Chapter Nineteen- My Vow

“It was like the battle of the geeks! No offence. Though, you are kind of a geek, though a cool one. And it wasn’t so much war as Blake getting slayed by you! And you stood up for me! You told him what’s what. That’s…cool,” Dougie decided, breaking off his constant babble of speech with a nod. I’d learnt to just let Dougie talk when he was this excited, though I didn’t fully understand why he was.

“I mean, you’ve probably saved my life! He would have skinned me! Every time I messed up, I would’ve gotten an earful!”

“Glad to be of service,” I voiced as I opened the door to my bedroom and led the way in.

He giggled, practically skipping in behind me, “And the look on your face when you were warning him! It was so…possessive, confident, domineering.” He shivered, “It was so unbelievably sexy!”

I tossed a grin over my shoulder, “Oh, really? Maybe I ought to use it more often. Shame Danny’s not in that class…”

“Danny?” There was a faint note of disgust in his voice as he wrinkled his nose. “You mean that one at lunch?”

“Yeah.”

“You like him?”

I turned round and regarded Dougie where he was standing, leaning against my door, “This is exactly why the tutoring failed. Keep your jealousy in check and forget it.”

He pouted, “Come on! If you’re going to replace me, at least have the decency to make it with someone better looking than I am.”

I moved over to him slowly, “You think a lot of yourself, don’t you?”

“Tom…” he purred throatily. “I may be lacking in the brains or concentration department… But I’m not going to lie and say I don’t have the looks…”

I nodded, “Look at you, all seductive and gorgeous…” I stopped in front of him, and ran my hands slowly up his arms, leaving goosebumps in my wake and making his arm hair stand on end. And, taking one more step, I managed to trap him between my body and the door.

His eyes widened in shock, “Tom!”

“This is what you want, isn’t it?” I whispered. “For me to surrender to you… But we’re forgetting about someone very important to both of us.” I could feel his pulse racing in the wrist I gripped, and I could taste his breath on my lips. “Harry…” I murmured into his ear, before pushing away from him. “So you wanted those Chemistry books?”

“Erm… Yeah,” he said weakly from behind me. I paused in my stretch for the books, and looked back at him. His eyes were wide, and he was paler than I’d ever seen him, his whole frame trembling.

“Are you okay? Look, I didn’t mean-” I rested my hand on his shoulder, and trailed off. Without meaning to, I lowered my head towards his, catching his shaking lips with mine gently. He whimpered lightly as I pulled him into my arms, taking the kiss deeper, and his hand gripped the front of my t-shirt.

The kiss itself was soft, and comforting. He felt really fragile against me for the first time I could remember. I pulled back slowly, staring into his eyes, “Bugger.”

“Not good,” he agreed. I removed my arms from around him, taking an unsteady step back.

“I can’t touch you.”

“Tom-”

“No,” I interrupted. “Every time I touch you, this happens, so I shouldn’t. I can’t.”

His eyes were wide, and his lip quivered with upset I could tell was genuine, “Then why don’t you just let it happen?” He took my moment of shock to move back towards me, “Why are you so determined not to like me?”

“Because it terrifies me how much I do!” I snapped at him. “Since I met the real you, it’s just like before. I want to kiss you, touch you, all the time! I almost slept with you!!”

“That was both of us…” he murmured, cupping my face in his hands so I had no option other than to stare at him. “I don’t want to hurt Harry any more than you, but we can’t ignore this.”

“We have to,” I whispered when his lips were practically on mine, the movement of the words causing our mouths to rub. “We have to, Dougie. You have to go back to Harry, and I have to forget it.”

“No…” he pleaded.

But again, I stepped back from him, dragging my hands through my hair, the hardened gel catching on my fingers. “Take the books and go, Dougie. I’ll see you at school.”