Taking Chances (Taking Chances #1)

“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.

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