AN: Thanks for the reviews to: jeyton4ever, and OTH.daddy'sgurl.06! I was a little disappointed to only get two reviews, but you two are so wonderful and the reviews made me so happy, that it didn't even matter! Thanks so much!

Chapter 8

General POV

The rest of the week, Jake and Peyton found themselves skipping all the dating games and so on that was planed for them every day. What good would it do to them? They had already found the one they wanted to be with, what was the point of looking any further, right?

Brooke assured Peyton time and time again that it was perfectly fine that they were skipping the whole schedule. She said that as long as Peyton spent as much time as possible in Jake's arms that she was getting her money's worth. Peyton reminded her that this whole cruise was given to them for free.

"Whatever," Brooke said rolling her eyes. "The point is, we're young, on a cruise, and found hot boyfriends. It would just be wrong not to spend every second just making the best of this," She said simply, and Peyton had to agree. It's not like she wanted to go on with the LustFactor dating games. And it's not like she didn't want to spend every second of the day with Jake.

So, the two couples spent the rest of the week together, sun bathing, talking, relaxing, although most of their time was spent making out, which no one ever complained about. It was only the first week of their trip of three months, none of them were worrying about what was going to happen afterwards, when it was all over. At least, no one was worrying about it out loud...

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The foursome was pretty sad when the weekend arrived, because those two days were days that everyone had off, meaning the pool would be way more crowded. Peyton, Brooke, Jake and Lucas were used to it being just them and a couple of others. Not liking the idea of having to go there with the mob of all the other people on the cruise, they decided to stay in that day, hang out in one of the cabins.

"OK, here's the thing," Brooke was saying to Peyton in a low voice, biting her bottom lip. She had taken Peyton aside to talk to her alone. Peyton looked at her weirdly, a little afraid of what she was going to say. The thing was, Peyton really felt like being alone with Jake today. That week had been fun and all, with the four of them, but they hadn't really had any alone time that they both wanted. Peyton was thinking of how to break this to Brooke without sounding like she was kicking her out of something.

"What is it?" Peyton asked.

"Well..." Brooke said looking back at Lucas, not finishing her sentence.

"What? Is it something with you and Lucas? Did something happen?" Peyton questioned worriedly. If something wrong had happened with Brooke and Lucas, things could seriously go wrong.

"No, no nothing like that. It's just..." Brooke said, "Well..."

"Brooke, spit it out."

"Lucas and I kind of want to spend today alone," Brooke said in one single breath, stringing the words together, making it hard for Peyton to understand. A few seconds later, Peyton was able to figure it out. And when she did, she started laughing.

"Yeah, Brooke, sure, I was kind of about to tell you the same thing," Peyton said.

Brooke raised her eyebrows, "Oh... Are you and Jake...?" She said not needing to finish her sentence.

"Having sex?" Peyton asked whispering, not wanting the boys to hear her. Talk about embarrassing. "No...! Brooke, we just got together not even a week ago."

"Oh, don't give me that, Missy Blonde Girl, you know you want it," She said with a knowing look.

"I..." Peyton started. But the truth was she had thought about it a lot. And she wasn't exactly decided. She definitely wasn't ready to give herself like that to somebody again. And her and Jake weren't exactly at that point in their relationship yet. And he probably knew that, but still... He was in college, and clearly experienced, what was he expecting?

"Hello! P. Sawyer?" Brooke waved a hand in front of her face, waking Peyton up from her thoughts.

"I don't know what I want, Brooke," She said honestly, "Do you think I'm crazy for wanting to take it slow?"

Brooke smiled, and shook her head, "No, I don't think you're crazy," She said, then added, "But I do think you'll change your mind."

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Peyton's POV

"Finally," Jake said closing the door behind Brooke and Lucas. He turned around and smiled that adorable smile that makes me heart flutter and my stomach turned. What did that mean? 'Finally'? I gave him a weak smile, knowing that I wasn't exactly convincing, but it was the best I could do. Gosh, why was I so nervous? I was the one who wanted to be alone with him.

"Yeah..." I said unconvincingly. "Finally." Jake looked at me weirdly, as if he were inspecting me for a trace of something.

"Something wrong?" He asked, already knowing the answer. I tried to wipe off any uncomfortable looks off my face.

I shrugged, "No, I'm fine," I said smiling. He nodded and walked over to me, looking completely casual. That's one thing I love about Jake. He won't push me to talk about something. He'll find a way to make me feel comfortable even in the most uncomfortable of times. He wraps his arms around my waist and I practically melt in them.

I start to feel really stupid and foolish for my behavior before. It's not like it was the first time we had ever been in a room alone together. I mean, what had I expected? I put my arms around his neck and hug him tight, loving the feeling. When we pulled away he kept his arms around my waist, and looked deep into my eyes. How could a guy have such an intense look with someone he only started dating not even a week ago? It was eery, and awkward, and nerve-racking, but there was a sweetness, and softness in it as well, that made me feel perfectly fine with it. In fact, I was actually starting to really like it.

"You know..." He started to say, really casually, "I've been thinking..." He kind of trailed off, not finishing his sentence. My mind was going crazy. What had he been thinking! I remained calm though. He let go of me and went to sit on my bed and motioned for me to come sit next to him.

I hesitated. What did this mean? I went and sat next to him. I swear he would surely have to yell for me to be able to hear him over the sound of my heart beats. Deep breath, Peyton, deep breath, I kept telling myself. And it actually helped.

"This week, it's been..." Jake said, "different." Okay, not exactly the word I would describe it as. More like fantastic, amazing, incredible... But to my surprised, he shook his head looking as dissatisfied with the word choice as I was. "I mean, it's been... well, pretty great actually. I mean, I could barely think straight. Every night I went to sleep thinking 'man, tomorrow can never be as good as today' and it always was. And I haven't felt like this in... forever. And OK, we did just start dating, and we have only known each other for so long, but I can tell that what we have... it's," He searched for the right word, "It's one of a kind. Anyway, what I'm saying is that I think, just where we are in our relationship right now, we should probably take it slow." He said, looking unsure of himself, almost... nervous. It was adorable.

I didn't say anything for a second. I was just marveling at how wonderful this guy was, going over what he had just said a million times in my head. I felt like jumping up and dancing or something.

"Or... not take it slow, I mean, whatever you want..." Jake said after I hadn't said anything for a while. I snapped out of it and laughed.

"No," I said, smiling, "Slow is good." He looked relieved and happy, and that just made me that much happier. That we were both in a place that we wanted to be. We were happy and comfortable and in tune with one another, which is all I really wanted to be sure of. He dipped his head down to kiss, me and I kissed him back full force. I think it's a good sign, that while we were kissing to seal the deal, we were both smiling at the same time.

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AN: Sorry guys, it's a little short. I promise I'll update soon, thanks so much for reading and please review!