Savannah’s stomach clenched. Heat curled low and deep, twisting around something she didn’t want to name.
"You were always with someone else, though." His voice dipped lower, his gaze dark, intense. "And not just anyone. Trevor."
She flinched. The name landed between them like a stone, heavy and unmovable.
"Trevor was…" She swallowed hard, shaking her head. "Safe. He was steady. He didn’t make me feel like I was losing control just by looking at me."
Chase’s expression darkened, his jaw flexing. "And I did?"
She let out a breath, unsteady. "You still do."
A slow exhale left him, his shoulders stiff. "Do you have any idea how fucking hard it was?" He dragged a hand through his hair, voice tight with something unspoken. "Watching you with him? Watching you smile at him the way I wanted you to smile at me?" His eyes burned into hers. "Knowing I couldn’t do a damn thing about it?"
Savannah’s grip tightened on the railing. "Then why didn’t you say something?"
He let out a short laugh, low and bitter. "Because you were happy. Or at least, I thought you were." His voice dropped, softer now, almost broken. "And if you were happy with him, what the fuck was I supposed to do?"
Her heart pounded. She thought of Trevor, of the easy way he loved her, of the stability he gave her. But then she thought of Chase. The way he made her feel everything too much, the way he lit something inside her that she never knew how to handle.
Trevor had always been safe.
Chase has always been wildfire.
And she had been too much of a coward to walk into the flames.
Chase took a step closer, his heat pressing into her skin, and it was instant—electric. Her breath stuttered, thighs pressing together on instinct.
"Tell me something." His voice was low, intimate, wrapping around her like a hand at her throat.
She swallowed hard. "What?"
He reached up, his fingers barely brushing against the side of her arm. It wasnothing. And it was everything. A shiver shot through her, heat pooling between her legs, her lips parting involuntarily.
"If I had kissed you back then—if I had grabbed you and just fucking kissed you—would you have let me?"
Her pulse slammed, her skin heating like he had set her on fire just by asking.
She should say no. Should tell him it wouldn’t have mattered. That she would have still chosen Trevor. That it wouldn’t have changed a damn thing.
But she didn’t.
Because they both knew it would’ve changed everything.
She exhaled shakily, fingers flexing against the wood. "I don’t know."
Something flickered in his eyes—something dark, something that made her toes curl inside her shoes.
"I do," he murmured.
A shiver ran down her spine, her body betraying her before she could think.
"Chase…" Her voice came out breathless, uneven.
"You’re shaking," he said, gaze dropping to her lips before flicking back up. "Tell me to back off, and I will."
She clenched her jaw, fighting the instinct to lean into him, to let this happen.
His fingers ghosted over her forearm, not quite touching, but she felt it everywhere. Every nerve in her body screamed at her to close the space, to let herself have this—just once.
