Taking Chances

The car ride was really quiet, the only sound the soft revving of the engine. I had the box that held the slice of cake in my lap, and while normally, that would make me totally single-minded on eating it, my thoughts were focusing on other things at the moment.

Biting my lip subtly, I pulled my cell phone out of my little black bag and pressed on Rebecca’s name to send her a text. Hey, don’t come back to the apartment tonight, okay?

A few agonizing seconds later, her reply came: Um…why…?

Just don’t.

Oh, God… Alright. I guess I’ll sleep outside. Maybe the hobos won’t mind.

Oh my God! Hahahaha. Just stay at Liam’s! That’s where you are, isn’t it?

Yeah…but that’s awkward………. What if he thinks…you know?

You can say that you’ll sleep on the couch. He can take a hint. Hahaha. He’s not THAT stupid.

Ughhhhh. Fine. But you owe me. Hahahahaha.

Letting out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, I put my phone back. “Who was that?” Zayn asked conversationally, but the sudden sound of his voice made me jump.

“Sorry,” he laughed as he pulled into the parking lot outside the apartment building. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s okay. And it was just Rebecca.”

“Did you talk about anything interesting?”

I was thankful for the darkness as my face was enveloped in a deep blush. “Not really. Just chatting. She’s going to stay at Liam’s tonight.”

“Is she?” Zayn questioned with eyebrows that shot to his hairline. “That’s…”

I realized what he thought and burst out laughing. “Not that way. I swear. Rebecca’s not like that.”

“Like what?”

“She’s only been going out with Liam, if that’s what they’re even doing, for a few weeks. Actually, maybe it’s been a month now…I don’t even know. Time’s flying by. But either way, she’s not really rushing to sleep with Liam already.”

“You never know,” Zayn chuckled. “It’s always the quiet ones that you have to watch out for.”

“I’d know,” I responded in what I hoped was a seductive voice as we climbed into the elevator to go up to his floor.

But from the way he laughed, I figured it wasn’t very seductive at all. Whatever.

When we got back to the apartment, I put the cake in the fridge, gnawing on my lip nervously. I knew what I wanted to do, but I wasn’t sure how to initiate it. After all, I’d never done anything like it before. What if he just laughed at me? That would be super embarrassing.

Taking a deep breath, I turned to find Zayn standing just a foot away. With a smile on his face, he trapped me up against the closed fridge, his face about an inch from mine. “Did you ask Rebecca not to come back here tonight?” he whispered, his breath stirring the free hairs around my face.

“What makes you say that?” I questioned, trying to maintain the little bit of mysterious edge I had left.

“Mmmm,” he trailed off, leaning down even further, so his lips were just brushing against mine, “Babe, your blush was so bad that I could see it through the darkness.”

I felt a tingle spread throughout my stomach as I responded against his mouth, “Damn. And here I thought I was keeping a secret.”

“Being secretive isn’t your strong suit,” he admitted.

“Not at all.”

And then, he finally moved his head forward the extra centimeter, pressing his lips against mine. It wasn’t fast and harried, like I thought it would have been, how it always was in the movies. Instead, it was slow and beautiful, one of his hands cupping my jaw, the other resting just above my hip.

His tongue brushed my bottom lip, asking for access, which I allowed him immediately. As he moved both of his hands to my waist, I wrapped my arms around his neck, pulling him down closer to me as our kiss deepened.

After a few minutes, his hands traveled down to my butt, wrapping around my upper thighs. He lifted me ever so slightly, and I took the cue, wrapping my legs around his waist.

Soon enough, we were lying on his bed, his hands exploring up and down my body. His mouth had moved to my neck, trailing soft kisses from just under my jawbone to my collarbone and back again.

“We can stop anytime you want,” he promised me as his hand traveled up my leg, under my dress.

But I didn’t want to stop. I knew what I had decided, and there was no turning back. Instead of answering, I just ran my fingers through his hair and let him start kissing my neck again, feeling his tongue flick against the sensitive skin.

Without any warning, he turned over so I was on top of him, and I grew hesitant. When he was directing everything, I felt much more comfortable, but when I was supposed to take the lead…

“Don’t be nervous,” he told me, his hands strong on my hips. “Just do what you feel.”

Swallowing anxiously, I leaned down and kissed him full on the lips, which he reciprocated eagerly. As our mouths moved together, I let my hands move down the arm holes of his jacket, stripping it off him and throwing it onto the floor.

“Hey,” he mumbled into my mouth.

Confused, I pulled back, keeping my face close to his, but not so close that he’d have to be cross-eyed to look at me.

“That’s an expensive jacket, you know,” he joked.

“Shut up,” I laughed before he captured me in a kiss again.

With his jacket off, I could better feel the definition of his torso through his shirt. But it wasn’t long before I was working the buttons apart so I could feel the skin up close.

His tattoos were extremely obvious, even in the dim light of the room. I traced my finger over the one on his chest, smiling a little when he closed his eyes in content.

“Those symbols look similar to the ones on my ring,” I noticed quietly, feeling it again and again, almost as if it would rise out of his skin instead of just feeling flat forever.

“Arabic,” he explained. “It’s my grandfather’s name in Arabic. And your ring is in Arabic, too.”

I nodded and leaned down to strip off his shirt. He helped by leaning up, kissing me again as he tossed it to the side.

My fingers trailed gently down his torso, and I could feel his stomach tighten as my touch found it. “Sorry, are my fingers cold?” I mumbled, blushing deeply with embarrassment.

“No,” he assured me, brushing my hair behind my ear. “No, they’re not.”

With that, he flipped positions again so I was on my back. He wrapped his arms around me, pulling me up toward him, as he worked to get down the zipper on my dress.

“Want help?” I teased, planting a kiss in the indent under his jaw.

He let out a small snort as he got the zipper, letting his fingers brush against my bare back as he got it down. And soon, that joined his shirt and jacket on the floor.

For just a second, I felt self-conscious about being in so little clothes, but the way he kissed me and the way he looked at me made the feelings melt away. It was pretty clear that he didn’t share my hesitance about my appearance.

His hands were burning warm on my skin, and immediately, I broke out into goosebumps all over.

He chuckled as his hands continued to explore, and the goosebumps absolutely refused to go away, humiliating me thoroughly.

What seemed like an eternity later, while also just seconds, we were almost at the point of no return. Our underwear was the only thing separating us, and my heart was almost beating out of my chest with breathlessness and nervousness.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he breathed in my ear, running a hand through my long hair.

I wrapped my hands around his neck and turned his head so he faced me. “I’m positive,” I reassured him. “There’s no one in the world who deserves my virginity more than you.”

He kissed me deeply briefly, cutting off my slightly-jagged breaths. “This is probably a bad time to say this, but that was incredibly cheesy.”

“That’s fine. Nothing compares to how cheesy that ring is.”

He spun it around on my finger a couple times. “Good point, love.”

“But it’s a good cheesy,” I reassured him.

“I figured that out,” he chuckled lightly, leaning down to kiss me again. “I love you, you know.”

“I love you, too,” I told him before kissing his cheek.

And then his hands trailed down to my hips, working to slide my underwear down my legs.