Page 87 of Single Chance

The better I knew Chance, the more I liked him. Whether we were cooking, working, or reading or watching a show together, living with him was comfortable. No, it was more than comfortable. I loved being with him.

Caring for my grandmother, I’d become such an island, a total loner. Of course she’d been there with me, but sadly she wasn’treallythere. Not the Gram I knew and loved. I’d figured out how to be alone with my thoughts, my fears, my decisions, because that’s what she’d needed of me. I’d made it through. But life was so much better when you had someone.

Of course, I didn’thaveChance.

But damn did I ever want him.

At least for tonight. Maybe more.

Probably more.

I’d been searching for Everly’s music on a streaming service on my phone during the short drive home. Once I was in the kitchen, I set my phone on the counter and pushed Play while I helped myself to a glass of water. I hadn’t heard this song, called “Clear-Hearted,” before tonight.

When Everly had introduced it, she’d said the lyrics had flowed out of her in less than an hour one day and that they came from her heart and her life. The mellow song was about her future unfurling in a good way, about life feeling right at long last, as her path became clear and meaningful.

Knowing what little I did about her personally—that she was head over heels in love with her husband, Seth, and they were visibly expecting their first baby—it made perfect sense to me.

I felt the song in my soul. Not necessarily about Chance, because who knew where we would end up, but about my pregnancy and this town and the people I was getting to know. I was starting to feel like I might be right where I belonged.

As I set the glass down after drinking half of it, Chance came up beside me at the counter. The only light on was the one over the table, which we’d left on a dim setting while we were gone. When he peered down at me in the low light, extended his hand, and said, “May I have this dance?” my insides melted.

I smiled up at him and took his hand. Our bodies met as we wound our arms around each other and found the slow rhythm. As we swayed together, he trailed his hands below my waist, over my butt. He pulled me even closer, letting me feel his hardness at my core, telling me the drive home hadn’t cooled him down either.

With hot need instantly pulsing through my body, I lifted my gaze to his. Our lips met at once, and it was as if the wind caught a spark and blew it into an inferno in a flash. As if both of us had been wanting this all night, thinking about it, imagining it throughout the concert and the drive home, and now that we were home, alone, we could finally get our hands and mouths on each other.

“God, Rowan,” he said between frenetic kisses, his hands all over me.

“I know.”

I kissed him with all the pent-up need that’d been building for weeks, grasping the back of his head, not about to let him get away from me.

Chance slipped his hands under my shirt and ran them over my skin, kneading me, caressing me as if he couldn’t get enough.

“I want you,” he said as he angled us against the cabinets and pressed his body into me.

“Same,” I managed as his fingers brushed across my oversensitive nipple. Even with the bra material between us, his touch made me want to climb him.

He pulled his head back from mine and made eye contact, both of us breathing hard. “Is this okay?” he asked. “I mean, with your pregnancy?”

“Yes.” I cradled his handsome cheek in my palm.

“Thank fuck.”

He brought his mouth to mine again, and we kissed like we were starving for each other, our tongues twisting and tangling, teeth hitting, breaths stuttering together.

“Where’s Sam?” I finally thought to ask, pulling away enough to listen and ensure she wasn’t in the basement.

“Exactly where she said she’d be. At Kinsley’s. I checked on the way inside.”

I was happy to hear that on multiple levels.

“We should take this upstairs though,” he said, reading my thoughts. “Since she has a history of not staying put.”

“Right. I think she’s in a different place, so to speak, but it’s better to be safe.”

Chance took both my hands in his and wove our fingers together by our hips, our bodies still touching. “You’re…okay with this?”

If we went up those stairs together, we’d be changing the rules.

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