39-Sweet Escape-3

We held hands as we walked through the corridor and towards the limo that waited outside. There was only a slight limp to Zach's walk which would be fixed soon, the doctor had told us. I was relieved that he could finally leave though; it was depressing not only seeing him like that but just generally being in hospitals. I wanted to be with him somewhere where we weren't always being watched, where people weren't constantly walking in on us and trust me that got pretty annoying after a while. "So where to now?" He twirled me around as we exited and I giggled. He'd been in a really good mood since yesterday, ever since finding out that he was allowed to go. It was like watching a child the day before Christmas; he'd hardly slept and had been up at the crack of dawn. It was quite hilarious watching his annoyance with the nurses who checked his vitals. I knew he wanted to leave and leave quickly but it was really funny to see his patience getting tested. "How about we go home?" I suggested but he frowned at my suggestion. Of course! I realized and almost slapped myself; why would he want to go to the place where he got shot? He needed somewhere new, different, someplace that didn't hold bad memories for either of us. "Or you know we could anywhere...wherever you like," I said softly, resting my head on his chest. "I just want to start over, you know, go to a place where we aren't reminded of all the bad things that happened. Let's get out of this city, Ari." He rested his head on top of mine and wrapped an arm around me. We got into the limo and he pulled me to him so that I was snuggled into his chest. "Any ideas?" I asked as the driver waited for instructions. "New Hampshire," he said confidently, like he'd known all along what it was that he wanted. I raised an eyebrow at his choice, something was up... "And why would you pick that place?" "Because you said we could go anywhere," he said smartly, grinning down at me. "Zach..." "Because Ari," he sighed and kissed me lightly, "I want you to go back and finish school. I don't want to hold you back and make you miss out on all the things that you deserve, okay? You've lost enough because of me and you're not losing any more." I was stunned. Stunned into silence as he waited for a reaction, I was beyond touched by his gesture but I couldn't help but be reminded of the conversation I had with Carter. What he'd just said was too similar to the words my friend had spoken to me. "Did Carter come to see you again?" Surprisingly, my family, that is the Langdons and Carter, had taken turns to see Zach. My aunt and uncle had always loved him so it wasn't a surprise that they were over the moon at the fact that things were good between us again. Danny had had a somewhat awkward conversation with him but when he'd come out he had a small smile on his face and he told me that Zach was an 'okay' guy and that he really loved me. The funniest part was watching Carter with Zach. The testosterone level was quite high in the room as the two exchanged pleasantries. Zach was obviously less than pleased over my choice of friends and Carter seemed to find humour in that. He had an arm draped over my shoulder the entire time he talked to Zach and I could see the muscle in Zach's neck twitching in annoyance as he glared at the hand on my shoulder, as if willing it to fall off. Suffice to say the first meeting hadn't gone really well so I knew that the two were far from becoming best friends.  But now I had a sneaking suspicion that somehow Carter did have something to do with Zach's decision to move to New Hampshire. His jaw clenched and he turned his face away from me but I placed a hand on his cheek and made him look at me. "What is it?" I asked gently. "He shouldn't have been the one to tell me. I should've been less selfish, keeping you here, all to myself. I mean if I were any good for you I would've suggested it myself that you go back and finish what you started. I shouldn't expect you to uproot your life once again for me; I'm such an idiot..." I silenced him with my lips, kissing him softly. "Stop, just stop. You shouldn't blame yourself, I don't want that. Besides, even if you'd told me to go, to leave, I wouldn't have. I'm not going anywhere without you," I said with determination and was surprised when I saw the surprise in his eyes; why would he even think that I'd contemplate leaving him? "Ever since you've met me, bad things have happened to you Ari. You could be so much happier if..." He stopped like it physically pained him to say the words he wanted to. I knew how he felt because I too was experiencing similar emotions. I didn't want to imagine what it would be like for me to not have him in my life. No matter how we'd been thrown together, the fact of the matter was that being apart was no longer an option. "I would've been miserable and you know that and whatever's happened, you've been there for me, through everything whether I realized it or not. You never left me alone even when I hated you so why is it so hard for you to understand that I'll never let you go?" He sighed and leaned back in his seat, tightening his arms around me. "Will we be able to move past that? All that's happened? Will you be able to forget all of it Ari?" he asked with concern written all over his face. I buried my face in his chest and inhaled his scent. We'd talked a lot over the course of his stay at the hospital. Everything and anything that needed to be cleared had been cleared. I told him about the abortion, Randy and how I'd gone to see Olivia. He already knew about that encounter from Bruce but that still didn't stop the anger from setting his eyes ablaze. Olivia was no longer a threat though. She'd been taken into police custody but her lawyer had pleaded insanity and she hadn't argued. Currently she was locked up in a mental health facility under strict supervision with absolutely no visitors; from what I'd been hearing she really had, for lack of a better phrase, lost her mind, at least that's what the doctors said. I didn't know if it was real or if she was just acting to get out of police arrest but she would be there at the clinic for a really long time. The baby was still a sensitive topic and both of us needed time to talk about that. What I knew for sure was that I wasn't ready to be pregnant again, at least not for a couple of years. I needed time to heal from the loss and so did Zach. Becoming a parent had always been a wish of mine but the way fate had dealt out its cards...I didn't really feel like I could ready myself for an attachment like that for quite some time. "What about your business? If we go, you won't be able to work like you'd planned to," I murmured, enjoying the warmth from his body. Truth was that I was glad that we'd get this getaway and Zach wouldn't be able to work as much as he wanted. He told me that he had a lot of projects piled up and even when Liam insisted that he could handle it all, he wouldn't let go. Now that we were going away, he wouldn't really be able to hang around his office as much as he wanted to. "The advantage of being a Price is that you can work from any corner of the world," he said, yawning and stretching out his arms behind him. "Urgh I married a rich snob." I wrinkled my nose but as soon as I'd said the words Zach's hands were at my sides, tickling me and making me laugh uncontrollably. I lay down on the limo seat as he hovered above me; thank god there was a divider that shielded us from the driver's eyes, otherwise this would be downright embarrassing. "What did you say?" he chuckled and continued to tickle me. "I said..." I managed to choke out between laughs, "you're an egoistic jerk!" I laughed as he tickled me some more and that's how we continued our ride, fooling around and simply just enjoying the fact that we were together. So we made it back to New Hampshire and soon Zach began house hunting; we went through mansion after mansion but what really caught my eye was a cottage tucked in the outskirts, just out of town and near a breathtaking lake. It was perfect, it gave us everything we could ask for; privacy, solitude and tranquillity, well as much tranquillity as you could get with Zach's phone constantly buzzing and with me having to constantly do makeup work. The tutoring with Carter continued even though it made Zach mad sometimes but I knew it wasn't serious. I actually liked the fact that he was jealous; it was sort of sexy, actually very sexy. "So you integrate this value of x how?" Carter was going over some basic calculus with me and I felt like a total dunce for not knowing what the hell was going on. He sighed and grabbed the pencil from my hand, scribbling furiously on the piece of paper. He'd made a step-by-step chart of the process and was explaining it to me when... "Ari can I talk to you for a sec?" Zach called out from the porch and I sighed; this would be the fourth time today and usually he called me over about seven to eight times whenever Carter was over. If I didn't love him so much, I would strangle him. "What now?" I said exasperatedly. "Nothing, I just missed you." His eyes twinkled with humour as he looked away from his laptop. "Don't you have a meeting today, Mister?" I reprimanded. "Want to get rid of me already?" He pouted and sighed; that did it. It took away all my annoyance because let's face it, you couldn't be mad at someone so adorable. I encircled my arms around his neck, watching as the smirk on his face grew bigger. "Obviously, if you don't leave, how will I get some alone time with Carter?" I winked at him and shock came over his features before his eyes turned playful again. "Should I be worried?" He raised an eyebrow and pulled me forward so that I collided with his chest. Swiftly he picked me up so that I now sat in his lap, straddling him. For a minute or so I was breathless, deprived of any kind of witty remark and was just lost in his eyes. Zach began kissing my jaw, moving down my neck. His movements made my eyes roll back into their sockets; the pleasure his simple kisses could give me was unbelievable. He pushed aside the strap of my top and began kissing and sucking on my collarbone, biting it and increasing the pleasure tenfold. "Oh my god..." I moaned as his hand began sliding up from my waist, moving slowly over every curve to tangle into my hair. His lips now lingered near mine and he would tease me, brushing them on each corner but never really touching them. "Zach..." I said breathlessly and he chuckled, the jerk chuckled! "You were saying?" he said, pulling back. My eyes shot to his lips while my own parted in anticipation. I grabbed the back of his head and slammed my lips against his, kissing him hungrily as he moaned against my lips. "Shit..." he said as he picked me up and placed me on his desk, wiping the papers off it in one movement. "We-we cant." I hesitated, knowing exactly what he wanted. We'd been doing it a lot recently, it had been really hard not to, I couldn't have enough of him and he was insatiable! But Carter was here now and it would be really awkward... "He left, I just texted him." He smirked as his hand crawled up inside my shirt, hitching it up. "What?" I shot up, almost knocking my forehead against his. "You knew I'd do this right here?" Wow, he really must think I was desperate. "No, I knew I'd be able to convince you." He smiled and laid me back down, kissing my exposed stomach. Well, no arguments for that.