Page 42 of Once Upon a Summer Night

Chase climbed into the driver’s seat and pulled his door shut. “Where to, angel?”

“Your place,” she said, not meeting his gaze for fear that he might try to change her mind. Because now that she’d made it, she was ready.

“You sure?” he asked.

Hannah smirked but kept her gaze on the windshield. “Drive, Redding.”

Chapter Eleven

Chase had neverbeen so glad to live that close to the Tipsy in all his life. It nearly killed him to stick to the speed limit those few blocks, but the last thing he wanted was to get pulled over now. Not when he had bourbon on his breath and an uncomfortable bulge in his shorts.

Hannah was damned lucky they’d been downtown when she’d gotten all bossy with him a moment ago. As turned on as he’d been, had they been anywhere else he might have tossed her in the back of the truck and scratched that itch he’d had for her all these years. But she deserved a soft bed to land in, and he knew just the one.

Neither spoke a word along the way, anticipation thick in the cab. He planned to give her one more chance to back out when he killed the engine, but she was out of the truck and heading for his back door before he could muster the words. Chase followed, content to let his angel lead.

She didn’t bother turning on the lights, instead using the little LED nightlights he’d bought for Smokey to guide her to his room. Once there, she stopped, her back to him. A faint glow from the nightlight in his adjoining master bathroom illuminated her silhouette.

This was it. How long had he waited for this moment?

He stepped behind her and pressed a kiss to the back of her neck as he circled his arms around her waist. There was no need to hurry, no reason to rush. And if she told him to stop, of course he would.

He prayed, of course, that she wouldn’t.

Her hands rose to cover his, steady and warm. Chase pressed another kiss to her neck. To the soft spot beneath her ear. He paused, knowing he should ask one more time, but afraid that her answer might change. Hannah must have sensed his hesitation and, much to his despair, eased from his grasp. Her heat went with her, leaving him cold and terrified that he’d blown it. That he’d moved too slow or hadn’t given her what she needed.

As Chase braced himself for the letdown, the “let’s try again another time,” Hanna crossed her arms in front of her…and removed her shirt in one smooth motion. With a flick of her wrist, she tossed it onto his desk chair.

Sweet Jesus. If that didn’t saypermission granted, he didn’t know what did.

Chase drank in the sight of her lean, toned body and lacy white bra. He closed the distance between them, his earlier hesitations abandoned. Her boldness gave him courage, her patience a balm to his long-battered ego. He traced his hands across the skin of her stomach, along her back. She circled her arms around his neck and stretched to kiss him.

This kiss, unlike the ones they’d shared before, wasn’t tentative or gentle. It was hungry, needy, biting. Chase’s hands slid higher, brushing the bottom of her bra. Higher, thumbs brushing across her tight peaks. She drew in a sharp breath then nipped his lower lip.

He liked that reaction. His right hand slid to her back. With a quick pinch, the bra was unclipped and soon discarded. He traced her breasts, teased her peaks, growing bolder with each of her needy mews that followed. Her hands slid from his neck and tugged at his shirt. He broke contact to let her remove it before she accidentally strangled him in her hurry, then pulled her to his chest, reveling in the feel of skin on skin.

“More,” she whispered, tugging at the waistband of his shorts. “It all needs to go.”

As if he could tell her no. Chase released her to unzip his cargo shorts and was rendered mute by the sight of her stripping out of her capris. She stood before him now in nothing but a lacy white thong.

“Focus, Redding, we don’t have all night,” she said, stepping forward to finish the job he’d started.

“We don’t have to hurry, angel,” he whispered, cupping her cheek.

Her lips tugged into a devilish grin. “We both know the first one’s always quick. The second is when we’ll take our time.”

Chase’s mouth went dry as he stepped out of his discarded shorts. “And after that?”

Hannah arched one brow. “Guess you’ll just have to wait and see.”

Chapter Twelve

Hannah laid ina bliss-induced coma, body spent and sprawled sideways across Chase’s bed. He’d managed to cover most of her with his comforter before collapsing onto his pillow, neither having the energy left to move any farther than they had. Her shoulder was tucked into his side, head on his chest and fingers drawing lazy circles through the trail of sandy blond hair that ran from his chest southward. The heat radiating off him was a wonderful contrast to the A/C nipping at her back, and there was no place in the world she’d rather be than lying there with him.

We should have done this years ago.

A grin tugged at her lips. As she’d predicted, their first time had come hot and fast. Oh, so hot. But soon, the fire relit inside them, and they began a slower, more leisurely exploration of one another. She closed her eyes and he was there again in her memories, moving above her, eyes searching hers before his hair fell forward to block her view. Hannah had loved the feel of those strands beneath her fingers as she brushed it back from his face.

Enjoyed fisting her hands into it when her second climax surged, too.

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