SEVEN

LIAM

An hour later I pulled up to Delilah's in the red Jeep Wrangler that I bought with my signing bonus, to see her and Tessa waiting for me with their beach gear. Being the gentleman that I am, I quickly hop out of the car to load up their things. Delilah gives me a kiss on the cheek before hopping into the front passenger seat as Tessa climbs in the back. She smells like vanilla and sunshine and I want to bury my face in her silky brown hair and stay there forever.

The beach that we are headed to is about twenty minutes away. The weather is perfect today, sunny and 85 degrees outside, without a single cloud in the sky. Delilah is quick to commandeer my radio, putting on their current favorite song from One Direction.

I can't stop myself from rolling my eyes. Is it bad that my girl's favorite band isn't the one I'm in? I'll have to work harder on making her a fan. Delilah's taste in music has always been varied though. She likes a little bit of everything from punk rock to country. She even introduced me to one of my favorite bands, Nirvana. It's one of the things that I love about her. Wait, did I say love? Where did that come from? She would run the other direction if she heard that word. I need to reign it in before I scare her away.

We are driving with the top off my Jeep, wind blowing through our hair and they are both singing the lyrics loudly while dancing in their seats. "I got a river for a soul, and baby you're a boat." It's hilarious and adorable. I have to make myself focus on the road instead of the leggy brunette beside me whose turquoise blue sundress has ridden pretty far up those tan legs of hers. I can't help myself, I need to touch her. So I casually move my right hand to her thigh and give a gentle squeeze before leaving it there. Somehow the physical contact makes listening to One Direction just a little bit less painful.

"So what's the story with you two?" Tessa asks, looking between Delilah and me. If there's one thing I know about Tess, it's that she can smell bullshit from a mile away. I'm not sure what the right answer is in this situation so I stay quiet, pretending to be concentrating on the road.

"The story?" Delilah decides to play dumb. Does she not want people to know about us? I thought girls usually couldn't wait to share this kind of news.

Is she second guessing us? My past is a bit questionable. I can see why it may make her think twice, especially after I ghosted her. I guess we never really decided if we were keeping this a secret or not, so I'm going to keep quiet for now and follow her lead.

"Oh come on, Lilah. You know what I'm talking about. Did you make it official? The blogs are already claiming that you two are secretly together. Apparently, there is this whole page for Gladstone fans whose only goal in life is to nab Liam as their boyfriend slash baby daddy. There were so many people posting their crying videos last night that it crashed. Isn't that hilarious? But seriously you can tell me. I won't tell a soul." She deadpans.

"Are you kidding? There's seriously a website about that?" I roll my eyes and shake my head running my hand through my hair. Some of my fans are crazy. A few months ago, a couple of fans broke into our penthouse in LA and made themselves at home in my bed. When I got home they were waiting for me. Naked. Claimed we had a cosmic connection, I'd never even met them before. We had to call the police and get a restraining order put against them. It was creepy. Hopefully, the fans will tone it down a little now that I'm taken. My heart is with Delilah, even if she chooses not to let people know.

Lilah and Tessa both laugh. "You wouldn't believe half of the pages they have dedicated to you, Liam, some are pretty cringy." Lilah says and then she turns around towards Tessa. "To answer your question, we just made it official last night. We didn't really discuss if we were keeping it a secret from everyone." She puts her hand on mine and laces our fingers together. The contact soothes my soul, I could stay like this all day.

Tess squeals clapping franitcally and I cringe at the high pitched squeak coming from the backseat. "You probably should have decided that before coming to a public beach together. You do realize the paparazzi are bound to find us today. If they haven't spotted Ty, Luke, and Noah already."

She points to a crowd gathering in the distance. "See? Looks like they were hard to miss."

I pull into an open space towards the end of the lot and put my Jeep into park, assessing the situation. There are reporters and paparazzi all around my bandmates, who are indulging them by answering questions and letting them snap photos.

Luckily, I keep spare baseball caps in my Jeep for occasions like this one. I grab a few and hand both of the girls one. They immediately put them on and I pull mine down over my eyes to throw the reporters off for as long as we can. We should be able to sneak by with them currently distracted by the guys.

I turn to Lilah and steady myself with a deep breath. Here goes nothing. "Dels, I want to tell the world about us, but I will let you make the call. If you want to keep it a secret, then I'll tell them we're just friends and maybe they'll go away, or we can just ignore them. Whatever you want. It's up to you."

In the back seat I hear an "aaaawwww," from Tessa and I roll my eyes. I forgot we had an audience. I never thought I'd be such a sap.

Lilah smiles. "I don't mind if people know, but do we have to talk to the reporters right now? Let them make their own conclusions. Why don't we just set up a little ways down the beach and send the boys our location pin. They can come over once they are done signing autographs and taking pictures. Maybe the paparazzi won't spot us with our hats and sunglasses on."

"They are fabulous disguises." Tessa teases playfully swatting the bill of her cap.

With Lilah's parents being famous she knows the deal with paparazzi, and up until now she's been able to avoid them pretty easily, which is surprising with all of the modeling and acting roles she's did when she was younger. Her dad has always been very careful about keeping their private lives private.

"Sounds like a plan." I say as I give her a quick kiss on her soft lips and open the door.

"You guys are disgustingly cute together. It's too much. I just can't deal." Tess giggles. We all grab some gear from the back and quickly bypass the area currently being swarmed by screaming girls and flashing cameras. I can hear Noah telling someone that "Liam couldn't make it here today" and I'm hoping that'll be enough to throw them off our scent.

Lilah and Tess set up the beach chairs and towels and I stash the cooler underneath an umbrella. The girls want to lay out for a while, so that's what we do.

The August sun is punishing though and before long, I'm ready for a dip in the ocean to cool off. "Come in the water with me." I say to Lilah. She's smoking hot in her yellow bikini, and I can't wait to get my hands on her. In the distance, I can still spot the crowd around the guys, so I don't think anyone will notice us. She smiles, setting down her book and taking my hand to pull her up. "Alright, let's go." She chirps and Tessa says she'll watch our stuff while we're gone.

We stroll down to the emerald surf hand in hand. She's absolutely gorgeous, so I have no problem letting her win when she decides to race me down to the water. I mean that view of her from behind was amazing. Come on. I'd pay good money to stare at her running in a bikini all day.

She turns around once she reaches the water and I quickly grab her up bridal style and walk us in deeper before taking us both under. When we break the surface again she is laughing and I want to memorize every second of this moment with her.

I'm so wrapped up in Delilah that I don't notice the crowd has dispersed, until I see my band mates hugging Tessa. They settle on the sand, throwing a football back and forth in front of where we are currently swimming. I don't see any other people close by for now, so I think they must have thrown the wolves off of our trail.

Lilah laughs and dunks me under the water before quickly swimming away. She's been on the swim team since we were kids, so I know she'll be hard to catch, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to try.

"Oh you're going to get it." I say before chasing after her. She only laughs as she splashes water my way.

Luckily I have height on my side, so I am able to reach over and grab her before she can escape again. I pull her in and decide to make the most of our close proximity, turning her cap around so that I have better access to kiss her soft lips. She hops up so that her legs are wrapped around my waist and I have both hands gripping her firm ass. I decide to dip deeper into the water for better coverage just in case someone spots us before crashing my lips onto hers. It never fails to surprise me the intense emotions I get just from having her lips on mine. I've never had this feeling with anyone else and I've kissed more than my fair share of girls. It's not something I'm proud of, especially knowing that I could have been with Dels this whole time instead. I should have never let her go. I won't make the same mistakes again. She runs her fingers through my hair and I'm in seventh heaven. I swear I'd do anything for this girl.

She pulls away to take a breath and that is when I notice the commotion on the beach. I look up and Tyler is in some reporter's face and Tessa is trying to get him to back away. "Just leave them alone man!" He yells at the reporters. "Yeah," Luke chimes in. "We gave you your interview. You've taken your photos. Now go, security is already on their way." He crosses his tattooed arms in front of his chest flexing his muscles menacingly.

"Crap." Lilah says. "What should we do?" She looks up into my eyes and the trust in those brown orbs floors me.

"Well, we could make a break for it while they are distracted by Luke and Tyler? Use those awesome swimming muscles of yours." I wink at her playfully and she chuckles.

"I'm game. What's our destination?" I point to an ice cream stand beside the pier. "What do you think? Up for a cone?" She nods and we make a break for it. I glance back to see my band mates blocking the reporters from following us.

We are currently sitting on the curb behind the ice cream stand sharing a double chocolate chip ice cream cone. She innocently licks where the ice cream is beginning to melt before it drips. It does something to me and I have to look away.

The last thing I need is a camera catching me with a giant boner right now. I adjust myself and glance around the stand in the direction where our friends are waiting. It looks like the reporters finally gave up. They must've gotten what they wanted and left. Probably a good decision on their part.

The boys and I are a close group. We've been friends since preschool. They have all known Dels and Tess just as long as I have and are just as protective of them. Not to mention the tattoos and six packs are pretty intimidating. It goes hand in hand with the bad boy band image you know.

"Looks like the coast is clear. Want to head back?" I ask and take her hand to help her up when she nods.

We make it back to our crew and Lilah lays on a rainbow striped towel beside Tess. The boys decide to throw the football around and I join them.

"Thanks for covering for us earlier," I say to them grinning.

Ty chuckles. "Yeah, well, you looked a little busy." He waggles his brows at me.

I look down, smirking. "I mean, she may have distracted me a little bit."

"Can't blame you man. I don't think there's a dude on the beach that hasn't noticed her today. She's quite 'distracting' in that bikini she's wearing." Noah says and I look to see where she is, suddenly feeling protective.

"Shut Up Noah!" I say punching his arm. "That's my girl you're talking about."

"I'm sorry man! It's the truth though. Your girl is smokin hot." He says and I purposefully throw the ball a bit harder at him this time.

"I never thought I'd see the day when you would willingly settle down. I have to say though if you didn't snatch that up someone else would jump on the chance real quick. How the hell was she still single? I mean, we've been gone a whole year and she was hot when we left but DAAAAMN." Luke joins in ragging on me.

I roll my eyes, "Seriously guys?" He's right though. I am lucky. I don't know why she's still single, maybe she was waiting for me. I know I want to believe that's the reason why.

Apparently Ty thinks it's funny. "We're just messing with you man. It's the first time we've seen you whipped." He makes an exaggerated whipping motion with his hand in the air.

I shake my head grinning, "You guys can call me whatever you want to. As long as I'm going home with her tonight, I don't care."

Ty chuckles, "That's it then. So when's the wedding? I get to be the best man right?" He says nudging me in the arm with his elbow.

"I just convinced her to be my girlfriend. She would think I'm crazy if I asked her to marry me." I say. Although, marrying her does sound nice. I'm already wondering if her dad will be pissed if I sneak into her room two nights in a row. Waking up next to her this morning was amazing and I want to do it every day for as long as she'll let me.

I glance over my shoulder towards the only girl I've ever wanted to call mine, to see two guys approaching while they are asleep laying on their stomachs. "Who the fuck is that?" The boys quickly look to see what I'm talking about and we all start jogging in their direction.

"Hot damn. Ladies, you are fine. If I flip this coin, what are the chances of me getting head?" I hear one of the guys yell as Lilah and Tess sit up looking confused as hell. Is this guy serious?

"Are you shitting me right now? That has to be the worst pickup line I've ever heard." Dels says while narrowing her eyes at the boys. Next to her Tess also looks less than impressed.

The chumps are not done yet though, "Let's play Titanic. You'll be the iceberg and I'll go down." The other boy says as we finally make it back to where the girls are sitting.

"Wow. Congratulations." Tess says while slow clapping. "That one was even worse."

"Does your mama know you talk like that? I'm sure she's so proud." Dels adds, rolling her eyes. She then lays back down and pulls my cap back over her eyes, motioning with her hands for the boys to move along.

"Are these guys bothering you?" I ask and she scrunches her nose up. I just need her to say the word, so I can knock this joker out. It's been a while since I've had a good fight. After his last comment I'm already seeing red.

She scrunches her nose up in frustration and pushes my cap back so she can see what's going on again. "It's fine babe. These guys were just leaving." She then narrows her eyes on the guys and if I were them, I'd be scared. "Why are you still here? Move along and you should work on finding some less cringy pickup lines. I speak for every female when I say that the ones you have aren't working." The jerks finally take a hint and walk away, muttering something about big muscles and tattoos.

"I'm starving," Tess groans. "You guys wanna grab something to eat?" We all nod in agreement and pack up the cars to head to the diner.