other's bodies.
He was warm and hard, just the way I remembered, and I loved the feel of his hands on my back, in my hair, over my shoulders, on my ass, and everywhere in-between.
When he reached between us and stroked my clit, I thought I was going to climax right then and there. But more than anything, I wanted him inside me.
Beyond eager now, I rolled over on top of him and sat up to straddle his hips.
I paused for a long, dreamlike moment to gaze down at him – the guy I loved, the guy I'd been longing for, the guy I'd been missing so very much over the past few days.
As Chase gazed up at me, he whispered, "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."
His words warmed my heart. "Funny, I was thinking the same thing about you." I smiled. "And you know what?"
"What?"
"This." I reached down to guide his erection to my slick opening. And then, slowly, deliberately, I lowered my hips, loving the sound of satisfaction that drifted from Chase as I took more and more of him inside me.
My eyelids fluttered shut at the sheer size of him, filling me so deep that I thought I might have to stop. But I couldn’t. I didn't want to. I wanted all of him inside me, now.
When our hips finally met, I gave a sigh of pure bliss, and took a long moment to savor the fullness, the closeness, and sweetness of something more wonderful than I'd ever known.
I leaned down and once again pressed my lips to his, kissing him with all of the hunger I'd been storing for who-knows-how long, even as our hips moved, and our hands wandered.
It was like both of us couldn’t seem to get enough. We rolled over onto our sides, never breaking our rhythm as we continued to kiss, to fondle, to caress, and to savor all of the sensations that both of us had been missing.
Already, I was feeling the pressure building inside me, longing for that sweet release. And yet, almost by silent agreement, our rhythm began to slow. We stopped kissing, and our hands grew motionless as we gazed into each other's eyes.
What I saw in his would've taken my breath away, if only I weren't so breathless already.
And then, as we tipped over the edge of oblivion, my body convulsed and so did his. I savored the sound of him and the feel of him as his body became a rigid mass of pure granite, before, he too, found his full release.
Afterward, we held each other for a long moment until our pulses slowed and our breathing returned to something like normal.
We were still lying side-by-side, and I pressed my forehead to his. With my sweetest smile, I said, "Hi, I'm Mina Lipinski, and I'd like to buy you a coffee."
Chase was silent for a long moment before a slow grin spread across his face. And then, all of a sudden, he grabbed me tight and rolled me over onto my back, with him on top of me.
"Forget the coffee," he teased. "You know what I want?"
"What?"
He winked. "The girl who offered it."
At this, I couldn't help but laugh, especially when I considered that he didn't have to want, because he already had me.
And I had him.
Talk about lucky.
And I had a good feeling about us, too. Correction – a great feeling, which only got better as the days turned to weeks, and the weeks turned to months.
Almost before I knew it, a whole year had passed, and there we were, repeating history in a different way.
Chapter 78
Mina
One Year Later
It was the first night of the Tomato Festival, and Chase and I were walking hand-in-hand down the festival midway.
As we waded our way through the crowd, I looked to him and said, "Can you believe it's a been a whole year?"
He smiled. "A year since when?"
I gave him a playful bump to the hip. "You know when."
With a long, amused glance, he said, "So, you mean the whole 'I love you' thing?"
I almost rolled my eyes. For someone who'd taken a long while to confess his feelings, Chase had made up for it and then some by telling me those three magical words at least once a day, and often multiple times a day, during the past year.
And what a year it had been.
After the amazing success of last year's festival campaign, Blast Tools – or should I say Chase Blastoviak – had decided to