Chapter 62: Charlotte's POV

HIGH SCHOOL - SENIOR YEAR "All of you belongs to me, Charlie." He narrowed his eyes. "And all of me belongs to you. We may be friends, but you and I both know I'm going to marry you one day. Right?" His one hand was wrapped around my waist and the other was placed gently on my neck. I could feel his hardness pressed up against me as his lips brushed against mine. There wasn't a single shred of doubt in his eyes. He was certain of what he was saying. I've been waiting years for this man to ask me out, but all he's done is treat me like a girlfriend while insisting to the rest of the world that we're only friends. Why? Why hasn't he asked me out yet? We've slept in the same bed together. He's held me and I've held him. When his mom said I had to sleep in the guest bedroom whenever I slept over, I had to stop him from making a big deal out of it. I also wanted to keep sleeping in the same bed, but I understood where she was coming from. "I don't know that." I managed to speak, but it was barely a whisper. "I don't know if I'm going to marry you, Forest." He pushed my waist even further against him if that were possible. ... and I loved it ... ... I love him ... I love him so much that under no circumstances will I accept a life without him. What I feel for Forest consumes every part of me. I live to see him smile. I live to see him walk up to me and kiss me on the forehead before lacing our fingers together like my hand was always meant to be in his. I love him. I've always loved him. "Yes you do." He furrowed his brows as if he were amused. "You know that you want me to kiss you right now." He whispered against my lips. "You want me to full on make out with you right here even though we're in the bushes and our friends are at the camp site, only a few feet away from us. You want me as much as I want you, Charlotte Ericsson, don't you?" I found myself nodding slowly. His lips were so close to mine, grazing my own lips and teasing the hell out of me. He's torturing me. "Say it." He pinned me against a tree. "Say you're mine, Charlie. Say you know that I'm going to marry you one day." My hand trailed up to his hair and my eyes locked with his pink lips. "I want you." I admitted. "Forest, all of me belongs to you. I've always belonged to you and I don't know why you're not my boyfriend, but I do know I'll marry you one day." He smiled. Gosh, he has a killer smile. "I love you." He whispered against my lips again. "I love you, Charlie and there's nothing I won't do for you. The only reason you and I haven't been dating this entire time is because -" "Forest, we need your help here!" One of the other guys suddenly appeared out of the thick bushes behind us. "Most of us have never gone camping before. We honestly have no idea what we're doing." The guy immediately looked away when he saw us and turned to face the opposite direction. Forest groaned, chuckled and then slumped his head in crook of my neck. I knew they needed his help, but gosh I didn't want him to go. I didn't want him to stop holding me. I didn't want to stop feeling his hardness pressed against me. I didn't want to stop feeling his chest fall and rise as he breathed and spoke into against my lips. Just ask me out! I wanted to scream. Or at least kiss me. What the hell does a girl have to do to get kissed? I'm freaking 18 years old and I've never been kissed because he's taking his sweet time. We'll be living hours apart from one another in just a few months. We'll be off to university and he wants us to do that while we're just friends? Jerk. He's doing this on purpose. He's just leading me on, but gosh he's so good at it. I keep wanting more. I want more and more of him each day. Maybe it's time I took the hint. Maybe he doesn't see me as girlfriend material, but as friends with benefits material? I pushed him away gently while his lips breathed against my neck. "You should go." I feigned a laugh. "We'll talk after dinner." "Okay." He tore his head out of the nook of my neck and kissed me gently on the forehead ... not on the lips .. He left and disappeared with the guy that called him while I walked back to the raging fire in the middle of our camp site. It was already 9pm and people were either all snuggled up in a chair with their partners, dancing, enjoying the fire or talking. "Hey Char!" I heard a familiar voice and saw a hand wave at me from where most of the cars were parked. "Wanna come help me unpack some of the food and plates?" "Sure!" I smiled and hurried to him. We started unpacking the plates, utensils and food when I reached him. When he started chuckling to himself, I almost rolled my eyes because I already knew what he was going to say. "I see you're still hung up on the guy who refuses to make things official with you." He laughed. I took a deep breath and decided to focus on the task at hand - getting the remainder of the food out of the car. "You deserve better than being in a situationship, Char." He took the coolers I handed to him. "I mean, look at you. Guys are lining up to be with you. I graduated two years ago and I," he paused and sighed, "I'm also lining up for a chance to take you out on a date." I briefly stopped handing things to him and our eyes locked. James was a scholarship student just like me. Being with him probably makes more sense on paper. He's tall, has kind eyes, a laughter that's contagious, he's smart, resilient and he's a catch. On paper, someone like me should be with someone like him. However, my life isn't a bunch of words written on a piece of paper. I want Forest. I've always wanted Forest. "You know Forest will kill you if he hears you saying that, right?" I raised a brow and folded my arms. He shrugged and laughed. James Patel is always laughing. "You have the most beautiful eyes, Char." He ignored me. "And the most amazing and lively hair. I could go on and on about how beautiful you are, Char but if I do, you might start thinking I'm inappropriate." "James-" "How does your friendship with Forest work exactly?" He dropped his smile. "How can a guy go around beating up everyone who looks in your direction, but still insist that you two are only friends? He's keeping you to himself without committing to you and you're letting him, Char. I'd except this from other girls, but not you. You're smarter than that." I swallowed the huge lump in my throat and pretended that the man didn't just poke a hole in all the lies I've been telling myself. I'm smarter than that. He's right. He's so right, but I need him to be wrong or else I will be deemed the biggest i***t this world has ever seen. I can see it now - Forest introducing his girlfriend to me one day and me left with a stunned face all because I fooled myself into thinking that we were much more than friends, even though that's what we keep telling everyone. Rich guys don't go for orphans. They go for rich girls. That's just how it is. I'm so stupid. "He has completely blocked any guy from accessing you, Char", he continued when I kept quiet, "and believe me, there is a looooong line of guys who would kill to go on a date with Charlotte Ericsson. And you should know, I'm the first person standing in that line." I searched for the right words. Gosh, I should be able to respond to this, but a part of me thinks he's right. I don't care about any other guy. It's always been Forest for me ... but what if I haven't always been his person? We may say we're friends, but I've always seen him as so much more than that. He gets to insist that I always sit in his lap. He gets to take my bikini top off and put sunscreen on my back. He gets to cuddle with me while we watch a movie or just spend our Sunday lazing around. He gets to refuse to stop holding me each time I'm dressed in a bikini. He gets to put his hands on my behind, caress it and grab a handful of each cheeck as I moan into his neck. He gets to slither his hand inside my pants or skirt or dress whenever we're cuddling. He gets to press my body against his because he knows I love feeling how hard he gets after merely catching a whiff of me. I must be the stupidest girl in the world to do this with 'my friend'. "You're a good guy, James." I replied calmly. "You're funny, you don't take things seriously, you know how to find the joke and silver lining in anything, you're charming and," I chuckled, " of course you're really handsome." "But?" He tried to smile again. "But I don't see you that way. If Forest really is wasting my time like you say, then I get to choose whether I want him to waste my time or not, right? I get to choose and I choose to give him whatever time I can give him." The fake smile on his face turned into a disappointed scowl. "I guess you're not that smart after all, Charlotte Ericsson." He scowled angrily, walked away and left me to finish up alone. *** Forest disappeared for more than an hour. I ate dinner, laughed with the others, danced and watched couples make out and sneak off to their tents and even took a shower while my doubts kept echoing in my head. It didn't help that James' angry and disappointed eyes never left me for the rest of the evening. His intense gaze caused my own doubts to start screaming at me. Is this going to be my life? Me waiting for Forest to claim me and him giving me just enough attention so that I don't stray? What will I do the day he tells me he has a girlfriend? I won't be able to tell him he's been lying to me because he's been adamant to the world that we're just friends. I'll have to flee if such a thing happens. I won't be able to handle seeing him with someone else. By 11pm, my thoughts were a mess, but I still laughed, danced and spoke with everyone while my best friend was nowhere to be found. For all I know, he might be with another girl right now. "Hey", I felt a strong arm wrap itself around my waist from behind while I danced. "I'm sorry I took so long." My body immediately melted in his arms. Those doubts that were so loud a second ago, suddenly fell silent when I turned around and found his reassuring green eyes. "Where have you been?" I tried not to sound upset and resisted the urge to hug him. "You missed dinner. I even took a shower in that portable shower I wanted to show you." I turned my head briefly and found James with absolute disappointment, anger and disgust in his eyes, so I turned back to face Forest. I'm not even friends with the guy. He doesn't get to be angry with me for not wanting him. "I'm sorry." He put a hand on my neck. "I was helping those who arrived a bit later to set up their tents and get settled. And", he picked me up and I wrapped my legs around his torso instinctively, "I saw your adorable portable shower a few minutes ago when I disassembled your tent and moved your things into my tent." I gave him a scowl and he chuckled. "That thing was going to fall in the middle of the night." He teased me. "You should have waited for me to set it up for you. But then again, I would have said no and told you you'll be sleeping in my tent." Both of his hands were holding my behind, making sure I didn't struggle to keep myself wrapped around his torso while he walked. Lust was running through every vein in my body at the thought of sleeping in the same tent as him ... or being in the same sleeping bag as him. We've only slept in the same bed once when we were fifteen. After that night, his mother made a rule that no one under the age of eighteen can share a bed with another person in her house. Forest almost threw a fit when she made that rule, but I convinced him not to because I couldn't risk having his mom chase me out of her home. He and I have been eighteen for a few months now, but we still haven't slept in the same bed since she made that rule. Naturally, I've grown impatient, but I haven't been able to do much about the situation. I don't think a girl should be the one to ask a guy to sleep in the same bed as her. So all I could do was wait. He tried to put me down to unzip his tent, but my body couldn't bear to part with his. I've waited too long for him and I can't wait anymore. He had no option but to unzip his tent with my legs still wrapped around him. I only caught glimpses of the inside of his tent because we started undressing each other almost instantly. We're friends and yet we started undressing each other. His tent resembled a hotel room; not a tent. There was a double bed right in the middle of the tent with a comfy duvet. I saw a make-shift wardrobe with both our clothes already arranged in there. I saw a grey wooden credenza filled with at least a dozen battery powered candles on top of it and I saw a tiny table with some of my favourite fruits and snacks arranged in a bowl somewhere in a corner. This isn't a tent. It's a hotel room and it looks magical. It looks like little lights are twirling around in the tent. I was kissing his neck and moaning. Within seconds, my best friend and I were naked and in his bed. I was sprawled out before him, legs wide open and all but crying as I marvelled at his rock hard chest, his chiselled abs, his strong arms, those eyes ... and his erect c**k .. I've seen almost every part of his body before today, except for that third arm between his thighs. I've seen him shirtless too many times to count. I've seen him in his training shorts, swim trunks and boxers. I've found myself on the other end of the most intense pre-work out stretches whenever he wore his gym shorts. He always made sure to press his hardness against my core so that I'd feel how hard I was making him. He refused to take his hands off me whenever we went swimming. Each time we were seated in the pool chairs, he'd make sure my legs were sprawled open in his lap while his head was nuzzled between my breasts and his hardness was pressed against my core. I'd be such a moaning mess that he had to take me to the pool house for privacy every single time. But that's nothing compared to what he puts me through each night because of those boxers of his. He doesn't wear anything under his boxers. We've found ourselves practically dry humping on a couch while he wore those boxers and I wore the shortest night dress with nothing but a thong underneath. Heavens knows how we've managed to keep it in our pants this whole time. My eyes grew wide when I saw his p***s. Of course he's well endowed. I gulped nervously. I've definitely bitten off more than I can chew, but I want this. I want him. I want his c**k inside of me. I've wanted this for so f*****g long. "Don't be scared." He reassured me once he saw my eyes. "It will be painful at first, but you'll get used to it and soon all the pain will be replaced with pleasure." His hand laced itself under my back and he made me sit up. I was sitting on top of him, facing him with my legs wide open and his manhood pressed hard against my bare core. "It's all yours, Charlie." He pushed his hard c**k against my entrance ever so slightly and elicited a loud moan out of me. "All of me belongs to you. I will only ever belong to you, okay?" My reply was only filled with deep breaths as I got wetter and wetter while he threatened to penetrate my core. "Okay." I started kissing his neck. "Okay. Okay. You belong to me and I belong to you." He pulled my face out of the nook of his neck and made me look at him. Those deep green eyes of his were filled with nothing but primal and raw lust. "Charlie", his thumb traced my lips, "don't doubt me. Don't doubt us. I wanted to tell you earlier that I love you so much, Charlie. If it were up to me, you and I would have started dating the day we met and we'd be married by now. However, I couldn't do that." He pushed me a little further into his lap until I felt his p***s almost breaking whatever barrier was keeping him from f*****g me. "The families who want me as their in-law would have killed you if I told everyone that you're my girlfriend. I had to insist that we were friends so that they wouldn't see you as a big enough threat to terminate." "I didn't know." I whispered against his lips. "I thought-" He kissed my chin. "I know what you thought." He interrupted me. "I heard it and saw it while you were talking to James." I was speechless. He has eyes everywhere. I should have known that he might find out about that stupid conversation. "Look at us." He made me look down. His c**k was about to penetrate me. He's so close to penetrating me. "This is us, Charlie." He caressed one of my breasts while my hips started rolling in circles to try and take in his c**k. "This is us." "This is us." I repeated after him while I watched our bodies move in sync. "This is us." "I know you want me to f**k you right now." He kissed my chin again. "And I know you want us to seal our first kiss. I was planning on asking you to be my girlfriend tonight and f*****g you, but now I have to punish you for doubting me." I looked at him with pleading eyes. He needs to kiss me. He needs to f**k me. That's happening tonight. He has to. "I'm only going to tease you tonight." He kissed my neck long and hard. "I'm going to kiss you everywhere except on those beautiful lips of yours. I'm going to keep my p***s right here, on the verge of f*****g you, but I won't actually f**k you." "Forest-" I started to protest. "I'm sorry. I didn't meant to. I want you. I'll only ever want you. Please-" "No complaining, Charlie." He started rubbing his c**k inbetween my wet folds. "Or else my punishment will be much harsher than this. I might tell you we have to put our clothes back on. Is that what you want?" I shook my head quickly and he chuckled. "Good." He groaed and started kissing my neck again. "Our first kiss will be after I ask you to be my girlfriend. Our first time f*****g will also be after I've asked you to be my girlfriend. For now, enjoy your last few moments as my one and only best friend."