“Samson?” he reminded her.
“I’ll tell you later.” She looked at him with wide, imploring eyes. “After.” She nuzzled his neck with her mouth, her lips warm and soft against his skin. “You have my word,”
she assured him. “Just make me feel alive first and I promise to tell you everything you want to know after.”
“Wait.” Her gaze held not just desire but honesty, and since Chase prided himself on reading people, he accepted her answer at face value. But he wasn’t ready to jump into bed. “Needing answers about Samson isn’t all that’s holding me back.” He couldn’t be anything but honest with her.
A slow smile tilted her lips. “I’m sure I know what is. It’s commitment, right? You’re worried I’ll want more than you can give,” she said, reading his mind.
He nodded. Even if she didn’t want more, she deserved more than he could promise or give. “Last time, we knew the rules going in.”
She stroked his cheek, her gaze never leaving his. “And this time we’d know them too.
I’m not staying in Yorkshire Falls beyond finding my . . . beyond finding Samson.”
She’d just given a clue. She’d also given him the reply he thought he needed—the one that would give him permission to release the pent-up passion that had been building all day. Without worrying about commitment. If that were true, why the uncomfortable feeling burning in his gut at the thought of her leaving him a second time?
“Chase?” She licked her finger, then traced his lips, leaving his mouth damp, his body yearning.
He’d be a fool to deny his burning need. In one smooth move, he laid her down on the couch.
“I’m going to have to assume we’re in agreement again.” She giggled, a light, infectious sound that wiped out all the worries and concerns and left him smiling and happy.
Happy. An alien state for him, he acknowledged. “I’d say you’re right.”
He kissed her, hot and deep, thrusting with his tongue, mimicking the movement with his lower body. His erection was thick and heavy between his legs, and he needed the friction of coming inside her with a desperation he’d never felt before.
Taking her hand, he pulled her to her feet and led her into his bedroom, a place he’d always considered his sanctuary. A place he’d come to get away from Gazette business, family pressure, and life in general. His haven. And now that she’d set foot inside, he’d never look at this room the same way again.
“Chase?”
He blinked and realized she’d beaten him to the bed and was sitting cross-legged in the center of the mattress. Her hands slid to the hem of her shirt and she pulled the top over her head. Damned if he hadn’t been right. No bra.
He took a step forward, but she held him off with one hand. “Not yet.” A sexy grin took hold of her lips as she reached for the drawstring on her sweats.
Coming up to her knees, she pulled the bow and released the knot, letting her pants fall below her waist. She wriggled and kicked them off before returning to a kneeling position, giving him a clear view of what she wore beneath her pants. A sheer scrap of material covered her feminine mound, so transparent, it teased him with darkened shadows.
He let out a long, tortuous groan. She was baiting him bit by bit, making him wait, increasing his desire. He didn’t know how long he could play by her rules, looking and not touching, wanting and not being able to satisfy his need. He leaned against the high chest of drawers near the wall, welcoming the support, because this woman could bring him to his knees if he let her.
He met her sparkling green gaze. “You’re killing me.”
“That’s not in the plans.” She hooked her fingertips in the waistband of her panties.
“Because if I kill you, you’ll miss the best part.”
He laughed, folding his arms over his chest. “It’s just an expression, babe.” He shot her a wry grin. “I’m up for anything you have to offer.”
“I can see that.” She lowered her gaze to the bulge in his jeans and shimmied her hips, giving him a real show as she pulled the panties down and off, tossing them his way.
Now she was naked on his bed, leaning against his pillows, and beckoning to him with a crook of one finger. “Come and get me, Chase.”
Between the come-hither look in her eyes and the seductive way her body called out to him, his restraint fled. He undressed in seconds, meeting her on the bed, making sure that his body met hers in the most intimate way on first contact. His groin pressed against her flesh, feeling her moist, damp heat. Chase wasn’t sure whose groan sounded louder in the otherwise silent room, but the noise was damn arousing.
Especially for a man who’d been on the edge all day. He closed his eyes and saw the moment Samson’s house went up in flames. When he opened them again, Sloane stared back at him, wide-eyed and waiting.
“When that house exploded, I thought you were inside,” he said gruffly. “I thought I’d lost you.” He brushed her hair off her face and tried to memorize each and every feature.
“You took twenty years off my life.”
“And when I saw you standing outside the house, you added twenty years to mine.”
At her words, every part of him swelled—his heart, his body, his mind. Nothing mattered except doing as she said, joining with her and making them both feel alive.
The time for foreplay was over. He covered her mouth with his and, at the same time, thrusted hard and deep inside her.
Sloane inhaled and took all of him. She couldn’t believe she’d been so bold, so brazen.
But with Chase, she not only had no problem asking for what she wanted, but she also felt safe and secure in doing so. He pulled back slowly, only to rear forward again, and her body registered every slick inch, every hard movement. She clenched her thighs tighter and sensation rocked through her, taking her higher and higher, closer to climax, someplace she didn’t want to go alone.
Still feeling bold, she reached down to where their bodies met. For a brief moment, she savored the thrusting motion, letting the texture of their joined bodies arouse her mind too.
“God, you do something to me,” he murmured.
She opened her eyes. “Yeah, you’re doing something pretty incredible to me.” Her hips arched upward as if to back up her claim.
Tipping his head down, he licked at her breast, then suckled one nipple into his warm mouth. Her body shuddered at the erotic sensation, and when his teeth lightly grazed the distended tip, she arched off the mattress, pulling his penis all the way inside her needy body. He plunged deep and deeper still, until she felt him filling not just her femininity but something more, something she dare not name.