p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Impulse/span/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Disclaimer: As usual I don't own any of the Maximum Ride characters. Except maybe Nudge cos she's my alter ego but really I don't own them./p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"By emnerdyblackhottie/em/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Author's Notes: First up Happy New Year! Yep it's another Fudge fic but this time I decided to make it a one-shot because I'm still working on my other 2 stories. I guess this could be like a "filler story"? Anyway it's completely OOC for the most part (although I tried my best to keep a lot of the characters fundamentally the same), there's no wings or Itex or flock of any sort. I'll be referring to them by their real names just in case anyone gets confused (Nick is Fang and Monique is Nudge). I hope you enjoy and give me constructive criticism and I promise that I will update my other fics ASAP!/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"PS: I may make a companion story to this one from Fang's POV since this one is from Nudge's POV./span/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Impulsive./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"That was one word Monique was not. Funny? Yes. Intelligent? Double yes. Beautiful? Most definitely yes. A motor mouth? Oh hell yes. But impulsive? That would be a huge stretch./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Playing it safe was the way she lived her life. Always planning her actions before she made any attempts at them. Trying out each scenario in her head and deducing all the possible outcomes. Emotionally preparing herself for anything that could happen. That's what she was used to. That's what made her feel safe. That was her. But never in her life did she imagine herself doing anything on impulse. The most impulsive decision she had made in her life was deciding to get bangs and that most certainly did not turn out the way she expected. But this was not the same as getting bangs./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"No, this was new dangerous territory./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"But maybe it was because she was tired of striving for perfection. Tired of trying to be the perfect daughter. Tired of fitting into the mould of the "good Catholic school girl". She just wanted to know what it felt like to feel the rush you get when you do something new and daring. The adrenaline rushing over your body, consuming you, making your heart beat a mile a minute and your palms sweaty. That was the feeling she longed to feel again. There were only two moments in her life when she felt that way./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The first was when she first met Nicholas Lindfors and the second was right at this very moment, when she was standing right outside his apartment door. Her hands had been positioned ready to knock but they became frozen by the wave of pure terror than now ran through her veins./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"What the fuck was she thinking?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Coming to his house randomly in the middle of the day. There was no way he'd take kindly to that. I mean this was Nick, he was on a completely different level to her. A level she could only dream of visiting let alone achieving. And besides, she was never one to let some boy, scratch that, emman /emmake her feel this…weak. She wasn't emthose /emtypes of girls who unnaturally obsessed over any remotely attractive guy. Not that she was attracted to him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emLIAR!/em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Okay, maybe she was but they were friends right?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"If you could call the frequent conversations they had when he dropped off his little sister at the ballet class she taught every Monday, Wednesday and Friday a friendship then sure. But outside of that they never crossed paths. He was off living the life of a college student with, most likely, hundreds of girls better than her flocking over him. And she was just, a lowly high school senior with minimal friends who only ever kissed a boy once. He had told her she could visit him anytime if she wanted. She remembered that day vividly. It was before class and she was in the middle of a self-choreographed routine when she was, rather embarrassingly, interrupted by the dark haired man clapping./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She almost fell flat on her face in shock./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"So maybe this wasn't a bad decision after all? Right?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She didn't know how she managed to unfreeze herself from the position she had been in for 5 minutes but she did. C'mon Mo, you can do it, her inner self yelled at her. After all it was her and her stupid desire to be impulsive that had gotten her into this mess in the first place./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emKnock, knock./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Silence./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Shit, abort mission she internally hissed at herself. It wasn't too late she could just turn around and go home and he'd never know it was –/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The door flung open and a rather hysterical redhead clambered out. Her makeup was running down her face like a mascara and eyeliner river, her hair a mess. She didn't even acknowledge the mocha skinned girl standing in front of her, choosing to push past her as violent sobs escaped her mouth along with a variety of different curse words./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Uh, what just happened?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She was truly at a lost. Still staring in the direction the girl had gone, trying to wrap her head around it all. So engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice the presence of another behind her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Monique?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She almost jumped out of her uniform at the sound of Nick's deep voice. Almost immediately she turned around to face the large muscular man staring down at her. Unfortunately for her he was lacking a shirt. Her eyes were immediately met with a perfectly chiselled body and broad shoulders she often imagined being around her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Nick!" she managed to squeak out in as she let her eyes focus back on his face. Sharp jawline. Light subtle. Flawless ivory skin. A bone structure that looked like it was chiselled by God Himself. And those eyes. Oh those eyes. They were dark brown, almost black but 100% intense./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Oh God./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Those intense dark eyes of his bore into her soul as they usually did, making her shyly avert her gaze. She quickly tried to garner her thoughts to make a coherent sentence but he spoke first./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What are you doing here?" he asked. His was voice strong and intimidating much like he was. It made Monique feel a variety of different things ranging from terrified to wet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I, I, uh, just wanted to, uh, see you," she spluttered, tripping over her words as she felt the adrenaline she once had coursing through her veins leave her shaking slightly. There goes being impulsive she said mentally slapping herself./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He smirked. Her heart almost leapt out of her mouth./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Did you now?" he replied coolly, sliding his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants that hung dangerously low on his waist./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She nodded in response at this, casting her gaze down to her feet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Why don't you come in then?" he continued, leaning against the doorframe, still staring intensely at her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She noticed that his invitation, whilst subtle, was more of a demand than anything. But it's not like she could say no to it./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Okay," she said softly as she took steps towards the door. Her heels clanking every time it hit the hard wood floor, echoing through the hallway./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"As she passed him on her way in, their shoulders brushed and she could swear she heard the soft intake of breath as he hissed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"So success for her. She had effectively made it into the home of Nick Lindfors and she hadn't spontaneously combusted from fear. Yet. But still so many question rang through her brain. Who was the redhead? Why was she crying? And most importantly, why was she in his apartment? She found herself doing her weird deduction of the scenario, trying to figure out the answer. In the end she only found 1 plausible scenario. The one in which the girl was his girlfriend./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""You seem to have your head in the clouds today," Nick said cutting through her whirlwind of thoughts./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She laughed. A little bit too loudly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I'm sorry," she decided to settle with instead./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Why on earth should you be?" was his response./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She just noticed she had found herself sitting on his couch, with him standing directly opposite her. Never wavering his intense gaze./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Because…" she paused. That impending feeling of fear was overwhelming her again and suddenly she felt like she couldn't be there anymore. "I think I've made a mistake."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"And with that she quickly got up off of his couch and to his front door, hand securely on the metal knob, ready to turn. But she didn't because a strong arm had bypassed her and had firmly placed itself against the door, barring her from escape. She wanted to say something. Tell him she had to go. That she was a loser and he'd soon learn that she wasn't worth his time. But she couldn't. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She smelt the waft of his strong cologne overtake her nostrils and paralyse her brain. It was at this moment she realised how close behind her he was to her. She could feel his breath on her neck and the warmth from his body radiating against her back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Don't go," was all he said. And she knew he meant it as a demand, not an option. His voice vibrated against her body reminding her how close he was and she shivered at thought./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Could you please turn around Monique?" he spoke again, this time more softly as he removed his hand from the door./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The poor girl knew she was powerless against him and so she complied with his orders eventually turning around to face him. He stood there as strong and beautiful as ever, radiating with authority and power. Such a juxtaposition to her shy, meek presence. Suddenly she felt tears form in her eyes and she blinked hard, willing them not to fall, not now, not here, with him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I can't stay here," she muttered almost silently but loud enough for him to hear. Her eyes suddenly found themselves, yet again staring at her feet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Why?" he said sternly now stepping forward to be just mere millimetres from her. "I won't let you go until you give me a good enough reason."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"And it was as if on cue, her tears began plummeting out her eyes and her futile attempts at trying to wipe them away did nothing to stop them from coming. In that moment she couldn't have thought of anything more pathetic that she had done in her life than this. She half expected him to tell her to leave as she stood there, a shaking, tear stained face mess./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"But he didn't./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Instead she felt large warm arms engulf her waist, drawing her closer to a warm, hard body, the same familiar smell of cologne taking over her senses. Immediately she felt all the sense she had left leave her as she, in turn, wrapped her arms around his midriff and softly sobbed into his chest. She felt his hand move to the centre of her back and begin to rub one spot gently in a circular motion. An instant calm came over her and as quickly as it came, the crying stopped./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""That's why I can't stay," she murmured into his chest which she was now aware of being wet with her tears. She felt so embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl under her sheets and die./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Suddenly he stopped rubbing her back and his hands were suddenly firmly on her shoulders as he stared at her in a way that made her heart stop./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Stop saying that," was his firm response. "I want you here."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She almost choked on air, not believing a word that was coming from his mouth. Immediately she opened her mouth to protest but she was stopped by his big hands covering it as a small smirk appeared on his face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Please, shut up," he said bringing his face close to hers. His hands now wrapping themselves around her waist tightly. Bringing her close for yet another moment. Hard body pressed against her soft one. Cologne fogging her brain. Dark eyes locked in on her hazel ones. Heart beating faster than the speed of light./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"If he wasn't careful he might just make her believe he cared about her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She didn't know how her legs were still holding her up at this point. Perhaps it was his strong, muscular arms. Or maybe it was the fact that she was giving all her willpower trying to resist his natural charm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"His forehead slightly brushed against hers sending shivers down her spine./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She didn't think he could get any closer to her until this point./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Do you want to know something interesting Monique?" he said playfully, tightening his grip on her small waist, lips hovering over hers./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"All she could do was nod dumbly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""The better part of my week, is spent with you. Did you know that?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She shook her head slowly never breaking her eye contact with him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I thought you would, or else why would you be here?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Damn. He got her there. Why had she come again? Wasn't it something about being more impulsive? Was she even still being impulsive at this point or was she just being seduced by the beautiful man before her?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Monique," he said softly, drawing her out of her thoughts and back into reality. His warm breath bounced off her face reminding her of his closeness./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Yes?" she said in a voice that was barely a whisper./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I love you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Her heart stopped immediately. Her body stiffened. All her senses came to a halt. Did she hear him correctly? Love? Her? Those things did not go in the same sentence unless it was when her mom or dad said it as she left for school each morning. No, people did not emlove /emMonique Hernandez. Especially not beautiful people like Nicholas Lindfors. No this definitely had to be a prank, or a dream. No. She refused to believe it, she emcouldn't/em believe it./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Monique?" he said again. This time more urgently, his eyes growing more concerned by the minute./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She realised she probably looked like she had been stabbed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I…are you sure?" she said shaking her head vigorously./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Are you kidding?" he sort of half laughed. "I've never been surer about anything in my entire life."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Oh no, there goes her heart again. Damn thing always betraying her like that./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""But why?" she was no longer in control of her mouth either as it seemed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He laughed again. Oh what a wonderful laugh it was./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""You're funny aren't you dear?" he chuckled brushing her face with the back of his palm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Well, um, yes I suppose. I've been told I'm a bit of jokester. My mom actually says that I should try my hand at comedy but –"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She was cut off immediately by a pair of incredibly soft lips on hers. Never in her life had Monique thought of her motor mouth as being a blessing but gosh dammit, it seemed to have its perks. But wow they were kissing and kissing hard. Her hands somehow making its way into his dark slicked back hair. His finding themselves under skirt and on her buttocks gently hoisting her up a few centimetres from the ground. Kissing until they were both breathless and moaning into each other's mouths. Kissing until her brain was completely blank of all reasonable thought. And then Monique knew./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Being impulsive had its perks because this, this was definitely better than getting bangs./p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Disclaimer: As usual I don't own any of the Maximum Ride characters. Except maybe Nudge cos she's my alter ego but really I don't own them./p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"By emnerdyblackhottie/em/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"Author's Notes: First up Happy New Year! Yep it's another Fudge fic but this time I decided to make it a one-shot because I'm still working on my other 2 stories. I guess this could be like a "filler story"? Anyway it's completely OOC for the most part (although I tried my best to keep a lot of the characters fundamentally the same), there's no wings or Itex or flock of any sort. I'll be referring to them by their real names just in case anyone gets confused (Nick is Fang and Monique is Nudge). I hope you enjoy and give me constructive criticism and I promise that I will update my other fics ASAP!/span/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"span style="font-weight: bold;"PS: I may make a companion story to this one from Fang's POV since this one is from Nudge's POV./span/p
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p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Impulsive./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"That was one word Monique was not. Funny? Yes. Intelligent? Double yes. Beautiful? Most definitely yes. A motor mouth? Oh hell yes. But impulsive? That would be a huge stretch./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Playing it safe was the way she lived her life. Always planning her actions before she made any attempts at them. Trying out each scenario in her head and deducing all the possible outcomes. Emotionally preparing herself for anything that could happen. That's what she was used to. That's what made her feel safe. That was her. But never in her life did she imagine herself doing anything on impulse. The most impulsive decision she had made in her life was deciding to get bangs and that most certainly did not turn out the way she expected. But this was not the same as getting bangs./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"No, this was new dangerous territory./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"But maybe it was because she was tired of striving for perfection. Tired of trying to be the perfect daughter. Tired of fitting into the mould of the "good Catholic school girl". She just wanted to know what it felt like to feel the rush you get when you do something new and daring. The adrenaline rushing over your body, consuming you, making your heart beat a mile a minute and your palms sweaty. That was the feeling she longed to feel again. There were only two moments in her life when she felt that way./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The first was when she first met Nicholas Lindfors and the second was right at this very moment, when she was standing right outside his apartment door. Her hands had been positioned ready to knock but they became frozen by the wave of pure terror than now ran through her veins./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"What the fuck was she thinking?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Coming to his house randomly in the middle of the day. There was no way he'd take kindly to that. I mean this was Nick, he was on a completely different level to her. A level she could only dream of visiting let alone achieving. And besides, she was never one to let some boy, scratch that, emman /emmake her feel this…weak. She wasn't emthose /emtypes of girls who unnaturally obsessed over any remotely attractive guy. Not that she was attracted to him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emLIAR!/em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Okay, maybe she was but they were friends right?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"If you could call the frequent conversations they had when he dropped off his little sister at the ballet class she taught every Monday, Wednesday and Friday a friendship then sure. But outside of that they never crossed paths. He was off living the life of a college student with, most likely, hundreds of girls better than her flocking over him. And she was just, a lowly high school senior with minimal friends who only ever kissed a boy once. He had told her she could visit him anytime if she wanted. She remembered that day vividly. It was before class and she was in the middle of a self-choreographed routine when she was, rather embarrassingly, interrupted by the dark haired man clapping./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She almost fell flat on her face in shock./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"So maybe this wasn't a bad decision after all? Right?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She didn't know how she managed to unfreeze herself from the position she had been in for 5 minutes but she did. C'mon Mo, you can do it, her inner self yelled at her. After all it was her and her stupid desire to be impulsive that had gotten her into this mess in the first place./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"emKnock, knock./em/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Silence./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Shit, abort mission she internally hissed at herself. It wasn't too late she could just turn around and go home and he'd never know it was –/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The door flung open and a rather hysterical redhead clambered out. Her makeup was running down her face like a mascara and eyeliner river, her hair a mess. She didn't even acknowledge the mocha skinned girl standing in front of her, choosing to push past her as violent sobs escaped her mouth along with a variety of different curse words./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Uh, what just happened?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She was truly at a lost. Still staring in the direction the girl had gone, trying to wrap her head around it all. So engrossed in her thoughts that she didn't notice the presence of another behind her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Monique?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She almost jumped out of her uniform at the sound of Nick's deep voice. Almost immediately she turned around to face the large muscular man staring down at her. Unfortunately for her he was lacking a shirt. Her eyes were immediately met with a perfectly chiselled body and broad shoulders she often imagined being around her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Nick!" she managed to squeak out in as she let her eyes focus back on his face. Sharp jawline. Light subtle. Flawless ivory skin. A bone structure that looked like it was chiselled by God Himself. And those eyes. Oh those eyes. They were dark brown, almost black but 100% intense./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Oh God./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Those intense dark eyes of his bore into her soul as they usually did, making her shyly avert her gaze. She quickly tried to garner her thoughts to make a coherent sentence but he spoke first./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""What are you doing here?" he asked. His was voice strong and intimidating much like he was. It made Monique feel a variety of different things ranging from terrified to wet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I, I, uh, just wanted to, uh, see you," she spluttered, tripping over her words as she felt the adrenaline she once had coursing through her veins leave her shaking slightly. There goes being impulsive she said mentally slapping herself./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He smirked. Her heart almost leapt out of her mouth./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Did you now?" he replied coolly, sliding his hands into the pockets of his sweatpants that hung dangerously low on his waist./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She nodded in response at this, casting her gaze down to her feet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Why don't you come in then?" he continued, leaning against the doorframe, still staring intensely at her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She noticed that his invitation, whilst subtle, was more of a demand than anything. But it's not like she could say no to it./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Okay," she said softly as she took steps towards the door. Her heels clanking every time it hit the hard wood floor, echoing through the hallway./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"As she passed him on her way in, their shoulders brushed and she could swear she heard the soft intake of breath as he hissed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"So success for her. She had effectively made it into the home of Nick Lindfors and she hadn't spontaneously combusted from fear. Yet. But still so many question rang through her brain. Who was the redhead? Why was she crying? And most importantly, why was she in his apartment? She found herself doing her weird deduction of the scenario, trying to figure out the answer. In the end she only found 1 plausible scenario. The one in which the girl was his girlfriend./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""You seem to have your head in the clouds today," Nick said cutting through her whirlwind of thoughts./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She laughed. A little bit too loudly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I'm sorry," she decided to settle with instead./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Why on earth should you be?" was his response./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She just noticed she had found herself sitting on his couch, with him standing directly opposite her. Never wavering his intense gaze./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Because…" she paused. That impending feeling of fear was overwhelming her again and suddenly she felt like she couldn't be there anymore. "I think I've made a mistake."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"And with that she quickly got up off of his couch and to his front door, hand securely on the metal knob, ready to turn. But she didn't because a strong arm had bypassed her and had firmly placed itself against the door, barring her from escape. She wanted to say something. Tell him she had to go. That she was a loser and he'd soon learn that she wasn't worth his time. But she couldn't. Her mouth opened but no sound came out. She smelt the waft of his strong cologne overtake her nostrils and paralyse her brain. It was at this moment she realised how close behind her he was to her. She could feel his breath on her neck and the warmth from his body radiating against her back./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Don't go," was all he said. And she knew he meant it as a demand, not an option. His voice vibrated against her body reminding her how close he was and she shivered at thought./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Could you please turn around Monique?" he spoke again, this time more softly as he removed his hand from the door./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"The poor girl knew she was powerless against him and so she complied with his orders eventually turning around to face him. He stood there as strong and beautiful as ever, radiating with authority and power. Such a juxtaposition to her shy, meek presence. Suddenly she felt tears form in her eyes and she blinked hard, willing them not to fall, not now, not here, with him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I can't stay here," she muttered almost silently but loud enough for him to hear. Her eyes suddenly found themselves, yet again staring at her feet./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Why?" he said sternly now stepping forward to be just mere millimetres from her. "I won't let you go until you give me a good enough reason."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"And it was as if on cue, her tears began plummeting out her eyes and her futile attempts at trying to wipe them away did nothing to stop them from coming. In that moment she couldn't have thought of anything more pathetic that she had done in her life than this. She half expected him to tell her to leave as she stood there, a shaking, tear stained face mess./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"But he didn't./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Instead she felt large warm arms engulf her waist, drawing her closer to a warm, hard body, the same familiar smell of cologne taking over her senses. Immediately she felt all the sense she had left leave her as she, in turn, wrapped her arms around his midriff and softly sobbed into his chest. She felt his hand move to the centre of her back and begin to rub one spot gently in a circular motion. An instant calm came over her and as quickly as it came, the crying stopped./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""That's why I can't stay," she murmured into his chest which she was now aware of being wet with her tears. She felt so embarrassed and wanted nothing more than to go home and crawl under her sheets and die./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Suddenly he stopped rubbing her back and his hands were suddenly firmly on her shoulders as he stared at her in a way that made her heart stop./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Stop saying that," was his firm response. "I want you here."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She almost choked on air, not believing a word that was coming from his mouth. Immediately she opened her mouth to protest but she was stopped by his big hands covering it as a small smirk appeared on his face./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Please, shut up," he said bringing his face close to hers. His hands now wrapping themselves around her waist tightly. Bringing her close for yet another moment. Hard body pressed against her soft one. Cologne fogging her brain. Dark eyes locked in on her hazel ones. Heart beating faster than the speed of light./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"If he wasn't careful he might just make her believe he cared about her./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She didn't know how her legs were still holding her up at this point. Perhaps it was his strong, muscular arms. Or maybe it was the fact that she was giving all her willpower trying to resist his natural charm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"His forehead slightly brushed against hers sending shivers down her spine./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She didn't think he could get any closer to her until this point./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Do you want to know something interesting Monique?" he said playfully, tightening his grip on her small waist, lips hovering over hers./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"All she could do was nod dumbly./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""The better part of my week, is spent with you. Did you know that?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She shook her head slowly never breaking her eye contact with him./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I thought you would, or else why would you be here?"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Damn. He got her there. Why had she come again? Wasn't it something about being more impulsive? Was she even still being impulsive at this point or was she just being seduced by the beautiful man before her?/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Monique," he said softly, drawing her out of her thoughts and back into reality. His warm breath bounced off her face reminding her of his closeness./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Yes?" she said in a voice that was barely a whisper./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I love you."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Her heart stopped immediately. Her body stiffened. All her senses came to a halt. Did she hear him correctly? Love? Her? Those things did not go in the same sentence unless it was when her mom or dad said it as she left for school each morning. No, people did not emlove /emMonique Hernandez. Especially not beautiful people like Nicholas Lindfors. No this definitely had to be a prank, or a dream. No. She refused to believe it, she emcouldn't/em believe it./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Monique?" he said again. This time more urgently, his eyes growing more concerned by the minute./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She realised she probably looked like she had been stabbed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""I…are you sure?" she said shaking her head vigorously./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Are you kidding?" he sort of half laughed. "I've never been surer about anything in my entire life."/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Oh no, there goes her heart again. Damn thing always betraying her like that./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""But why?" she was no longer in control of her mouth either as it seemed./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"He laughed again. Oh what a wonderful laugh it was./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""You're funny aren't you dear?" he chuckled brushing her face with the back of his palm./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;""Well, um, yes I suppose. I've been told I'm a bit of jokester. My mom actually says that I should try my hand at comedy but –"/p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"She was cut off immediately by a pair of incredibly soft lips on hers. Never in her life had Monique thought of her motor mouth as being a blessing but gosh dammit, it seemed to have its perks. But wow they were kissing and kissing hard. Her hands somehow making its way into his dark slicked back hair. His finding themselves under skirt and on her buttocks gently hoisting her up a few centimetres from the ground. Kissing until they were both breathless and moaning into each other's mouths. Kissing until her brain was completely blank of all reasonable thought. And then Monique knew./p
p style="max-height: 999999px; font-family: Verdana, Verdana, Arial; font-size: 13px;"Being impulsive had its perks because this, this was definitely better than getting bangs./p