Hired | b.w.s

Twenty One

I wait in the bed for Brad to join me and I never thought I would be doing this. I'm totally nervous with the thought of sharing a bed with someone who's practically a stranger, even though I feel as though I know him now. I should definitely offer to sleep on the sofa, but something about the fluttering in my stomach makes me stay under the quilt.

The door to the en-suite bathroom suddenly opens and Brad walks towards the bed in long pyjama trousers and no shirt. My breath has gone from my lungs at the shock of seeing so much of him. I wasn't expecting him to be topless. I focus my eyes on his face rather than his body because I'm not a giddy teenage girl, I can control myself...I think. Brad gets into the bed and turns on his side to face me. I feel my face heat up as he stares at me, one arm propping his head up. I turn on my side to face him and mimic his position.

"Can I help you?" I can't help but flirt.

My denial shoved down any feelings of attraction back when I thought I didn't like him, but all those feelings are pushing their way back up to the surface right now and I'm choking on them.

"Remember when I said that you were annoyingly attractive?" He asks me with an unreadable expression and my heart is beating.

"Yes." I giggle, thinking back to how weird it is that he was talking about me. "Thanks for that...I think."

"I take back the 'annoyingly' part now." He says and my heart beats faster.

"Shut up." I roll my eyes and try to fight off the smile threatening to form on my face.

"It's true, accept it. You are very cute." He says matter-of-factly and my cheeks are definitely blushing now.

"Why are you suddenly all nice and obsessed with me?" I ask him. It's strange to think we hardly got along a few days ago. How can things change so quickly?

"Because I fancied the pants off of the mystery girl I was texting and I was annoyingly attracted to you and now you're one person and it's amazing." He casually says but it makes my body feel so warm. The smile on his face is incredibly attractive, something I didn't get to see very often before.

"I am pretty amazing." I tease, making him laugh a real laugh. It's just like the one I heard on the phone and my stomach flips. It's really nice.

A silence falls over us as we both watch each other. It's like we're still trying to put the two people together in our heads and make sense of it all. Brad runs his fingertips down my arm leaving tingles behind and begins to play with my fingers before lacing them with his. I don't stop him or object. Instead I watch him the entire time, completely unsure on how to react. This is all so sudden and weird and I have never been in a situation like this before in my life. He disconnects our hands and begins lightly tracing over the small tattoos on my wrist and arm.

"I like your tattoos." He mumbles whilst tracing over them, his eyes fixated on the ink.

"Thank you." I respond, my throat is dry and my voice small and quiet.

"Do they mean anything?" He asks in a low hum.

"They mean a lot." I nod and look down to the ink on my skin. "This one reminds me to love and appreciate nature and to not be so self centred. Sometimes I forget that it's not just me that matters." I move his hand to point to the lavender plant tattooed onto my skin.

"I like that. Sometimes I forget that too." He mumbles.

"Would you ever get any tattoos?" I ask him curiously, I can feel myself getting lost into the moment.

"I wanted a few but management wouldn't allow it. Gotta keep up the clean cut boy band look, you know?" He rolls his eyes with a sad smile and my chest aches.

"I wish you could make music without having to be in the music industry." I softly say as his eyes focus on me.

They're full of emotion and full of questions, glistening in the low light of the bedroom.

"You really are something." He mutters, moving his hand under my chin.

"Is that a good thing?" I breathe out. I seem to be lost in his eyes and I can't find my way out of their gaze.

"I've never met anyone like you before." He mumbles even quieter but it seems the same due to the sudden closeness of his face to mine. He looks to my lips and then back to my eyes and my stomach flips. "Can I kiss you?"

The question sends shivers down my spine and I nod gently because I can't seem to form any words. He closes the small gap between us and melts his lips into mine. I didn't realise how much I had missed the feeling of his kiss until this moment. His lips are so soft and so warm, I like that they seem to know what to do and my lips seem to know exactly how to reciprocate. My body starts to heat up the longer we kiss, so I gently pull away before it gets too heated and rest my forehead against his. This is moving very fast, I have to remind myself of that because my heart is just doing what it wants to right now.

"What am I gonna do with you?" He chuckles lightly before placing a light kiss on my lips.