Page 73 of Some Kind of Forever
“Chase, I swear, if you give me food poisoning tonight…”
As I slide behind the wheel and weave our fingers together, I lift her hand to my lips before resting it on my cheek. “I’m joking. I can cook, and you’re gonna love it. Might even ask for seconds.”
She rolls her eyes and smiles.
I love you.
My mind shouts at me to release the words as I ease the car out of the garage. I clamp my teeth over my tongue. Not now. It can wait just a few more hours.
Stepping out of the elevator onto my floor, I’d be surprised if Kayla can’t feel me vibrating with the anticipation of being alone together. She molds her body into my back as I unlock the door to my apartment. As soon as it closes behind us, I push her up against it. My hands tangle into the locs flowing down her back as she presses her lips into mine, pulling at my shirt to bring us closer.
“God, I missed you,” I murmur against her lips.
“Me too.”
She tosses her purse somewhere at our feet as I pull her with me toward the sofa, tripping over the corner of the rug as we go. My heart leaps at the sound of her giggling when we fall onto the cushions.God, she’s amazing.I move my lips away from hers, peppering kisses across her jaw and down into the crease of her neck. That spicy vanilla scent that is distinctly hers sends fog clouds through my brain, and I let out a sigh as I’m swallowed up in her essence.She’s everything.Her hands rove through my hair and across my shoulders, eventually gliding over the muscles in my back.
Nails digging lightly into my shoulders, she rolls her hips upto meet mine. “Baby,” she pants in my ear. “I have to be back in an hour.”
“Gimme twenty minutes,” I whisper into her neck, smiling at the shiver running through her. She pulls my head back up to hers, our tongues twirling together in a frenzied waltz before shifting into something slower—more sensual.Mine.My hand finds its way to her hip, and my thumb just barely grazes the warm exposed skin on her side when a loud ringing sounds across the room. We both go still until the second ring, and Kayla shifts underneath me.
“It might be work,” she explains, biting her lip. I let out a charged sigh and give her a peck before sitting up. She scrambles from the couch to get to her phone in time. “Hey, Ash,” she says, moving into the open bedroom down the hall.
Running my hand through my hair, I breathe out the last few sizzling embers of our interrupted steam fest and get to work in the kitchen. By the time Kayla comes from the room, the pasta is nearly done and the roasted vegetables have about five more minutes.
“It smells good,” she praises, sliding into the stool at the counter. I rinse the soap from my hands, drying them quickly before moving around the counter to wrap my arms around her shoulders.
“Told you.” I smirk. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Ashlie’s filling in tonight for one of the servers who got sick. She got lost after a detour. I had to navigate her into the city, but she made it to the venue.”
“I didn’t know Ashlie worked in catering…”
“She doesn’t, but Patti was freaking out at the diner yesterday, and since Ashlie has waitressing experience, she volunteered.”
I place a kiss on her cheek and move back into the kitchen to drain the pasta and pull the veggies out of the oven. Kayla watches me with her head tilted as I toss everything in a bowl with a white sauce and other seasonings. I dish up two plates and slide one overto her, deciding to lean against the counter in the kitchen instead of sitting.
With her eyebrow raised, she takes a bite, and her eyes instantly roll back in her head. “Okay, so you can cook,” she says between bites.
“Yeah, Mom wasn’t about to have a son who couldn’t cook. She had me in the kitchen before I was five.”
“I’ll have to remember to thank her later.” She flashes a smile and wipes her mouth with a napkin. My eyes flick down as she licks her bottom lip. “Nuh-uh, don’t look at me like that. I have to get back for setup, andyouare trouble.”
“You can’t lick your lips like that after the entrance we just had and expect me not to look.” I smirk.
Standing from her stool, she walks into the kitchen, right up to me, gazing into my eyes. I reach around her waist, pull her into me, and lean down to kiss her nose.
I love you.
I could tell her right now, get it out of the way before tonight, and it might be okay. It might be better this way, with a few hours for her to stew on it at work. “Kayla, I?—”
Her phone rings again from her back pocket. “Ugh, sorry.” She grimaces before placing a soft kiss on my lips and stepping away to answer. I lace my fingers around the back of my neck, my elbows coming around my ears as I exhale my frustration down toward the floor. Feeling the chance to spill my heart fizzle away, I shake the thought from my head, for now.
Tonight.I’ll tell her tonight.
After a quick drive back, I park near the doors in the parking garage at Trancy Hall. “Thanks for lunch,” she says, squeezing my hand as we walk back into the venue.
“Of course, baby. I’m glad you liked it. I’ll make breakfast in the morning, too, so you know it wasn’t a fluke.” I smirk, bumping her shoulder before opening the door to the dining room. Spinning her around to face me, I reach up to stroke her cheek.
