too good to be true. “Say that again,” he whispered.
He felt her breathy laugh against his lips before she pulled back slightly, meeting his gaze. “You’re what I want, Chase.”
He brought his forehead down to hers again as a contentment he’d never known wrapped around him, nearly taking his breath away. Andie lifted her face, touching the tip of her nose to his as she gently stroked the back of his neck.
The emotions were coursing through him with alarming speed, none of them recognizable, but all of them powerful. He felt drunk, like something had taken over his body, bombarding him with waves of pleasure and satisfaction, and he never wanted to feel normal again.
He lifted his head then, looking at her, and she smiled up at him. He kept waiting for it to feel wrong, standing there with his friend’s ex in his arms, but the undeniable truth was, nothing in his life had ever felt this right.
“I can’t help it. I want this,” he said hoarsely, and she smiled, her hand still grazing the back of his neck.
“Then it’s yours.”
He brought his mouth back to hers, unable to fight his need to be touching her, and she wrapped her arms around him again, gently walking him farther back into the room as she continued to kiss him.
When he felt the backs of his knees hit the side of his bed, he froze, and with one more gentle nudge from Andie, his legs buckled as he sat back on the mattress.
Chase stared up at her, trying to read her expression. He wanted her more than anything. He wanted to feel her, adore her, finally make her his after all this time, but he didn’t want her to think she had to do this now.
“Andromeda,” he began, and her eyes fluttered closed.
“I love when you call me that,” she sighed, bringing her knees to the bed outside his thighs as she straddled his lap, and he brought his hands to her hips, looking up at her.
She looked down at him, a lock of hair falling in front of her eyes, and she bit her bottom lip before she smiled.
My God, he thought, this woman has no idea how sexy she is.
“Why do you look so nervous?” she teased softly. “This isn’t your first time, is it?”
“You know we don’t have to—” But his words were cut off with a groan as she lowered her weight onto his lap, providing the most amazing pressure. He dug his fingers into her hips, hoping too late that he wasn’t hurting her.
She looked down at him again, her expression now sweetly serious. “I want to,” she whispered. “I’ve wanted to for so long. But we don’t have to tonight if you think it’s a bad idea. I just want to be close to you.”
He released his hold on her hips, running his hands up the sides of her body, and she sighed, closing her eyes and arching toward him.
His jaw flexed as he took her in. Did she really think he would turn her down? Did she think he would ever deny her anything?
“Andie, I’ll give you anything you want.”
She opened her eyes and looked down at him. “I’m gonna fall in love with you,” she whispered.
As soon as the words left her mouth, there was the tiniest flicker of alarm in her expression, as if she shouldn’t have disclosed that information.
He wanted to answer. He wanted to take the fear out of her eyes. He wanted to tell her that he’d long beat her to it, that he was pretty sure he fell in love with her that day on Tybee Island, that every experience he’d had with her since then had only reinforced it.
But everything about this moment felt so delicate, so surreal; he was terrified that he’d say the wrong thing and shatter it. He didn’t want to rant incessantly with simple words that didn’t hold a candle to what he was feeling.
Instead he slid his hand behind her neck and pulled her down to him, running the tip of his tongue along the swell of her lip before he parted them, kissing her with every ounce of emotion he could muster, pouring every unspoken word into the kiss, telling her without words how she had managed to revive everything inside him that was good, showing her that he wanted her to fall in love with him, because he was already there.