LA, what reason is there to stay here?”
You. “You’re right,” Chase’s heart broke a little at how confident she sounded. “Tana, can I steal you for a minute? I wanted to run something by you.”
He shook Pete’s hand, and he and Tana slipped out one of the side doors from the ballroom.
“What is it, Chase? Is something wrong?”
He stopped at a door halfway down the hall and opened it, then put an arm around her waist and pulled her onto a windowed alcove. It looked out over the ski hills, lit up for the night by the big floodlights, snow machines on, tossing man-made snow into the air in a glittering fall.
“This,” he said. “This is what I wanted to run by you.” He kissed her, hard, like he might never get another chance. Any kiss could be the last kiss, Chase knew. There was no denying it—he wanted more of the same. He wanted to stay close to her and he wanted her to know it.
But with her mouth on his and her body in that tight little dress, there was no dwelling on it. There was only action. He coaxed her lips open with his tongue and explored her. She tasted new all over again. Fresh. He could do this forever and never get tired of it. A stiff breeze hit the windows.
“Let’s go.” Chase took her face in his hands and looked down into her eyes. Her gorgeous, searching eyes. “My place or yours?”
“My place,” Tana said, her voice dropping a notch into a sexy purr.
They walked as quickly as they dared out to the parking lot, snagging their coats on the way. Chase paused to draw Tana’s over her shoulders, stealing a kiss as he did.
Tana groaned against his mouth. “Don’t do that,” she scolded. “Or I’m not going to make it home.”
“What would you do if you couldn’t make it home?” Chase felt desperate to know and desperate for more, but he shoved that feeling down.
“I’d get cold.” Her eyes shone. “But it would be worth it.”
Inside fifteen minutes, they were at Tana’s place. Chase finally got to peel off Tana’s dress, the way he’d always wanted to do. It was one thing to see a person shed a bunch of snow clothes. It was another to tug the smooth fabric of a dress over her hips and slowly expose the lacy underthings she’d worn beneath it, then pull it over her head and watch her hair tumble back down over her shoulders. He’d wanted to take that dress off from the moment she walked into the party. Inside twenty minutes, they were both naked, the covers of Tana’s bed a mess on the floor. And then Chase didn’t care what time it was. He was all over her, he was inside her, and nothing else mattered.
15
“Come to my place,” Chase whispered early on Saturday morning. Tana had turned over to find him in her bed, taking up most of the mattress. “I want you there.”
“Really?” Tana stretched her arms above her head and yawned. “You don’t want to stay here?”
He laughed. “I thought you’d like the hot tub.”
“I like being in the hot tub with you.” The one problem with Chase was that being around him excited her too much. Sleeping in wasn’t an option with his hard chest against her back. She just wanted to be closer to him. To talk to him. To do other things with him. “I like being in bed, too.”
“Then let’s not get out just yet.”
Tana rolled over, climbing on top of him for the kind of unhurried sex that was so rare she wanted to cry. Chase worked himself in and out of her like they had all the time in the world. She felt every movement, every ridge. She put her hands down onto his chest and braced herself there, rolling her hips in slow circles. His green eyes never left hers. She wanted to close her eyes, but it was so much more intimate watching him like this. Watching the way his body tensed with his impending orgasm, feeling the way his hands tightened on her hips.
Afterward, they climbed into the shower, laughing and making too many soap suds. Tana felt deliciously tired. “I have an idea.” She tipped her head back to rinse the conditioner out of her hair, and even with her eyes closed, she could feel Chase watching her. “Want to hear it?”
“I can’t wait to hear it.” Chase lifted his hands