Page 30 of Head Over Heels

You know how everything slows down during a dramatic event, like a car crash?

Yeah. That’s this kiss. I see it coming so far off, and I’m, like, forming words in slow motion.Nooooooo! Dooooon’t dooooo it!Not sure if I’m addressing this warning to him or myself, but neither of us is listening because I’m also trying to process the flood of sensation that being this close to him brings. My breasts tighten and my nipples pinch as the solid planes of his chest collide with me, and my mouth waters at the sharp smell of soap and the lemongrass-evergreen-wood-smoke scent of deodorant or cologne or whatever it is that makes him smell so damn good. And his skin itself. That scent doesn’t have a name, only an effect—like the last sigh you breathe out before you relax your body completely in bed, in total surrender.

And yes, that’s what I do: I give in, I give myself up. His mouth floats down to mine and settles softly but with total certainty, and I hearhissigh of satisfaction, and then I am lost to his lips, warm and commanding, and his tongue, which strokes into my mouth before I’m aware of opening it.

His hands leave my hair to map my waist and hips, and before I can stop him, curve around and cup my behind and tug me up against him.

Wow.

That is a lot of Chase.

Chase has alluded a few times to the extent of his Chase-ness, but this is proof, and Idefinitelywhimper.

Which makes him groan.

That’s when my bodyreallygoes into overdrive. Because, whatever, I knew Chase was hot. I strongly suspected he could kiss a woman into stupidity.

But what I wasn’t expecting was how good it would feel to make Chase lose control.

Too good. Way too good.

I take a step back. And then another. And as I do—as the space between us widens and clarity returns to my fogged brain—I panic.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I—don’t—I don’t know.” He sounds genuinely uncertain.

“Are you just trying to prove a point?”

“No. I don’t know.”

“Well, whatever it is, quit it.”

His head comes up, and his brows draw together. “I’m right, though, Liv. You have to admit that.”

“Right about what?”

“Tell me it didn’t feel…” He hesitates. “So fucking good.”

His words shimmy down my insides, lighting me up. I come so damn close to getting sucked back in—to the heat in his eyes and the magnetic pull coming off his bare skin.

Instead, I say, as calmly as I can, “Chase?”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going upstairs. And this?”

“Yeah?”

“None of this happened.”

And I walk away.

Chapter 13

Chase

I lie in bed, still hard enough that it hurts, cursing myself.

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