Brandon grew stiff next to me, and I knew this wasn’t the right time to bring up anything about my brother.
“I love that photo,” he added, before he took it out of my hands and placed it on the bedside table.
“You can keep it.”
“I wasn’t planning on giving it back.”
“You don’t need it as a reminder though. You have me. All you need to do is look at me and you’ll find that sparkle again. You did that for me. You gave it back to me.”
He grabbed me into a hug and buried his face into my neck. I loved when he did that.
“My forever. That’s what you are,” he said in a muffled voice against my skin.
“Promise?” I asked, running my nails across his scalp the way I knew he liked.
“Do you honestly think I’d ever let you go? You’re it for me, Harper Yates. Bloody hate your surname tho
ugh. We may need to do something about changing that soon. Mathers suits you better.”
“All in good time, big man,” I said, smiling and curling into him like a pet monkey. “We have all the time in the world.”
He pulled away and his face faltered slightly.
“Do we though? Have all the time, I mean? If there’s one thing we both know it’s that life is precious. It changes in an instant. I don’t want to wait around, Harper. I’m an impatient bastard. If I know what I want, I just take it. And I want you.”
“You’ve got me.” I kissed him and felt the heat between us start to rise again. Looked like Brandon’s bedroom slash sex den was going to be my new favourite place to hang out.
After another round of energetic, toe-curling sex that’d probably really pissed off the neighbours, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we couldn’t stay in bed forever, and put our clothes back on. Brandon held my hand and led me out onto the landing, and I felt torn, knowing I had to leave. I had stuff to do in the morning. But I didn’t want to go.
We started to walk down the stairs and then froze when we heard a croaky voice humming from the kitchen.
“I thought you said she’d gone out?” I whisper-yelled at him.
“I thought she had.”
We crept down the stairs, trying not to alert her to our presence, and partly because I was too embarrassed to face her, but that old woman could give a ninja a run for their money. I could see where Brandon got his stalker skills from.
“Leaving already?” she shouted out of the doorway as my foot hit the last step. “Mind you, sounds like you got what you came here for.”
I hit my forehead on Brandon’s back and let out a deep sigh. Great way to impress the family, Harper.
“Nan. Why aren’t you at the bingo?” Brandon asked sharply, turning around to take me in his arms.
I didn’t want to have to face his nan, but I had no choice. I needed to man-up.
“Bingo was cancelled this week. Something to do with the water pipes or some crap like that.” The clatter of cutlery and banging of cups told us she wasn’t happy.
“But I heard you go out.”
“I took the bins out.” She appeared at the doorway to the kitchen, clutching her bread knife a little too aggressively, and I flinched. “Don’t worry, dear. I had my headphones in as soon as I heard you two going at it upstairs.” My cheeks flamed with embarrassment. “I managed to get through three episodes of Sons of Anarchy too. So, it wasn’t a total waste of an evening.” She grinned to herself, patted Brandon on the shoulder like she was proud of him and hobbled down the corridor to her living room.
“I’m off now, Mrs Mathers. Thanks for having me,” I shouted down the dingy corridor.
“Next time bring some iced buns or maybe a Victoria sponge. It’ll go nicely with that cup of tea you never made me.”
I laughed at her cheekiness.
“Yeah, I’ll do that.”