Текст книги "Taking Chances"

Автор книги: Molly McAdams

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“Well do you need to see a Doctor or something?” I started to get off the bed but he held me there.

“I promise I'm fine,” he chuckled lightly, “this wouldn’t be the first cracked rib I've had sweetheart. I just need to take it easy for a few days.”

“Is there something I can do?”

“You can stay here with me,” he kissed me softly, “and when I'm better, we can pick up that conversation where we left off.”

“I'm looking forward to it.” I pressed my lips to his neck and curled up against his pain-free side, falling asleep quickly.

***

“Oh. Dear. Lord! Bree, I can't wear this.” I stared in horror at my reflection in the mirror.

“Why? You look hot!”

“I'm almost completely naked!”

“Uh, that's kind of the point of a bikini. As little fabric as possible.” She was fixing her own suit and checking herself out in her mirror.

I failed at moving the top around to cover more of my chest. “Do you not have anything bigger than this? It's barely holding in my boobs.”

“No that's the one with the most coverage.” She threw a shirt at me before putting her own on over her suit. “Honestly Harper, you have a rocking body. I would kill for your chest, you need to embrace it.”

“I'm not sure that's possible when I'm going to wear this around a bunch of guys.” It was now Thursday, and we were already packed for a weekend at Chase's house. But what Bree failed to mention until the last possible minute was that the guys were barbecuing tonight and we were going to be hanging out in their pool all afternoon.

“Once again, that's the point. It's the best way to show off the goods. Brandon's gonna die when he sees you.”

“I think I'm gonna die before he can see me.” I mumbled.

She rolled her eyes at me and grabbed her bag and keys, “I'm sure you'll live. Let's go.”

I complained the entire way there, and kept it up even after I was in nothing but the bikini and a pair of shorts walking out to the backyard.

“Harper, stop trying to cover yourself. You're not succeeding and you look stupid.”

I glared at my friend, but stopped trying to cover myself. At least none of the guys were home yet. I pulled off the shorts and lay down on my towel next to Bree. She had turned on her iPod docking station on the patio and we rocked out to the songs while we tanned. We had flipped onto our backs again a few minutes earlier when a huge splash followed by freezing cold drops of water interrupted us. We both screamed and jumped up, apparently that's what they'd been going for since we were tackled into the pool as soon as we'd gotten vertical. I came up sputtering and smacked Derek across the head as soon as he surfaced.

“Are you serious?!”

“I'm going to kill you Drew!” Bree shoved Drew back under the water and held him there.

I looked over to see Zach laughing from the side of the pool, I guess he'd been the one that did the cannonball. I swam to the side and hopped out, running to my towel I picked it up to find it soaked from the numerous splashes.

“Awesome.”

I ran my fingers through my hair trying to get the tangles out, and stood there long enough so I was no longer dripping. Bree was still in the pool with the three guys so I decided to go get a few more towels for everyone. I was halfway to the hall closet when Chase walked out of his room. He froze and his eyes got wide as he took in my body.

“Damn Princess. You look...” He cleared his throat and finally met my eyes, “wow.”

I blushed fiercely and crossed my arms over my chest. “I was uh, just coming to get more towels.”

He reached into the closet and pulled out a few. Dropping all but one on the floor next to me, he shook out the one still in his hand and wrapped it around my shoulders. “How are you?” He brushed his fingers across my cheek and down my neck causing me to stifle a moan.

“Huh?”

Chase chuckled against my neck and lightly pressed his lips to my throat. “That good, huh?”

I blinked a few times and pushed away from him, ignoring that smirk I loved so much, “Why do you keep doing this to me?”

“What do you mean?” He went to wrap his arms around me, but I stepped out of his reach.

“This!” I pointed to an outstretched arm, “You can't keep doing this. I'm with Brandon now, you have to stop.”

His face fell into an unreadable mask and he dropped his arms to his side.

“No more notes, no more touches, no more putting your lips on me. This isn't fair to me. Do you have any idea how crazy you're making me?”

Okay, maybe I shouldn't have asked that, his eyes lit up and that stupid smirk was back. “Really now?”

“Chase I'm serious, this has to stop.”

“Give me one good reason why I should.”

I huffed and wrapped the towel tighter around me, “I told you, I'm with Brandon now.”

“I said a good reason Princess.” He deadpanned.

“That's a perfectly good reason! And it's the only one you're going to get.” I bent down and picked up the towels, when I stood back up he was right in front of me.

“Harper.”

“No Chase,” I shut my eyes so I wouldn't get distracted again, “Please just – just don't. I really like Brandon. Besides, you have plenty of girls who are fine with being treated like shit by you, I'm not one of them. Go find another brainless bimbo to screw and get out of your system.”

I heard his sharp intake of breath, but kept my eyes closed until I was on my way back outside. Setting out the dry towels, I flopped onto my stomach and tried to forget about Chase. Brad fired up the grill a little over an hour later, and Bree was lying out next to me as the guys talked about going surfing tomorrow. It was easy enough to keep my eyes off Chase's bare chest, but the stupid goose bumps wouldn't go away and Brandon was taking forever to get here. I was so focused on where Chase was, not even five feet away, and trying to hold a conversation with Bree that I didn't even notice Brandon until he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the ground. I shrieked and kicked for a second before I realized it wasn't one of the other guys about to throw me back in the pool, which had happened two more times since my hallway encounter with Chase.

Brandon just laughed and pressed his lips to mine, “Mind if I steal you away for a few minutes?”

I didn't miss the fact that Chase abruptly stopped talking, “Not at all, I'm yours for the next three days.”

We were in the house before he spoke again, “We need to cover you up sweetheart.”

“Why? Do you know how long it took Bree to talk me into wearing this thing?”

He set me down on his bed and slowly raked his eyes over my body. Heat spread across my cheeks and I had to force myself not to cover myself. “Remind me to thank her for that later, but I don't have enough patience tonight to continue watching the rest of the guys look at you like they want to eat you.”

I frowned and ran my fingers down his cheek, “Bad day babe?”

“Something like that.” he snorted and dropped his head to mine.

“You wanna tell me about it?”

“It's not a big deal, just people trying to piss me off.”

“Like...?”

He kissed me hard and crawled onto the bed to hover over me, “Don't worry about it sweetheart, it's nothing I can't handle.”

I just stared at him for a few minutes, hoping he'd elaborate, he didn't. “Fine, I'll go change so we can get back out there.”

Brandon's eyes warmed and the corner of his mouth tilted up. “I just got my girl alone again, I'm not ready to share her just yet.” He bit at the hollow at the base of my neck and let his teeth lightly graze across my collar bone. The shivers I never seemed to be able to control surged up my spine, causing him to grin. “I love knowing I do that to you.” His husky baritone voice was enough to make it almost happen again.

Bringing his mouth to mine, I tried to take advantage of our current situation by pulling at his bottom lip with my teeth, he groaned and slid in between my legs, pressing his body firmly against mine. I pulled his shirt over his head and trailed my fingers down his back, a shiver of his own made me giggle and repeat the trail. His lips followed the bikini top's string down my chest, when he reached the swell of my breast a hand found the ties on my hip for the bottoms and started to pull the string but suddenly froze and pulled away.

“Maybe you should go change, we need to get out of the bedroom.” He looked down my body again and stepped away, “Like now.”

After I changed into actual clothes, we joined everyone outside as the burgers were coming off the grill and I tried not to look for Chase, who was now gone. First thing Brandon did was thank Bree for her hand in my earlier outfit, she winked at both of us before running back to the side of some new guy named Ryan. We grabbed our dinner and Brandon pulled me onto his lap, always keeping one of his hands on me. The guys started in on a small game of football once we were done, while Bree and I cleaned up all the leftover food. Brandon came bounding into the kitchen and pulled me in for a sweaty kiss.

“We're getting in the pool, you want to join?”

I looked to Bree for her answer and turned to press my lips to his again, “Sure, let me change back into my suit. I'll be out there in a second.”

He shrugged out of his shirt as he walked out the back door, Bree hit me with a dish towel to get me to stop watching him.

“What? I'm allowed to look, he's mine.”

She laughed and put the rest of the food in the fridge, “Well why don't you get back in that suit so he can look too?”

I smiled and rushed back to Brandon's room. I had just grabbed my suit when Brandon's phone chimed, I glanced at his desk where it sat and continued to take my shirt off. After the top was securely in place it went off again twice. Looking at the door to see if he was coming through, I stepped towards the desk and sucked in a shocked gasp. I barely managed to fall into his chair as I stared at the offensive little screen before it went black. Going through his phone was probably too much an invasion of privacy, but he's my boyfriend, and what I had caught a glimpse of was definitely my business. Bringing the screen back to life I saw he had five texts from someone named Amanda. Sliding to unlock his phone, it instantly brought up the texts and my jaw dropped. It was the girl that had been in the group with Brandon on Monday outside of class. The one Breanna had said kept flirting with him the week before. I immediately saw the picture of her face and bare breasts, as well as the one I'd originally seen of her...um...nether regions. My heart clenched as I read the three other texts,

Amanda – 'I miss you already, can barely wait ‘til tomorrow'

Amanda – 'I can't wait to feel your lips all over me again'

Amanda – 'I'm ready for you'

I dropped the phone and choked on a sob. This couldn't be happening. I felt like someone punched me in the stomach and ripped out my heart. I took deep breaths to calm my stomach so I wouldn't throw up and shakily walked over to where I'd discarded my shirt. Throwing everything else back into my bag, I ran through the house and out the front door, tears streaming down my face for the first time in years. This is exactly why I wouldn't ever give Chase and me a chance. This is how his life is, but at least he doesn't hide it like Brandon seems to be doing. A sob racked through my chest as I thought about him and I had to lean up against someone's car before I continued my way down the driveway. I hadn't expected something like this from him. I was a few blocks from the house when I heard a car slow down.

“Harper?”

Groaning, I kept my head down and continued my trek.

A door shut and footsteps quickly approached me, “Harper what are you – are you crying? What's wrong?”

            I angrily wiped the tears away and stepped around him, “Please leave me alone.”

“What happened?” He wrapped his hands gently around my arms and bent down to try to look in my eyes.

“Nothing happened Chase, just let me go.”

“Like hell, you’re crying and walking through a dark neighborhood. Talk to me.”

“Why are you even out here?”

“I'm going in to work, now tell me what he did.”

I breathed a miserable sounding laugh, “Don't act like you don't know. You tried to warn me, you knew he would do this.” My phone rang and after a quick glance to confirm it was Brandon, I ignored the call and shoved it back in my pocket.

“Princess, I promise you I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'll kill him for hurting you. Please tell me what happened.” He wrapped one arm around me, and tilted my chin up with his other hand, anger and worry etched in his face.

Another cry escaped my mouth and I crumpled into his arms. He held me and whispered soothing words into my ears until my phone rang again, I ignored it. “Can you take me to the dorms, please?”

“You sure you want to go there?”

I nodded into his chest and wiped at my cheeks again.

“Kay, get in the truck Princess.” He helped me in before running to the driver's side. “Is that him calling again?”

“Yep.”

“Are you going to answer it this time?”

“Nope.” I hit ignore for the third time.

He let go of the seat belt and scooted toward me. Cupping my face, he wiped away the remaining tears with the pads of his thumbs. “Tell me what happened.”

I opened my mouth to speak but my phone rang again, “What Brandon?!”

“What the hell Harper, what's wrong?”

“Seriously? You're really going to play that game with me?” I puffed and dropped my head into my other hand.

“Sweetheart, what are you talking about? Where did you go? And where's all your stuff?”

“I left.”

“I got that, but where are you going?”

Tears started streaming down my face again, “Please stop calling me Brandon.”

“Wha– Harper, why?”

“Why don't you ask Amanda?” I sneered, “I'm sure she'd be more than happy to show you why I left.”

He cursed away from the phone, “Harper, I swear –'

I hung up and turned my phone off.

After a few silent minutes, Chase grabbed my hand in his and spoke softly, “Who's Amanda?”

“Apparently she's some girl he's sleeping with. Bree and I saw her on Monday with him and a group of guys.” I wanted to smack myself. I thought he was incredible for trying to keep my innocence intact, but instead he'd just been holding off because he was sleeping with other women.

He glanced at my face, eyebrows furrowed, “Why do you think he's cheating on you?”

I told Chase about the texts and pictures I found on his phone, which brought on another round of tears. “I feel so stupid.”

“You shouldn't.” He paused for a second and gripped the steering wheel tighter, “I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I think you're wrong Harper.”

“Excuse me? I know what I saw Chase!”

“I'm not saying that, but he wouldn't do that to you. That's not the kind of guy he is, but even if he were, he would have told one of us. We tend to brag about girls we're with.” He reasoned, “And as much as I hate him for it, all he does is talk about you.”

I shook my head and leaned against the door, “Do you realize how all over the place you are? A week ago you were telling me not to go on a date with him, and now you're defending him?”

“I'm not doing it for his benefit, trust me. I don't want you with him, that hasn't changed; I just hate seeing you hurt like this.”

We sat there for another minute before I reluctantly took my hand from his and opened the door, “Thanks for the ride Chase.”

“Are you going to be okay? Do you want me to stay with you?”

“I'll be fine, I'm tougher than you think.” I flashed an unconvincing smile, “Go to work, I'll see you around.”

He frowned, but didn't say anything else. After I got upstairs, I took a shower and put on clean pajamas before falling into bed. My eyes burned from crying so much and I desperately wished I had some eye drops. A knock sounded on my door but I didn't move. I had a feeling it would be Brandon and though I was surprised it took him so long to come here, I wasn't ready to face him. My heart hurt too much. After another soft knock, a key turned the lock and the door slowly pushed open.

“Sweetheart?”

I didn't answer, I just stared at his darkened figure through blurred eyes. He flipped on a lamp and I watched his shoulders slump when he finally saw me.

“Harper.” His deep voice was thick with emotion.

“Did Bree give you her key?”

His brow furrowed as he slowly nodded.

“Traitor.” Wasn't she supposed to be on my side?

“You have got to let me explain, I swear it's not how it looked.”

“I doubt that and it was all pretty self-explanatory, so don't bother.”

Brandon took a step toward me, but dropped his outstretched arm when I flinched away, “There is nothing happening with Amanda. She's just trying to get us to break up.”

“Well, it looks like she's getting what she wanted.”

A horrified expression passed over his face, “No. Don't – don't say that. Please Harper.”

“Just go Brandon, I'm not going to do this with you.” I turned to face the wall so he couldn't see how much this was killing me. First boyfriend, first kiss, I fell too hard too fast, and now I'm getting hurt. Him being here was just dragging it out. “Go home Brandon. We’re done. Goodbye.”

“God, please don’t say that.” He said softly to himself. Leaning over onto the bed, he ran his fingers down my arm, and continued to my back when I flinched away, “I can't leave until you hear me out. She's mad that I kept turning her down, she's seen me with you this week and she told me this morning that she would make sure I ended up with her. Right after lunch I started getting these pictures, she's just been sending the same messages over and over all day.”

“And you didn't see any reason to tell me this?” I asked the wall since I still wouldn't look at him.

“I thought she was going to stop, I saw her after my last class and told her to drop it because I wasn't going to leave you.”

“Is that why you were in a bad mood?”

“Yes. She knew you were staying with me this weekend, I was afraid she was going to do something else.”

“Meaning?”

He blew out a deep breath and moved his hand back up to my arm, “She said she'd stop the texts, and told us to have a good weekend together. The way she said it and stressed the word ‘together’, I just knew something was going to happen.”

I sighed and rolled back to face him, his face fell when he saw my heartbroken expression.

“Harper I'm so sorry, I should have just told you earlier.” He cupped my face, and though I flinched once again, he kept his hands there.

“Are you cheating on me with anyone? Not just Amanda.”

“No. I only want you.”

I searched his face carefully for any sign that he was lying, but didn't find any. He had been painfully honest with me from the beginning and I knew he was telling the truth now. Because of that I couldn't stay mad at him, no matter how much I'd wanted to. It had worried me how hurt I was when I'd first gotten those messages. I'd already fallen for this guy, and while it surprised me how fast I'd come to care for him, it was completely blowing my mind how much he seemed to care for me as well. Before I could tell him I believed him, his phone started repeatedly chiming and we sat silently watching each other until it stopped. I held out my hand and was surprised when he handed it over without even checking it. Opening up his messages I saw the exact same five messages Amanda had sent earlier. I typed back a response and hit send before handing it back to him.

Brandon – 'This is Brandon's girlfriend, I don't know what you're trying to accomplish, but I'd really appreciate it if you stopped sending him pictures of yourself. He doesn't want you, and desperation isn't cute. So back off bitch.'

Brandon read it quickly and managed a laugh before dropping his phone to the ground and sweeping me up in a big hug. “I'm sorry I hurt you.”

“You didn't, I should have just asked you before running off.”

“I really wish you would have, but I don't blame you sweetheart.” He kissed both cheeks and my lips, then leaned away to look in my eyes again, “Can you tell me one thing though? Why'd you run off to Chase?”

“I didn't, how did you know I'd been with him?”

“He called to tell me where you were.”

Chase defending Brandon was weird enough, but I for sure hadn't expected him to do that. “I didn't run off to him, I left and he saw me walking back here. He gave me a ride.”

He still look worried, and I thought about the already countless times he'd asked if there was something going on between Chase and I.

Taking a deep breath in, I put a hand against his cheek and smiled softly at him. “If I can believe you about a girl that keeps sending naked pictures of herself to your phone, then you should believe me when it comes to a guy that does nothing but piss me off.”

He kissed my palm and placed his hand over mine, “You're right, I just wish I would have been there for you, not him. I'm sorry it took me so long to get here.”

“Don't be sorry, you're here now, that's all that matters.”

He smiled and lightly pressed his lips to mine, cradling me against his chest. After a few minutes he finally spoke again, “Do you need more time alone, or can I take you back to the house?”

“You can take me back, if you promise me something first.”

“Anything.” He said without missing a beat.

I raised an eyebrow and smirked at him.

He nudged me playfully, “Anything reasonable.”

I huffed but winked so he knew I was kidding, “If something like this happens again, you need to tell me right away. My heart broke when I saw that, I don't want to go through that again.”

“Done. I didn't mean to break your heart.” He kissed me thoroughly before murmuring against my lips, “Anything else?”

“Yeah, I want it to just be you and me tonight.”

“It will be.”

“Like lock the door, stay wrapped up in each other’s arms and forget about everyone else kind of night. Do you think you can handle that?”

A sexy grin spread across his face, “I'm sure I can manage.”