The Ex Factor - Erin McCarthy Page 0,17

thought it would be.”

Chance was resting back on his elbows and he couldn’t help himself. He leaned over and took her hand. He laced their fingers together while she looked at him in surprise.

“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice dripping with suspicion.

“Holding your hand.” It just felt right.

“I think the heat is getting to you.” She scoffed, but he noticed she didn’t pull away.

“Nah.” Chance sat up so that he could move his body alongside hers. Her skin was cool from the pond dunking, water trailing down her temple. As he stroked her hand, he felt goosebumps rise on her. “Jolene.”

She gave a shiver. “What?”

“Nothing.” Then he kissed her.

Four

Jolene had known Chance was going to kiss her. She’d been anticipating, expecting it. But nothing could entirely prepare her for the sensation of having that man’s lips on her mouth again. The feeling was familiar, yet it was entirely new. She sighed into him, wanting to just breathe him in, enjoy the feeling while she could. Her fingers rose to his cheek, to stroke the stubble of his beard. She opened her mouth for him and his tongue swept inside to tease at the tip of hers.

It wasn’t like the first kiss they’d shared, when Chance had leaned over while they were writing and taken her mouth hungrily, possessively. This was almost like a goodbye kiss. A kiss marked by regret, apology. Melancholy. Chance eased her back onto her sundress with a touch more gentle than any from him in recent memory. There were no roaming hands, no grinding. No anger, which had marred so many of their pre-breakup embraces. No words either. Just kissing. Good old fashioned make-out-in-her-teen-boyfriend’s-truck kissing. With soft sighs and swollen lips and the need to taste each other thoroughly. She wasn’t sure how long they would have kept at it, but Dolly decided to make the moment a threesome, coming over and resting her head on Jolene’s bare belly.

That made her laugh and Chance shook his head as they broke apart.

“Really, dog?”

“We should be thanking her,” Jolene said, sitting back up, her heart racing. That had been a mistake, because anger was easy enough to deal with, whereas tenderness was not. So much for sticking to her guns. Now she felt the horrible stirring of affection for Chance, which was the last thing she should be feeling. “You ready to go back? I’m hungry too.”

She expected Chance to say something about where that kiss might have been heading or call her out on doing a one-eighty, but he didn’t. He just stood up and held his hand out to her. She took it and he hauled her to her feet. Their hands slipped apart and her heart squeezed a little. She’d been expecting to be pissed off the majority of this trip, which was a great defensive mechanism, but she was feeling ridiculously sentimental. It was worrisome. Wasn’t she too young to want to stroll down memory lane and get as mushy as a marshmallow over a man who drove her nuts?

Yet she felt the urge to make Chance a sandwich and brush his hair back off his face. Which made her a complete lunatic. This was his fault for looking so damn cute and sexy with no shirt on.

“Yes, let’s eat,” he said. “And I want to shower the pond water off me.”

“I must look downright scary,” she said, touching her frizzy hair. She bent over to pick up her sundress. When she stood up again, she caught Chance looking at her ass.

“You look pretty damn good to me.”

“Pervert,” she said, automatically, even though his words actually pleased her. She was feeling a bit insecure about her love affair with cheesy grits and what it had done to her hips and backside. The bigger breasts weren’t a bad thing, but unfortunately, unless you used a surgeon, if you gained weight in your chest, you gained weight everywhere--and she certainly had. Personally, she kind of liked being a little curvy. But the camera added ten more pounds.

“What?” he protested. “I’m giving you a compliment.”

She stood up and faced him. “Uh huh.”

He tilted his head like he meant to kiss her again, but then suddenly he looked up at the sky and cursed. “Put your dress back on, Jolene.”

“What? What’s wrong?” She followed his gaze. There was a helicopter flying low. “Is that a traffic chopper?”

“What kind of traffic do you think there is here? Put your dress on. Actually this will be faster.” He