*
She should neverhave agreed to dance with Chase. Not the first time. Certainly not the next. Or any of the subsequent dances. God! Talk about a mistake. This was not helping her to forget what being with Chase had been like.
A—mazing. Oh, she was an idiot.
Tonight would not end with the two of them having wild, crazy sex. It couldn’t. So what was the problem with dancing with Chase?
There wasn’t one.
Realizing how good she was at rationalization, she glanced up at Chase. What she saw caused a kaleidoscope of butterflies in her stomach. He looked at her as if he wanted to eat her up. As if he remembered—exactly—what they’d done together. And wanted to do it again.
It would be a lot easier if she didn’t remember and want the same thing.
When the band took a break Chase led her outside. Away from the crowd, the noise, the lights. She should have resisted. She didn’t.
Late October in Central Texas brought cooler temperatures. In fact, tonight the weather was perfect. Cool and not a bit muggy. Chase held her hand as they walked until he came to a stop at a nearby building Chase said was once a carriage house.
“Why are we here?” she asked.
“I wanted to see what a carriage house looks like. They used to keep the horses and buggies here.” He opened the door and they walked in. A gleaming red Lamborghini sat in the first bay. “Wow,” Chase said reverently. “What an incredible car.”
“So this carriage house is actually a garage.”
He walked around the car, gazing admiringly at it. “Same thing. Earlier time.”
“Is that the only reason we came here?” she asked, amused at his expression of combined awe and lust.
Turning away from the car when he reached her side, he looked at her and smiled, slow and sexy. Cupped her cheek in his hand. The flesh of his palm and fingers was rough but the hand that moved from her cheek to her neck was oh, so gentle. “No. I brought you here because I wanted to do this.” He leaned down and looked into her eyes, his lips an inch away from hers. “God, you’re pretty.” He kissed her.
She kissed him back. She shouldn’t have but oh, damn, it felt wonderful to kiss him again. That day in her office—kissing him, coming so close to making love—had only whetted her appetite. As if it had needed whetting. He drew back a little and gazed into her eyes. Ella put her arms around his neck and pulled his head back down for another kiss. Never breaking the kiss, he boosted her up to sit on the car’s hood. She felt his hand on her thigh, where her dress had fallen open.
He groaned. “I’ve been wanting to do this all night. That slit has been killing me. Every time you moved I could see your legs. And imagine what was going on a little higher up.” He slid his hand up her leg and pushed her legs farther apart, stepping in between them. Caressing her thigh, his hand slid higher, slowly, until his fingers reached her panties.
Gazes locked, he slicked his fingers over her panties, moist now with her desire. “Do you want me to stop?” he grated out. His thumb grazed her clit through the panties and she thought her eyes would roll back in her head.
“No,” she whispered. “Don’t stop.” Her smarter side was hollering in her ear.Stop. This is stupid. You’re playing with fire.She ignored it. He kissed her again and his hand delved beneath the band of her panties to cup and caress her bare, damp flesh.
“Oh, God, Chase.” She felt him start to withdraw his hand. She made a strangled sound and said, “Don’t you dare stop.”
He smiled. Kissed her hard, plunged a finger inside her, withdrew it and plunged back in. Her fingers tightened on his shoulders. He kept kissing her, lips and teeth and tongues melding, teasing her until she nearly screamed. Then he pushed inside her one last time, thumbed her most sensitive spot and sent her crashing over the edge into an orgasm so intense she nearly fainted.
Chase’s arm around her was all that kept her upright. “Are you all right?” he asked with some concern.
“I—I don’t know. That was…” she searched for the word, finally said, “unexpected.”
He laughed. “I’m not sure that’s the right word but okay.” His hand was still beneath her panties, on her bare flesh.
“There’s nothing funny about this. I don’t know what I was thinking.”
“Oh, really?” He withdrew his hand, very slowly, touching her as he did.
She sucked in a breath of regret at the loss and made herself move. She sat up straight and slid off the car, rearranging her clothing to give herself time to regroup. He released her but he still stood close to her.
“You weren’t thinking,” he said. “Neither was I. No, that’s not true. I was thinking that if I didn’t get to put my hands on you I was gonna die.”
“You’re still laughing.” She punched his arm, but not hard. Not that he’d have felt it if she hit him as hard as she could. The man had rock-hard biceps. “Stop laughing.”
“I think it’s funny that here we are—again—pretending that what’s between us is going to go away. It isn’t. No matter what our sensible sides are telling us, we want to be together.”
