“Sierra.”

Someone nudges my arm and says my name again. I think. Maybe? Or am I dreaming. I’m tired and don’t want to get up. I’m warm and comfy laying on the couch with Chase’s body spooned around mine.

My eyes fly open.

Chase is with me.

I’m nuzzled up next to him, with my ass pressed firmly against his cock.

And it feels good.

“Sierra,” he says again, reaching over me and picking my phone up from the coffee table. “An alert for your security system just went off.”

“Huh? I don’t…I didn’t hear…” I blink and slowly push up. My brain is all hazy with sleep. I take the phone from him and squint in the dark. It wasn’t dark when I fell asleep. Chase sat with me, gently running his hand through my hair as he read. Falling asleep while he read probably made this the most boring first date in the history of dates, but there was something so nice about it. So comfortable.

I want to do it again.

I want this to be a routine.

I want more of Chase Henson.

“It’s my parents’ house.” I unlock my phone to see what’s going on. “They’re out of town and set it up for me to get the alerts. It’s probably just Marley setting off the motion detectors again. He does that a lot at night.”

“Marley? Is he the family ghost or something?”

I raise an eyebrow and look away from my phone at Chase. “He’s a parrot. The ghost is too sophisticated to set off the alarm. Plus, it stays in the attic.”

“You really have a ghost in the—never mind. So everything is okay over there?”

“Probably,” I say, seeing the cause of the alarm. “The motion sensor in the sunroom picked something up, and that’s where his cage is. He either threw something out of his cage or he got—shit.”

My phone buzzes in my hand and I reluctantly answer, talking to the person from the alarm system company. I give them the proper passwords and things seem okay, and then I tell them not to alert my parents—the homeowners—because they are out of town. Suddenly, I lose my credibility and the cops are on their way.

I rub my forehead and look at Chase. I don’t have a chance to say it before he disagrees.

“You’re still not a basket case.”

“That’s debatable,” I mumble and get up, missing the feel of his body against mine immediately. “I’m a boring, lame, basket case.”

“At least you’re good-looking,” he jokes. “Do you have to go to the house?”

“Yeah. I should check if Marley got out or not anyway.”

“Let me come with. In case it’s not the bird and it’s something else. Those chupacabras can be rather unpredictable, you know.”

“Ah, right. I do need a big, strong man to protect me.”

Chase is behind me, arms wrapping around my waist. I melt against him, eyes closing. I want to go back to the couch, but this time, instead of him being next to me, I want him on me. Kissing me. Touching me. Pushing inside me.

His lips brush the skin on my neck, and my body reacts. Goose bumps break out along my flesh, and heat bubbles in my stomach, spreading down between my legs. I twist in his arms and he kisses me. Hard. Desire explodes inside me and his lips against mine aren’t enough. I grab the hem of his shirt and yank it up. Chase raises his arms, letting the shirt slip off easily.

We melt into each other again. Chase gathers my hair in his hand and pulls it to the side, mouth going to my neck. He sucks and kisses, and a moan escapes my lips. My hands explore his back, feeling every pound of muscle beneath my fingers.

And then I feel something else. A little mound of scar tissue and I remember the mark I saw on his back this morning. I run my finger over it, distantly wondering what happened, but more focused on what’s currently happening.

Yearning.

Warmth.

A growing need to feel every single hard inch of this man.

We fall back onto the couch, with Chase on top of me. I widen my legs, welcoming him in between. Want swells inside of me, turning desperate with each kiss Chase gives. He sits up, tearing his mouth away from mine, and gathers my dress up around my waist. And then he stops.

“I see flashing lights,” he pants. “Through the trees.”

“Crap. The cops are almost here then.” I put my hands on his chest, admiring the tattoos. “I lost track of time.”

“Yeah, it did kind of slip away.”

He’s still on top of me. I’m still tracing the black lines of his tattoos, following the curves of a sun that’s inked onto his flesh. I slide my hands up and over his shoulders, bringing him back down to me. “We should go.”

“Yeah,” he whispers, putting his lips to mine. “We should.”

I’m lying down, but the world is spinning around me. I’ve never felt like this before. So damn attracted to someone. Hardly able to control myself. Desperate for more.

In the first time in over a year, I’m feeling something other than numbness and pain. I’m alive again, and living feels good.

Having more control than me, Chase gets up and picks his shirt up off the floor, turning it right-side out and putting it on. I smooth out my dress, fish my keys from my purse, and put my shoes on. We get into my car and speed down the gravel drive, coming to a stop just in time for the police to turn off the private road and onto my parents’ driveway.

Chase and I wait by the front door. The police car stops and I recognize Rob before he’s fully out of the car.

“Hey, Sierra,” he says, eyes going to Chase. Trying to suppress a smile, he gives me a small nod of approval and comes around the car. His partner, a younger man whose name escapes me, stands outside the car, looking at my parents’ house in awe. It is impressive when seeing it up close for the first time. I take the ostentatious curb appeal for granted. It’s just home to me.

“Did the security people talk to you?” I ask, turning to unlock the door.

“Yeah. They said a motion sensor picked up movement. Is it Marley again?”

“I think so.” I open the door and step in, sliding my hand up and down the wall to find the switch for the chandelier that hangs above us in the two-story foyer. “Come on in and have a look. None of the other motion sensors picked up anything, so it has to be Marley or someone’s been hiding in the sunroom for hours and finally decided to get up and stretch their legs.”

Rob laughs. “That sounds like the most likely cause.”

“I knew it.” I shut the door and take my shoes off out of habit. My mom would throw a fit seeing Rob and his partner walk into the foyer with their shoes on, but I’m not asking them to take them off. Chase, however, sees me take mine off and follows suit.

“Holy shit,” Rob’s partner mumbles, running his eyes up the sweeping staircase. I lead the way to the sunroom in the back of the house, turning on lights as I go.

“Marley?” I call, pausing in the threshold in the sunroom. His cage is open, and the extra clips my mom put on to keep him in, lay in pieces on the ground. “That bird is too smart for his own good.” I shake my head. “Well, we know who the culprit is. Unless the person who’s been hiding in here also took Marley with them. Which seems unlikely. So you guys can go.”

“You need help finding the bird?” Rob asks.

“Nah, he’ll turn up, but thanks.” I walk Rob and his partner out, closing the door behind them.

“How the hell are you going to find a bird in this big house?” Chase asks, eyeing the large foyer.

“Marley is an African Grey. He’s pretty big and if he’s not already in the kitchen trying to get into the pantry, I’ll make popcorn.”

“Popcorn?”

“He’s obsessed. But he can only have like one or two pieces at a time because it’s not good for him.”

We go back through the house and into the kitchen. Marley is sitting on the lip of the fruit bowl, working on an apple. He looks up when he sees us, ruffling his feather.

“Dead men. Dead men,” he squawks.

Chase looks at me, eyebrows pinched. “Did he just say what I think he said?”

“Yeah. I tried to teach him to say ‘dead men tell no tales’ from Pirates of the Caribbean but it was too long of a phrase. So now he just says ‘dead men’ when he sees me.”

Amused, Chase shakes his head. “That’s not creepy at all.”

I go to the counter, holding out my arm. Marley takes another chunk out of the apple and lands on my arm, walking up to my shoulder. He rubs his beak—sticky with apple juice—on my face. I gently stroke his feathers and grab his half-eaten apple.

“Come on, mister,” I say and turn. “It’s bedtime.” I put Marley back in his cage, give him the apple, and shut the sunroom doors. “I can disable that sensor,” I tell Chase, pointing to the little detector on the ceiling. “So if he gets out again, he’ll be confined to this room and won’t set off the alarm again.”

“Good idea.”

“Thanks for coming with me.”

“Sierra, you can stop thanking me.”

“Okay.” I smile like I do when I’m nervous, becoming suddenly aware of every sensation in my body. We head out after I close up the house, and the whole time I’m mentally going over what I should say to Chase because I know he’s going to ask me if I want him to stay.

I do.

I miss having someone next to me. I miss waking up with strong arms wrapped around me. I like not being alone. Saying that out loud will come off lame. Pathetic maybe. Part of me nags away, demanding I just come out and say it.

We get into my car and I haven’t said a word.

I drive as slow as I can, trying to muster up the courage.

I say nothing.

The car comes to a stop in my driveway. I look at the time before I shut it off. It’s three twenty-one in the morning. Three. Two. One. I can do this. I close my eyes.

“I guess I’ll head out,” Chase says.

Three. Two. One.

I open my eyes, looking right at Chase. Moonlight dances across his handsome face, casting shadows on his stubble-covered jaw. I remember the texture of his scar under my finger, the way he felt pressed up against me.

Three…two…one. “Stay.”

His hazel eyes lighten. “Okay.”

He takes my hand as we walk to the front door, but he pauses before we go inside. Sure he’s going to tell me he changed his mind, that he’d rather go home and do anything else than sit around being bored with me, I yank my hand from his, closing off my heart before the hurt has a chance to hit.

“I like that most houses here have porches,” he says quietly. Thrown from him saying the last thing I expected, I open my mouth, gaping for a second before gaining back the ability to say coherent words. “The historic ones at least.”

I blink, brought back to earth when mosquitos swarm around my face. “The porches helped keep the houses cool,” I ramble. “That way they could open the windows for the fresh air without the sunlight coming right in.”

“Makes sense.”

“The back porch is better. It’s screened in, which obviously wasn’t original to the house. But it keeps the bugs away and you can hear the river better in the back of the house. Sometimes, when I can’t sleep, I go out there, lay in the hammock, and just stare into the woods and wish…and wish…”

“You could vanish—in one sense or another—and just simply exist amongst the trees.”

My heart is in my throat. I swallow hard, pushing it down. “Yes.”

“It would feel free.” A chill comes over me. Chase steps in and wraps me in his arms. More bugs buzz around, and Chase waves them away. He slips his hands down my back, stopping on my ass, giving my cheeks a squeeze as he pushes me into him. His mouth goes to my neck. My eyes flutter shut and a soft moan leaves my lips. He brings my dress up, and the rough skin on the palm of his hand rubs over my exposed backside. He pushes his hand down, slipping between my legs. A jolt goes through me from his electric touch.

And then I think of Jake.

“Chase,” I murmur, moving away.

“Did I do something wrong?”

“God, no.” I turn my head, needing to look away. “It’s just…I think we should wait. I’m, uh, not sure if I’m ready.”

“Okay. I respect your morals.”

“It’s not about morals. I haven’t been with anyone since Jake died. I want to make sure I’m ready, for your sake.”

“My sake?” he asks as if someone doing something for his sake is completely foreign. I don’t know how to say it without sounding stupid. I’m already getting more and more uncomfortable as each second ticks by. I don’t to be hit with guilt while he’s inside me. I want to enjoy sex with Chase—fully enjoy it. And I want him to enjoy it too.

Sensing my discomfort, he moves my hair out of my face and kisses me. “Let’s go inside. The mosquitos are eating me alive and I had to put Unbroken down after a cliffhanger ending of a chapter.”

My heart swells in my chest, and I smile at Chase. “It’s good, isn’t it?”

“Very.”

We go inside, grab blankets, pillows, and the book, then go onto the back porch and into the hammock. Chase puts his arms around me, and I rest my head against his chest, listening to his heart beating.

“I’m sorry if this isn’t how you thought your night would go.”

“Don’t be sorry. I rarely have expectations for anything, either. I didn’t think ahead on tonight. As long as I’m with you, I’m happy.”

* * *

“So Rob told me something interesting,” Lisa comments as soon as she sees me.

“Marley set off the alarm last night?” I suggest, peering over the top of my sunglasses.

“Hah. Hilarious.” She takes off her shoes and sits on the edge of the pool to stick her feet in. I came over to my parents’ to take care of Marley after Chase left, and decided to stay and lounge around on a giant inflatable pink flamingo floaty. “But yeah, he did mention that. You know what I’m talking about and oh my fucking God why didn’t you call me and tell me you slept with Chase.”

“Because I didn’t sleep with him.”

Lisa narrows her eyes, holding her hand to her forehead to shield the sun. “You can’t get out of this one, Si. Rob saw you guys together last night at three am.”

“Chase was with me,” I start and stick my arm in the water, paddling over to Lisa. “He stayed the night with me. But we didn’t have sex.”

“Oh my God. Do not fucking tell me you friend-zoned him.”

“I didn’t. I slow-zoned him a bit though.”

“What do you mean?”

I get closer to the edge of the pool and Lisa catches the neck of the flamingo with her foot, pulling me over.

“Honestly, I’m afraid I’m going to think about Jake when I’m with Chase. And I don’t want that. And then I feel guilty for feeling that way.”

“Oh.” Lisa’s face softens. “That makes sense. How did Chase handle the news that he wasn’t getting past first base?”

“He was fine with it. And we did get past first.”

“You minx,” she teases.

“I’m very attracted to him. Stopping was hard for me too.”

“Not as hard as it was for him, right?”

“It was hard. And big. Like an anaconda in his pants,” I say as seriously as I can.

Lisa snorts a laugh. “Charm that snake, Si. Charm it real good.”

Now I’m laughing. “We are going out to dinner tonight. Kind of. At four. Maybe that’s a late lunch?”

“Why the weird time?”

“He’s working at The Mill House tonight.”

“Oh, that stinks.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “But I did tell him to come over after work if he doesn’t get out too late.”

Lisa wiggles her eyebrows. “His trouser-snake is going to be hungry. Feed it so it doesn’t bite.”

“Maybe I want it to bite.” I smile and lay back on the floaty. Then my phone rings and I shoot up.

“Expecting a call from Chase?” Lisa teases and grabs my phone that’s resting on a folded towel behind her. “It’s not. It’s your sister. Want me to decline the call?”

I make a face but shake my head. “No. I’ll answer. She’ll just keep calling until I do.”

I hop out of the pool, dry off my hands, and grab the phone.

“Hey, Sierra,” Sam says before I even say hi. “Are you busy?”

“Not really. Why?”

“Lily is having a difficult time with Sundance. He doesn’t want to go over the jumps. Her show is in a few days and she’s freaking out.”

“Really? She is?” My eight-year-old niece is rather laid back for having two type-A parents.

“Okay. I am. The damn horse keeps stopping as soon as he gets to the jump. She already fell off once.”

“Is she okay?”

“Yeah, it was as easy as a fall can be. Can you come help us? You’re better with horses than I am.”

Sam never admits anyone is better at her than anything. I put my phone on speaker and nudge Lisa.

“I didn’t hear you. Can you repeat that?”

“Can you come help us? You’re better at this than I am.”

“You need my help because I’m better?”

“Yes, Sierra. We all know you’re better with horses than me. Now will you please come help us?”

Lisa opens her mouth and puts her hand to her chest, faking shock. Silently laughing at her, I tell my sister I’ll meet her at the barn in a few minutes.

“I like seeing you like this.”

“Like what?”

Lisa smiles. “Happy. Whatever Chase is doing to you, make him keep doing it.”