“C’mere,” he said as he pumped foam from the dispenser into his hands.
Jade pressed her lathered breasts to his muscular chest, and his hard inches pressed against her flesh as his soapy hands slid down her back. When his fingers dipped into the top of her bikini bottoms, she wrapped her arms around him to keep her knees from buckling. His mouth came down on hers, and Jade thought she might be dreaming as surely nothing in real life could feel so incredible. Leaving her bikini in place, Chase slid his fingers out, and never breaking the kiss, he flattened his hands to her lower back.
In this man’s arms, Jade was quickly losing all sense of time and space. He turned her away from him and molded her back to his chest. His left arm snaked around her waist, and his left hand soaped her right breast. His right hand flattened over her belly button. Jade’s next breath stuck in her throat as Chase’s soapy hand slipped into the front of her bikini. Her knees finally buckled, and she would have fallen had he not been holding her up with one hand under her breasts and the other one between her legs.
“Mmm,” Jade moaned, or maybe that was a pout, as he pulled his hand out of her bikini.
His lathered caress ended, and she opened her eyes.
“Hell,” Chase grumbled, stepping out of the shower. His slightly rounded butt was as sexy-hot as the rest of him. He grabbed a towel and wrapped it low around his tapered waist.
“Come back here, Chase Cooper!”
“Not until you tell me the whole truth, Jade Taylor,” Chase said. “Don’t forget to rinse off.” He nodded at her foamy lower half and then placed a clean towel on the counter. With that, he sauntered out of the bathroom. “I’ll meet you at the staircase.”
Jade stood stunned for a moment and reminded herself Chase Cooper was a lot of man to handle. She stepped out of her bikini bottom and rinsed away the soap he’d gently lathered over the most private part of her anatomy. Her heart was still pounding so crazily, she placed her hand over it and took a deep breath. After turning off the shower, she searched around and found a hair dryer. Running Chase’s comb through her hair, she wasn’t sure what to tell him.
Being truthful was her nature. It was the reason she’d turned her phone off and left it at Chloe’s. That had kept the Spatafores from intruding on her escape and her from having to lie to them. But telling her bosses the truth could…no, would cost her dearly.
Now what? Chase Cooper had flipped her entire world upside down. Would the cost of her physical attraction to him be the loss of her career for the next two years? How would she pay back the moving expenses and sign-on bonuses if she didn’t have a job? Chase had said their talk wouldn’t be tonight. Good. Like Scarlett O’Hara, she’d think about it tomorrow.
“C’mon, buttercup,” came Chase’s voice from the great room. “We’ll watchGone with the Windin the home theater.”
Amazed at their mental connection, she called, “Hold your horses, cowboy!”
Jade had spied her tank top and panties on the cedar chest. She dashed into his bedroom and pulled them on. Hurrying into the great room, she saw Chase waiting for her at the bottom of the grand staircase. Holding a bottle of red wine and two glasses, he wore a tee shirt and boxers. Reaching him, she raised a brow in Scarlett fashion. Chase’s sexy grin was every bit as cocky and confident as Rhett Butler’s.
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
Monday morning, Chase woke to the sound of a text. He reached up and grabbed his cell phone off the back of the sofa in the home theater. The screen, which covered an entire wall, was dark, and other than the text, all was quiet. In the center of the shadowy room were eight leather recliners. Lining the back wall was this long, sectional sofa, and at opposite ends were sections the size of twin beds. He and Jade had fallen asleep together on a section against the wall. Lying on his back with a sofa pillow under his head, Chase was still clad in his tee shirt and boxers. Jade, in her tank top and silky panties, had a sofa pillow too. As he read the text, Jade’s right hand lay across the waistband of his boxers, and her right calf rested between his legs.
They had watched about half of the almost four-hour movie. They had not made love. His need to know the truth had kept him from stripping Jade in the cave shower, carrying her straight to bed, and making love to her all night. During the movie, they had talked some, kissed some, shared the wine, and touches were kept above the waist. He was the winner there.
He didn’t like games. He’d played them with other women, trying to guess what they wanted from him, from life, from themselves, and he wasn’t playing anymore. If Jade wanted games, it wouldn’t be with him. But damn, he felt that bond she’d talked about, with her and never with any other woman. He would answer any questions she had honestly. He needed her to be as truthful. Otherwise, he was done. That’s what he told himself. When he yawned and stretched, she stirred.
“Awake?” he asked.
“Half,” she said, opening one eye.
“Chloe wants us to come over for brunch since it’s your last day. She’s making Denver omelets and mimosas.”
“I’ve never had a Denver omelet or a mimosa.”
“You haven’t had a lot of the best things in life.”
“I want to.”
“I’ll text her that we’ll be there.”
With that, Chase rolled on top of her, told himself to keep moving, and stood up beside the sofa. Holding out his hand, she slipped her dainty one in it, and he tugged her off the sofa. They left the theater and went downstairs via the elevator.
“Where do you suppose my bra and shorts might be?” she asked, crossing the great room.
Chase laughed. “I kicked your shorts right about here,” he said and spied them sticking out from under a chair by the fireplace. He plucked them up and handed them to her. “I used your bra like a slingshot, so it’s somewhere on the second-floor balcony,” over their heads, he made a circular motion with his finger, “surrounding the great room.”
“Chase!” Jade fumed playfully. “That was my only bra!”
He grinned. “Lucky me.”
