Chapter 18

Chase

“Chase. You know how you asked me why I get with guys I’m not really into?”

I squint. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“No. You were right. It’s true. I do date guys I’m not that into.”

There’s something in her voice. And a little curve to the corner of her mouth. She’s serious, but she’s teasing, too.

I think my mouth falls open.

She bites her bottom lip. “Wanna help me break the habit?”

She’s crawling toward me on the couch, and holy fuck. My body starts to react long before she reaches me, blood surging in my veins, stiffening my cock. By the time she straddles me, one knee on either side, I’m swollen so hard it’s as much pain as pleasure.

“Yeah,” I tell her. Because, yeah.

“Mmm,” she says, rubbing herself against me. “Wow.”

That is the word every guy likes to hear in a situation like this. I cup her head and draw her mouth down to mine. Her lips are so soft, and she smells unbelievably good. I coax her open and explore her mouth with my tongue, savoring her slickness, her taste. I’m going down on this girl. Maybe not right this second, but only because I can’t stop kissing her, delving into her mouth, loving the slide of her tongue against mine and the clutch of her hands on my shoulders.

She breaks it off, and for a split second I’m afraid she’s going to freak out and call a halt again, but she just says, “About Kieran’s kissing.”

“Yeah?”

She sighs. “The whole time, I’m like Goldilocks. Too dry. Too wet. Too sloppy. Too restrained. Too scratchy. Too peckish. I can’t shut down my brain.”

I want to smile. Part of it is the image of her as Goldilocks, part of it is the word peckish, but mainly it’s the pleasure of hearing her admit what I’d guessed. But I don’t smile. Instead I say, cool as a cucumber, casual as can be, not displaying one iota of how important the question feels, “And when I kiss you?”

She closes her eyes, and her lips part.

Jesus Christ, I thought I was as hard as it was possible to be, but I guess not. “When you kiss me…”

I think I hold my breath.

“I can’t remember my own name.” She opens her eyes and lets me see the heat there.

“Oh, fuck,” I say, involuntarily.

That makes her smile. Just a slight turning up of the corners of her mouth, but it sweeps away the rest of my restraint.

I wrap her in my arms and pull her mouth to mine. Hers opens and softens against mine. She tastes like—

Her. A taste so familiar you’d think this was way more than our third kiss.

We kiss and kiss, my tongue finding hers and refusing to stop relishing its sweetness. Her body comes into line with mine, her nipples hardening against my chest like I imagined, my aching cock snugged between us. It’s not only my cock that aches. I ache all over, and I try to bring her closer and hold more of her as if that will help—but it only amps up my hunger, particularly because she is pressing back and wiggling against me like she’s trying to get closer too. Her fingers are plunged into my hair and she’s whimpering into my mouth. The effect on my body of those little sounds, humming against sensitive flesh, is electric.

She pulls at my T-shirt, sliding her hands under it. They’re warm and relentless, exploring me everywhere, her fingertips circling my nipples and sifting through my hair. She tries to get the T-shirt off. “Chase,” she groans.

Obviously we need to get ourselves behind a closed door as soon as humanly possible. I stand up with her still in my arms, her legs wrapped around my waist, where I feel like they belong. “Upstairs.”

I carry her up the stairs and down the hall, depositing her on my bed, which I—miraculously, luckily—made this morning. It looks terrific with her on it. Her lips are red, her cheeks flushed, her knees parted, her dress pushed up high enough that I can see the edge of her panties. I lean down, set my mouth there, and kiss along the hem of the dress.

I catch the scent of her arousal, rich and salty, and my dick throbs.

“Chase,” she murmurs as I push her hem higher, revealing a pair of barely there black lace panties.

“You know what you remind me of right now?”

She shakes her head, eyes wide.

“A present. A really sexy present. And you know what I want to do to you?”

Her eyes gleam. She’s into this, into me, which is such a turn-on. “What?”

“Unwrap you and fuck you.”

For a moment I think I’ve gone too far, but then she releases a breath that’s more moan than air, a moan I feel to the bottom of my soul.

“Please,” she whispers.