Certified Disaster (Beautiful Mess Book 2) (12 page)

“You okay?”
he asked softly, suddenly worried that
this had been a very bad idea.  “You know, we don’t have to stay if you don’t
want to.”
 

“No, I’m fine.  It’s just…,”
she let out a
breath.  “I’m sorry.  I’m just a little nervous,”
she admitted sheepishly.  “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do, or how
to act.  I’m a little out of my element here.”

“Hey,”
he lifted her chin.  “You don’t have to do anything.  We’ve been alone
together many times before.  This isn’t any different.”

“Come on,”
she gave him a disbelieving look.  “This
is definitely different.  I mean the whole reason we’re here…”

“Hold on,”
he cut her off gently, understanding
the reason for her nervousness.  “I’m not expecting anything, Bri.  Seriously. 
Whatever does or doesn’t happen, there’s no pressure.  I’m just here to spend
time with you.  That’s all I want, just some uninterrupted quality time with my
beautiful girl.”
 
He
tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.  “Okay?”

“Okay,”
she smiled back at him.  Unable to
resist the sparkle in her eye, he leaned down and kissed away any last traces
of tension from her body.  “I love you,”
she beamed at him. 

“I love you, too,”
he smiled back, his
heart swelling as she gazed up at him.  “Are you hungry?  Let’s go get some
lunch.”

They quickly unloaded the Jeep and
brought in their bags.  Cole put Bri’s bag in the guest room, claiming the
master suit for himself.  Under normal circumstances, he would’ve given Bri the
bigger room, but he had ulterior motives.  He didn’t want her to feel pressured
into anything, but if future events turned fortuitous, the fireplace and the
king sized bed in the master bedroom suited his plans perfectly.

After they were all settled, they
went out to explore the town.  Thanks to Matt’s mom’s suggestion, they stopped
at a little Mexican place that had green chili to die for, and by the end of
the meal all of Bri’s earlier reservations seemed to have evaporated.  They
laughed and talked as they walked up and down the busy streets taking in the
quaint little town and all it
s
charm. 

“Want to go to the beach?”
Bri asked when they
got back to the house.

“Heck yeah!”
 
Bikini time!  Cole had been waiting
for this all day.  They changed quickly and, after finding some towels in one
of the closets, headed out to the beach.  They spent the rest of the afternoon
in the sun and sand, letting all of the stress from the past few months melt
away.  As he lay next to Bri, Cole felt himself fully relaxing for the first
time in he couldn’t remember how long.  He hadn’t realized the toll that
basketball had taken on him, and was glad to be able to put all of that behind
him, if only for a few days. 

When the sun started to set, they
went back in to change and get ready for dinner.  Cole had called ahead and
gotten a reservation at the town’s nicest restaurant, wanting to spoil his
girl.  He threw on his brown blazer over a light blue dress shirt and dark
jeans, and went downstairs to wait for her.  A few minutes later he was dazzled
by a vision descending the stairs. 

Bri wore a strapless cream dress
with a light floral pattern on it.  It stopped just above her knees in front
and then fell longer in back, creating a beautiful flowing silhouette.  Her
hair was tied up in a loose bun, a few strands falling loose to frame her
face.  She looked amazing, and he couldn’t stop his mouth from dropping open at
the sight of her. 

“Are you ready?”
she stopped in
front of him.  Her eyes wandered over him, and a light blush tinted her cheeks
as she smiled.

“Absolutely.”
 
And he was.  He was ready for so many
things right then, most of which didn’t involve them leaving the house.  But,
first things first.  Reigning in his raging hormones as best he could, he took
her hand, tucked it into the crook of his elbow, and led her out to the car.

“You look stunning,”
he said as they
drove into town.  It’d taken a few minutes, but he’d finally managed to stop
gawking at her long enough to start a conversation.

“Thank you,”
she blushed.  “You look pretty amazing
yourself.”
 
Her
eyes drank him in, and it was all he could do not to turn the car around and
take her back to the house.  He had to keep reminding himself that he wanted to
do this right, that he could be patient a little longer. 

This was made infinitely more
difficult when Bri crossed her legs, and her skirt hitched up a little, showing
off more of her thigh.  Gazing at her tempting skin, Cole groaned inwardly and
prayed he’d be able to hold himself together through dinner.  It didn’t look
promising.

Despite his inner turmoil, dinner
was perfect and delicious.  It was made even better by the sultry looks Bri
kept giving him.  He knew he was practically drooling at her by the time they
finished, but he was beyond caring.  He’d never been this happy in his life,
and he didn’t care if he looked like a love sick puppy.  He was.

When the waitress came to ask if
they’d like dessert, his heart about jumped out of his chest when Bri asked for
it to go.  The look in her eye told him everything he needed to know, and
suddenly they could not get out of that restaurant fast enough.  They made it
to the car and his willpower finally snapped.  He pushed her up against the
Jeep and kissed her like he’d been longing to all night.  She moaned against
his mouth and pulled him closer, and about killed him right there.  Somehow he
managed to open the door for her, and she climbed in without ever breaking
their kiss.  He closed her door and tried to pull himself together as he walked
around and climbed into the driver seat. 

Wanting to make sure she was
absolutely sure about this, he forced himself to ask, “Do you want to go see a
movie or something?”
 
He waited, his heart pounding, for a few moments before she answered.

“No.  Take me home, Cole.”
 
She looked right
into his eyes, and he saw no hint of doubt or uncertainty.  He took her hand in
his, and broke some traffic laws as he sped back to the beach house.  When they
pulled up, he shut off the car and looked over at her.

“Would you mind waiting here for
just a minute?”
he
asked with his most charming smile. 

“Okay,”
she looked at him a bit warily.  “Just
don’t make me wait out here for too long.”
  

Cole practically dashed from the car
and into the house.  Once in his room he lit the candles he’d place around the
room earlier, and turned on the fireplace.  Looking around once more to make
sure everything was perfect, he ran back down the stairs and out to the car. 

Bri was laughing when he opened the
door.  “That was fast.”

“You won’t be saying that again
tonight,”
he
grinned devilishly, and laughed as her face flushed bright red.  Not able to
stand it a minute longer, he helped her out of the Jeep and pulled her against
his body.  His let his lips hover just a breath away from hers, waiting for her
to respond.  She paused for a moment, dragging out his agony, then slowly she
closed the rest of the distance between them.

His heart soared and anticipation
started pumping though him.  He couldn’t help it, he lifted her and carried her
up the front steps and into the house.  Their kissing deepened as they made
their way upstairs.  He let her set the pace, not wanting to rush her.  Finally
making it up to his room, he pulled her inside and she gasped as she took in
the flowers, candles, and blazing fire. 

“Oh my gosh,”
she turned to him with a look of
amazement.  “I can’t believe you did all this.”

“I told you, you deserve the best of
everything.  I wanted to do this right,”
he smiled. 

Bri’s eyes darkened with desire, and
she pulled him to her, kissing him hungrily.  All of her hesitancy was gone, as
she pushed his jacket off his shoulders and set to work on the buttons on his
shirt.  His heart pounding in his chest, he walked her back to the bed,
unzipping her dress along the way.  His breath caught as she stepped back from
him and let her dress slip to the floor. 

As he stood there, gazing at her in
her devilishly sexy underwear, a moment of panic seized him and he realized he
was a little nervous.  It had been a long time since he’d done this.  There hadn’t
been anyone else, not since he’d first met Bri, and he was suddenly worried he
may have forgotten a thing or two in the time he’d been waiting for her.  This
was the woman he loved more than anything, and he didn’t want to disappoint
her.  

But as his eyes found hers, all his
insecurities faded away.  She stood there, looking at him with all the love and
trust she possessed, and he realized that he had nothing to worry about.  He
was the freaking luckiest man on the face of the planet.  She was the most
beautiful thing he’d ever seen, and she was gazing at him like he was her whole
world.  She was most definitely his. 

He wanted to show her just how much
he loved her, prove to her the depth of his feelings for her.  He wanted to
take his time and savor her; worship every inch of her glorious body, and then
worship it all over again.  So, laying her back on the bed, he set out to do
just that.

A shaft of sunlight fell across Bri’s
eyelids, stirring her from sleep.  Not ready to wake up yet, she rolled over
and into a warm body.  A warm,
naked
body.  Eyes snapping open, she had
a brief moment of panic, not remembering where she was.  But then a pair of
warm arms wrapped around her and pulled her into a wide, warm chest, and
everything came back to her.  Relaxing, she snuggled into Cole’s side and let
her eyes close again as she breathed him in.

As she remembered last night, every
wonderful thing that had happened, she felt a smile spread across her face. 
Being with Cole had been even more incredible than she’d dreamed.  He’d been so
sweet and gentle with her, and attentive.  He’d been
very
attentive, to
every part of her.  She was blushing just thinking about it.  Part of her
wondered why she had waited so long to take this step, but the other part of
her knew that it wouldn’t have been right before now. 

After finally turning in her V-card,
she thought she’d feel different somehow, changed maybe.  She did feel
different, but in a she’d-never-felt-this-insanely-happy kind of way.  That,
and what she’d felt for Cole before last night was nothing compared to what she
felt for him now.  It was like he was a part of her now, like their souls had
been joined together and they would forever belong to each other.  There was no
longer any doubt that he owned every single piece of her. 

“What are you smiling about?”
Cole’s gravelly
voice broke into her reverie.

“Nothing,”
she answered coyly, her smile
widening.

“Really?  Because I’m smiling about
a whole bunch of things right now,”
he replied, kissing the top of her head.  “Not the least of which is
waking up to you.  How are you feeling?”

“Fabulous.  How are you feeling?”
 
She tipped her
head up to look at him.

“Like I could scale tall buildings
in a single bound,”
he
grinned.  “No regrets?”
he asked seriously, stroking her hair back from her face.

“No regrets,”
she replied confidently.  How could
she possibly have any regrets when she got to wake up to this?  Cole’s hair was
in complete disarray, thanks to sleep and her eager fingers, but as he beamed
at her like he’d never been happier, he never looked more sexy.  Bri felt
desire spread through her. 

“I don’t know about you, but I’m a
little hungry.  Want to get some breakfast?”
 
He moved to roll out of bed, but she stopped him.

“Breakfast sounds good…
But I don’t think I’m
ready to get out of bed just yet.”
 
She pulled his lips down to hers and convinced him to stay a little
longer.

In fact, they didn’t leave that bed
much for the rest of the weekend, and only necessity could drag them from it. 

The weekend flew by way too fast,
and before she was ready to return to reality, it was time to lock up Matt’s
family’s house and head home.  

As they drove back to Durham, Bri
grew more and more pensive.  There were things she wanted to ask Cole, but she
had yet to build up the courage to do so.  Even though they’d been practically
inseparable for the past two and half days, they hadn’t done a whole lot of
talking.  Their relationship had just changed dramatically, and she was trying
to catch up. 

About an hour into their drive, Cole
glanced over at her and gave her a lopsided grin.

“You’re awfully quiet over there. 
What’s on your mind?”

“Oh, nothing,”
she replied,
surprised he’d noticed.

“Come on, Bri.  I can practically
hear all the wheels in your head working overtime right now.  You’re worrying
about something.  You can talk to me about it, whatever it is.”
 
He smiled
hesitantly. 

“Really, it’s nothing.”
 
She took his hand
and squeezed it to reassure him, worried he thought she was regretting what
happened.  “I’m just wondering what it’s going to be like, going back to our
regular lives after this.  It’s going to be different.”

“Yeah, but not in a bad way I hope. 
I mean, other than knowing what you look like naked, not much has changed,”
he grinned.  “And
just so you know, my imagination didn’t do you justice.”

“Thank you, I think,”
she laughed.  “But,
do you know what I mean?”

“I do.”
 
He squeezed her hand back.  “Things
have changed between us, and you’re worried how it’ll affect everything else.”
 
She nodded,
grateful he understood.  “In my experience, it’s usually not a big deal.  I don’t
think we have anything to worry about.”
  

Bri nodded.  “Speaking of your
experience, can I ask you something?”
 
She was hesitant to bring this up, but she figured she needed to ask or
it would just fester inside her.  Plus, she was genuinely curious.

“You can ask me anything,”
he smiled warmly at
her, and then drew in a steadying breath.  “What do you want to know?”

She dropped her eyes, unable to keep
her cheeks from flushing.

“Well, all of this is new to me,
obviously.  And for me it was this huge, amazing, life altering experience, but
I don’t have anything to compare it to.  I was just wondering…
if this time was
different for you at all, with me?  Not that I want you to go into any specific
details or anything, but…”

“Ambria.”

Cole cut off her embarrassed
rambling, but she couldn’t make herself look up at him.  She was worried that
she wouldn’t compare to the other girls, that he would be disappointed or
underwhelmed with her lack of experience.  Or, worst of all, he’d think that
she’d been a complete waste of time and wonder why he’d bothered waiting for
her.  Deep down, she knew that she was being ridiculous.  She knew that Cole
loved her, no matter what, but she couldn’t help the insecurities that flooded
her.

“Ambria, look at me,”
he pushed. 
Steeling herself for the worst, she somehow found the courage to raise her
head.  His eyes held hers for a moment, before flicking back to the road, but
what she saw in their depths released the knot of fear around her heart.

“This is new to me, too.  I’ve never
been with anyone I’ve loved before, so in a way, you are a first for me, too. 
And it is very different.  You are so far above anyone else, it doesn’t even
begin to compare.  I’ve never felt like this before, with anyone.  All the love
I felt for you before just quadrupled.  It’s the best feeling in the world.”
 
He glanced over at
her and smiled.  Unable to resist, she leaned over and kissed him.  “But you’re
right, getting back to reality is going to be a little different.  For one
thing, I won’t be able to wake up with you in my arms every morning.  And we
have roommates.  I don’t know if we’ll be able to find a lot of privacy.”

“We’ll make it work,”
she smiled
confidently.  “Maybe we can bribe Matt to move out or something.  Got any
embarrassing dirt on him we could use?”

“Ah, there’s that devious little
brain of yours,”
he
chuckled.  “But seriously, nothing could keep me away from you.  We just may
not be able to be together as often as we’d like, and I think that’ll be the
hardest thing.”

“Always such a pessimist,”
she teased,
relaxing into her seat.  Her earlier fears had been wiped away, and she beamed
with happiness the rest of the way home.

When they got back to campus, most
of the student body had left to go home for the summer.  Bri and Cole had to
wait a week for dance team tryouts and basketball business to wrap up before
they could head home to California.  They both had to be back on campus in
July, so that left them with a month to spend with their families.

After surviving tryouts, Bri was
packing up her bag when her phone rang.

“Someone’s been holding out on me,”
Seb chided when she
answered her phone.

“Well hello to you, too,”
she quipped.  “What
am I holding out on?”

“Only the fact that you and Cole are
hooking up now,”
he
replied, and Bri could practically hear his smug grin.

“We are not hooking up,”
she replied
indignantly, but her face burned bright red.

“Really,”
he replied skeptically.  “So you two
aren’t getting it on?”

“How did you…
Did he
tell
you?”
 
She was
incredulous. 

“Of course.  We guys love to brag
about our latest conquests.  And while I know that you are not a conquest, it
didn’t stop Cole from calling to brag.”

“Oh my gosh,”
she was completely embarrassed.  “I
cannot believe he told you.”

“What?  It’s what best friends do. 
Which brings me to the reason I called.  I am very disappointed that
you
didn’t call to tell me all about it.  Best friend code, remember?”
he practically
pouted into the phone.

“Elevated yourself to best friend
status, have you?”
she
quipped. 

“Obviously.  So why didn’t I get a
call?”

“I haven’t told anybody, so don’t
get all upset.”

“Yeah right, like you didn’t call
Layla the minute you got back to tell her all about it.”

She had in fact called Layla, and
they’d spent hours talking about it.  Layla, wanting to live vicariously, wasn’t
satisfied until she had every last detail.

“Well, I didn’t think this was
something you’d want to hear about.”
 
She felt kind of bad.  She hadn’t even thought about calling Seb.  But
he was a guy.  Guys weren’t interested in all that gooey love stuff.  “And, no
offense, but it would’ve been weird, and kind of embarrassing, trying to talk
to you about it, and you know it.  You never call to tell me about all the
girls you hook up with, so don
’
t judge me
.”

“You want me to tell you about my
exploits?  Where to start…?”
he pondered wickedly.

“
No
!”
she replied emphatically.  “I can
definitely live without that information, thank you.”

“I know, I’m just messing with you,”
he laughed.  “Sorry,
but I couldn’t help it.  Please,
do not
call me and tell me about your
sex life.  You're right, it would be creepy.”

“You jerk,”
she teased.  “And the same goes for
you, too.  I do not need those visuals.”

“Agreed.  So are you getting ready
to come home?”

“Just packing up right now.  Our
flight leaves first thing tomorrow morning.”

“Just make sure you save me some
time when you get here.  Cole gets to see you every day.  He can take a back
seat to the more important people, like me.”

“You got it,”
she laughed.  “We’ll have to go riding
again.  I wonder if I can finagle Cole’s bike away from him.”

“Oh, I think you could finagle
whatever you wanted from him.  He told me how much enjoyed his weekend with
you.”

“Okay, stop right there.  I’m so
going to kill Cole for saying anything to you.”

“Yep, I’m going to get a lot of
traction out of this one.  It’s going to be such a fun summer.”

“For you maybe,”
she grumbled,
making him laugh.

“Well, I’ll let you get back to
packing.  See you soon.”

“Bye, Seb.  Tell Claire hi for me
and I’ll see her in a couple days.”

“You got it.  Bye, Bri.”

“Bye, best friend.”

“See, you catch on quick!”

Bri hung up the phone laughing.  She
was really excited to get home and see Seb again.  He had somehow worked his
way into her heart, and despite her teasing, he really was one of her best
friends. 

A few minutes later, she got a text
from Claire.

You
’d better save me some
time, too!  Just remember, I was your best friend before Seb was even in the
picture.  That gives me first dibs on your time.  Can
’t wait to see you!

Smiling, Bri finished her packing
and headed over to Cole’s.  Matt had left earlier that evening, so Cole had the
room all to himself and she wasn’t going to waste the opportunity.  Cole opened
the door, and she barely had time to drop her bag before he picked her up and
whisked her off to his bedroom. 

“Anxious much?” she laughed.  He
laid her on the bed and prowled his way on top of her.

“I’ve been waiting all day for you
to get here,” he smiled hungrily at her.  “And now that I’ve got you right
where I want you, I’m not letting you go all night.”  
  

“Mmm, I like the way you think,” she
replied, and pulled his lips down to hers. 

“Just so you know,” he murmured
between kisses.  “I had to hold back with you before.  I didn’t want to hurt
you.  But now that we’re past that, I’m going to show you just how much I enjoy
you.”

Bri’s whole body began buzzing with
anticipation.  It never ceased to amaze her how easily he could set her whole
body on fire.

“Well then, I’ll have to show you
just how much I enjoy you, too.”  She gave him a cocky smirk, which he expertly
wiped off her face.

Bri awoke sometime later, much later
according to the clock on the night stand, and opened her eyes to find Cole
watching her.

“Hey,” she smiled blearily, rolling
over to snuggle against him.  “What are you doing up at this hour?”

“I couldn’t sleep,” he replied
softly.  “I was just thinking, and watching you.”

“What were you thinking about?”

“Coach pulled me into his office
today after our team meeting.”

“Oh?” she sat up on her elbow, fully
alert now.  “What did he say?”  Cole had been waiting all week to find out who
the starters for next season would be.  It had about driven him crazy.

“He said…”

Bri smacked him on the arm as he
purposely drew out her suspense.

“He said that he wants to move
Jordan to a shooting guard/small forward position next year.  He thinks it’ll
be a better fit for Jordan than playing point guard was.  We have two other
returning starters, so there are two spots open.  He’s giving me one of those
spots.  I’m going to be the starting point guard next season.”  A wide smile
bloomed across his face.