The next morning we packed all of our belongings into the car and headed northwards to the Giant's Causeway. It was obviously closed to tourists, but nothing a little magic couldn't help with. Under Jayce and Erica's cloaking shield, we walked past all the security measures and down the pathway down to the shoreline.

"This is ridiculous!" I exclaimed, unable to take my eyes away from the hexagonal rocks beneath my feet.

I looked up at the nearest person, which was Jayce. "Was it actually a Giant's bridge?"

"Or a wall. But yes. Giants used to live here a long time ago," he replied.

"I wonder if my people got along with them," I found myself whispering.

"I bet they did," Lukas said, coming up beside me, sharing a small smile.

I watched Jayce run over to Ben and Erica who were standing by the tallest columns. With the rush of the wind drowning out a lot of noise, I whispered to Lukas, "Do you think they can hear us over there?"

"I doubt it."

"What's wrong?"

He glanced at me, warily. "Nothing."

"You've been different to me."

"I've been nothing but nice."

"Nice but... distant. I hate it."

He heaved a sigh.

"Is this about the crush you have?"

His brows furrowed as he looked at me. "How do you know⁠—"

"Ben told me you two spoke about some crush you have and you don't want to tell me about it?"

He exhaled deeply, obviously trying his best to keep his voice calm. "Fucking Ben," he said though.

"Why can't you try with her?"

"I just can't, Ollie."

"I think you should."

"Do you?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Because you're an exceptional guy and any girl would be an idiot to not accept you."

There was an indistinguishable glint in his eyes as he looked back at me, but it disappeared in an instant as he shook his head, a familiar Lukas smile spreading across his face. "Hey Ollie?"

"Yes?"

"Think fast." All of a sudden a large wave came out of the water, splashing me all over. My eyes closed instinctually as the water drenched my clothes. The cool wind blew against my wet clothes and I began to shiver. Eyes opened, I searched for Lukas, but he was already halfway over to the others, walking backwards, a devilish grin across his face.

"Get back here you jerk!" I screamed at him, running as fast as I could over the hexagonal ground.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

The last night of our trip was in Dublin. We spent the afternoon walking through the city, taking in the landmarks and sights, before getting dinner together. Yet for the evening, we all had our individual rooms in a hotel a short drive from the airport. Ben and I obviously were sharing a room for the night.

As we stood in the elevator on the way up to our room, holding hands while Lukas stood to my right, Erica and Jayce to his left, I began to feel the nervous pit in my stomach.

We had shared a room before. We shared his bedroom. But this was the first time we were going to be truly alone in a room for the night. With thick walls deadening any noise.

As the floor numbers ticked closer to ours, and Jayce and Erica forwarded out the floor below, I began to feel my heartrate picking up.

"Are you okay there, Ollie?" Lukas asked, an amused edge to his voice.

"Don't eavesdrop on my heart," I replied in a monotone voice... or at least, I tried to make my voice sound that way.

Ben gave my hand a gentle squeeze, calming my nerves slightly. Then the elevator came to a stop at our floor.

"Good night both of you. Keep the noise to a minimum, please," Lukas said as he walked the opposite direction of the hallway towards his room.

Then Ben and I turned the other way, walking to our room.

When the door closed behind us, Ben let my hand go. "Want to watch a movie?" he asked me, as if he knew I needed a distraction.

"That sounds great."

"Your choice. Anything you want."

Pressing my lips together, I tried to suppress my smile. "Anything?"

His eyes narrowed. "What did you have in mind?"

Giggling, I replied, "Just you wait and see. I'm going to have a shower first though."

He stared at me momentarily before he breathed, "Okay."

I cocked my head to the side slightly before turning around and heading to the bathroom. Yet once I got in, I decided to be daring and left the door open as I took my clothes off. Fully unclothed, I called out, "You're welcome to join me," before I turned the shower on and stepped in.

I enjoyed the peaceful sensation of the hot water cascading down my body, the dirt of the day sloughing off my body. But I didn't stand in the water for too long when I heard the sound of a zipper on the other side of the shower curtain. My stomach flipped as a blush spread across my face, a smile going with it.

Then next I knew, the curtain pushed back, and he climbed in behind me, hands wrapping around my waist from behind. The moment his skin touched mine, I felt relief wash over me as I realised he was just as nervous as me.

So I took a deep breath and turned around in his hold, looking up at him.

I watched his adam's apple dip down as he swallowed the lump in his throat, slowly letting his eyes trail down from my eyes, to my mouth, to my neck, to my collar bone...

"Like what you see?" I daringly asked.

He bit his lip, eyes slowly coming back over me until he met my gaze once more, a fire burning in his blue depths. "You bet." His lips came over mine instantly, searching, taking, needing, desperate. He pulled back, breathless, resting his head on mine, the water mingling with his hair, making his dark brown locks even darker, emphasising the blueness to his gaze. "Still want to watch that movie?"

Giggling, I grabbed the body wash from the ledge and soaped up my hands. "I'm only having a shower right now, Ben. Get your mind out of the gutter."

He glared at me, but with a big grin on his face as he kissed my neck. Then he took my hands in his, stealing the soap I had just placed in them and began to run his hands over my body, taking the duty of cleaning me for himself.

Showered and fresh, we put on some clothes and crawled under the covers, pulling out my laptop.

"So what's your terrible choice?" he asked me.

"Who said it's terrible?"

"The fact you don't want to tell me means I will probably hate it."

As I pressed play on the movie, I turned the screen towards him and he grimaced.

"Really? Eclipse?"

"You've watched the first two movies. Time to watch the next."

He groaned, head slumping onto my shoulder. "Can't we go back to the shower?"

Pressing my lips against his head, I whispered, "Get through the movie and we can do more exciting things in this very bed."

In response, his arms wrapped around me, rubbing dangerously close to my intimate areas, but never straying too far, as he snuggled into me. "Have it your way."

Surprisingly, he got more into the movie than I think he expected. He was very... intrigued when Bella begged Edward to let her mount him, but then Ben turned to a sappy mess internally when Edward proposed. I couldn't help but be overly aware that Ben's hand slid down my arm, grabbing my left hand in his as he played with my ring finger.

At one point, I could swear I heard him utter "One day" under his breath.

And then finally the credits rolled and I closed the laptop screen, turning to look at him. "Not too terrible?"

He rolled his eyes. "They get better as they go. I suppose you will make me watch the last one too?"

"You have to finish the series. But yes. Two more to go."

He frowned. "Eclipse is the third."

"Yes."

"There's four books."

"This is true."

Deadpanning at me, realisation seemed to set in. "They split the fourth book into two movies, didn't they?"

I nodded, grinning at him.

"No!" he groaned, nuzzling into my chest. We laid there for a moment, his head sitting against my heart, my fingers running through his locks, when suddenly his hand came up, running over my stomach, under my shirt, drawing circles.

"That tickles," I giggled.

He looked up at me through his thick lashes, a small smile on his face. "Want me to stop?"

I shook my head and bit my lip before I pulled his mouth up to mine.

We continued to kiss in a tender way for a while until I pushed him onto his back and I moved on top of him, legs straddling his hips as my hair formed a curtain around us.

"I love you," he whispered against my mouth.

In response, I ran my tongue against his lip. He parted his mouth and let me deepen the kiss. And then the mood began to shift again, as his suddenly brave hands ran up my thighs, to the small of my back, slipping under my shirt as he guided it up and off me. Then his fingers fiddled only momentarily with my bra as it unclasped and came off.

"You're getting good at that," I whispered.

"Mmm," he said against my mouth. "You've given me many opportunities to practice." Gripping onto me, he rolled me over onto my back, my hair fanning out around me as he began to press his lips down my neck.

Running my hands down his back, I grabbed his shirt, lifting it up over his head, breaking his kisses on my collarbone momentarily before his lips came right back down, going lower.

As he began to kiss down my navel, breathlessly, I asked, "Did you bring a condom?"

His mouth came to a halt just below my belly button, his eyes flickering up at me over my torso, a slight tint to his cheeks. "If I say I did, do I sound like a dick expecting too much?"

Grinning, I shook my head. "I think you sound like someone who was trying to make sure we'd be safe if it came to this point."

He pressed his lips back down on my skin, and kissed upwards towards my mouth again, before finally saying, "I did bring one. Well a packet. Not that I'm that eager just that it's weird to only take one out⁠—"

"Ben?" I pushed him back from me.

"Yeah?" he replied, brows furrowing in worry.

"Shut up and get it."

Suppressing his smile, he climbed off me and ran to the suitcase, digging around in it until he came back with the box, fiddling with the packaging until he managed to get a wrapper out.

In the meantime, I reached for my pants, ready to slide them down. But he stopped me in an instant.

"I want to do that," he whispered, eyes swirling with love, lust, and never ending passion.

"Okay," I breathed, moving my hands away.

Placing the wrapper back on the bedside, his mouth returned to mine and he kissed me for a long while after until his hands came down and he began to slide my pants off, leaving me with just my underwear remaining.

I reached for his pants and tugged them down until he was wearing just as much clothing as me.

"Are you sure?" I asked him as he began to kiss my neck.

He pulled back, eyes narrowing at me. "Did you just ask if I am sure?"

"It is your first time."

Grinning, he said, "With you, Olivia, I'm sure about everything. I'm more than happy to give you every single part of me and every single first of mine. And then the second... and then the hundredth."

I pulled his head back to mine as we removed the final layers of clothing between us.

· · ───── ∘☽༓☾∘ ───── · ·

"Does it hurt?"

"Only did at first. It's okay now."

"Okay. Is this nice?"

"It's very nice. You don't need to ask that every time, Ben."

"Okay."

"Is it nice for you?"

"Very nice..."

"Not like that."

"Sorry!"

"It's okay. Oh that's good. Keep doing that."

"Oh, Olivia... Oh... Shit. Sorry!"

"Did you just..."

"I was closer than I thought."

Laugher burst out of me as he rolled onto his back and grabbed the pillow, plopping it on his face.

I grabbed it off him, snuggling up to his chest as I stared at his closed eyes. "You don't need to apologise. I'm glad you enjoyed it that much."

"But you didn't even⁠—"

"It was your first time. Cut yourself some slack. Next time will be better. Then the time after that better still."

He pouted at me, eyes opening. "I wanted you to... y'know..."

"Scream your name?"

His eyes slammed shut again, redness spreading over his face as he nodded.

Giggling, I pressed kisses over his head. "How about you go take that thing off and clean up... then you can finish off what you started. Maybe bite me too? Then I'm sure you'll get the reaction you want."

His eyes⁠—still dazed from release⁠—opened, staring at me with a hint of lust burning again. "Okay," he breathed.