NEGLECTED

Chapter Thirty Two

FFION BRISDEN

I know I shouldn't have to apologise for having insecurities and for projecting them onto Keaton, but I hope a bunch of flowers were a start. Any boyfriend I've ever had has laughed at me giving them flowers. Apparently they're not manly, they don't want their friends to think they're going soft, or even 'switching sides' but Keaton strikes me as the kind of man that'd appreciate the bare fucking minimum. 

Keaton turns the bare minimum into some grand gesture. I bet even if I picked a flower out of his neighbours garden he'd appreciate it. Maybe even a rock, I really don't know. All I do know is every second I spent thinking about Keaton, is a new section of my heart he takes up. I can feel him trying to claim it as his own and hell I'm so close to laying it bare to him. 

I lift my knuckles to his front door and knock before taking a step back. I wait 10 seconds but nothing happens. I knock again, wait again and...nothing. I frown, glancing to my right, seeing his car sitting in his drive way. Trying to remain patient I knock again and get nothing for what feels like the hundredth time. Fuck it. 

I lift my hand again and throw my knuckles at the door repeatedly until I hear what sounds like a sliding door opening from inside. I keep knocking even though I can see Keaton's shadow walking down the hallway and to the front door. I don't expect him to open it so fast, so when he does I stumble forward a tiny bit before standing up straight and composing myself. 

Composure? Where? Because Keaton is standing in front of me, all tall and sweaty, chest heaving as he stares down, waiting for me to say something, but I can't. Lion's got my tongue. Seeing a naked Keaton felt like winning a fucking prize, but something about seeing a sweaty shirtless mid workout Keaton grinded my gears in the best way possible. His hair fell in dark, sweaty locks across his forehead, his lips parted as he panted, his stomach flexing every time he inhaled. 

"No eye fucking, gorgeous. You want me, you take me with a lot more than your eyes" Keaton's tease makes its way out of his smirking mouth as he rests an arm against the door frame, watching me with such a hot, unreadable expression burning through his eyes and into mine. I don't even know what to say, so I don't say anything, instead I just hold out the flowers I got for him. 

His eyebrows furrow as his eyes shift away from me to the flowers in my hand and for a split second I doubt my perception of him. Maybe he is like those other guys, getting embarrassed and thinking it'll make him look gay. But then his eyes soften and his cheeks hollow as he bites on the inside of them. He's trying desperately to stop himself from smiling but when I shake the bunch and hold them out to him more he stops trying, his mouth spreading into a wide grin as his hand wraps around mine holding the flowers. 

"I don't know what the occasion is but never will I ever turn down a pretty bunch of flowers" Keaton says, pulling me close but not against him so that I don't stick to his sweaty chest. He captures my mouth with his, my insides tightening as he smiles against my lips. If I hadn't just showered myself I'd press my body flush against his, without a care in the world about his sweat. His sweat that somehow doesn't smell. Even now, all I can smell is his to die for cologne and I almost press my face to his body to inhale. 

"Thank you" Keaton murmurs against my lips, pulling back and pressing a small peck to my lips before pulling me inside and closing the door. 

"Thank god you like them. I was a little nervous you'd be weirded out" Keaton immediately stops and looks back at me, his smile no longer present. 

"They're flowers. What's so weird about them?"

"Apparently they're not a manly gift. I've given ex boyfriends flowers before but they weren't the biggest fans. One even said my money would've been better spent if I put it towards getting a stripper" Keaton doesn't like what I say at all. His jaw clenches and he takes my hand in his as he pulls me back through the house.