So what about Maverick? I gesture vaguely behind me. “What about him? He went off into the woods with Veronica after you disappeared. They said they’re going to scout for lurkers, but…”
I saw the way that Maverick was looking at Veronica. When he thought no one was paying attention, there was something there. I’d call it desperation, but that doesn’t make sense. Still, it was similar to enough to how I catch Chase looking at me that I have no doubt in my mind what he’s doing with her right now since she definitely seemed open to it.
Just like I really, really want to find out how Chase tastes right now.
Too bad that I don’t think I’ll get the chance. Not the way a muscle jerks in his cheek as his face shadows over despitethe moonlight. “So I’m your second choice. Maverick is busy, so you’ll settle for me? That it?”
Is he fucking with me? He’s gotta be fucking with me. I mean, I knew he was jealous, but…
“Choice?” I echo. “Thereisno choice.”
Shit, Xandra. Wrong thing to say since he turns his head away from me while cursing under his breath.
Oh, no. I don’t like that one bit.
I move until I’ve closed the remaining gap between us. “I mean it, Chase. It’s just you.” I pause, then take one final step closer to him so that the back of my fingers brush against the erection that is right within my reach. “And that.”
I can’t tell if he wants to get away or give in and lean into my caress. It was a simple touch, a fleeting touch, but all Chase does is grate out, “It’s you. Right now…forever… it’s you. It’s only ever been a Holden for me. No one else.Never.”
I believe it.
He wants Hallie. He can’t have her, and I know that—as her twin—I’mhissecond choice.
And you know what? I can deal with that. Come tomorrow, I know I’ll regret everything that happens next, but like I said: tomorrow isn’t promised to anyone. For the moment, we have tonight.
I shift my position so that I’m standing directly in front of him though his head is still turned away from me. Then, in a throaty voice, I murmur, “Look at me, Chase.”
For a heartbeat, he refuses. My battered and bruised organ thuds, and I think that I read this… him and me… that I readusall fucking wrong. That I ruined whatever relationship we had by trying to turn it sexual without a bottle of whiskey between us.
That I betrayed my twin.
So I do what I always do when I can’t face something or someone. I get ready to walk away. Dropping my hand down tomy side, I start to go—but not before he reaches out, circling my wrist with his hand, tethering me to him almost as effectively as those handcuffs did before we cut the chain.
My head pops up to meet his gaze, and all I see is lust warring with need and a hint of trepidation as he whispers back, “I thought…”
“What? That I hated you?”
It’s his turn to swallow roughly before he jerks his head, a single nod.
My stomach goes tight. My fault. This is all my fault…
“No. Chase… if there’s one thing I need you to know, it’s this: I could never hate you.”
I mean that, too. I don’t know how to get him to believe me, but that much is at least true. I move back into him, tilting my face up, letting him see the honest answer written there.
The honest answer, and the offer to show him how much I do care for him.
“You didn’t have to come after me,” I tell Chase. “You did. For whatever reason you left the Grave… you’re here. You’ve got my back. Let me repay you.”
His expression turns puzzled. “Repay me? What do you?—”
Another brush of my fingers against his dick. It all but jumps into my hand.
“Oh.”
Yeah.Oh.
CHAPTER 24
