Still, that did not stop a part of me from hoping.
I texted him back, and then hurried up to finish cleaning. It was time to pick up Bree after that, and my nerves were a bit jittery. I shouldn’t be so excited about having her alone, but it’d been a while since Calum hadn’t come straight over here after work. Maybe…
No, no. I would not think about it. Sex was the last thing on my mind. The absolute last. Nope. No sex here.
That’s what I told myself, but that’s not necessarily the truth. My mind was pretty much all about sex as I drove to pick Bree up, and when I went to the door to get her, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about it, even as her mother answered the door.
“Mason,” she said, giving me a smile. “Come in. Bree should be right down. I’m assuming you and Bree aren’t staying for dinner?” Her yellow hair was up in a high ponytail, a loose shirt on her torso. She was in the middle of making dinner—some kind of pasta, by the look of it.
“No,” I said, meeting her smile with my own. Definitely had to get sex off the mind while in the presence of Mrs. Stone. Mr. Stone wasn’t home yet, so that was probably a good thing.
I saw Michelle at the top of the stairs, and she shouted, “Bree, your boyfriend’s here!”
Bree didn’t often use the label boyfriend for Calum or me, but her sister held no qualms about using it. I was pretty sure Michelle did it because she knew Bree didn’t like it. That, or maybe Bree didn’t want her parents judging her for seeing us both, which I could understand. I hadn’t told mine yet.
Not sure how to broach the subject, but we’ll get to it when we get to it. Right now, I just needed to see Bree.
She appeared on the stairs, looking just as beautiful as I remembered her being earlier today at lunch. She wore the same outfit, though it did look like she’d washed her hair; its soft pink lengths were slightly damp.
Bree took her time in coming down the steps, meeting my smile with a shy one. “Hi,” she said, the same thing she always said. Once she got down, once she was off the steps, I swept her in my arms and practically carried her out of the house, which made her chuckle. She slapped my chest, and I put her down on the porch. “You can’t do that,” she said, though that pretty smile still lingered.
“Why not?” I asked, reaching back to shut the door. “It’s the only way to make sure you don’t run away from me again.”
The smile she gave me right then made me warm in my lower gut. “I’m not going to run away,” Bree promised. “You’d only come after me, anyways.”
I laughed. That much was totally true.
We listened to music as I drove us to my place, and I even heard her singing along to a few of the songs. I really adored the fact she felt better these days, that she was more comfortable in her own skin.
I let Bree walk into my apartment first, and she stretched her arms, as if the ride had been so terribly long. It wasn’t; twenty-five minutes was not that long of a drive, and it was honestly something we were both used to by now.
Bree went to sit on the couch, stretching her legs along the cushions as she looked to me. “I texted Calum to see what time he thinks he’ll get here, but he hasn’t responded yet.”
Oh, was this when I not-so-slyly told her that Calum had already told me he wouldn’t be making it tonight? Right.
I kicked off my shoes moving to sit on the couch with her. I had to hoist her feet up to sit under them, but once I did, I rested those pretty little feet on my lap, running my hands along the bottom of her legs. Her jeans stopped me from feeling the soft skin I knew was underneath, but I didn’t care.
“He messaged me, actually,” I said, earning a risen brow from her.
“He did?”
“Yeah, said he wouldn’t be able to make it tonight. He’s coming tomorrow.” A grin spread on my face like wildfire, and I turned its full power on her. “Seems you and I will have this place all to ourselves tonight. Anything you’d like to do to utilize that time together?” I was aware I was talking like a weirdo, but I didn’t care. It worked, because Bree chuckled.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said, sitting up and pulling her legs off me.
Sure, sure she didn’t. I didn’t push her, though. I knew if, it was going to happen, it would happen naturally.
I turned on the television and got up to make dinner. I wasn’t a fantastic cook, but I was getting better. That was the thing about practice; you got better, even when you didn’t think you were. Practice would never make me a perfect cook, but at least it would make my food more edible.
Besides, I was hardcore thrilled to see the surprised, appreciative smile that Bree always wore when I cooked her something new and tasty.
Tonight would be lasagna. It took a lot more work than just pasta and sauce, but it felt better in your stomach, too. More filling. Meatier. Mmm. Once it was in the oven, cooking, I returned to the couch beside her, sitting on the cushion near her, immediately tossing my arm over her shoulders.
To think, how far we’d come in such a short time. I truly couldn’t imagine my life without her. Never was I so thankful for being late to class. Fate had a hand in helping me that day, guiding me to where I needed to be: beside her, with her, loving her. I would never give Bree up.
Bree leaned her cheek on my shoulder, snuggling into me as she breathed me in. “I really do love you,” she whispered. We were watching some new show on Netflix, something about gothic teenagers who didn’t look like teenagers, doing magic and everything. Bree liked that stuff, so I sucked it up and watched it with her.
I’d watch anything with her.
I turned my head towards her, giving her a grin. “I love you, too,” I murmured, gently touching her chin and tilting her head up, placing a soft kiss on those lips.
Bree moved, and suddenly we were on the couch, her back laying down on the cushions and me above her, our mouths still connected, still hungry for the other. Needy, urgent, grasping. I let my hands travel along her body, taking in every curve beneath her shirt. It was almost ridiculous how easily my body was set afire when I touched her; it only made me want to keep touching her, to never stop.
I ran a tongue along her bottom lip, and she responded by parting those lips, allowing my tongue to slide between them and meet hers. I was rewarded with a sigh from her lungs, and I swallowed the sound up.
Bree still thought, sometimes, she wasn’t good enough. She still occasionally lost herself to her depression, but I was always there to help her out of it, to remind her that I wasn’t going anywhere, that she was good enough, that everything in life had a purpose. And if I wasn’t with her to say all those things, Calum was. She didn’t believe us, but that was okay. We would each be there for her, even when she wasn’t expecting it.
My hands snaked beneath her shirt, and I cupped her breasts, massaging those round, beautiful things as I ravaged her mouth. This was pretty normal for us. Me, being greedy when it came to her upper half, not wanting to push her for the rest of her body. Bree, taking whatever I gave her and reciprocating.
What was not normal was Bree pulling her mouth off mine, staring up at me with those bright green eyes, and whispering, “I…I want you, Mason.”
I stopped manhandling her, blinking as if I didn’t hear her correctly. My breathing came out ragged and hard…though that wasn’t the only thing that was hard around here. “What do you mean?” I asked, needing more clarification than that. If she was just telling me that she wanted me in a general sense, then I’d tell her I wanted her, too.