Paint You Wings // Ashton Irwin [au]

Fifty

Emilia's POV

After doing some stretches to try and alleviate some of the soreness between my legs it still hurts a little to walk, but I endure the pain as we walk through the front door to Ashton's house and act as natural as I can.

I will admit after the second time we went at it yesterday, it started to become fun like Julia had said, but I'm only saying this because I found it fun for a different reason. Every time our skin would slap against each other, creating loud echoes in my bedroom, I couldn't stop myself from laughing and completely ruining the moment, but Ashton didn't mind at all. He just told me that I was weird and laughed with me. It's not my fault it's a funny sound and with it being so loud, how could I not laugh?

When Ashton and I sit on the couch across from Michael who seems to be the only one who has decided to come out of their room, he is the first to speak up.

"Someone smells like sex," he says, projecting his voice for the entire house to hear.

"How? I took a shower and used double the body wash than I normally use." I let the words slip out before thinking and I cover my mouth with my hand and mentally crawl into a hole to escape from the teasing that I know I'm going to receive.

"Emmie, I was just joking, but thank you for admitting it." Michael laughs and I pelt him with all the pillows on the couch to get him to shut up.

"What's all this about someone smelling like sex?" Luke asks as he descends the stairs and makes his way to stand behind the back rest of the loveseat.   

I bury my head in the single pillow that I decided against throwing at Michael and Ashton chuckles and begins rubbing my back even though it doesn't really help me escape this embarrassment.

"Oh, I get it," Luke says teasingly, and when I peek up to look at him, he gives me a wink before chuckling to himself.

"Ash," I whine. "Make them stop."

"Well it's not really a lie, Emmie. You're the one who blurted it out," Ashton jokes along with them and I smack the pillow in my hands against his face.

"You're not helping," I say.

To save me from anymore embarrassment, they all drop the topic and leave me to wallow in self-pity for actually revealing that Ash and I had sex. So much for acting naturally.  

With Julia and Calum still sleeping after being out late last night on a date, it stays pretty quiet in the house as we sit around and listen to Luke as he grabs one of the acoustic guitars that rests on a stand with a three others and strums random chords. I rarely see any of them use the guitars, but when they do, it's always nice to just sit and listen.

Luke asks me if I'd like to go shopping today since there is less than week before Christmas and we should really get it over with before I experience another Thanksgiving shopping fiasco. I humbly agree and go to give Ashton a peck on the lips before leaving, but just as I pull away, he cups the back of my neck with his hand and brings me back to him and kisses me hard.

When he pulls away, he whispers, "Call me if anything happens," against my lips.    

It isn't hard to figure out what he means by "anything." He's still not okay with me going out shopping with Luke and as much as I'd like to scold him for being jealous and protective for no reason, I can't.

I can't force him to change his irrational mindset because after witnessing something as heart wrenching as his fiancée cheating on him with his friend, how can he trust other guys around me at all? I know he trusts me, but for him to not even trust his best friends means that Natalie's betrayal took a larger toll on him than I imagined.