My lips found hers, touching them softly. Not a passionate kiss, but a gentle, sweet one, one that told her everything my fumbling words couldn’t. I liked her. I liked her so much it was almost unreal, and I couldn’t help myself when it came to her. She was the only one I wanted, the only girl I wanted to spend time with. Somehow, that pink hair and the seriousness behind her emerald stare had gotten to me.
Bree was too stunned to kiss me back. By the time I pulled my mouth off hers, she was giving me a shocked look.
“I’m sorry,” I murmured, not very sorry at all. “I could take it back, if you want?”
Her lips were parted slightly, and they were actually softer than they looked—and they looked pretty damn soft, let me tell you. Not cracked and dry, they were exactly the kind of lips you could spend hours getting to know, and still crave more. “How would you take a kiss back?”
“Like this.” It was more of a demonstration than anything, and it involved kissing her again. This time harder. I was more confident now, wanting more, needing more. She truly brought something out of me, and I was too weak to fight it, to try to bottle up my emotions and hide them away, pretend they did not exist.
Bree’s mouth was more pliant this time, molding against mine effortlessly. She was being cautious, but at the same time, she was kissing me back—and that’s all I really wanted. Feeling her lips play a gentle tug of war with mine told me all I needed to know: she liked me, too, even if her words did not say it.
I was out of breath by the time I tore my mouth off hers. Her pale cheeks had turned even redder, giving color to her almost ghostly complexion. A grin formed on my face, I couldn’t help it. She appeared to be beyond shocked at what I’d done, and yet, the way she’d reacted, I knew she’d liked it.
Finally, she found her voice. “How is that taking it back? You just…you just kissed me again.” Bree sounded breathless in the best of ways, and I couldn’t stop myself from wondering if that’s how she’d sound in the middle of more intimate acts.
“I did?” I cocked my head, thinking on it. “Huh, I thought that was me taking it back. I could try again, if you want.” I still leaned close to her, only a few inches between us, separating us. Frankly, I could kiss her all afternoon and all night, and it still wouldn’t be enough.
A teeny, tiny, nearly nonexistent smile grew, and Bree shook her head once. “I…I think we should get some work done.”
“Bree,” I started, “if that was too much, I—”
“No,” she said softly, whispering as I spoke, “I just…this is all new to me, so I…”
I hated how unsure she sounded, how worried her tone was. If I knew what to say to make her feel better, if I knew what to tell her to get rid of all of the doubts in her mind, I would say it without hesitation. The last thing I wanted was for Bree to feel uneasy, for me to push her to go too far, too fast. She was a delicate flower, and I had to be careful with her.
“It’s okay,” I told her, reclining back to the spot I was in before I’d started leaning in to kiss her. Though it was the last thing I wanted to do, I offered, “If you want to pretend none of that just happened, we can.” Please say no, please say no.
Bree reached up, touching her lips with the tips of her fingers, her eyes on the notebook before her. I could tell she was lost in thought, and I hoped they were good thoughts and not thoughts involving how she could wipe what just happened from her memory.
“I…I don’t know what I want,” Bree whispered, slowly lifting those eyes to look at me. The message she portrayed in that glance made my heart swell in my chest. Hope, it gave me hope, and yet at the same time I knew I would have to take it slow with her, lest I scare her off completely. No more going off the rails, no more doing anything unless she explicitly asked me to or gave me permission.
“Well,” I told her, grinning, “I’ll be here when you figure it out.”
We spent the next two hours working on our project, tweaking our questionnaire and figuring out ways we could get a good subject pool. On Monday, I’d ask the professor if we could use the class as a base, a starting point. I supposed we could add our families, too, though their answers might skew the data. We’d put it on social media, share the link everywhere we could. Hopefully some of our followers and friends would take five minutes out of their day and help us out.
Don’t get me wrong, it was insanely difficult to focus while knowing what her lips felt like against mine, and as the day wore on, I couldn’t help but wonder if that Calum guy had kissed her on their date. If my advances to her confused her, I didn’t want to say it was good, but I sure as hell did not want to bow out of the running just because of some other guy.
No, just because some other guy was in the equation didn’t mean I’d simply take a step back and let him have her without a fight. I liked this girl, too. And, hell, who knew? Maybe this Calum guy only wanted one thing.
Of course, I wanted that too, not going to lie, but that was just a tiny fraction of what I wanted from Bree. What did I want? Everything. Her body, her mind, her soul. I wanted everything, and I wouldn’t stop until I got it.
Chapter Eleven – Calum
I texted Bree a bit during the week. Not much, because I knew she had class, and I had to remotely work, but when Friday came around, I upped the messages. I wanted to see her, needed to see her again. I…it was time for me to go back, for me to go home, and I needed to see her one more time before I left, to know whether what I felt was real, or if, somehow, I was caught up in the moment during our date.
With the moon overhead and the string lights lighting the walkways in the park, it was damn near impossible not to get caught up in the moment, but the more I thought about her, the more I knew it wasn’t just me being a romantic.
Hence the reason why I needed to see her again.
I’d already packed up most everything, save for a change of clothes for tomorrow and a toothbrush. Really, all that was left was to see Bree.
She told me I could come over, which I took to be a good sign. She wouldn’t invite me over to her house if she didn’t like me at least somewhat, right? Or maybe it was that sister of hers pulling the strings. Michelle was very into her sister’s business.
I didn’t wait a single second after I got the confirmation from her; I hopped in the car and drove right over.
Only her mom and her sister were home. Her dad, from what it sounded like, would be in the office until later. Her mom was nice, although much more reminiscent of Michelle than Bree. It did make me wonder if Bree was more like her dad than her mom, though. Michelle and their mom shared the blonde hair and blue eyes—their hair color was more a dirty blonde, though. Nowhere near as light as mine.
Michelle would be leaving to go out with Kyle in a few, which left their mom. It seemed she got the hint, though, for she ordered pizza for us and then promptly disappeared up the stairs to give us privacy, I guess. And the living room all to ourselves.
Bree and I sat on the couch. The flat-screen television set across the room was off, the remote sitting on the coffee table near us, though neither of us went for it. She hugged a pillow to her chest, glancing at me every so often, as if she was nervous about what I was going to say. Maybe she thought I was going to tell her I didn’t want to see her again, that everything I’d told her last Friday had been a lie.