Taking Chances

I threw myself on Zayn’s couch as he walked into the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. “Can you get me one, too, please?” I called, running my hands through my hair and grinning at the ceiling.

I didn’t hear his answer, too wrapped up in my own glee to pay attention to anything in the outside world, but I figured he said yes from the fact that he dropped a bottle on my lap a few seconds later.

“I can’t believe this,” I mumbled as Zayn settled next to me, taking a drink. “I cannot believe that Simon Cowell just signed me to his label.”

“Technically,” Zayn broke in his smart-ass voice, “he just said he would sign you. You have to fly Gabby over for him to sign you.”

I shot a glare at him. “Did I ask you?”

“Not directly, no.” He grinned at me sheepishly, and my mind flashed back to earlier.

“What did Harry mean when he said it was all you that got me signed?”

Zayn shrugged.

I raised an eyebrow at him menacingly. Or, what I hoped was menacingly, anyway.

After maintaining his position for almost a minute, he let out a sigh. “It’s just…after that night where I got a little bit drunk and started whining about how much I missed you, I called up Simon and told him your whole story and what a great addition you’d make to the label. He agreed with my suggestion and said that he’d only do it if I could convince you to come to England to do the meeting. And here we are.”

“What a great addition I’d make?” My face filled with a deep blush.

I was repeating it out of shock, but he thought that I wanted an elaboration. “Yeah. I told him what a great singer with a beautiful range and perfect tone you had, how gorgeous you are…nothing he didn’t already know.”

I stared at him for a second before leaning forward and planting my mouth against his.

He didn’t even hesitate, immediately poking his tongue through my lips and cupping my face with his hand. As we kissed, our breath became more and more frantic, the kisses increasing with intensity.

Zayn broke away for a second as he laid me down on my back, hovering over me and moving his hands down to my waist. My eyes went from his lips to his beautiful dark brown eyes and back again before I bent up, connecting him to me again.

His hands roamed up and down my sides, not getting too high or too low to make me get out of my comfort zone. After a couple minutes, he pulled away, pecked me one more time, and moved his lips to under my jaw line.

I swallowed, trying to catch my breath. Kissing him was exhilarating, and I had absolutely no idea where my want for him was coming from.

Zayn chuckled against my neck, the uneven breaths tickling like crazy. “Maybe I should do nice things for you more often.”

I blushed madly before laughing to cover it up. “You make it sound like I’m trying to train you to do nice things by giving you the reward of making out with me.”

His eyebrows creased for a second before he let out a breath that stirred the shorter hairs around my face. “That’s not what I’m trying to say. I’m just pointing out that there’s been a pattern with when I got to take the next step.”

“What?”

“You first kissed me because you found out that I was behind the video chat at your drop party, yeah?” I nodded. “And now I got you signed to our label, and you’re letting me snog you like this.”

I snickered and propped myself up on my elbows, making the distance between our faces almost nonexistent. “You’re being entirely too critical of this.”

“I’m just pointing it out.”

I smiled a little and pushed myself up so we were kissing again. My hands ran through his soft, thick hair, while his ran over the sliver of skin that had started showing when my dressy tank top rode up.

I was getting goose bumps all over my body, which he must have noticed, since he started smiling against my mouth.

“Cut it out,” I mumbled, trying not to laugh.

“Sorry,” he expressed, pulling away and grinning. “You’re just so cute.”

I finally burst out laughing. “What?”

“You get all tense when your body reacts to what I’m doing. Why would you not want me to notice?” I bit my lip and flushed like mad, but he continued talking. “It’s like, you almost go completely still just because you get goose pimples.”

I shuddered. “Ugh, don’t call them that.”

“What?”

“I hate that term. They’re goose bumps. Calling them goose pimples makes me think that my body's being overrun by a million whiteheads. And that’s gross.”

He shook his head. “Bailey,” he mumbled, tucking my hair behind my ear, “you certainly are one of a kind.”

I felt my face start to heat up further, so I pushed him off me, getting to my feet and straightening out my shirt. “Thanks,” I called to him as I walked into the other room.

“Where are you going?”

“Uh…to go pee?” I peeked back around the wall, raising an eyebrow at him. “Is that okay?”

He burst out laughing. “Yeah, I think it should be.”

“Thanks for your approval. I appreciate that.”

When I came back, I settled on the couch. Zayn had turned on the TV in my absence and was flipping through the channels, trying to find something to watch. “Oh,” he started, turning to face me. “So, next week or something, the boys have a party that they want to go to. Hanny and Charlie will be going, too. Do you want to?”

I resisted the urge I had to laugh in his face. “Uh…not especially. I think we both know that I’m not the partying type.”

“You’re legal to drink here,” he reminded me.

“Doesn’t mean I’m going to,” I countered. “No, I’m good. You’re free to go, if you want, as long as you don’t go grinding up on other girls.”

“Your confidence in me is overwhelming,” he commented sarcastically.

“I’m just kidding around with you.”

“I know.” He let out a breath and a smile. “I guess I’ll just tell Louis that we’re out.”

“Uh, tell him that I’m out,” I corrected. “You should go and have fun with your friends. I’m just a bore.”

“You are not a bore,” he insisted, leaning over and kissing my forehead. “And I’m not about to leave you in the flat alone all night in a strange city. Well, strange to you.”

I stared at him. “It’s okay, Zayn.” I moved over, widening my eyes and patting his face, speaking in the kind of a voice one would use with a toddler. “I’m a big girl now. I can take care of myself for a few hours while you go dance and drink and have fun.”

He shook his head and took my face in his hands. “And I’m telling you that it’s okay. I’m more of a stay-at-home-and-drink-in-a-small-group kind of guy, anyway. We’ll figure out something to do instead.”

“Oh, will we?” I replied, trying to sound suggestive, but I ended up snorting with laughter instead.

“And there you go, being cute again,” he chuckled, leaning over and kissing the tip of my nose, making my whole face scrunch up. He moved back and saw my distorted facial expression before laughing and running his thumb along my cheekbone.

“I try,” I whispered, smiling.