Blitz (Blast Brothers #3) - Sabrina Stark Page 0,81

he'd driven me home.

As another mile passed in silence, I recalled something he'd said at his condo. You do know life has no guarantees, right?

Boy, if that wasn't true.

I heard myself say, "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"Earlier, in the restaurant, before Angelique came in, you were about to tell me something. Do you remember what it was?"

With a smile in his voice, he replied, "Maybe."

I wasn't sure why he'd be smiling, but the sound of it lightened my heart. With a nervous laugh, I said, "What do you mean maybe? Do you mean maybe you remember? Or maybe you'll tell me?"

"Oh, I'll tell you," he said. "But it's gonna cost you."

I was suddenly intrigued. "Oh, yeah? What?"

"That's up to you."

Now, I couldn't help but smile, too. "Okay…what is it that you want?"

"You know what I want."

Actually, I didn't, not for sure. "You don't mean…that you're still open to having a relationship? With me, I mean."

"That depends."

My stomach gave a nervous flutter. "On what?"

"Here's the thing," he said. "If we're together, you can't play the field. No other guys. You know that, right?"

I scoffed, "Very funny."

"No. I'm dead serious," he said in a voice that suggested otherwise. "I mean, you're a former beauty queen, right? I've heard stories."

"Oh, please," I laughed. "First of all, I was a runner up for a small hometown festival. And I wouldn't have competed at all if it weren't a family tradition. I mean, it's not like I tried out for Corn Queen or anything."

"What, you've got something against corn?"

"No. I love corn. And I love the Corn Festival. But it's not a family tradition, you know?"

He was silent for a long moment. And finally, when he did reply, his voice was quiet in the shadows. "No. I don't know." He gave me a long sideways glance. "You want the truth?"

"Sure."

"My family had no traditions."

"Oh, come on," I protested. "That can't be true."

"No joke," he said. "My parents – they weren't the type."

I couldn’t even imagine. In my family, we had a ton of traditions, and not all of them centered around the Tomato Festival. We had traditions for Christmas and Easter, and even St. Paddy's Day. And we had plenty of non-holiday traditions, too.

If Chase was telling the truth – and it sounded like he was – he had definitely been missing out. I hated that. With sudden inspiration, I said, "You know what you should do?"

"What?"

I turned in my seat to face him. "You should make new traditions of your own."

He smiled softly in profile. "Hard to do when I can't get a nice girl to take me seriously."

If he meant me, I was taking him seriously, probably more than he realized. Still, I hated to assume anything. "You mean me?"

"You see any other nice girl in my car?"

"Well, I don't know," I teased. "Didn't I hear some thumping in the trunk?"

"That wasn't in the trunk," he said. "It was in here." As I watched, he placed a hand over his heart and tapped at his chest to mimic a heartbeat.

It was so silly and romantic that I felt my eyes grow just a little misty. And in that moment, I made a decision – two decisions, actually.

First, I was going to take Chase up on his offer.

And second, I was going to shield my own heart as best I could.

But first things first. "Hey, would you mind pulling over?"

He gave me a worried glance. "Is something wrong? You feeling alright?"

His concern warmed my heart, and I couldn't help but smile. "I'll be feeling great if you kiss me."

He grinned. "Oh, yeah?" And just like that, the car slowed considerably. "So, what are we celebrating?"

I laughed. "How do you know it's a celebration?"

"Because if it's not," he said, "I'm gonna kiss you 'til you change your mind." And with that, he pulled the car over onto the dirt shoulder of the darkened country road. He cut the engine, leaned over the center console, and pressed his lips to mine.

My eyes fluttered shut, and my pulse jumped as our lips moved against each other in the quiet solitude of his car. His lips were warm and soft, and I nearly moaned into his mouth as I laced my fingers behind his neck and kissed him with all of the pent-up passion I'd been storing for who-knows-how-long.

He ended the kiss not by pulling away, but by trailing his lips close to my ear and saying in a low teasing tone, "To answer your question,