Howling Hearts

I woke up to the smell of pancakes filling my room. I'm not even sure when I eventually fell asleep but I did. I grabbed my phone to see what the time was. It was eight in the morning.

I threw my phone on the bed and pulled the pillow over my head in hopes of falling asleep again, but then I heard a soft knock on the door. "Red?" I was kind of surprised at the softness in Ash's voice. "Yes" I said, hoping he would make as if nothing had happened last night because I so wished it didn't.

"Can we talk? I made pancakes as a peace offering". I grabbed the pillow hoping it would muffle my screams.

I don't think I am ready to face the embarrassment but those pancakes do smell good. "Please", I heard him plead from the door.

We both knew he could rip that door off its hinges if he wanted to, but out of respect, he didn't. I walked up to the door and waited for a second before I unlocked.

"I'll come out if I am not the breakfast",

I said to him to try and make the tension between us less. As well as make it clear, I'm not up for any more moments like that before, I went out and faced the consequences of my actions.

I heard him giggle at my reply and knew it had worked. "Sure, I promise to keep my hands to myself" he said, putting my fears to rest. 1

I took one deep breath and unlocked, making my way outside the room. I saw him standing in the kitchen still shirtless and powder spread everywhere on both him and the kitchen.

I couldn't help but laugh at him. I walked over to him to rub the powder off his lips without even thinking.

"Well, if you do that type of stuff you make it hard for me to keep my hands off you", he said, and we looked into each other's eyes for a few minutes before I turned away to look at the pancakes. Everything just feels kind of awkward this morning after last night and I didn't know what to say to him. So I just started stuffing my face to make sure we didn't talk about last night. "So about last night?"

"Can we just forget it happened?" I cut him off before he could continue. "But how?" he asked me and I didn't know how to answer him.

So, instead, I just kept quiet. "If you can tell me why you stormed off I will leave the topic for now." He looked at me with curiosity in his eyes, as if I was a creature he never knew existed.

I can't tell him I'm a virgin. He will laugh at me. I just didn't want to lose my V card like that. I wanted it to be special and romantic and last night it wasn't. "I just... wasn't... ready yet" was all I could tell him. 1

"OK" he said, looking at me strangely. "Well, I'll wait for you then", not that you're a virgin to begin with I thought to myself. "Thanks can we leave the topic alone now?" I pleaded with him and he nodded. We ate our breakfast in silence as both of our minds were stuck on what had already happened.

"Well, we are already late for school so we might as well skip today",

he finally broke the silence. I nodded my head and continued eating. But the awkwardness and tension between us was too huge to ignore. "Ash, I need some time away from you".

His body tensed at my words, showing his disapproval of my statement. It was quiet for a while before he eventually asked. "Why?" he turned to look at me and I put down my utensils on either side of my plate. I put my hand on my lap to try and make me feel secure in what I was going to say next and faced him.

"Ash... Everything happened so quickly and confusingly. And I just need to think for a bit and be by myself without.... Distractions". I said the last part, eyeing his half n**e body from head to toe.

A little grin tugged at his lips and made a warm feeling fill my entire body, concentrating on my core. He nodded his head. "OK, I'll leave for today. I've got some stuff to do so you can be all alone here just where you belong."

"Ash, I meant to go to my mom" "No you said alone." He looked me straight in the eyes with his eyes filled with dominance as well as the tone.

It was obvious that it couldn't be negotiated. "Ash, you can't keep me from my parents."

I then looked back at my plate with pancakes and realized I was no longer hungry, so I pushed it away. As I was getting up to go back to the room, I had claimed to myself he grabbed my wrist.

"I'll let your mom come. But scarlet don't push me further than I'm willing to go for you", he said, but I knew it was a double- meaning statement.

Something that made me realize that if I didn't do what he wanted, he would reject me. It was a threat. It made anger boil in me so I looked at him with daggers in my eyes pointed straight at him.

"Or what?" I wanted to hear him say it so that I knew I wasn't over thinking it. "Push me far enough and you'll find out but you won't like it one bit Scarlett."

I ripped my hand away from him and he just giggled at my challenge. If this is how he wants to play, let's play.