A/N: please don't read if you're super innocent bc this chapter gets a lil steamy... enjoy.

The cold air hits my skin like ice, but Zeke's warm hand in mine manages to heat my whole body. Looking up at him, I see the relaxed expression on his face as we walk through the city.

His head turns and a smile forms when he realises he's just caught me staring. "You might as well just tell me I am hot."

"You're hot," I shrug.

He smirks. "As are you, Ms. Jones."

Unfortunately, I am still at that point where I blush at the simplest of things such as him calling me hot.

"Awww," he coos, teasing me. "Your blush is adorable."

I roll my eyes and pull my hand from his and fold my arms over my chest to heat myself up.

Zeke stops walking and frowns. "That was cruel, baby."

"What was?"

"Taking your hand away. I am hurt," his hand goes to his chest and I can't figure out if he's joking or not.

"Sorry, baby."

He raises an eyebrow. "I will consider forgiving you if you-"

"Do not say blowjob," I cut him off, giving him a warning glare.

He laughs, "I was gonna say if you hug me."

I bite my lip to stop myself from smiling, then wrap my arms around his waist, resting my head on his chest, careful not to hug him too tight in case I hurt him. He puts his arms around my shoulders, one hand travelling down my back.

"You're so warm," I say.

"Are you cold?"

"Aren't you?"

He pulls away so we can look at each other. "You know what we should do?"

"What?"

"Get ice cream."

"How will that help with my coldness?"

"It won't, but it will be fun to get even colder."

"You have some weird ideas of fun."

"Thank you."

"It wasn't a compliment."

He chuckles and begins walking across the street with me following. He takes me to a cute ice cream parlour with a big plastic ice cream cone outside.

The inside is simple, the walls decorated in a white and red pattern. In front of us is a row of ice cream flavours set out behind a shield of glass. There are many flavours that I have never heard of, and very little of the simple, usual ones that are found in every ice cream parlour. There is an elderly lady behind it, and as soon as she sees us a warm smile spreads across her face.

"Oh my," she gushes, coming out from behind the counter.

"Hello, Cathrine," Zeke laughs.

"Well, are you going to give me a hug?" She holds out her arms.

Zeke screws up his face, unsure. "Eh, hugging is not really my thing."

But he just told me to hug him.

"Oh, shut up, you old bat," Cathrine puts her arms around him and he hugs her back. They must know each other. It's the sweetest sight. I wonder what people from school would think if they saw the bad boy hugging this woman.

"This is Marnie," Zeke says, pulling away from her. "Nerd, this is Cathrine. I have known her since I was a kid when Maggie and I came here."

"Everyday you came, and now this is the first time I've seen you in years," Cathrine shakes her head, disapprovingly. She looks at me. "Are you two a couple? You're very pretty, dear."

"Thanks," I say awkwardly. "But no, we're just friends."

"So this goof hasn't made the move yet?"

"Cathrine," Zeke whines in quiet voice as if I wouldn't hear.

"So what can I get for you?" She says, walking back to behind the counter.

"Do you still do peanut butter cup ice cream?" Zeke asks which Cathrine responds with a nod.

"What? Seriously?" I question, a little too excitedly. Where has this place been all my life?

"Would you like that?" Cathrine asks as she picks up a cone and a scoop.

"Yeah, please." I try not to squeal while watching her scoop it up. I feel Zeke staring at me and when I turn my head, he is, and he is smiling.

"And for you, Zeke?"

He doesn't seem to notice that Cathrine is talking to him, so I nudge him to break him from his thoughts. "Uh, Rocky road."

Cathrine wraps a napkin around both of our cones and hands them to us.

"How much?" Zeke asks, reaching into his pocket.

"Don't be stupid; it's on the house."

"No, Cath-"

"Oh shut it. You can never take no for an answer," she says in a pissed off tone, then breaks into a smile.

"Thank you," Zeke says.

"It's not a problem, dear. You both enjoy your night. And tell Maggie I say hi." We both say goodbye and thank her for the ice cream again, then start walking through the town.

"This is freaking amazing," I moan in pleasure from the taste of my ice cream.

"Interesting."

"What?"

"That that is what your moans sound like – oh wait, I already know from that time you used me as a rebound."

I groan and roll my eyes. "Are you ever going to let that go?"

"No."

Something's changed in his tone. It's no longer playful and relaxed; he's serious. "Did I hurt you?"

He watches me as he thinks. "Yes," he says after a moment.

"I'm so sorry," I step closer. I told Zeke that I would never hurt him, but I did.

"I hurt you, too. We are even." He drops his serious expression and looks around. "Anyway, I want to show you something."

"What is it?"

He leads me to the wall separating the city from the beach and jumps over it with ease. I sit on the top of it, careful not to drop my ice cream, and Zeke unexpectedly lifts me down to the sand from the other side, despite the ice cream cone in his hand and his injured body.

"Thanks," I say, breathless although he did all the work for me. It was his hands on me that made me lose my breath.

"Shh," he starts walking along and I remember his rules against thanking him.

"What do you want to show me?" I ask, catching up.

"This place." I look up and see that we are standing under the bridge walk. I give him a questioning look and he continues. "Maggie and I went here every day after getting ice cream." He starts walking further from the water, way up to where the bridge touches the sand. We need to crouch as we reach the end and avoid falling over rocks.

It's then I notice the small clearance of rocks in the sand, and there are white chalk drawings covering the surrounding rocks. There are two drawings of a stick girl and boy, with Ezekiel and Maggie written next to them.

Zeke sits in the sand, kneeling down to prevent his head hitting the bottom of the bridge, and I sit on my knees in front of the drawings.

"I thought you hated being called Ezekiel?" I question.

"I never used to."

"What changed?"

"Everything."

"Are you willing to go into more detail?" I move beside him and lick my ice cream, resisting the urge to moan again.

"No. Let's talk about you."

"There's not much to tell about me."

"I don't believe that. Tell me about your dad."

My heart drops at the mention of my father. "I can't," I shake my head.

"Why not?"

"I don't like thinking about him. It hurts too much, so I put it out of my head. It's what I do with everything."

"That will just make it hurt more when you finally do let it all in."

I frown, looking down. Zeke's right, but I think that it'll always hurt like hell, no matter how long goes past. A couple of minutes silence passes and Zeke and I both finish our ice creams. My thoughts are filled with my dad and I suddenly want to talk about him. "He loved hiking," I begin, capturing Zeke's attention. "We used to go on a lot of trips and climb mountains and stuff."

"So how do you explain tripping and falling every time we go to the cliffside? Shouldn't you have some skill?" Zeke says, making me smile.

"It's not my fault I was born being clumsy. I broke my ankle on one of our trips."

Zeke snorts.

"It's not funny," I punch his shoulder, laughing.

"Okay, okay, go on – tell me more."

I sigh, getting serious again. "We also did a lot of camping. Just me and him. I loved all the boyish stuff he liked, but my mom didn't."

"Some of the shit you did was pretty dangerous, right?" Zeke questions and I nod, remembering the very narrow and steep paths we walked on, and the time I missed my step and fell, resulting in my ankle snapping. "So why are you so scared of doing other shit. Like sitting on the edge of the cliff."

I shrug. "I always had my dad with me. When I lost him I just – I've been alone. There would be no one to catch me if I fell."

"I would catch you."

I meet Zeke's eyes and feel my heart flutter. He's looking at me so intensely, with a look in his eyes that I can't quite place.

He places his hand on my waist and runs it down to my thigh. Unfortunately for him, I'm wearing jeans tonight.

"I want you," he whispers while looking at my body.

You've got me.

I sit up on my knees and straddle his lap, surprising him. He's hesitant as he leans into me and places his lips on my collarbones, yet he doesn't kiss me, he just lets his lips touch my skin, breathing heavily as he moves up to my neck.

It's driving me insane. Why won't he just kiss me? His warm heavy breath on my neck makes me shiver and with his hands exploring my body I feel like I might explode.

"You should know," he breathes against my neck. "I haven't had sex in like twenty years, and I am a horny mess right now."

I think I'm gonna throw up from nerves and excitement. I love having him this close. I love it when he touches me. I wonder if he feels the same or if he just wants sex.

Well I won't give it to him – not here anyway. I don't want this to end, but I can't let it go any further.

"If you want me to stop, tell me," he says in a serious voice and moves his lips to my chest and his hands run under my t-shirt.

He finally kisses my skin, right up the front of my neck and I throw my head back to give him more space to kiss. I let out a sigh from the pleasure and immediately cringe at myself. Zeke seems to like what he hears though as his grip on me tightens and he quickly, with no warning, pulls up my t-shirt, exposing me to him.

I remember the day he came into my bedroom and woke me up, then looked around my room and searched through my underwear drawer. He had pulled out one of my bras but I grabbed it off him. I guess i'll just need to wait until I see it on you, he had said.

His wait is over.

His lips trail over my stomach and up to my bra, kissing all over my chest. I can't believe this is happening.

It's a good thing the rocks and the low bridge are shielding us from anyone's sight. I would die if someone saw what was happening right now.

My phone starts ringing and Zeke pulls away, startled. I almost laugh at the frightened look on his face.

"Who the fuck is that?" He says, breathlessly.

I pull my shirt down and take out my phone from my jeans pocket. Charlie's name is displayed and I hit answer, not moving from Zeke's lap as I talk to him.

"Hey, Charlie," I say, my voice shaky after what just happened. He seems to pick up on my off tone.

"Are you okay? Where are you?"

"I'm fine. Me and Zeke are just at the beach."

"Zeke and I," Zeke mumbles, correcting me. I roll my eyes in response.

"When will you be back?" Charlie asks.

I attempt to get off of Zeke but he stops me, putting both hands on each of my thighs. I place one of my hands on his neck, the other holding the phone to my ear, and run my hand through his hair. He stares into my eyes in the most sexy way. He knows that this look – whatever it is – is getting to me. He's so hot.

"Marnie?" Charlie's voice through the phone brings me back to earth and I realise I didn't answer his question.

"Uh, we're just about to start heading back," I decide and Zeke shakes his head no.

"Okay, don't be long. It's getting late." He hangs up and I put my phone back into my pocket.

"It is adorable how much he cares about you," Zeke says as he leans into me again. "But it is also annoying as fuck."

Just as his lips touch my neck, I push him and his back hits the sand. "I told him we're gonna head back, we need to go." I get off of him successfully this time and stand up, wiping the sand from my clothes.

"You are also annoying as fuck," Zeke groans and stands up, walking out from under the bridge.

"Because I won't stay here and have sex with you on the beach?" I say, walking back towards the town.

"Because now I need to go home with a fucking hard-on, nerd."

I turn my head so he can't see me blush and try to think of something to say to that. I've got nothing.

While my back is turned to him, I feel his warm hand slide under my t-shirt, then my bra comes loose. I turn around, looking at him in disbelief. "Did you just-"

He smirks mischievously and I use both my hands behind my back to clip my bra back together.

"How did you do that so easily? And with one hand?" I ask after struggling to fix myself.

He shrugs. "Baby, I have undone more bras in my life than you have done your own."

Suddenly annoyed, I get to the wall and lift myself over. When I jump down from the other side, I stumble and Zeke laughs. "Asshole," I mumble.

"Dang, look at that ass," I hear someone say behind me.

"It'd look a lot better without them pants on," someone else says.

I spin around and am met with two guys. One of them is small and wide, the other tall and extremely skinny. Were they talking about me? Judging by the way they're both standing there, gawking at me, I think they were.

Zeke appears over the wall and he stands in front of me. "What did you just say?"

The boys must have not seen Zeke at first, so when they do, the skinny one looks a little wary.

"Just that this chick has a real nice ass," the short one says, confidently.

Zeke doesn't even hesitate before taking a swing at the guys face.

He holds him by the collar, punching him in the face another three times before the other guy pulls Zeke and attempts to punch him, but fails as Zeke blocks his arm and punches him.

I want to start clapping. I wonder where he learned his good fighting skills.

That's when things go wrong and both of them recover, one gripping his arms while the other kicks him between the legs. Zeke groans and then the guy kicks his stomach, bringing Zeke to his knees.

Zeke chokes, coughing, agony showing on his face. Shit, his stomach.

The guy is about to kick him again, but I push him and wildly start slapping his chest. "Leave him alone, dumbass!"

He grabs my hands with a tight grip, stopping me from slapping him and pushes me backwards. "Fuck off, bitch."

"Oh you fucking-" Zeke stands up and elbows the one holding him in the stomach, then goes for the short guy, punching the living daylights out of him. He falls on the ground, looking as if he's crying, and Zeke starts kicking his crouched body. The other one runs off, scared.

"Zeke! Don't kill the guy!" I yell, pulling at his arm. He deserves some of this for hurting Zeke, but he's lying on the ground being beat and I can't even tell if he's still conscious.

Zeke stops kicking him and looks around at some of the people watching. "Shit," he mumbles, then takes my hand, pulling me away from the guy.

We run a little until we're out of the town and almost at our street. Zeke stops, catching his breath and crouching over.

"We can't go anywhere without drama," I say. Zeke doesn't reply, he just keeps breathing heavily and spitting on the ground. "Are you okay?"

"I am good," he says, his voice croaky.

I put my hand on his back. "Let me see your stomach."

"No. I am fine," he stands up straight and tries to hide the pain on his face.

I try to quickly lift his shirt to see the damage, but Zeke is too fast and stops me.

"Baby, I am okay. It is not that bad."

I want to start yelling at him, telling him that he didn't need to do that just because of what those guys said. But it doesn't matter how many times I tell Zeke not to stick up for me, it's who he is. This is my fault he's hurt. Instead of whining at him, I lean in and peck him on the cheek.

He looks surprised at first, but then smiles. I get the urge to tell him I love him and that he's the best thing that's ever happened to me, but then realise how stupid that would sound, especially since Zeke thinks love is stupid.

"We should go, you need to rest," I say.

Zeke licks his lips before nodding, and we head home.

+++

teaser: Zeke is going to tell Marnie how he feels about her... butttt of course something or someone needs to get in the way.

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