and how fast or slow his reaction to things were. He`d only had two glasses of whiskey. And he hadn`t been exactly downing them either. More like angrily sipping after a while. His motor skills didn`t seem all that affected. That would probably take three or four more glasses for that to happen. But he had been drinking some pretty strong stuff. And he`d be taking Lily home.

"We`ll take a cab."

"Good answer."

He chuckled, clapped his friend on the back as a farewell and made his way to the dance floor. With practiced ease he made his way through the crowd of bodies withering against one another, towards the back of the club. A simple snarl here and there had them scrambling out of his way and he was in front of his friends in minutes. Pete watched Tyler say something in her ear, a look of confusion cross her features, and then she was spun around while Tyler gave him a nod. He grinned and gripped her hips, pulling her back flush against his chest. He was even close enough to hear her gasp over the pounding music. She went to struggle, only to go lax the second he growled low in her ear.

"What do you think you`re doing, Love?"

Lily shuddered against him and her eyes fluttered shut for a moment. He`d always had an affect on her, but the alcohol in her system made her horrible at concealing it. "Pete. Did you finally decide to dance with me?"

"Not a chance," he smirked, "I just wanted to know if you were ready to go home yet."

She chewed at her bottom lip before flashing him her best pout. "Just one dance?"

"No."

"Please? Just one. And then you can take me home."

His eyes darkened for fraction of a second at the phrasing of 'take me' before coming back to his senses. "I don`t dance."

She nodded a little. "I know that. But Iv`e been wanting to dance with you for a while. And it is my birthday."

"Come on, Pete," Tyler goaded. "You`ve been at the bar all night. I`d say you owe her one dance."

Pete glared at him. "I do not."

"Yes you do," Lily confirmed, nodding along vigorously. "It`s my twenty first birthday. I`m owned a dance."

He sighed and scrubbed a hand over his face. She`d definitely had enough to drink if she was being this whiny. Not to mention how much she was pouting. "You aren`t going to give up until I dance with you, are you?"

"Nope."

"Fine. One dance and then we go home."

She squealed in delight and Pete glared down at her for it while Tyler bolted to tell Trent about this new development between the two. They were betting as to when the two would get together. And his drink addled brain deemed this dance to be important.

The Bruiserweight quickly lead her over to the darkest corner of the club and pulled her up against him, all the while ignoring the little voice in his head telling him that this was a bad idea and that she probably wasn`t going to remember it in the morning. He was desperately trying to ignore that thought because he wanted her to remember this. He didn`t dance for just anyone. Let alone grinding up against them in some dark corner of a club. Lily was a special case for just about everything. And the very thought of her being unable to remember something that happened between them, even as trivial as a random dance, made his chest ache unpleasantly. Like he`d suddenly taken one too many chops from an opponent.

So he decided to enjoy this moment for the both of them and pray she did indeed remember it, just in case. He gripped onto her hips and brought her up against him while she looped her arms around his neck, back flush against his chest as they moved. For the duration of the song they ground against each other, faces turned to look into each others eyes, lips parted in soft gasps and groans as they enjoyed themselves. And it wasn`t until his enjoyment began to strain against his pants just a bit too much, did he finally pull away.

"Alright," Pete announced, "that was one dance. Now let`s go."

Lily froze for a second, half tempted to beg for another dance before deciding against it. She`d irritated him enough as it was. Though that didn`t quite feel like irritation pressing firmly into her backside. But she decided not to argue and simply followed him out of the club after waving goodbye to a very pleased looking Trent and Tyler.

"I take it we`re going to your flat?" Lily questioned as he hailed a cab.

"Yeah. My kitchen happens to be stalked right now, so I can make you breakfast," Pete confirmed with a nod. As she leaned into his side, he paused to kiss the top of her head. "We have a few things to talk about in the morning, anyway."

She nodded against him. "M`kay."

He could only hope that she remembered everything from tonight. And hope Trent was right about her feelings. He`d known her far too long to mess this up now. He couldn`t lose her over his own selfishness and stupidity. He`d been enough of a selfish bastard as it was. And there was only so much she was going to take of that before moving on to someone else. He could only hope he wasn`t too late.