“Finn?”
“Mmm?” He pressed his lips to mine.
“I think we’re moving.”
With a curse, he sat up so fast he bumped his head on the window. Scrambling back into the driver’s seat, he slammed his feet on the clutch and the brake and jammed the truck back into gear from where we’d pushed it into neutral with our fooling around. Just in time too, or we would have made someone’s compact car, parked directly in front of the truck, into a hood ornament.
Though I tried, I couldn’t stop the giggles that erupted at watching this big, strong man desperately trying to keep his truck from rolling into another car.
“Put on your seat belt, Chess. And text our friends we won’t be able to make it to Stromboli’s with them after all.”
“We won’t?”
“No. We’re finishing this conversation. In my bedroom.”
Chapter Thirty-Three
Finn
Back at thehouse, I locked the door behind us as I ushered Chessly into my room. This conversation required privacy.
“Now. Say it again.”
From the way she blinked up at me, I could tell she was stalling, maybe trying to pretend she didn’t know what I meant.
I tipped my hand to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear, letting my fingertip linger on her soft skin in the way that triggered her. “Say it again, Chess.”
“I love you, Finn. I don’t know how or when it happened, but seeing you walk out of the stadium with that girl who could have ruined your life, I figured out I didn’t want to lose you.” She covered my hand with hers, tugging my palm to her lips where she nuzzled a kiss in the center that shot straight to my dick. “Actually, I figured it out that day in the Union. It’s why I reacted the way I did.”
Slipping my arms around her, I hauled her up flush to my body. “Want to know when I started to fall in love with you?”
The smile that stretched across her face warmed every corner of my heart.
“At the bonfire.”
Her eyes rounded in shock.
“You were the hottest girl there, and you kept eye-fucking me. Even after our friends called you out for it—and you denied it—you kept doing it. If not for that shitty interruption from she-who-will-not-be-named, we would have started this relationship last fall.” I stole a little kiss and continued. “Our time apart was the worst time of my life. I don’t ever want to go through that again.”
I felt her body tremble and knew without her words she didn’t want to experience that again either.
“I love you, Chessly Clarke. I love you so much.”
“I love you, Finn McCabe.” Her grin turned wicked. “This is the part where we should show each other how much.”
Laughing, I picked her up and tossed her onto the bed where I pounced on her, flattening her to the mattress as I kissed us both stupid. When I let us up for air, I said, “Great idea. Glad we thought of it.”
A few minutes later, our clothes were scattered over the floor, and Chess was beneath me, gloriously naked as she scored her nails over my chest. Her eyes caught on my shoulder, and she ran a tentative touch over my skin. “Does it hurt?”
I glanced down at the bruise starting where Callahan had managed to get a step on me and blow past me on one play. No doubt he’d be rubbing that in at film tomorrow.
“It will feel all kinds of better if you kiss it.” I aimed for sincere, maybe a bit innocent.
The teasing in her eyes said I hadn’t pulled it off. Still, she leaned up and brushed a soft kiss over my owie.
Pointing at a spot on my chest, I said, “I think I have a bruise starting here too.”
A smirk tugged at the corner of her mouth before she blessed me with another soft kiss.
