Taking Chances (Taking Chances #1)(12)
Author: Molly McAdams

“Oh.” When he turned toward his dresser again, I switched my jeans for them quickly. They were so big I had to roll them up a few times, but I loved the fact that I was going to sleep in his clothes. “Um, do you have a shirt too?”

He unbuttoned his shirt and sauntered over to me with a mischievous grin on his face. Slipping his fingers under my chin, he titled my head up and nearly kissed me senseless. I felt his other hand trail down my side to the bottom of my shirt, and then his warms fingers were on my stomach, soon followed by his other hand. Other than the second it took to pull my shirt over my head, his lips never left mine and his eyes stayed closed. A chill ran across my body and my breaths started coming faster as I thought about his hands running over my bare body. He shrugged out of his button-up, draped it over my shoulders and resumed to running his fingers over my bare waist and stomach while I pulled my arms through the sleeves. Once my hands were back on his muscled chest he slowly buttoned it back up. I was gasping for air by the time he finished.

I flipped on a lamp and Brandon turned off the light as I sunk onto the bed. Turning back towards me he stopped mid step. “This was a bad idea.”

“Why?” I sat up quickly.

He chuckled and crawled onto the bed pushing me back down and hovering over me. “You’re in my bed, wearing my clothes, and your hair was splayed out across my pillows.” He kissed my neck before gruffly whispering in my ear, “You look so damn sexy, I want to take you in my arms and never let you leave this bed.”

“Then why don’t you?” I countered huskily.

“God Harper, you’re going to be the death of me I swear.” He turned the lamp back off, rolled onto his side and pulled me towards him.

I hmphed and curled deeper into his embrace. “I love how I feel in your arms.” I sighed into his chest.

“You fit there perfectly.” He squeezed his arms around me and kissed the top of my head, “Get some sleep sweetheart.”

***

I was woken up the next morning to Brandon’s lips on my neck. I smiled softly and ran my fingers over his head, “I want to wake up to this every morning.” My voice was raspy from sleep.

He chuckled against my throat and placed a warm kiss on it causing me to bite my own lip to stop a moan from escaping. “Does that mean I get to keep you?”

“As long as you share me with Bree. I’m pretty sure she’d kidnap me otherwise.”

Brandon had gently moved the collar of his shirt I was wearing away and was smiling against my collarbone, “I went to Kindergarten, I learned how to share with others.”

I burst into laughter and brought his face to mine for a quick kiss. “Well I don’t want you to share me with everyone.”

“I don’t plan to.” He propped himself up on an elbow and brushed his thumb across my cheek. “I want you to be my girl Harper.”

A slow smile spread across my face and I was beaming inside. It was Saturday morning, and we’d just met on Thursday, but it didn’t feel like this was coming a moment too soon. There was something about this dangerous looking god that made me feel safe and cherished. Being with him felt so right, it was almost scary but incredibly thrilling to have found someone that made me feel this way. Pulling his face to mine, I stopped less than an inch from him, “I’d love to be your girl.” I whispered against his lips.

Brandon kissed me fiercely, but when I ran my fingers down his side and rested them on the top of his shorts he caught my hand and held it away. “I just woke up with the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen beside me, and you agreed to be my girl. If you keep touching me…well, let’s just say I can’t make any promises.”

I brought his mouth back to mine and wrapped a leg around his hip arching my body into his. I was suddenly extremely aware that his boxers on my body, and his basketball shorts were the only thing separating us, and apparently so was he. I didn’t want to go further than this, I just wanted to be closer to him. Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen. He pushed me back down to the bed and stood up laughing and shaking his head.

“I’ll go make some coffee.”

I pouted and fell back into the pillows. “Fine.”

His mouth curved up on one side revealing his deep dimple as he leaned over to kiss me chastely. “I was planning on spending the day with you in here, but if you’re gonna force me into a cold shower, we’ll have to find something else.”

I quickly climbed back under the covers. “I’ll be good. Promise.” I mumbled.

Deep brown eyes searched mine, “There’s no rush Harper. You don’t have to prove anything to me, or anyone else. Let’s just take this slow, okay?”

My face turned bright red. “Did you go slow with the other girls?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know this, but I couldn’t help but feel like the reason for him not wanting to go any further was because he didn’t actually want to be with me in that way. I certainly didn’t look anything like his last girlfriend, Kendra. That girl had looked like a freaking Barbie.

He sighed and dropped his head to my shoulder. “No. But I know what you’re getting at, and you’re wrong.”

I didn’t say anything, just waited to see if he’d explain, and after a few awkwardly silent moments, he did.

“I don’t know how you could even think that I don’t want you, I can barely keep my hands off you.” He cupped my cheek and held my gaze, “We just met, but I already know there’s something different about you, and I’m not about to ruin this by rushing into things. I plan on taking my time with you. Those girls, yeah I had relationships with them, but all they were was a distraction for me. I wanted to feel something other than being pissed that my dad was gone for good. I didn’t…” he took a deep breath in and out, “they weren’t you Harper.” He said it like that explained everything, and in a way, it did.

My heart thudded irregularly against my chest and I couldn’t stop smiling knowing that I wasn’t the only one that was already in this deep, “Thank you.” I whispered before pressing my lips softly to his.

We did end up spending the rest of the day in his bed, and I loved it. We turned on a movie, but had to keep restarting it because we ended up talking throughout the entire thing. Other than sweet kisses to the top of my head and nose, all we did was stay curled up in each other’s arms. Brandon would intertwine our fingers and hold them close to his chest whenever I started trailing my fingers down his bare stomach, and eventually just ended up putting a shirt on. I had frowned at that, but knew it was my fault. We left the room to go to dinner with Bree and Konrad that night, and other than a quick trip to buy coffee and donuts for everyone on Sunday morning, we repeated our previous day in his bed. We were dozing off while attempting to watch another movie when Bree came walking in.

“I’ll be ready to go in a few minutes, do you have all your things?”

Guess that means Konrad went back to the dorms already. “No, but it won’t take long, give me a few minutes.”

I started to climb off the bed, but Brandon wrapped his arms around me and pulled me back down. Bree snickered and walked out the door. After it was shut, Brandon pulled me closer to him.

“You’re leaving?” He asked softly, his fingers trailing down my arm.

“Yeah, I have to go back to my dorm.”

“You don’t have to. I want you here with me.”

My first thought was of Chase and what he would think about that. I scolded myself and shook my head, “I can’t, we’re not rushing, remember?”

He grumbled halfheartedly and squeezed me tighter, “If I knew you were going to leave at the end of today I would have clarified what we weren’t going to rush.”

I giggled against his jaw and continued on with a trail of kisses. “I know what you meant. But I can’t stay here.” Lord knows I would love to wake up to his handsome face every day. But like he said, we just met and I’ve only been out of Sir’s house for a little over two weeks. If that’s not the definition of rushing, I don’t know what is.

“Weekends?”

“What about them?” I asked against his neck.

“Will you stay with me on the weekends? You’ll probably be here anyway.”

I sat up and looked down at his breathtaking face, “You really want me here? You’re not going to get tired of me being around?”

“Seriously Harper? I told you I wanted to keep you here. You’re right though, you do need to stay at the dorm with Bree. So if I have to ‘share’ you with her, then I plan on using this sharing to my advantage so I get you too.”

I rolled my eyes and pushed against his chest playfully, “Okay fine. How about this? Unless something comes up, I will stay here with you on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.”

A huge smile showing off his perfect teeth and dimple spread across his face as he brought his mouth to mine, “That sounds perfect.” He spoke around our kisses.

“I feel like I’m the kid of a divorced couple.” I grumbled and he laughed.

We kissed a few moments longer until we heard Bree complaining from the hallway. Brandon hugged me tight to his chest at his door and planted a quick kiss on my forehead, “I’ll see you at school, have a good night sweetheart.”

The door swung open to reveal Bree with our bags slung over her shoulders and hands on her hips. “Sometime today, Harper.” After we were in her car, her fake sullen mood disappeared, “Tell. Me. Everything!”

I laughed and turned in my seat so I was facing her. “I’m afraid I’m about to disappoint you again, nothing happened.”

“What!” She looked between the road and me “You guys never left his room! You can’t tell me nothing happened.”

I shrugged and smiled, “I’m serious, nothing happened. All we did was talk and sleep.”

Her jaw dropped and after a minute formed into a perfect O, “He’s gay?”

“Oh my God! What? No!”

“I’m sorry but you’re going to tell me that a straight guy had you in his bed for three whole days and didn’t try anything with you?”

“It wasn’t that, we talked about it on Saturday and decided we aren’t going to do anything for a while.”

Her eyebrows scrunched together and she looked more confused than I’d even seen her, “But…why?”

“I think he’s afraid of rushing me, and to be honest, I’m kind of glad. I can see how easy it would be to get too carried away to stop, and I feel like everything about us has already moved so fast. Not that I’d change anything so far, but I’m happy we’re going to wait. When I think about it, I know I’m still not ready to go there. He’s my first boyfriend, and it’s only been a couple days.”

“Huh. I guess when you put it that way.”

“Is it safe to assume you and Konrad had a good time?”

She beamed a smile at me before turning back to the road, “I actually think I like him. Who knows, I may even try to date him!”

I just shook my head. She’s just like her brother. How people could be like that was totally beyond me.

***

“Ooo, don’t look now, but someone’s man is at our one o’clock.” Bree nudged into my side as we walked towards our second class of the day.

Of course, I had to look then. I saw Brandon with a couple guys and a girl I didn’t know standing off to the side. His deep husky laugh reached us then and I smiled at the sound of it.