Page 92 of Chasing Sparks

Once again, I stayed silent.

I don’t know what’s stopping me. Maybe it’s the way she looks at me, her eyes so full of trust and hope. She believes in all of it—love, forever, happy endings.

I want to believe in them, too.

Am I chicken shit? Maybe. Probably. Hell, I’m a whole lot of things, including scared shitless of what those words mean and everything they demand.

What’s next afterI love you? A ring? Marriage, if we get that far? A baby?

Ten years ago, I wanted all those things more than my next breath.

But Lucille cured me of that delusion. She ruined me for other women—and not in a good way.

“Hey, no scowls today. Only smiles for our last day in paradise.” Ori settles next to me on the edge of the pool, her hand tracing a gentle path along my spine.

“I seriously get why people move to Florida now,” I smirk, skewing my mouth as I shoot her a look. “Think I might invest in a place down here.”

Ori nods, her lips pooching slightly as she gazes over the private pool area. “Can I come visit?”

“Damn straight. Open invitation.” I nudge her shoulder gently.

She sighs, her expression turning wistful. “Look, I’m just going to say it again, even though I know you heard me the last few times. I love you.”

Well, that’s direct.

My heart races into my throat as I glance at the water and nod. “I did hear you, but I don’t say those words, Ori.”

She cups my chin, forcing me to meet those dark, soulful eyes. “Doesn’t mean I don’t. Doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge that I have.”

I drag a hand through my hair, my thoughts knotting into a mess I can’t untangle. “How the hell am I supposed to respond without sounding like a total asshole? Thanks? I know?”

Ori smirks, her eyes sparkling with humor. “All valid responses.”

I blow out a breath, shaking my head. “None of them are, and I don’t want you angry that I don’t say it, because I care about you. You know that, right?”

“Ash,” she whispers, her voice steady but unyielding, “I’m not saying it because I expect you to feel the same. I know you don’t, and trust me, the day I can’t handle that anymore, I’ll walk away. But today’s not that day. Right now, I’m embracing all these overwhelming emotions and felt like sharing them with the man who made me feel them. That’s all.”

Instead of answering, I slip into the warm water and wrap my arms around Ori’s waist, pulling her into me.

Her curves melt against me as I tease her lips, coaxing her to grant me access to her talented mouth.

With a soft sigh, she relents, and I slick my tongue against hers, tasting her sweetness, her fire—everything that makes her Ori.

She smells like sunshine and a hint of everything I could have been had I not given my heart to the wrong person the first time.

I wind one hand into her hair, tilting her head to deepen the kiss, my mouth never straying from hers as I lift her effortlessly out of the pool. Her breath hitches, her nails grazing my shoulders as I carry her inside, dripping water onto the polished floor.

She told me she loved me.

I couldn’t say it back.

But as I gaze into her deep brown eyes, I know I feel so much for Oriana.

I’m lost in her and I never want to be found.

I lay her gently across the bed, our skin still damp and glistening in the filtered light.

I pull the strings free on her bikini top, tossing it aside as I lower my mouth to tease her pert nipples, my hands gently cupping her firm breasts. My tongue drags along her slick, sun-kissed skin, and I press kisses down her abdomen, desperate to map every inch of her body as mine.

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