Another sort of rushed chapter that I'm still not sure about...but I'm goin on vacation for the week and reeeally wanted to get this out.
Fair warning that this chapter is where the 'M' rating comes into play if it hasn't already. Let me know if it's too much, too little or you just plain hate it.
As always thanks for the reviews/alerts...they always make my day! Enjoy :)
The clock next to Josie's bedside showed just past six as Pete lay wide awake gazing in wonder at the sleeping form next him. He smiled slightly as she sighed softly in her sleep, snuggled closer into his side and seemed to return his smile with a small one of her own. Pete could have spent hours watching her sleep like this and he was amazed that over the course of 24 hours he had the privilege to still be speaking to her let alone be in the same bed with her.
If only I'd told her earlier, a part of his mind grumbled, she'd have known all along about the GSE and I never would've almost lost her.
But then we wouldn't have had that first fight that led to her saying she loved me too. And fuck she'd looked hot while she yelled, the other half of his mind argued petulantly.
Pete continued to have an inner dialogue with himself while still staring down at Josie. He picked up a stray curl, twirling the soft hair around his finger, marveling at the brown and gold hues that glinted in the early morning sunlight. Her plump, pink lips parted open in a smile and her eyelids fluttered open.
"Stop playin' with my hair, you tart." She mumbled into his side before grinning up at him, brown eyes sparkling.
"Oi, don't be a grump." He smirked back at her then breathed in sharply as she swung her body quickly onto his, straddling his waist and playfully trapping his wrists above his head. She leaned in close, giving a soft kiss to the West Ham crest on his chest before moving slowly up to his face, leaving a soft trail of kisses along the way.
"Mmm, I could get used to this, maybeee I'll just tie you up and leave you here while I go to work for the day. Then I could have my way with you when I get back…"
Pete tried to bite back a moan at that thought and failed miserably which caused Josie to grin devilishly down at him. His heart pounded in his chest and he felt himself immediately grow hard as Josie reached his face and leaned closer to him, "Hmm, seems like you like that idea, huh Dunham?"
Pete simply nodded before managing to strangle out a few words, "Yesss…I'd, uh – really like that." Josie nuzzled her nose softly against his before capturing his lips with hers. He ran his tongue along the seam of her lips, moaning when she eagerly opened her mouth her tongue meeting his with electricity.
The sound of Josie's phone trilling loudly caused Pete to groan in frustration, "Ignore it."
He growled to her but was cut short by a rough kiss before she leaned over him to reach her phone anyway.
"Ello?" Fighting a loud yawn, Josie leaned away from Pete, "Em? Emma – calm down." Pete stared up at her as she remained seated on him, taking in the way her soft brown curls cascaded down her back and the way her eyes stayed on his even as she listened to whoever was on the line. She reached her free hand down to slowly run her fingertips along the edge of his waist where his bare skin met the fabric of his boxers. He rested his hands on her hips and began to trace small circles on the bare skin between her small white tank top and the pair of shorts she'd slept in. Initially he tried to follow the conversation but became increasingly distracted by the way Josie's fingers were softly stroking him and how her chest seemed to be hypnotizing him as it heaved up and down, her nipples hard through the thin fabric.
Josie snapped her fingers as she caught him staring and he replied with a cheeky grin and continued to stare unabashedly and continued to draw circles on her warm, bare skin, "Relax Em, I'll be there in 45 minutes, an hour at most. Stay calm till I get there – we'll handle it." At her final words, Pete stuck his lower lip out in an exaggerated pout and was met by Josie's tinkling laugh.
"Work beckons bruv." Josie moved to climb off of him and out of bed but Pete quickly pulled her to him in a bone crushing hug, relishing in the feel of her small body flush against his.
"Do you have to love?" Pete whispered into her ear, nibbling softly on the lobe as he tried to plead with her slightly, knowing it'd never work. He also knew he should probably spend the day getting his classroom ready but between the choice of time with Josie versus…well pretty much everything, he'd take her any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
"Ugh, unfortunately. 'Member that fundraiser thing I told you we've been planning all summer set for this Friday night?"
Pete nodded his head, vaguely recalling some minor freak-outs she'd had over the summer about planning said fundraiser, "Well apparently it's all falling to hell at the most inopportune time. I've no idea why in all that's holy Emma is at the museum at 6:30 in the mornin' but either way – I've gotta go."
She pressed a final kiss to his chest and wiggled out of his grip before climbing out of bed. Pete rolled onto his side watching her as she chose an outfit from the closet and smirked as she bent over to grab a stray earring that had been knocked off the bureau in their haste to land in the bed last night. They'd been on their way to physically proving their love when Dave and Swill had interrupted by pounding loudly on the door to either comfort Josie or tell Pete 'I told you so.' He had momentarily contemplated slamming the door in their faces but Josie had welcomed them in, as she was never one to turn the boys away – especially not those particular two. They'd stayed for a couple hours until she'd fallen asleep on his shoulder and he'd booted them out before carrying her to bed.
"Joze?" Pete stared back into her beautiful brown eyes as she held his gaze without hesitation.
"Yea Pete?"
"Do you want to meet my family?" Josie's face broke into a wide smile and she walked slowly back towards the bed, staring at him thoughtfully and biting down softly on her lower lip.
Reaching him she leaned over his large frame and planted a soft kiss on his lips and he buried his hands in her hair, gripping the curls softly in order to deepen the kiss. She pulled away reluctantly before whispering a soft yes.
"Good…because Monday's are family dinners," Her eyes widened slightly when she realized he meant tonight but nodded her head in agreement nonetheless, "and my mum has been beggin' to meet you but I selfishly wanted to keep you to myself. Couldn't last forever though. Now, if only I could find a way to get rid of the boys." He tapped his chin thoughtfully as she gave a loud laugh, a final kiss and danced off into the shower.
Josie sprinted up the spiral stairs to the offices as fast as her four inch heels would allow her to. When she reached the top, the first thing she saw was Emma surrounded by a pile of paperwork stacked between their adjacent desks, a frantic glint in her eyes and her blonde hair thrown atop her head in a messy bun.
"Shit Ems, what in God's name happened to you? I left Friday night and everything was set a week in advance but Monday rolls around and I'm getting frantic calls at 6:30 in the mornin'. And fuck if you only knew what you'd interrupted." Josie tapped her foot half impatiently, half angrily at the fact that she'd thought the whole thing'd been settled.
At that Emma held up her hand, "Stop! Just stop right there, I do not want to hear another too sweet tale of your perfect relationship with Dunham. Concentrate love, we are seriously fucked."
Josie rolled her eyes, "What's with this 'we' Kemosabe?" and tilted her head to the side quizzically. Emma responded with a glare, "Alright, alright…we're in it together, my English rose – now start from the beginning."
Emma began to rattle off all the issues that had begun to arise throughout Saturday and Sunday unbeknownst to Josie as she'd worked at the pub and spent her time with Pete and the boys. It seemed that all of their carefully laid plans over the past three months had begun unraveling at an impossible rate. As she wrapped up the story of how there'd been a slight fire at the bakery that was set to do the desserts and they therefore weren't able to bake the thousand odd pastries the 1500 quid deposit assured them and were now refusing to give the funds back, Josie felt an overwhelming sense of panic settle around the two of them.
"Soo…we are seriously fucked." Josie echoed Emma's earlier sentiment and dropped her head with a loud thud to onto her desk.
"Now she gets it." Emma grumbled angrily, "What in the hell are we going do?"
Josie lifted her head to stare into Emma's frantic and half mad face seeming to calm at the sight of it, "Well Murphy's Law I guess…anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. So as it's my shit luck that's led to this we are going to drink gallons of coffee and work like mad to fix every part of this that's fallen apart. I rather like my job and I take it you like yours so if we want to keep them let's get to it."
"What's first?" Josie glanced down at the laundry list of problems to see where they should begin.
"You my friend, are going to start work on the supposed biblical flood at the main hall to see if something can be done about still using it. While I'll go browbeat those hacks at the bakery to get our deposit back and/or force them to make treats for us. Aaaaaand break!" Clapping her hands as though breaking out of a huddle, Emma rolled her eyes before leaping out of her chair to follow Josie out the door and into the dawning London day.
ELEVEN HOURS LATER
"So I may or may not have called him a smelly ape and made up some legal jargon sounding law about how I could have him deported if he didn't give us our money back or make good on the contract and surprise! He just so happened to have a cousin that owned a bakery they could borrow in order to still cater our little event this weekend."
"Joze, you are a star – that plus the hall was by far our biggest hurdle and we nailed both of 'em today...now we just have the minor issues to resolve and after this day they should be a piece of cake. Cheers to us."
Emma leaned across their desks to clink drinks with Josie and gave a bark of laughter at the noodle of Lo Mein that was currently falling out of Josie's mouth as she grinned back at her.
"You Americans are so brash and uncouth and thank God for that or you'd be the most boring of co-workers. Only you would think it was ok to shamelessly browbeat an 80 year old baker into making good on our deposit."
Josie arched an eyebrow in Emma's direction, "Co-workers? What happened to friends? Mates? Buds? Pals? Idk…BFFs?"
Emma stared in shock for a moment, as usual caught off guard by Josie's wackiness before bursting out in laughter and throwing a fortune cookie at her head, "Oi you twat, there's no one like you. Believe me, you're by far the best friend a gal could have. Now, tell me love, how're things with your boy."
"Pete? Things are fantastic." Cringing slightly at the memories of this weekend, "Welllll, there were some minor bumps this weekend but all's well that ends well – I'm going to dinner with his…oh fuck." Josie leapt out of her office chair, throwing the box of noodles onto the desk before shoving her feet into her heels and glaring at her watch to see it was half past seven, "Fuck shit fuck! I was supposed to go to dinner at his mum's tonight…oh my God, why didn't he call?!?"
Emma simply sat frozen in her chair as she stared as she began freaking out. She dug into her large bag frantically searching for her mobile. Grabbing it she stared stupidly at the three missed calls and six texts from Pete, "Joze, you ok?"
"No no no," Shaking her head in horror, "my phone's been on silent all day. I am such an idiot. I gotta go love…Oh Jesus he probably thinks I stood him up."
Mumbling more to herself than to Emma, she glanced at his final text, "you missed dinner, I'll be at the Abbey. You coulda just said no…" Her heart thudded in her chest as she continued to panic while throwing her bag over her shoulder. Dammit, we just got over one fight, now stupid me goes and ruins it.
Stay there, I'll be there in 20, xx, she quickly typed out to him.
Praying like hell that would keep him there she sprinted down the spiral stairs of the office moving as quickly as her heels would allow her to, trying to form coherent enough excuses to give to Pete that didn't involve being spacey, drinking celebratory beers and pigging out on Chinese food.
Beep beep beep, the sound of Pete's phone receiving a text sounded next to him. Trying not to get his hopes up that it was Josie he chose to ignore it, instead glancing down the bar in search of Terry.
"Aye, aye bruv…drinkin' alones the first sign of a problem. Where's Miss Josie? You two come 'ere after dinner, shit dat was quick." Pete heard Swill's cheery voice and stiffened when he threw an arm around his shoulder.
Shrugging it off in frustration, "She didn't show." He grumbled angrily.
"Huh?" Pete glanced up to see Swill staring at him stupidly, confusion clear in his eyes.
"I said: She. Didn't. Show. Stood me up in fact." Pete clenched his jaw and ground his teeth at the thought.
Swill grinned at him cheerfully which only served to frustrate Pete even more until he saw Swill was pointing towards the front of the bar and he followed his gaze to the door.
There stood Josie.
Pete started at her feet, taking in her black Mary Jane heels, the tight pencil skirt and green silk blouse he'd watched her put on this morning.
Unlike this morning she was wearing a slight frown as she frantically looked around the bar for him, he grabbed his phone to see the text she'd sent him and felt a slight wave of relief wash over him. Josie finally spotted him and quickly ran over to his seat at the bar.
Pete turned away from her, taking a large gulp of his pint and stared unseeingly at the football game on the bar's TV. He felt, more than heard Josie heave herself on to the stool next to her.
"Alright Joze, pint?" Pete internally rolled his eyes, of course Terry had immediately came over to see her. She'd never just be his and based off tonight - clearly she didn't want to be.
"Nah, I'm fine – and sorry Terr, I honestly just need to talk to Pete alone for sec. Swill – you bugger off too." Pete hadn't even noticed Swill was still standing close by next to him until Josie's words caused him to scurry off leaving him to try desperately to ignore her.
Anger and embarrassment burned within him – anger for deluding himself into believing a girl like her would ever want to be with him and embarrassment at tricked into believing she could ever love him. Deep down he knew he was being irrational but to be honest, he didn't give a shit right now.
"Pete. Please look at me. At least let me explain." Pete fought against every fiber of his being to reach out and touch her. He could smell the sweet scent of apples wafting towards him but resisted, instead, he drained his beer, slammed it to the counter and leapt up to leave. Not even looking at her he moved quickly towards the door, his only thought was getting out of the dingy smoky bar and away from Josie.
Josie scurried after him and he tried to squash down the hope it caused to well up in him. When she didn't show up to dinner he'd been heartbroken, the only possible scenario being that she didn't really want to meet his family and the only reason she'd agreed was out of pity for him.
"Pete will you wait for me? Stop, my midget legs can't keep up with you." He tried to fight a smile from his face as he felt her small hand on his arm, "Quit fucking around and just let me explain."
He turned to face her for the first time and his breath unwillingly caught in his throat. Her brown, curly hair was messily thrown up in a ponytail and was listing way over to the right side. There was the slight shadow of bags under her brown eyes that stared dully up at him. If she wasn't the most beautiful thing in the world to him, he'd say she looked like shit.
"What's to explain Josephine? You should've just said no. I wouldn'ta cared. Woulda been a helluva lot better than lyin' and standin' me up." He shrugged her hand off of him and tried to continue forward when he was knocked ever so slightly off balance as she rammed her small body into his large frame, effectively nudging him into the brick wall they'd been walking next to.
"Stop being a stubborn ass and listen to me, Peter. And don't full name me you bastard, you know I hate that. And I did not lie to you, Dunham." Jabbing him with her finger accusingly he cringed as fire filled her eyes.
"There's nothin' to listen to, I don't want to hear your excuses."
"Fuck Pete, you're being a right prick." She stamped her foot in frustration and with such force her heel snapped off and she tumbled towards the pavement. Josie cringed waiting to hit the hard ground, instead she felt the warmth of Pete's arms encircling her body and pulling her up towards him.
"Do you 'ave to be so dramatic, love?" He smirked down at her, keeping her locked in his arms. Just the feel of her seemed to melt any anger he'd felt before. He reluctantly released her as she started to struggle, hitting his chest with her small fists.
"Dramatic? Ugh, you are impossible. I came here preparing to beg and plead and commit to lifetime servitude if only you'd forgive your space cadet girlfriend but now, I'd rather tell you to fuck off and come find me once you remove the stick from up your arse. So when you're ready to have an adult conversation – come find me."
Pete watched as her face turned bright red with anger causing her freckles to stand out and her brown eyes to glow with fire, fuck she's hot when she's mad.
"Oi, I'm not the one whose done somethin' wrong 'ere missy."
"Well apparently I'm the only one who wants to fix it." By this point Josie was breathing heavily with anger and tears were glistening in her eyes – Pete vaguely recalled her saying how when she was livid with anger she usually ended up in tears.
Josie whipped around, trying to storm off in anger but failed miserably as her walk came out lopsided and she tripped slightly on the curb. Pete tried not to laugh at the sight and moved to follow her…the least he could do was hear her out.
"Joze, wait!" She continued to stomp along towards her flat, ignoring his presence completely, "Oh come on Joze, now who's bein' a pain in the arse?"
At that she twirled around, once again jabbing her finger into his chest, "Oh that's rich, Dunham. Piss off…I'm in no mood to grovel at this point and any apology is going to come out insincerely and bitchy."
"Aw, come on love, I took the stick out of my bum and I'm ready for you to beg."
"Ugh, you are just ridiculous. All I wanted was us to be fine after that stupid fight yesterday but now I've gone and fucked it up and you won't even let me apology properly. And if you won't even let me apology properly, how on earth am I supposed to make up for my uh-oh?" She stared up at him through thick lashes, her brown eyes melting into his blue ones as she licked her lips appetizingly.
Pete's eyebrows shot up into his hairline and his next words came out strangled at what she seemed to be implying, "Make up?"
"If I'd known the way to gain forgiveness was by doing this, I'd 'ave attacked you in the Abbey." The 'this' was her wrapping her body tightly around his and pulling his lips down to hers in a blazing kiss. She ran her hands through short, blonde hair softly rubbing the nape of his neck when she reached it. He held her closer, forcing her off her feet as he deepened the kiss, forcefully opening her mouth with his tongue and biting down on her lip, sucking on it lightly.
Heat spread throughout his whole frame as he felt her chest pressed into his, "Upstairs. Now." He managed to get out, noticing they were just five meters away from her flat.
"Fuck Pete, I need you." Gripping her hand tightly in his he dragged her up the stairs, practically kicking open the door to her flat once they reached it. As the door slammed behind them he lifted her up and she wrapped her legs around his waist, her skirt riding up to her upper thighs. Slamming her into wall he wrenched his lips from hers, kissing down her neck and nibbling her soft skin as he went and he ran his hands up the newly revealed bare skin of her legs garnering a whimper from Josie.
"Bed. Now." Apparently neither of them could form coherent sentences and Pete was more than obliged to fulfill her request. Gripping her ass tightly he carried her into her bedroom practically throwing her onto the bed before leaning over her, covering her body with his. She leaned up, kissing him passionately as she ran her hands down his body and began unbuckling his pants. He could feel her heart pounding in her chest as he moved down her neck, unbuttoning her shirt with his teeth as he went.
At the same time, she was forcefully ripping his shirt off over his head and she ran her hands down his bare chest, lightly scratching her nails as she went. Succeeding in removing her shirt he stared at her lacy, bra-clad chest before turning his attention to her bottom half, slowly kissing his way down her body and once he reached her waist he slowly began to un-zipper her skirt before pulling it off her body.
"Too slow babe." He chuckled softly into inner thigh and he ever so slowly removed her panties giving the lightest of kisses to her core. He stared up at her through smoldering eyes as she shuddered at the slightest of his touches, "Pleaseee." Was all she seemed to be able to articulate and he quickly shed his pants along with his boxers.
He positioned himself at her entrance, staring down at her eyes and kissing her softly, "I love you Joze."
"I love you too…" she managed to moan out, "now please stop teasing me." He grinned down at her before finally entering her. His body filled with intense pleasure and he stopped to relish the feeling smirking as she raised her hips to force movement. He moved slowly at first but it didn't last long and within minutes they were moving at a frantic pace.
They finished simultaneously and collapsed in a tangled heap of naked limbs, both breathing heavy and utterly satisfied. Pete stared at her naked frame in all its glory as she rolled over onto her stomach, throwing her leg and arm over his body.
"Why on earth did we ever wait so long to do that?" Her words came out breathless and he smirked down at her, planting a kiss on her shoulder.
"No idea love, but we're certainly not waiting that long again."
"So, I'm forgiven?" Josie grinned up at Pete's darkened blue eyes and he smiled back.
"Love, I don't even remember what we were fighting about."
Josie smiled softly back at him and snuggled into his side while planting a soft kiss onto his chest. He wrapped his arms around her, holding her tight while kissing her head softly and breathing in her scent he watched her eyes flutter shut. Fuck, I could get used to this.
Soo, reviews? They'd be much appreciated because I have noo idea if this is absolute shit or if you enjoyed it.