Laughing Fate (33 page)

Puck ran outside and hit Potter in the ribs. “You idiot! I’m still mad at you! Playing a prank on me is not going to fix things!”

“Fix what? I thought we were acting like nothing had happened?”

Puck paused and cocked her head to the side. She replayed everything she’d said to Potter and yup, she had told him to forget all about it. Well shoot, she hated it when Potter was right, the jerk. She punched his chest again and glared at him.

“Wipe that smug little grin off your face mister.”

Potter wrapped his arms around Puck and inhaled her scent. He kept his nose buried in her hair, ignoring her faint struggles to be released. She soon relaxed in his arms and rested her head against his chest.

“I like battling with you,” Puck mumbled against his chest.

Potter sighed and lifted his head. “You are so weird but I’ll let you battle me if you must. But only if at the end of the night you let me hug you.”

Puck pretended to consider his words before smiling up at him. “You are so gay.”

“
Ow. Words hurt!”

“
Pansy.”

“
Shut up and kiss me.”

Puck buried her fingers in Potter’s hair and let Potter kiss the heck out of her. She moaned deep in her throat and purred with satisfaction when he deepened the kiss. She let her eyes fall closed and gave herself up entirely to the hazy lust filled world that Potter created just for the two of them. Every nerve ending in her body was on high alert, making her clothes itch on her skin. She really had to get out of her clothes, they were too constricting. She wanted Potter. She wanted his hands on her body, his warm calloused hands that were so gentle with her. Too gentle apparently, the moron wasn’t moving his hands from the back of her head. Didn’t he know how hot he was making her burn?

Puck tugged on his hair and bit his lip. She pried her lips from his and glared up at him. “Kiss me!”

“
Uh…I was?” Potter said, his eyes looked as if they were full of fire and passion, his lips were yummy, and oh god, why wasn’t he kissing her? Instead the moron was staring at her in confusion. IDIOT!

“
KISS ME!” Puck growled and shoved him against a tree. He looked slightly surprised, but seemed game enough once Puck pressed her body against him and began kissing his neck. She grabbed his hands and placed them on her body. She felt as if she had a momentary slice of heaven when one of his warm hands stroked her breast. She purred and bit his shoulder lightly and smiled when she saw him shudder. She let her hands roam as well and laughed huskily when he jumped.

Her laughter died however when he gently pushed her away and kept her away with two strong hands pushing against her shoulders. Puck stared up at him with big eyes, her breaths coming in soft pants. Why had he pushed her away? Didn’t he like kissing her?

“Puck, listen to me babe-

“
Don’t call me baby,” Puck said huskily, her body still screaming for Potter’s touch. She tried to get close to Potter again, but his arms remained firm.

“
Puck, please just listen to me. We are going too fast here. You don’t want this.”

“
Yes I do,” she said sullenly, her bottom lip coming out in a picture perfect pout.

“
No, no you don’t. Puck we can’t do this right now. If we continue then we are going to have sex-

“
That’s ok!” Puck said eagerly, fighting against his hold. If she could just get close to Potter she could convince him that this was a VERY good idea.

Potter groaned and scooped Puck up in his arms. She immediately began kissing him everywhere; frantic little kisses that threatened to make him loose control.  Potter returned her kisses, but forced his hands to stay put in there safe zones. He climbed up the stairs, ignoring Perri who had been spying on them from the window, but was now just standing there with wide eyes watching him carry her sister upstairs.

Puck was now nibbling on his ears, making sweat little mews of happiness, and allowing her hands to travel in some very unsafe zones. He was just barely holding onto his self control, which was a miracle considering Puck was doing everything in her power to blast it to tiny little bits. If she had been any other girl her pants would be off in seconds flat, probably right by that dang tree.

Potter pushed open the door and carried Puck inside. He juggled her, so that he held her with one arm, and turned on the water.

“Kinky,” she purred and claimed his mouth again.

Potter sighed and returned her kiss, letting her feel how much he desired her. How could he not? She was a fiery sex goddess and his best friend. He nearly forgot his goal, but once the tub filled up, he gathered her up again and gave her one last soft kiss.

“I love you, you know,” Potter said softly right before he dropped her in the water. She came up sputtering, her face a comical mix of surprise and anger.

“
What the heck? Do you know NOTHING about romance?!”

Potter smiled down at his little warrior before saying, “I’m not sleeping with you until you decide to marry me. So I ask you again, you wanna?”

“
YOU  BASTARD!”

“
I take that is a no?”

“
That’s a HELL NO! You idiot! I told you that we were forgetting all about your lame proposal and you go and do it again on the same day?! I was KISSING you!”

“
Let’s get one thing straight. We are not forgetting any of my proposals. I love you and I want to marry you. So I am going to keep on asking if ‘you wanna’ until you say that you do. And until my ring is on your finger and your last name is Sanders- we are not having sex.”

“
If we ever do get married I’m not going to be the one changing their last name,” Puck grumbled sulkily.

Potter grinned and shook his head. “We’ll talk about it later. Good night.”

“Oh go away! I didn’t want to sleep with you any how!”

Puck fumed as she pulled herself out of the cold water. Well, she definitely wasn’t hot anymore, that was for sure. Stupid Potter.

“He was just respecting your wishes,” her conscience reminded her. What a nerd.

“
It’s so romantic,” crooned her inner Sex Goddess. “He put aside his own desires and needs to take care of yours.”

“
If he was doing THAT then I’d be naked right now.”

“
You know you didn’t really want to sleep with him. You would hate yourself in the morning if you did. He gave you what you REALLY wanted,” her drill sergeant piped in.

Puck growled at her drill sergeant and imagined squashing both him and the other annoying inhabitants of her inner sanctuary. Stupid personifications!

“Idiot! When are you going to know your own heart and tell him you’ll marry him?”

“
Shut up!” Puck yelled in fury as she yanked off her wet clothes.

Down below stairs, Potter faced an angry little sister. She had obviously gotten over her surprise and now she was clearly very angry.

“What did you do to my sister?! You can’t treat her like that!”

“
You don’t even know what I did!”

“
You took advantage of her!”

“
Perri, I know you were spying on us outside. You saw Puck! She attacked me!”

“
After you hauled her in your big stupid arms and kissed her!”

“
Hey! I didn’t do anything wrong!”

“
Then why is my sister yelling? Huh?!”

Potter sighed and rubbed his eyes. Did he really want to deal with this crazy family for the rest of his life? He took a moment to reconsider, but the answer was the same as always. Heck yes!

“When is Puck NOT yelling?”  Potter watched Perri freeze with her mouth open, ready to continue yelling at him, as she considered the truth of those words.

She closed her mouth, rested one hand on her belly and the other on her hip, and rolled her eyes. “You have a point there. But I’m still mad at you! You know that Puck doesn’t want to have sex before marriage so what the heck were you doing?”

“I’m fairly certain that we did not have sex,” Potter said as he rolled his own eyes and sank down on the couch. He stared for a second at her hand resting on her belly. He should feel like a cad arguing with a pregnant girl- but hey she started it!

“
Look, all I wanted was to kiss Puck good night, she attacked me! I know you saw her throw me against that tree!”

Perri blushed and looked away. “I wasn’t spying on you guys!”

“Yeah, sure, whatever you say.” Potter grabbed a pillow and put it over his lap. Parts of his self were not yet recovered from Puck’s little fusion experiment. “Anyways, the only way that I could convince Puck to stop and think about it rationally was to dunk her in cold water.”

“
Tell me you didn’t-

“
So I dunked her in cold water.”

Puck chose that exact moment to stomp down the stairs wearing a Nike shirt and shorts that showed off her long legs. They clung to her still wet body, which made Potter’s pillow even more necessary. Her hair hung wet around her face, nicely framing her livid eyes and swollen lips.

She marched over to Potter and stood there glaring at him. She had attitude coming off of her in waves. She planted her hands on her hips and scowled at Potter. “What are you doing in my house?”

Before he could answer, Puck turned on Perri. “Do you know what this idiot did? He proposed to me again! He dumped me in a tub full of ice water and then asked me if I wanna! I’m going to kill him! I’m gunna take his stupid pillow from his stupid lap and suffocate him!”

Perri looked between Puck and Potter and then wisely chose to exit the room. The two of them looked like they were about to full out battle. Potter had turned red from being called an idiot and having his proposal mocked for a second time and Puck looked crazy angry. As if she just might really kill Potter. Perri dodged a flying pillow and then ran upstairs. She shut the door just as she heard Potter bellowing about how his proposals were just fine and that if Puck wasn’t so crazy she’d accept them.

“
I am not crazy!” Puck yelled as she kicked Potter in the leg. How dare he call her crazy? He was the one afraid of sea gulls!

Pete the Pirate, her dog, must have heard her yelling, because he came running downstairs barking at Potter. He planted himself in front of Puck and growled at Potter menacingly.

Potter eyed the dog warily. Even after a bath and grooming, the dog looked diseased. He’d mentioned that to Puck before and gotten hit for it, so he didn’t think he’d ever mention it again. But if Puck was smart she’d take the dog to the pound where it belonged, not harbor a diseased mutt in her townhouse.  Potter put his hands up and stopped yelling at Puck. He wasn’t scared of dogs, but he didn’t really fancy getting rabies before he was able to convince Puck to marry him.

“
Bite him, Pete!” Puck commanded cold heartedly.

The dog looked slightly confused, cocked his head to one side and then pounced on Potter. Puck watched in disgust as her disloyal dog prepared to lick Potter to death. Worthless dog, maybe she should take him to the pound like Potter had suggested and get an even better dog…like maybe a Rottweiler. It had to be something that could scare Potter into submission. Oh wait, all she needed was a seagull.

Puck laughed at the image of Potter cowering on her couch while a giant sea gull flapped its wings at him. She pulled her dog off of Potter and sat down next to him. It took everything that she had, but she bravely said, “I know why you did what you did. I didn’t appreciate being dunked in cold water, but I know that you were just trying to do the right thing.” Her words came out grudgingly, not at all as benevolent as she had planned.

“
I don’t think it’s about right or wrong. If I honestly thought you wanted to sleep with me right now, I would in a heart beat. But you are the one that told me that there would be no sex…and I know that you wouldn’t change your mind so easily.”  He put an arm around Puck’s shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “It’s okay, I understand that I’m irresistible,” he joked.

“
Yeah, right,” Puck scoffed and elbowed him lightly in the side. Puck looked up at Potter and smiled. “You are however slightly cute.”

“
Aww darlin’ that’s about the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

“
Sad, aint it?”

“
Yup.” Potter sighed and forced himself to drop his arm from Puck. “I have to get home. I just came by to invite you to dinner. So I’ll be by tomorrow at five?”

Puck nodded and hugged him good bye. “You got your hug at the end of the day.

“And you got your battle. See you later baby.”

“
Don’t call me baby!”

Perri watched from her window as Puck followed Potter out of the house squabbling the entire way. She shook her head and closed her curtains. They were such a weird couple! She rubbed her belly and spoke to her baby, “Your aunt Puck is a little crazy, but it’s ok. I’ll protect you from her.” She stroked her belly and then added, “You will always have both me and Puck to protect you. I’m pretty sure Potter will be around too. You are going to be one lucky baby.”