“That’s a skill?”
He kissed my lips again.
“It is when you look like that.” I gestured at all of him. “Those jeans. That shirt. The whole ‘I’m spontaneous now’ energy.”
“You like the jeans?”
“Fuck me, Chase. Your ass looks like it should start for the Lightning next game. It could defend the net all by itself.”
He chuckled. “Just my ass? I don’t think they make pads for that.”
“Idiot,” I said, though his mouth smothered whatever else I might say.
“Good.” He kissed me again, softer this time. It was the kind of sweet kiss that wasn’t trying to go anywhere. It just existed for the sake of existing. It stole my breath and lingered in the most amazing way.
When we broke apart, Chase’s hair was a mess. I’d done that and was proud of my handiwork. His lips were slightly swollen. I’d also done that. I was on a roll.
For one glorious moment, he looked nothing like the exhausted lawyer who’d stumbled into my bar with papers everywhere and stress written all over his face.
He looked at ease.
No, he lookedhappy.
“We’re making out in an alley,” I pointed out.
“I noticed.”
“In Ybor, where anyone could see us.”
“Is that a problem?”
“No. But it’s very . . . unlike Mr. I-Work-Every-Saturday.”
“Maybe I’m trying something new.” His hands moved from my hips to my face, cupping my jaw. “You make me want to try new things.”
My inner twelve-year-old passed out. Right there on an imaginary tumbling mat, he fell over and didn’t move again. At least he had a grin on his lips.
We stood there for a moment, breathing each other’s air, his hands moving up and down my sides as though he wanted to memorize my curves. My fingers found their way into his bird’s nest of hair. Neither of us felt quite ready to move.
“So,” Chase said. “My apartment would be a lot more comfortable than Ybor’s streets or that wall.”
My brain short-circuited again.
Was he asking me to go home with him?
C’mon, Finny Boy, say something, something intelligent, something that doesn’t make you sound like a complete disaster.
“Why aren’t we there already?” I said.
Chase’s laugh was low and warm and sent a shiver down my spine that had nothing to do with the cold brick poking into my back.
Chapter 25
Finn
“It’s just a rental, but I love it.” Chase ran a hand through his hair, almost apologetically, as we crossed an empty street and approached a white house next to a barren lot.
Chase’s rental was a three-story brick townhouse tucked on a quiet side street, the kind of place that screamed,I’m a young professional who can afford nice things but doesn’t own property yet.The exterior was modern, looking almost like giant white blocks set atop one another at odd angles. Despite the designed disorder of the “blocks,” the place had crisp lines and massive floor-to-ceiling windows that glowed warm from the inside. It wasn’t ostentatious, but it was nicer than anything I could afford.
