A/N: I'm going to a music festival on Friday, and I'm pretty busy all this week, so after this I may not be able to update until next week if you guys are lucky.

I make no excuses for this chapter, except for the fact that the pervy part of me LOVES it.

Chapter 32 - Under The Covers

"Do you know how creepy that is?"

She'd felt him leaning over her, staring at her since the moment her mind had clicked out of sleep mode and back into consciousness. She could feel him close, her heart pounding in her chest at the hum of his breathing echoing in her ears. His close proximity instantly made her simultaneously relaxed and on edge as he leaned quite obviously over her watching her sleep as they lay together in the small bed of his parents guestroom. His hand was pressed to the mattress beside her opposite to the side he was currently laying on, her skin brushing against it every few seconds as they shifted into comfort.

"You are such a creeper..." she mumbled her eyes still closed, afraid of what he would look like when she opened them.

She hoped that he would be afraid of her, that he would look like a deer in the headlights as she glared at him unimpressed. She wanted him to be guilty, sorry and just all together awkward about everything. She knew she was living a strange life when feeling awkward felt better than feeling comfortable with someone. She knew that as soon as she felt comfortable lying next to him, sleeping next to him, that bad things would happen... a cycle that she just couldn't handle going over with again. She'd done it before and she highly doubted that she could do it again. She didn't want to do it again. She just wanted everything to go away and be like it had been for those few short months when she'd been alone and she'd been coping with a father that loved her and a family that cared.

But when she let her eyes flutter open and her heart hopped into her throat refusing to leave it until she could hardly breathe, she knew that wanting to do something and actually being able to do it were two very separate things. She quickly felt her lack of control of her own emotions as her heart started palpitating in her chest, rushing faster and faster against her ribs as he looked down at her. He didn't look guilty and he didn't look ashamed or awkward. He was just smiling at her gently, watching her as she awoke, almost taunting her in the fact that he'd woken up before her and he could now tease her about how she sometimes snored and drooled.

Letting him stay with her suddenly became a very bad idea...

"Sleep okay?" he asked her calmly, tugging the sheets over her feet poking out of the end of the bed.

She groaned annoyed more at herself for not caring that he'd woken her up than annoyed at him for being a creeper. She let her arms fall exhaustedly over her face, her eyes peeping through her fingers to check the clock and see that it was only just 9am. She sighed irritated and exhausted and swatted her hand out to try and make him move away from her, giving him the answer that he needed.

"We fell asleep at 3am, Nicholas..." she said her voice thick with sleep as she pushed the sheets back, "How dare you make me awake at 9am... I, unlike some people, need to sleep their eight hours..."

She groaned, stretching her arms above her head, only to catch his eyes drift to her stomach as her white shirt rose to reveal her milky skin. She felt some wrong sense of control and higher power over him as she did so, raising her arms higher and higher, until her naval was completely uncovered, open to his eyes. She watched his eyes, so obviously, take in the sight, his fingers flexing on the bed beside her to touch it, and smiled inwardly at the effect she had over him.

"I wanted to know what you wanted to do today..." he said, making goosebumps rise on her skin as his eyes wandered over every inch of her body, avoiding her eyes, "I didn't know if I should make preparations or... ya know... call a cab..."

She smiled at him, an eyebrow cocked in his direction as he finally reached her face, a blush covering his cheeks. She shook her head at him and closed her eyes, tugging the covers back over her body so he couldn't see.

"I kinda wanted to sleep in until at least noon, but apparently that's not gonna happen now..."

She heard him paused, "Why?"
She sighed. Irritated.

"Because, Buddy Boy, even though I am tired and I am desperate to fall back to sleep, your creepy stalking has made it impossible for me to feel like i can go back to sleep, because I'm terrified that you're going to watch me again," she peeked at him through one eye, "Or worse..."

His face turned playful and her stomach gurgled silently inside of her with the fluttering that seemed to be appearing at all of the wrong moments. She watched the corners of his mouth turn up into a smile, felt his thumb flex beside her beneath the quilt, inconspicuously stroking her flesh for a second, causing her breath to catch and her brain to pulsate. It only made it worse when he retracted his hand from beside her, his fingers grazing over her flesh like it was nothing, making her feel everything. In a moment, she hated him... wanted to kill him... and something else... all at once.

"I can't help it..." he muttered in his excuse, and she paused, unsure of what he was excusing himself of. Every action he was taking was somehow searching for a reaction from her, and she wasn't going to give him one... not easily anyway. He would have to do something seriously hardcore for her to react to him. He would have to make her angry or make her really, really annoyed before she would react to his childish tries of getting her to react to him.

She wouldn't react... she wouldn't.

With a sigh, she turned to her side, her eyes drifting closed again as she blocked him out, facing away from him still lying beside her. She lay silently, waiting for him to get bored and get up or fall asleep like she was trying to. But he wasn't, and she could hear him, feel him watching over her like some kind of secret keeper to her safety that she didn't really want. She just wanted to be able to sleep as long as she usually did and get back into the swing of her normal sleep pattern. She couldn't be doing all of this waking up early and going to be late. It had to be all late, just like she usually was, and his stupid body clock was interrupting her own and throwing it off. She wanted her own bed, and she wanted to be able to feel safe. She hated that she only felt safe when he was nearby, when he was holding her much like she'd found herself when awaking in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. He always had his arms around her, his cheek pressed against the back of her shoulder. She always came back from the kitchen or the bathroom to find his arm outstretched over her side of the bed that they'd somehow claimed for themselves. The moment she lifted his arm to get back into the bed, it was around her and clutching her tightly. She hated that she couldn't stop him, or force herself to stop him. It made her feel to safe... too comfortable. When he was asleep, he was just Nick the boy she'd once been in love with. The moment he was awake, he was like this. He was the boy who had broken her heart.

"Ughh!" she said dramatically, turning to lay on her back again, her hand flying out to hit him roughly on the arm in annoyance, "Do you have to do that?! It's so creepy! I can't sleep because I'm so damn on edge!" He laughed and protected himself as she hit him again, "I can't sleep now that you've made me all unrelaxed and freaked out!"

She pouted at him, saw his face soften as his hand returned to pin against the mattress beside her. She gulped as she saw the seriousness in his face at the look of her, and her palms began to sweat as she clutched them against her stomach nervously. Her eyes clouded at the attention and care in his eyes and she took a deep breath, catching his attention.

"Can I help?" he asked, his voice low and masculine, making her heart beat fast for a second, before it slowed down scarily.

She frowned, "Help what?"

She watched as he pushed himself to sit up next to her, his body tilted to her, watching her just as carefully as ever.

"Help you to fall asleep..."

She looked at him, her brow raised in amusement as a smile broke across her face and happiness bubbled in her gut at his ridiculous question.

"No..." she laughed plumping the pillows up with her hands beneath her head.

He shrugged his shoulders, apparently finding it less humouring than she had done and began playing with the hem of her t-shirt, rolling the loose thread in his fingers as he watched her silently.

"But it works..." he muttered, his eyes glassy. She was confused instantly as she watched him carefully, "It always used to work..." he paused and she heard him gulp, "Didn't it?"

In a flash back to their past, she remembered exactly what he was talking about. How he used to "help" her fall asleep when she was too hyper and energetic on tour to go to bed. She remembered his actions, and what he would do nearly every other day just to make her relax, to make her calm and keep her concentrated on slowing down rather than speeding up. She'd always somehow fall asleep, always. She'd wake up the next morning to find that he wasn't there and that she was alone. It was always the worst feeling in the world... well... back then it had been the worst feeling in the world. She could think of a million other awful feelings now that she was a little older and a lot wiser. Somehow that awful feeling he was now reminding her of, actually made her feel a little bit happier, a tiny bit more safer, and a whole lot more like the world was a different place to what it had once been; just because she knew that if she did fall asleep, if and when she let him help her, he was going to be there when she woke up and he would probably be smiling.

"I-I... I don't know..." she whispered as she watched him, apparently already decided for her, lifting the sheet until it was stretched out above them like a tent letting the early morning light through. Her body flattened against the mattress, completely still as she watched him apprehensively. He was watching her, looking at her, waiting for her to give him the only answer their was, willing her past her apparent fear with his eyes, in order to agree.

She gulped, glassy eyes staring up at him and nodded slightly. He looked at her questioningly, his head tilted to the side, and waited for a firmer answer, his body still shifting beside her as he knelt up on his knees above her. She coughed and cleared her throat, nervous as he seemed so much larger than her from above her, making her feel small and weak. It only made her silently want this more.

"Okay..." she nodded, taking a deep shakey breath.

She watched him as he did what he always did, more because of the lack of space on a tour bus than for actual real reasons, and slowly placed his knees either side of her hips. He looked down at her, watched her as she stared at him, took in the new muscles he had formed in their absence and the entirely new way that he looked above her. She watched as he let the sheets bunch at the end of the bed where their feet didn't reach, letting his body fall to sit against her thighs as he did so. He looked up at her and smiled at her softly, relaxing her and letting her know that this was going to be okay.

"Arms up." He whispered as he leaned over her, and without even knowing, she had lifted her hands above her head to rest either side of her on the pillow, palms upward as her fingers flexed nervously.

She looked up at him, admired his smile as he started off just like the other hundreds of times he'd helped her to sleep. Her head turned and watched as he leant down so alarmingly close to her face, his hands taking hold of her fingers as he opened up her palm and pressed his lips deep into the centre of it, kissing it gently, tentatively, like he was trying not to scare her anymore than she already was.

He watched her reaction, saw her take a deep breath in and hold it as her eyes fluttered closed in the sensation, her lips stilled and silent at that simple sensation. He waited before continuing, lifting her arm and pressing his lips against the pulse in her wrist. She let out her breath as she felt him kiss against the thumping pulse that he felt. Her eyes closed as she felt his lips, running along the skin of her forearm, causing her breath to hitch every few moments, the strange tickling sensation when his lips reached the crook of her arm making her smile slightly as he continued.

She didn't argue when his hand pushed at the white fabric of her v-neck t-shirt, until there was enough room for him to kiss several times against the smooth skin of her shoulders. She smiled, her fingers flexing at the side of her head as she ached to just run one hand down the hand that was toying with the cotton, making way for his lips as they ran against her body. Simultaneously, he pressed a kiss to the top of her sternum and moved up the fabric just so he could repeat the same action at the bottom of her sternum soon after. The sensation of something so comforting and familiar caught her off guard, her hand moving from beside her head on the pillow to clutch at the same gentle skin at the back of his arm. She squeezed it, too encouragingly and felt as he kissed a line over her ribs, to the sternum again, before making his way down her stomach, kissing her belly button and admiring the muscles as they clenched under his mouth.

She blushed when her back arched into his touch as he kissed and kissed at her stomach, his supporting hand holding her around the waist as she squirmed at the feel of his lips against the protrudence of her hips where they had never ventured before. His kisses were clumsy. She could feel his lips shaking as they came into contact with her flesh, and she knew that it was purely because he was just as nervous as she was. She could feel him, tasting her skin as he reacquainted himself with each and every curve he'd never seen before. She gasped as she felt a lone finger trace down her side, feeling the contours of her body that had formed in his absence, admiring them and investigating them, burning them into his memory so he would never forget.

She panted, breathless, her chest aching as he quickly, but carefully, kissed down her legs, across her bare, boxer-covered thighs, over her knees and along the smooth skin of her calves. She screwed her face in anguish as she felt every pant of his own breath against her skin, his lips hard against them as it seemed he could not get enough of what he was so shamelessly taking. She felt worshiped and needed as he kissed the tops of her feet, his entire body curved to reached them, the loss of contact slightly too much, her body heaving, trying to reach him as he knelt back up. She looked up at him through glassy eyes to find him kissing his way back up her body, taking his time, remembering everything on the way, as she clutched both her hands at him. She waited, her fingernails digging into his flesh as he slowly but surely returned to her, their faces moving to meet each other and take in the sight of each others eyes.

She gasped, panted, ached as she tried to breathe. He looked down at her, his eyes telling and sure as he clutched at her body, their skin burning together as it met, fused against each other as it refused to move. Her legs wrapped around his thighs, holding him close as she stared at him, her eyes clouded with the passion she'd never meant to give into. She hadn't meant to react, she hadn't even meant to let him do anything. But she couldn't stop him... why couldn't she stop him...? She'd just let him... and now she was alive with the sensation that she hadn't wanted to feel, softened by his worshipping, admiring actions that she would never ask him to take back. Why had she let him? Why was she allowing herself to slip backwards into a past that no longer existed?

She shook her head at him subtly, her eyelids heavy with lust, slipping her hand up between their bodies until she was tugging his neck to her until he was inches away from her face. She paused and shook her head, not knowing what to do, not knowing what she wanted to happen, sure that he would decide for her.

She sighed as he pressed his lips against her nose, a smile breaking out onto his face. She didn't return it. She just tugged on the back of his neck until his nose was running against hers, their lips millimetres apart.

It could have been hours, they would never have known. All Miley knew was that she couldn't stop herself from what she was doing, staring up at him with her heavy eyes, waiting for something to happen that she had never been more sure that she wanted. His eyes were intimidating with their lack of unsureness, his lips quirking as he panted in time with her. His hand clutched at her neck, the other still pressed against the bed as they bided their time and their movements. She looked at him one last time with heavy eyes and couldn't take it anymore, a subtle nod passing quickly between them until he was reaching to push her hair from her face, and leaning softly in.

It seemed like lifetimes for him to finally reach her, her eyes closing as she waited... his lips never reaching her... as quickly she felt his entire body being moved from hers...

"YO! NICK! ARE YOU HERE?"

"Mileyyy!"

Her reactions were slower than his, her lips still ready, eyes still half closed as she watched him spring away from her and off of the bed. Her ears echoed and in seconds, it was like she was coming back up for air after holding her head under water, reality rushing back to her cruelly. It took a few moments for her to realise that she was alone in the bedroom, her head lifting exhausted from the pillows to find the door open. She heard the sounds of her best friend's downstairs, their crashing noises loud her ears as they entered the house like a bull in a china shop.

She let her head crash back onto the pillow with a thud again, her eyes wide and confused as she tried to comprehend what she had just let happen. Her eyes closed, her face contorted into anger at herself. Her jaw set as she prepared herself to pretend that the world was okay. Hands covered her face as she clutched at her own cheeks, still trying to comprehend her own actions, failing instantly in a mental rush of confusion. She shook her head and clenched her fists together, trying her best not to scream and show her anger, before she gave up, and let her hand fly thundering to the pillow beside her, hitting it hard, until the feathers puffed out from the corners.

It was all too much.

A/N: So I did some investigating and discovered that I have been in fact awarded/nominated for some NJK awards. Pretty cool. Thanks to the academy and all that Jazz... i suppose I should ask you to vote for me...

VOTE FOR ME!

I also need help. I have a chapter that involves dancing at a very naughty, grimey dirty party. Involving Nick and Miley...

But I need a song... I need you guys to help me and give your requests/ideas.

One thing... Think RAVE, think SWEATY, think SEXY.

Think claustrophobia and attraction.

There's all your spoilers for the day.

Please read and review.

Oh yeah... please don't judge my pervyness.

xx