Rebound Ch. 01

When my eyes finally made their way up to his, I caught a little knowing smile. He knew I was staring, even though I had tried to hide it. "You look amazing," he said as he lightly brushed my arm. "I feel underdressed."

"Oh no," I exclaimed, this time not trying to hide my admiration, "You look great. We smiled at each other for a second longer.

"Shall we?" he asked as he gestured toward the door.

"Sure."

I snaked my arm through his as we walked side by side. As we approached the door, he took a one step lead ahead of me to make sure I would let him open the door for me.

"Thank you," I smiled as I slid through the door. I made sure to swing my hips a little more than usual to try to shift his attention to my firm backside.

I turned around when he didn't say anything. He looked up quickly as to not get caught staring. I smiled coyly. "My pleasure," he assured me. This time when he said it, I knew it had a different meaning.

As we browsed the movie selections along the wall with the new releases, we chatted about the different movies. He was surprised about my knowledge of the actors and the movies in general. "Is there anything you don't know?" he asked.

"I can't help it. I'm a movie junkie. I actually worked at Blockbuster for a little over a year. They paid crap, but I got all the free movie rentals I wanted. Not to mention the employee discount on purchases."

"So, Katie Hawkins, Movie Expert, which movie would you like to see?"

"Nothing is really catching my eye, but then again, I haven't really been paying that much attention to the movies."

"Well, how about this one?" He lifted up an Action/Suspense that I hadn't seen yet. I hadn't heard much about it, but at the moment, I didn't really care what movie we watched.

"Works for me." He waited for me to cross in front of him to head toward the line that was pretty long for a Thursday evening. He placed his hand on my lower back as we walked. The warmth of his hand just above my panty line was almost enough to drive me crazy. At that moment, I was glad he couldn't see the elated expression on my face.

As we neared the line, I composed myself so we could resume our conversation. When we stopped at the end of the line, he let his hand slide from my back down to my hip so that I was closer to him. Unsure of what to do, I just waited.

He finally broke the silence. "Would you like some popcorn to go with the movie?"

"No thanks. Pizza is good enough for me."

"Okay, but you at least have to get some candy. You can't have a movie night without candy."

I looked at him with the best puzzled look I could muster. "I thought you were supposed to be some sort of health nut."

"It's actually not healthy to totally hold back on all your cravings. You have cravings for a reason. A little candy ever now and then won't kill you." He stared quizzically at the stand with the candy on it. "I think I'll go with Reese's Pieces. It's the classic movie candy."

"That sounds good to me. Mind if I share?"

"Of course not." Then he thought about it for a minute. With a childish grin on his face, he silently bent down and grabbed another bag of Reese's Pieces. "Just in case we run out."

As we waited in line, he never removed his hand from my hip. His hand felt strange, but in a good way. It felt like it was supposed to be there.

When we finally made it to the register, he insisted on paying, and I didn't object. I knew there was no point to it. When we went outside, he walked me to my car. "Do you want to just follow me to my apartment?"

Actually, I didn't want to leave his side, but I agreed. "Sure. Is it close?"

"Just about a mile that way." He pointed down the road.

"Okay. I guess I'll see you in a few minutes, then." He waited for me to get my keys and unlock the car so he could open the door for me.

After I got in the car and he walked toward his, I took a few deep breaths. I knew I had to slow down my emotions. I was having too good of a time already. I wanted to take this slow, so I used the short drive to his apartment to do so. As we pulled into his apartment complex, I realized I was familiar with it. I had a friend in college who lived there. I parked next to him, and he quickly jumped out of his car to open my door for me. "Thanks."

"My—"

I cut him off. "Yeah, I know... Your pleasure." I grabbed his arm as he walked me to his apartment on the second floor.

His apartment was very nice, much nicer than I remember my friend from college's being. "Wow. It's very nice."

"Would you like a tour? It's not very big."

"I'd love one."

He put his hand on my lower back and led me into the kitchen. "This is the kitchen, obviously." I smiled. "Over here is the dining room." He had a square table that came up about to my belly button, made of cherry wood with a glass top.

"I like the table."

"Thanks. My mom picked it out."

"She has good taste."

We moved out of the dining room into a room with an L-shaped suede couch and a large flat-screen TV. "This is the living room."

I set my purse, along with the bag with the movie we had rented and our candy on the coffee table before me moved down the hallway.

He opened the door on the left of the hallway. "This is the bathroom."

It was small, but very clean. "Wow. How do you keep it so clean?"

"Honestly, I never use this bathroom."

He then opened the door at the end of the hallway. "This is the spare bedroom."

"Oh. I thought you had a roommate."

"No. He moved out almost a year ago."

"Well thanks for the memo!" I joked.

He then moved back out into the hallway and closed that door. He opened the last door in the hallway, the one to the right. "And this is my room."

When he opened the door, I knew why he used that room as his own. It was clearly the bigger of the two rooms, and I could see a bathroom on the other side of the room. There was a large bed at the center of the room against the wall, with a desk on one side and a dresser with a mirror on the other.

I walked into the room and plopped down on the bed. "Comfy," I said. I got up quickly, not wanting to make the situation uncomfortable, and walked into his bathroom. It was pretty clean, but it was very muggy, I was guessing from his shower just before we met at Blockbuster. There was a damp towel hanging over the shower curtain rod, and a razor was sitting out on the sink.

"He noticed me eyeing the details of the room. "Sorry about the mess," he apologized.

"Don't be. It's comforting to know you're actually human." I smiled and poked him in the stomach as I walked by him and back toward the living room. His abs felt incredibly strong pushing back on my finger when I touched his stomach. I tried my best not to show a reaction on my face.

I heard his footsteps follow behind me. I sat down on the couch and slowly looked up at him, taking full advantage of my chance to quickly check out the full length of his body again. When my eyes reached his face, I asked, "So, shall we order the pizza?"

"Sure." He paused for a moment. "Where do you want it from?"

"It doesn't matter much to me. I usually just get cheese pizza, so it's pretty much all the same."

"Is Pizza Express okay?"

"Sure. Cheese please." I smiled a cheesy smile, and he reciprocated."

If you want to get half cheese and half whatever you want, I'm okay with a few stray toppings."

"Nah. Cheese works for me. Breadsticks?"

"Why not? We got Reese's Pieces, so we might as well go all out."

He grabbed his phone and dialed the number. In just a couple minutes, the pizza was ordered. He sat down on the couch, but there was a cushion separating us. "So, what should we do until the pizza gets here? Should we start the movie?"

"Nah. Let's wait on the movie." As I traced my mind for something to do for the next 30-45 minutes, I noticed the two Guitar Hero guitars leaning against the wall to one side of the TV. "Are you any good at Guitar Hero?'

"Not really. I mean, I'm okay. I haven't played much recently. I never can get that orange button."

I laughed. "I have the same problem. I've decided it's impossible. Wanna play?" "Sure." He got up from the couch and grabbed the two guitars, handing one of them to me. He picked up the remote and changed channels until the Guitar Hero game popped up on the screen. "Lady's choice."

As I scrolled through the song list, I noticed him looking at me instead of the screen. "What?" I asked as I turned to look at him.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that you're the first girl that has ever asked to play video games with me."

"Oh," I looked at him skeptically, "So, you're saying you have a lot of girls over here?"

His expression changed immediately. "No, no! That's not what I meant! I was just saying it's different to have a girl actually be herself on a first date."

"So, this is a date now?" His face twisted uncomfortably at the question. I tried to stay serious, but I quickly gave way to the smile that was forcing its way onto my face.

He smiled back. "Yeah. At least I was hoping it was."

"We'll just have to see."

I turned back to the TV screen and picked out a song to play. We took turns picking songs, and we usually took turns winning, too.

After six songs, he looked at the clock and knew the pizza would be there soon. "Okay. We're tied 3 to 3. We'll say this song decides the winner."

"You can choose this one. I wouldn't want to be unfair." I smiled at him, as I saw his competitive side take over for a minute, while he tried to decide on a song that he thought he could win. "How about this one?"

I didn't even bother looking at the screen to see what it was. I knew I could probably beat him. I had been holding back just a little before. "Works for me." Before the song started, I kicked off my shoes and stood up.

"Oooh... she's getting serious now!" he bantered as he stood up as well.

"Looks like I'm not the only one."

As the song started, we both concentrated our hardest to hit all the notes flying across the screen at what seemed like an impossible pace. I didn't have much trouble hitting most of the notes, even has he hit me with multiple power ups. I waited until the end of the song, when I had three power ups saved, and then I hit him with them, one after the other, about 15 seconds apart. I continued playing as he faltered on most of the notes. I got one more power up and hit him with it. His side of the screen started flashing before the song stopped abruptly. "Player One Wins!" I shouted, reading the screen as it announced my victory. "Bow down before me, humbled one!"

I was joking, but he did just that. He got down on his knees in front of me and playfully bowed his head. "You are the Guitar Hero Master, my queen."

Just as I was about to touch his shoulders in a mock-knighting, he grabbed my legs and pulled me closer to him. His chin rested just above my panty line as he looked up at me.

I gasped quietly, unaware of what he was going to do. He quickly released his hold on me as he smoothly rocked back on his feet and stood up. He bowed slightly once again. He looked back into my eyes. "Until next time," he said with a smile.

I smiled back. "Yeah right. You know you can't beat me."

Just then there was a knock at the door. Brandon answered it. He grabbed the pizza and paid the delivery guy. "Keep the change," he said as he quickly shut the door.

"Time to eat!" he said as he carried the pizza into the kitchen and grabbed a couple plates from the cabinet. "Do you want to go ahead and put in the movie?"

Thinking about it, I wanted to prolong the night as much as possible. "Nah. Let's take advantage of that gorgeous table your mom picked out. We'll start the movie after we eat."

"Okay. It's probably good to get some use out of it. I think this will be the first time in about six months it's had any company." He walked over to the table with two plates as I was pulling out one of the chairs. He pulled out the chair next to mine and sat down.

I took a bite of the pizza and realized I didn't have anything to drink. "Do you have any water?"

"Oh, yeah. Sorry. I'll get it." He got up quickly and walked back into the kitchen. I heard the ice and water dispenser running, and then he returned with two glasses of water.

"Thanks."

"My pleasure." He smiled, knowing how I loved to make fun of him for overusing that phrase.

As we ate, we made small talk about nothing in particular. We made sure to stay away form touchy subjects like religion, politics, and of course, sex. After we were both stuffed, we went back to sit down on the couch. Again, he had sat down with a cushion in between us.

Without giving him a chance to argue, I stood up and grabbed the movie to put it in.

"I can get that," he said as he started to stand.

"I got it. See?" I lifted up my feet behind me one at a time. "Two feet."

After I put in the movie, I set the case back down on the coffee table and sat down on the couch, this time only leaving about half a cushion in between us.

We waited for a couple seconds, and when the movie loaded and came on, it was way too loud, probably from when we were playing Guitar Hero. "Ahh!"

"I got it!" he shouted over the loud noise. He stood up and got the remote off the entertainment stand, immediately turning the volume down before coming back over to the couch. This time when he sat down, he was right next to me. I felt his muscular leg pushing against mine. I was surprised at the strong feelings I got from just his leg touching my own. I probably could have jumped him right then, but of course, I didn't.

"Do you mind watching the previews?" His voice shook me out of my daydream.

"Oh. No. I always watch the previews. How else are you going to know what other movies to watch?"

He smiled. Apparently he liked my answer.

We watched the previews mostly in silence, until a preview for some cheesy horror flick came on. It was one of those that wasn't even scary because of how unrealistic it was. "I don't know what it is about those kinds of movies, but I love them."

He turned to look at me as I spoke. "Me too," he said.

When he started the movie, I realized how comfortable I was with him. I was having a great time. And for the first time since my messy break-up, I really felt like I deserved to have a good time. It felt really good to just let myself go.

He stood up suddenly, and I looked at him with a confused look on my face. Had I done something wrong? Apparently he could read my expression. "Just getting the Reese's Pieces." He smiled as he sat back down right next to me again. I was so glad he seemed comfortable being this close to me.

"Want some?" he said as he laid his arm on my lap.

"Not yet. Thanks though." Then he removed his arm from my lap. I should have said yes, I thought.

The beginning of the movie didn't take long, before it got into the action of it. Within the first 30 minutes of the movie, people had been shot, blown up, and hit by cars. I was enjoying the movie so much, that I hadn't realized we hadn't said anything to each other in quite a while.

Just then, he lifted his arm from his lap and laid it across my shoulders, pulling me slightly closer to him. I was in heaven. My eyes were still pointing toward the TV, but I wasn't watching the movie anymore. All I could think about was how good it felt to have his skin against mine.

After a few minutes of not moving at all, I snuggled in closer to him and rested my head on his muscular shoulder. "Are you cold?" he asked.

"A little," I replied.

He pulled his arm away from me and stood up to walk away. I could still feel the heat from his body on mine, and I wanted it back.

He quickly returned with a blanket and draped it over me before returning to his seat.

"Do you want to share?" I asked calmly, but in my mind, I was begging him to put his arm back around me.

"Sure." He lifted the blanket up so he could slide under with me, and to my relief, he returned his arm to its rightful place around my shoulders. I moved as close to him as I could, without actually sitting on his lap. Being this close to him, I noticed he smelled wonderful. It wasn't really the smell of cologne, just soap, but it smelled masculine and sexy. I decided that was my favorite smell.

Just as the movie was reaching a peak, I realized that I had to go pee, and I knew I would be uncomfortable if I held it. I wanted to be able to enjoy the feeling of his arm around me. I tore my body away from him, and as I did, he looked over at me. "I have to use the little girls room," I explained.

I got up and walked into the bathroom just off the hallway. After I relieved myself, I stood in front of the mirror hanging on the door. Again, I admired my newly toned physique, but I wondered what it was that he saw in me. He was absolutely gorgeous. He could get any woman he wanted. I didn't understand it, but I was glad all at the same time.

I quickly washed my hands and hurried back into the living room. He was holding the blanket up for me to slide into my spot.

After I snuggled up to him again, I pressed my hands against his arm that wasn't around me. "My hands are cold."

He winced slightly at the surprise of my cold hands against his hot skin. "We'll have to fix that." He pulled the blanket back, and pulled the bottom of his shirt away from his stomach. I realized he wanted me to warm my hands against his skin, so I slowly wrapped my arms around him, pressing my cold hands against his warm, smooth skin.

He winced again, but this time overdramatically. Then he smiled. "Just kidding," he said. He pulled the blanket back over both of us, and we resumed the movie.

As the movie played, I became more confident with my hands. First, I started moving the hand that was on his back, slowly dragging my fingertips across his skin. When I was sure he wasn't uncomfortable with that movement, I slowly moved my hand on his stomach up to his chest. I could feel small amount of hair on his chest. So sexy, I thought to myself. My fingers played with the small amount of hair on his chest, occasionally dipping back down to his stomach.

It felt so natural, that I barely realized he wasn't moving, until he did. With his free hand, he ran his fingers up my arm that was in front of him, then back down again. We kept up this motion throughout the rest of the movie.

When the movie was over, and the ending credits were rolling, we still kept up the same motions. I didn't want this moment to end, and I was pretty sure he didn't want it to either. After the ending credits were over, and the DVD returned to the menu screen, he ran his fingers up my arm again, but this time he didn't stop and go back down. He carefully traced his fingers up to my shoulder, across my collarbone, then up my neck, until his hand rested lightly on my cheek. I felt him shift his head to look down at me.

After I took a deep breath, I looked up at him to return his gaze. I wanted so bad to lift my head to his and kiss him, but I held back.

Finally, he broke the silence with the words that were so unexpected, but so wanted, "Can I kiss you?"

I'm sure looked like a deer in the headlights. Of course I wanted to kiss him. Actually, I wanted to rip his clothes off of him and mount him right there! After a few seconds of thinking, I realized I was holding my breath. I exhaled, and then said, "Of course."

He stayed completely still for what seemed like an eternity, just staring into my eyes. I was so nervous with anticipation, I'm sure I was shaking. Slowly, he started moving his face closer to mine. When he was close enough that I could feel the tickle of his neatly trimmed goatee on my chin, I closed my eyes.

When our lips finally touched, I could feel the heat coming from inside his mouth. He slowly puckered his lips slightly and gave me a gentle and sweet kiss. As he slowly pulled back, I opened my eyes. I looked down at his lips before reaching my hand up to his head. I pushed him into me, and our lips met again. This kiss was soft, warm, and thankfully longer. We kissed softly a couple times, and then I felt his slick tongue sliding across my bottom lip. I opened my mouth slightly to nibble lightly on his lip. His tongue finally gained access to the inside of my mouth, and it entangled with mine. As the kiss progressed, it became more passionate, but it stayed soft and tender.