Taking Chances (46 page)

When there was
only twenty minutes left, the girls helped me into my dress, garter, and white
Converse. There’s no way I was wearing heels all night. My dress was simple and
beautiful, strapless and form fitting until my hips where it lightly bunched
and flared out to the floor, the back lacing up with thick ribbon. I looked at
Mom and Carrie in their black and silver shimmery dresses, and my best friend
in her dark green halter tea length dress. We all hugged and kissed each other
on the cheek before they handed me my bouquet of white lilies and red roses,
dark green ribbon holding them together, and heading out to meet the guys.     

“Wow sis,”
Jeremy gently hugged me, afraid to mess anything up, and kissed my cheek, “you
look awesome.”

“Thanks Jer,
you guys all look so handsome!” I squealed and accepted a hug from Konrad.

“You look
beautiful Kid.” He kissed my cheek as well before taking Bree in his arms.

“Thanks old
man.” I teased and gasped when I saw Dad and Liam, “Hi little one!” I kissed
his soft head and played with his hands for a minute before Mom took him so she
and Carrie could go sit down.

Jeremy and
Konrad escorted them to their seats, then came back for Bree. She winked at me,
and when the music started, the three of them left the room to take their
places up front. Dad wrapped his arms around me and held me for a moment.

“You look so
beautiful sweet girl. Thank you for asking me to give you away, it means so
much that you’ve allowed us to be your family. We love you and are so proud of
who you are and your choices.”

I blinked back
tears when he released me, “Thanks Dad. You guys mean everything to me, I
wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without you.”

He held out his
arm, and I placed my hand in the crook of it, “We’re up, you ready for this?”

“So ready!” I
did a little happy dance so Dad and I were both chuckling when we rounded the
corner and started our walk down the aisle.

My eyes
instantly found Brandon, and his expression made my body sing. A huge smile
spread across his face, accentuating his dimple, his eyes were bright as he
watched me walk toward him. If Dad didn’t have a hold on me, I would have taken
off running toward him, but we kept the slow pace, getting to Brandon seconds,
that felt like an eternity later. When Dad gave me away, and put my hands in
Brandon’s, I smiled widely at him and we continued to stare at each other,
letting everything else melt away.

Hi.
He
mouthed to me.

I smiled and
mouthed back
I love you.

I love you
too.
He squeezed my hands tight and looked at me with an expression I can
only describe as pure joy.

We said our
vows, repeated words after the pastor, exchanged rings and when asked, said “I
do”. The pastor announced us husband and wife, and Brandon tilted my face up
towards him, capturing my mouth with his. In that moment, in that kiss, we
promised each other forever and I felt like my life was finally complete. We
reluctantly broke apart to face our family and friends before heading up the
aisle and out of that room. As soon as we rounded the corner, Brandon took my
face in his hands and pressed his lips to mine again.

“You look
amazing Harper,” he said around soft kisses, “so beautiful.”

I ran my hands
over his short hair when he pressed his forehead to mine, “We’re married,” I
breathed a small laugh, “you’re my husband.”

 “And you’re my
wife.” He smiled as he pressed his mouth to my cheek, then my neck.

Our families
found us then and we were bombarded with hugs from everyone. I was excited to
see Brad and Derek had made it with their girlfriends, as well as some of
Brandon’s other friends from school. We took a few pictures; the photographer
couldn’t stop laughing because Brandon and I couldn’t stop kissing, and finally
said she’d just continue to take candid shots throughout the rest of the reception.
We ate a bit, danced a lot, and by the end of the night I’d danced with all the
men in my life, including little Liam Chase, a few times. I blushed fiercely
when Brandon removed the garter with his teeth, and both Konrad and Bree caught
the garter and bouquet. I winked at Konrad since I knew he was planning on
proposing on Christmas Eve. When Brandon wrapped his arms around my waist and
whispered softly in my ear, I hurried to say good bye to our son and handed him
over to Carrie, who was taking the first half of the watch. People blew bubbles
at us as we made our way to the car, and we were off to our make-shift
honeymoon.

Brandon rented
a condo right on the beach not too far from where we lived, and we were there
in no time, with Brandon carrying me through the door. He laid me on the bed
before running back to my car and grabbing our bags, leaving them in the entryway
and rushing back to me. His face was full of love and passion, his gray eyes
burning. He stopped at the edge of the bed, and let his eyes take me in while I
did the same. He’d taken off his jacket earlier in the night and rolled the
sleeves of his black shirt up to his elbows, his green tie was still on but
even looser than it had been when the wedding started. The shirt and pants fit him
perfectly, stretching over his broad shoulders and chest, accentuating his
narrow hips and falling perfectly down his long muscled legs. He looked like a
god. An incredibly sexy god.

I sat up and
scooted to the edge of the bed, grabbing his belt buckle I tugged him closer, a
satisfied smirk stretching across his face, his dimple deeper than ever. When I
had his pants and boxer briefs off, I stood up and took off his tie before
slowly unbuttoning his vest and shirt, running my hands up his chest to his shoulders
so I could slide it off as well. He pushed me back down onto the bed and
brought one of my legs up, chuckling when he got to my Converse.

“This is just
another reason why I love you.” He said as he took it, and the other one off.

His hands left
a trail of heat up and back down my legs as he removed my underwear and brought
himself back between my legs.

“You’re not
going to take my dress off?”

Brandon kissed
my neck and his deep voice gave me heated chills, “Maybe later.” His brown eyes
caught mine, and in them I could see everything he felt for me and I wondered
how I could have ever been stupid enough to try to live without him. “I love
you so much Harper.” He said before he slid into me.

I gasped at the
sensations that coursed through my body. Every time with him seemed to be
better than the time before, and I didn’t think I would ever get tired of these
alone times with him. “Brandon,” I cried when he rocked against me, “God I love
you too.”

***

“Wake up Harper.”

I grumbled and
rolled onto my back, quickly slipping back into the place between sleep and
waking. I felt something against my neck and tried to swat at it, when I didn’t
catch anything I figured it must have been my hair and sank deeper into the
warm bed. Before I could drift back into my dreams, there was that brush
against my neck again, but when it continued down my chest and stopped for a
few seconds at the swell of my breast I tried to fully wake up to look at what
I now knew was my husband. Brandon continued down my stomach, lightly biting my
left hip, and crossing over to do the same to the right. My eyes flew open and
I exhaled a breathy “oh” when his lips trailed to the inside of my thighs.

Brandon’s low
chuckle alone would have caused shivers, but his lips and tongue moving slowly
against me were all my mind could comprehend right now. I ran my hands over his
buzzed head and tried to keep my eyes open to watch him, but they fluttered
shut again, a moan escaping my barely open lips. He slid two fingers in me as
his tongue continued to work against my most sensitive area. A ball of
limb-numbing pleasure was already spreading through my body and I had a feeling
I wasn’t going to be able to hang on much longer. My hips involuntarily rolled
and his left hand gripped harder on the back of my hip, but didn’t try to
hinder my movements. He quickened his pace and after a few minutes I was
extremely thankful there were no neighbors near us as the following cry tore
out of my chest, my body surging with heat. Brandon hovered over my body and pushed
into me when the next wave rushed through me and met my satisfied whimpers with
a carnal growl as he moved against me, his lips and teeth nipping at the hollow
at the base of my neck. Each bite a little rougher than the previous, matching his
thrusts. My hands passed over the muscles in his shoulders and back as they
bunched together with each hard drive into me. Our breaths were ragged and
there was a thin sheen of sweat covering both of us when he collapsed on top of
me some time later. He struggled to keep most his body weight off me by resting
on his forearms, and ended up rolling onto his back, pulling me with him so I
could curl up against his side.

Intertwining
our fingers, he brought my hand up to his mouth and placed a gentle kiss against
it before kissing the inside of my wrist and rubbing a thumb across my newest
tattoo. Brandon and I got “his and hers” tattoos, on my left wrist read “
i love him
”, and on his right
read “
i love her
”.
Cheesy? Definitely. But we love them.  We’d gone to Chase’s old workplace, and
although I had been nervous to see them, we were welcomed with a lot of hugs
from everyone, Trish no longer worked there. Jeff hadn’t been able to stop
hugging me, and Brian’s eyes had actually started misting when he pulled back
from a hug that rivaled Jeff’s. We showed them pictures of Liam, and they loved
his name just as much as our family had. We promised to have them over one
night so they could meet him, and Brian had joked that he and Marissa would
steal him. They already knew Brandon from parties and when he’d gone there to
get some of his work done, and I was surprised when the guys had seemed
genuinely happy we had gotten married. I learned guys gossip just as bad as
girls do when they told me they’d known all about the drama involving Chase,
Brandon and myself; even from way back when Brandon and I first started dating.

“These have
been an amazing three days.” I sighed happily. “Thank you for everything.”

“Thank you for
marrying me.”

I nuzzled into
his chest and smiled when his arm tightened around me, “I feel like everything
is perfect now. Is that corny?”

He chuckled and
kissed the top of my head, “Nope, because I feel the same way. Is it…is it bad
that I’m really anxious to get back to Liam?”

“Oh my word me
too. A big part of me can’t imagine leaving this bed, but I’m aching to see our
baby.”

“Well then,
let’s go get him.”

I crawled off
the bed and goose bumps covered my body when I saw his eyes heat watching me
walk around without any clothes on. I knew what he was thinking, because it
couldn’t be any different from what I thought when he did the same. Leaning
back over him, I pressed my bare chest firmly to his and whispered suggestively
in his ear, “I think I could use a shower first, care to join?” I raised an
eyebrow at him before turning toward the bathroom, with my husband right behind
me.

“
Y
ou wanna go see
Daddy?” I crooned at Liam as he smiled widely at me and whispered
Dada
.
“Come on big boy.” I groaned as I lifted him off the bed and onto my hip. “Oh my
word, he is such a chunk!”

Bree laughed
and rained kisses over his head, “Don’t listen to your mom, you’re the cutest
baby ever, rolls and all.”

“Of course he
is,” I scrunched my nose at him and play-gnawed on his fingers when he
continued to press them to my lips, rewarding me with a belly laugh from Liam,
“just because you have built in bracelets and anklets doesn’t mean you aren’t
ridiculously adorable!”

“I got the bags,
do you need anything else before we go?” Bree asked as she walked toward the
front door.

“Nope! Let’s go
see them.” We loaded Liam into his car seat and headed over to Brandon’s gym.

Two months
after our wedding, the gym that Brandon had continued his training at when he
moved to San Diego, which led to his underground fighting, started going under
since the owners went bankrupt. Brandon had been getting restless trying to
figure out what he wanted to do with his life since he had stopped fighting.
Not that we had to worry about money, but he felt like he wasn’t doing his job
as a husband and father by not bringing in more money. When he’d heard about McGowan’s
Gym going under, he’d rushed home and asked what I thought about it. He
wouldn’t put himself in danger of getting another hit like the one from Demon,
but he missed fighting so much he thought owning the gym would be perfect. I
couldn’t have agreed more and the gym was his within the next month. Brandon
was still on good terms with Scarecrow, since he was providing more fighters
that he and Konrad helped train, and in the five months since he’d bought out
the gym, they’ve more than doubled the amount of members and McGowan's had
never been doing this well.

Bree and Konrad
were engaged, were getting ready to move into a townhouse in the same complex
where we lived and had recently started their Junior year at SDSU. They were
getting married at the beginning of November and I couldn’t be more excited for
them. It always made me laugh thinking about how they’d both been when we’d
started college. Konrad had been much the same as Bree and Chase, and wasn’t
looking for any type of relationship outside of a bed. But from the moment they
first hung out, it was over for both of them. I could see that even if Bree
kept him waiting on actually being his girlfriend. And now? Two years later and
they were anxiously counting down the days until their wedding. Konrad worked
for Brandon at McGowan’s, and Brandon paid him
extremely
well. We both
knew Breanna would never work, unless she could shop for a living, she didn’t
want to do anything that would take too much of her time, so Brandon made sure
they were always taken care of. Just another one of the million reasons I loved
him.