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