to leave, he couldn’t prevent a shit-eating grin from splitting his face. So his timing could be slightly better. It was what it was. He was going to take his woman home and use his tongue much more effectively.
When they hit the sidewalk, Jolene paused to fan herself. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes were glassy. “I don’t know what to say,” she said as they headed towards her truck. “I feel like we should talk about things.”
He didn’t want to talk. “What things?”
“Things. What we’re doing. Why we’re doing it.”
He wanted to just feel for tonight, not analyze and criticize and assess and plan. “Let’s not make this complicated. Let’s make this easy.” He stopped and looked at her. “You love me. I love you. We’re together. That’s it. Just let go, baby, let’s just enjoy it.”
“We did so much enjoying, we never got to talking and look where that got us.”
He didn’t want her to worry. “Then we can talk all day tomorrow. You tell me everything you ever wanted to say.” He cupped her cheek. God, she was so beautiful. “But tomorrow. Just give me tonight.”
There were suddenly tears in her eyes and he wasn’t sure if that was good or bad. All he knew was that seeing Jolene cry made him feel like he was a man who was willing to do anything on the face of the fucking earth to please her.
“I don’t want to fight,” she said.
“I don’t either, JoJo. I’m damn sure it is better to fight for each other, then to fight with each other. I want to fight for us.”
Her eyelashes swept down over her cheeks and her expression softened. “Sometimes, Chance Rivers, you have the soul of a poet.”
That hit him hard. He had never felt this way about a woman. She made him feel… worthy. “You flatter me, darlin’.”
“You do all kinds of things to me.”
Someone bumped into Chance and he suddenly realized there was a group of people outside the front door smoking and giving them curious stares. “Let’s go home.”
The desire on her face then instantly gave him a hard on. He wanted to take her against the wall the minute they stumbled through the front door.
It wasn’t a long ride, just ten minutes, but every one of them felt painful and endless. Jolene was humming a tune under her breath along with the radio and Dolly was panting in his ear, wedged between the two front seats, totally unaware of how unwelcome her presence was at the moment. He couldn’t complain though since he was the one who had insisted Dolly join them on this trip in the first place.
The house was a rental. The house he’d bought five years ago currently had renters living in it, because he had moved into Jolene’s house the previous winter. It had seemed like a wise financial decision, until he’d found himself homeless after their breakup. After a week in a hotel, he’d randomly picked a place off the Internet and had moved in quickly. Jolene had never been there, and he still had boxes lying around in every room. He hadn’t hung a single picture on the wall or bought any new furniture. It was a place to rest his head at the end of the night, nothing more.
There was however, one thing he had prominently displayed on the fireplace mantle.
Their Song of the Year Grammy.
It was the first thing she noticed when he led her into the house, hand in hand, her curious gaze searching the room.
“Nice décor,” she said, amusement in her voice. “Boxes and guitars and an award propped on the fireplace. Our award.”
He deserved that. “I told you I was sorry for lifting it. But I shipped that one back to you. This was always mine.” He pulled her up against his chest. He nuzzled her ear, loving the way she shivered at his touch. “I would like to state for the record that cuddling with a Grammy isn’t nearly as fun as cuddling with you.”
Jolene put her arms around his neck. “You can cuddle me hard all night, Rivers.”
“How about I start at the top and work my way down?” He loved the way she smelled, so fresh and sweet, and how soft her skin was. He wanted to explore her slowly, thoroughly, despite the overwhelming urge he had to take her against the wall. She loved him. Him. She saw through him or around him or deep inside of him and