“I’m not. It’s just cold, that’s all. My ass is frozen I think.” I turned my h*ps to show him my wet jeans, rubbing my ass to try and get some of the cold away. I heard him pull in a deep breath and let it out as a sigh. I looked back up to see he was frowning with his eyes closed; it looked like he was in pain or something. “You OK?” I asked, still rubbing my behind. He nodded and shrugged out of his shirt, standing there in his low slung jeans and tight t-shirt that showed off his muscles underneath. He put his shirt around my waist and tied it into a knot at the front. “What are you doing? You’ll get cold,” I scolded, as I tried to untie the knot he’d made.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. Next time I’ll bring a spare sweater for your very fine ass,” he replied, grabbing my hands and starting to pull me along again.

Next time? What does he mean, next time? Not that I’m not having a nice time, but being here with Liam, it was strange, it felt weird. Well, that wasn’t strictly true; it actually felt good, which was what felt weird.

“That’s it! You’re getting it,” he cooed - which of course made me lose my balance again. I pushed myself up off of him for the third time, laughing hysterically. OK, this really was fun, and it didn’t hurt. Usually, when I had come skating with Jake and he had tried to teach me, he just let me fall on my butt all the time. Within about thirty minutes I was usually so bruised and sore that I just gave up. “See, now you’re having fun.” Liam laughed, brushing the ice crystals off of his back and grabbing me again. We managed to skate all the way round three times before I fell. I really was getting better.

After what seemed like forever, the rink was starting to get busier and my stomach was growling. I was falling less and less often, but I was still holding his hands in the death grip. “What’s the time?” I asked casually as we stopped by the side of the rink. First period must be nearly over now, surely.

He pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and sucked in air through his pearly white teeth, making a hissing sound. OK, that didn’t sound good, maybe we’d missed second period too…..

“Er Angel, school’s gonna be over in an hour,” he said, wincing.

“WHAT?” I almost screamed, making him flinch and causing me to lose my balance. He grabbed hold of me and slammed me into the plastic side of the rink to keep me up, his body pressed into me, his face inches from mine. My heart started to speed up again. He didn’t move. He just stood there looking at me, staring into my eyes until I started to feel a little light-headed. Suddenly, I realised it was because I wasn’t breathing, so I sucked in a ragged breath, which seemed to snap him out of it.

He pulled back but left his hands on my waist, holding me up. “We’d better get going. If your brother finds out I’ve been with you all day he’ll cut my balls off,” he said with mock horror, making me laugh.

Instead of holding my hands to help me to the side, he just continued to hold my waist, skating backwards as he pulled me along. I didn’t really know what to do with my hands so I put them on his shoulders. As I started to fall again he bent down and scooped me into his arms, gripping one of his forearms firmly under my ass, and forced my thighs around his waist with the other hand as if I weighed nothing at all. He turned on the spot and skated forwards, fast. It was actually quite scary. I held my breath and threw my arms around his neck, pressing myself to him as tight as I could, probably choking the life out of him but he didn’t complain. Instead of getting off of the exit like I was expecting, he skated around the whole rink again, before finally walking off of the ice and plopping me on the bench.

What the hell was that about? “Why’d you do that?” I asked, feeling a little uncomfortable that I just had my whole body completely wrapped around him. I don’t know why I felt uncomfortable about it though, he wrapped his body round mine every night.

“Do what, Angel?” he asked, looking confused.

I pointed to the ice. “Skate around again. Why didn’t you just get off at the exit? You skated past it,” I explained, frowning, but smiling at the same time, this boy really is weird!

He looked slightly uncomfortable but then re-arranged his expression into his usual ‘make all the girls melt’ smirk. “You slowed me down the whole time; I just wanted one lap where I could skate forwards, that’s all.” He shrugged.

Right, now I feel a little guilty that I didn’t let him have any fun, he had to baby me the whole time. “Liam, you go on and skate some. I’ll sit here, it's fine. You should get to have some fun too,” I suggested, giving him a half smile.

He grinned. “I had a lot of fun.” His expression looked completely honest; he quickly stood up and went to get our shoes.

On the way back to school he pulled into the McDonalds drive thru. “Hi, can I help you?” the speaker asked.

“Er yeah, can I get a big mac meal with a coke, and a quarter pounder with cheese meal with a strawberry milkshake. Do you still do those cheese melt things?” Liam asked.

“Yeah we do,” the speaker crackled.

He grinned. “Great, a pack of those too then please.” I just stared at him, a little dumbfounded; he had just ordered my food and knew exactly what I would want. He turned back to me and frowned. “What are you looking at me like that for? Did I get it wrong?” he asked, looking slightly concerned and unrolling his window again, ready to change the order.

I shook my head, looking at him in amazement. “How did you know what I have?”

He just laughed and looked at me like I’d said something stupid. “You always have the same, Angel. And you love those disgusting cheese things too but they don’t do them all the time so….” he trailed off shrugged and pulled the car up to the next window.

OK, now he is starting to freak me out. First he knew my shoe size, now he knows what I order at McDonalds? I mean, I know I’ve probably been here with him and Jake a thousand times, but even Jake doesn’t know what I order and he’s my brother for goodness sake. Liam just laughed at me again and pulled the car into a space so we could eat.

He was chatting openly about some concert that he wanted to go and see and some movie that he saw last week about zombies that he said would have scared the life out of me. I was surprised how easy it was to talk to him; I’d never spent much time with him on my own before. He was usually always with Jake or a load of the boys, or had some skank draped all over him, or we were asleep. He was actually a really nice and funny guy. I couldn’t help but wonder why he hides his awesome personality behind the man-whore, male chauvinistic pig attitude; he should be like this more often.

“Can I ask you something, Angel?” he asked, looking at me seriously. I nodded and finished the rest of my milkshake. “Don’t you trust me? How could you think I would hurt you earlier at school? I’ve had plenty of opportunities to touch you or force you into something over the last eight years, haven’t I? Why would you think I would hurt you?” he asked, looking really sad.

I dragged in a deep breath. “You just took me by surprise that’s all; I do trust you, Liam, honestly. I know you wouldn’t hurt me, it’s just hard for me, I don’t like people touching me.” I frowned not really wanting to talk about it. No one ever pushed me for details of what used to go on with my father. I had refused to go to therapy after he left, my mom and Jake had tried to talk me into it, but I just didn’t want anyone to know. I was ashamed of it and what he used to make me do. No one ever forced me to talk about it though, and I loved them even more for it.

Liam took my hand. “I know you don’t, but I would never hurt you, I need you to know that,” he said, rubbing circles in the back of my hand. He still looked really hurt and upset, I wanted to make him feel better but I didn’t know how.

The only thing I could do was tell him the truth. “Liam, when people touch me my heart beats too fast and I start to feel sick and a little dizzy. It’s not something I have control over. The only people that it doesn’t happen with are my mom, Jake and you. I’m sorry if I upset you, but I can’t help it. I do trust you, honestly.”

This seemed to make him feel better and his face brightened. “OK good. Come on then, let’s get back before your brother has the attack dogs out waiting to rip my throat out,” he suggested, chuckling. I settled back into my seat as he drove us back to school. We pulled into the school parking lot five minutes before the final bell. “Er, Angel, it’s probably best not to mention today to your brother. I’m not supposed to hang out with you,” he said with a shrug.

Not supposed to hang out with me. What does that mean? “Why aren’t you?” I asked, confused.

He looked me in the eyes again, making my heart speed up a fraction. “Jake said so. And on account of me being a ‘disgusting man-whore’ as you so often put it. Apparently, I just want to tap your very fine ass,” he said with a smirk. “Which I would be more than happy to do, if you want. You know, as payment for the skating lesson,” he teased, winking at me.

I gasped. I had just spent the whole day with this boy and had a nice time and he can ruin the whole thing in one freaking sentence. “You really are a pig sometimes, you know that?” I growled as I stepped out of the car and slammed his door. I stomped off in the direction of the math building which is where I should be, at least I can make it look like I’ve been there if I walk from the right direction.

I saw Jake walking towards the car so I gave him a few minutes before I made my way up and got in the back like nothing had happened. “Hey, Ambs, you have a good day?” Jake asked as I got in the car.

“Actually yeah I did, right up until the very end when some slut hit on me,” I answered with a shrug. Jake immediately slapped Liam around the back of the head.

“Ouch, shit, what was that for?” Liam asked, rubbing his head.

“For hitting on my little sister.” Jake shrugged.