Overdrive TheLookOfLove June14 (15 page)

Her heart raced as she tucked her head against the crook of his neck. He tasted clean and sexy, like a man who’d just given a woman incredible pleasure at the breakfast bar.

“Just like I said,” he murmured against her hair, “I’ll take you over breakfast any day.”

She couldn’t believe she was sitting there, naked on his lap, her legs still wrapped around him, with a smile on her face.

But she was.

“Last night...now...it’s been amazing. Just amazing.”

She felt his arms tighten on her for a moment, wondered if it had been the wrong thing to say, to tell him what she was feeling when she was in his arms.

But then, he was giving her bottom a light smack and saying, “Go find some clothes before I take you back to the bedroom and make us really late,” and the easiest thing was just to tell herself that everything was okay.

Their fling was going great. And it was still just a fling.

Definitely just a fling.

* * *

Ten minutes later, they were headed out to the vineyards. Wisps of early morning fog lingered beneath a rising sun that promised warmth. And yet, despite the beauty all around them, despite the fact that the shoot was going well, despite the fact that Chloe had willingly trusted her body with him again and again, something grated inside of Chase.

No question about it. Chloe was right. Their night together had been beyond amazing.

But the whole honor thing was still bothering him, a feeling that he should have had more control, that he should have waited until she was even more ready for everything he wanted to give her...when more than just her body wanted to be with him.

Because he wanted more from her than just a few nights. He wanted a hell of a lot more than just a fling.

They were standing near Marcus’s huge infinity pool, which looked out over the rolling hills, when his brother walked over to say, “Good morning.”

Chloe turned to his brother with a wide smile. “Hi, Marcus.” She gestured over the pool. “You really have a lovely home.”

Chase watched Chloe flush as the adjective she’d used registered.

Lovely. His special word for her.

“It’s just stunning,” she amended a moment later, as if she had recognized the same thing, that the word was now off limits for anything but what he saw when he looked at her.

They all took a moment to appreciate the killer view. Marcus turned to Chase. “Sorry I wasn’t able to check in with you yesterday. Something came up in the city that I needed to go deal with.”

“Anything you need my help with, just let me know.” Chase made sure to keep his offer light, easy. But he wanted to make sure Marcus knew he was there to be a sounding board for whatever was going on with Jill. Just because Chase didn’t really like her, didn’t mean he couldn’t help, right?

Jeremy rounded the corner, saying, “Who’s got coffee?” in a voice that sounded like death.

When he saw Marcus standing there, he stumbled and would have fallen into the pool if Chloe hadn’t caught his arm in the nick of time.

“M-Marcus.”

“Feel free to have at my coffee maker.”

Their mother had raised them to accept everyone–gay, straight, whatever–and Marcus had always dealt well with Jeremy’s adoration, careful not to feed into it, or give any false hope, without being mean about it.

Still, when Jeremy opened and closed his mouth without saying anything, Chase was glad when Chloe wrapped her hand more firmly around his arm, and said, “I’ll go with you and you can tell me what we’re working with today. I can’t wait to get my hands on more beautiful clothes.”

When they’d disappeared inside the house, Marcus said, “Is Chloe working for you now?”

Chase quickly explained about Alice. “Sounds like Chloe is saving the day left and right for you,”

Marcus noted. “Maybe you should add her to your permanent team.”

“I want her to be more than a part of my team.”

Marcus didn’t say anything for a long moment. “Have you told her this?”

“No.” He already knew what she’d say if he did. “I need to find out what happened to her the night I picked her up.”

But even then, even if she eventually trusted him with her past, with her troubles, he wasn’t convinced she’d choose to stay with him…or that she’d choose to love him.

* * *

Chloe did even better her second day, as if she’d been born to the job. Even when he did a host of water shots, needing each of the models to get into the water, she wasn’t afraid to get right in there with them. After falling in, she emerged with a giggle, then repeatedly held her breath and went under the water to make adjustments with needle and thread and clips and pins.

He was switching to a different camera when he was stopped by the sweet sound of her laughter. Unable to keep from staring, he saw her there in the pool, surrounded by sun and blue sky and a group of people who had all come to quickly adore—and respect—her.

* * *

Dinner with the models and crew that night was full of laughter, especially when Jeremy urged Chase to share his stories of life on the road.

As flan was brought out for everyone, Chloe was wiping away moisture from her eyes from laughing at one of his better tales. “Please, be serious. No matter what anyone says, I refuse to believe you actually walked into the cage at the zoo with the lions.”

“I most certainly did,” he said in a mock-offended voice. “They were eating out of my hands.”

“More like preparing to eat your hands,” she shot back.

He shrugged, spooning up some dessert to feed to her. He couldn’t have been more pleased when she ate it off his spoon without even the slightest hesitation. “See,” he said for her ears only,

“eating right out of my hands.”

She rolled her eyes, but the flush that began to creep across her cheeks told him she was only just realizing how close the two of them had been tonight. He’d repeatedly touched her hands, brushed stray locks of hair away from her lovely, expressive face, and just plain stared at her like a lovesick teenager all night long.

“Did your mother know you did this?”

He grimaced. “Not exactly.”

Everyone else was talking about other things by now, but Chloe didn’t drop the lion photos.

“Please tell me you were younger. And way stupider.”

He put on his most solemn face. “I was.” He waited a beat. “It’s been a good year since that assignment.” He could see her trying not to smile. And failing. “Would you have been worried about me, lovely Chloe?”

Her mouth parted slightly at the word and he realized his mistake when he went from half-mast to rock-hard in a millisecond. He’d needed to join his crew and models tonight. But every second he was here with the group was one less he was alone with Chloe.

“Would it have mattered?”

He held her gaze, suddenly serious. “Yes, it would have mattered. If I had known you back then, I never would have risked everything for the perfect photo.”

“No?”

He slid his hand over hers beneath the table. “No.”

But he’d risk everything for her.

The moment they stepped inside the guest house, Chase kissed Chloe the way he’d been dying to kiss her all day. He kissed his way from her sweet mouth to the pulse point in her neck and felt her heart race beneath his lips, his tongue.

“You have such lovely, soft skin.” He slid the straps of her silky top from her shoulders. “Such lovely, responsive breasts.” He pressed kisses over the swells that rose up out the top of her bra. “And you make such lovely little sounds when I’m kissing you.”

When he looked back into her eyes, they were dark with desire. Along with the growing emotion she simply wasn’t able to hide from him.

He’d wanted to take his time with her tonight, wanted to love her slow and easy, take all night if he had to. Instead, he was saying, “I can’t wait another second,” just as she said, “Hurry.” She slipped her panties off as he yanked off his pants and boxers.

“Please tell me you have a condom,” she said and, thank God, he did have one that he’d stashed in his pocket that morning just in case an opportunity arose to sneak away from the shoot and make love to her.

A moment later he was sheathed and lifting her up so that her dress bunched up around her waist. She had her arms wrapped around his neck, her legs around his hips as he drove into her.

She gasped out his name and he found her mouth and kissed her. But it was more than a kiss.

And what they were doing together was so much more than a quick fuck against the front door.

* * *

Her tongue laved the spot on his shoulder where she’d bitten down into a tendon as she’d come apart in his arms. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.” She looked stunned by what she’d done to his skin. “I’ve never done anything like that before.”

Beyond glad that she was starting to really let herself go with him, he said, “You’re the one who’s going to have bruises from the door if I don’t get you into the bath right away.”

Her legs still wrapped around his hips, he carried her through the house to the bedroom.

Continuing to the bathroom, he kept her right there on his lap as he turned on the taps and tested the water. “Perfect.”

After pulling her dress off and removing her bra, he lowered her into the tub. She seemed reluctant to let go of him.

“Aren’t you coming in, too?”

He didn’t say anything at first, just let himself drink her in. He loved the way she’d held onto him. Being with her like this was so natural, so right. Chase knew he could never be with a woman who spent her life worrying about what she ate, about whether or not she had cellulite or a little extra flesh on her stomach. He spent all day with women—and men—who were obsessed with what was on the outside.

Chloe’s natural self-confidence, which he was watching return by leaps and bounds with every hour that passed, along with her very real beauty, was the perfect antidote to all of that self-conscious preening. He loved the fact that her nails weren’t painted, that she wasn’t waxed bald between her thighs, that she hadn’t dyed her hair or whitened her teeth. She looked like a woman should.

“You’re staring at me.”

“Yes, I am. And you’re so lovely I’m going to be staring a whole lot more.”

She blushed. “Come join me in the tub.”

But even though he was desperate to get in the water with her, all day he’d been thinking about the conversation they’d had that morning.

“Remember that first night I found you in the tub?”

“I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget.”

“You’re in the bathtub again.” He paused. “And we know each other better now.”

“We certainly do,” she said softly.

The question hung silently between them: What would have happened that night if she’d trusted him? And was there any chance that she trusted him enough now for what he was asking her to do?

There was only one way to find out.

“I’ve wondered a thousand times how that night could have played out differently,” he told her in a low voice.

And then he saw it—renewed excitement and arousal moving across her beautiful face. Looking down at the water, she licked her lips and took a deep breath. When she looked back up at him, she was transformed: A sensuous creature from head to toe.

“Why don’t we find out?” She didn’t give him any time to catch his breath before she said, “I think I’m going to soap up now.” Her voice was husky, and almost enough to have him forgetting about the whole thing and just diving in there to pull her down over his cock again.

Instead, he made himself take one step back, and then another, until he was backed up against the sink. He yanked off his T-shirt and stood there naked, his cock throbbing hard against his stomach as he watched her reach for the soap.

That first night when he’d walked in on her in the tub, he should have left the room immediately. But wild horses couldn’t have dragged him away. Hell, the entire house could have been falling down around them and he still would have stood there, unable to do anything but stare at Chloe in awe.

Tonight, he was standing again in the bathroom, watching her slowly, sensuously, begin to run a bar of soap down her outstretched legs. She had such smooth skin, such pretty thigh and calf muscles, such lovely toes.

Slowly, she lowered her leg back into the water, then lifted the other.

His cock was a living thing against his lower stomach, a heartbeat away from dragging the rest of him across the room and into the tub to get at her. Knowing he had to hold onto something to keep from reaching for her, he grabbed a towel off the rack beside him and gripped it tight enough to tear it in two.

* * *

Chloe didn’t need to look at Chase to feel the heady strength of his desire from across the room.

She loved how powerful she felt, teasing him this way. And she loved the fact that he wanted it just as much as she did.

God, she thought with a barely repressed moan, it was going to be good when he finally joined her in the tub.

It was so tempting just to give in to that need, to throw the soap down and reach out for the gorgeous man standing on the other side of the bathroom watching her with utter lust.

But the anticipation of that moment would only make it sweeter when it finally came.

Still, she had to work really, really hard to keep her voice steady as she continued to play their sexy game. “Just give me a sec, okay? And then you can hand me that towel.” She couldn’t repress a small smile as she looked at him and said, “You don’t mind waiting, do you?”

“No.”

Not bothering to hide her grin at how strangled the one short word had sounded, she dipped the lavender scented bar of soap back into the water. Once wet, she began the slow process of running it over her collarbones, and then lower, and lower still.

Her nipples had already beaded tightly beneath the heat of his gaze, but as she came closer and closer to the taut tips of her full breasts with the suds, she couldn’t believe how much more sensitive her skin felt. Almost as if one touch from her soapy fingers—combined with the devastating desire in Chase’s eyes—would be enough to have her crying out his name.