Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful #1)(35)

Only she wanted to hear his voice. Kind of craved the sound of it. In five minutes, she would leave her apartment and ride the subway to the audition of a lifetime. Her palms were sweating, her outfit was all wrong, and somehow she knew Louis would say the exact right thing to calm her down. How did she know that? No clue. A week ago, she would have been pep-talking herself, and she didn’t like this sudden reliance on him to feel confident. Scratch that, she had confidence. She just needed the extra kind right now. A shitload of it.

Had he already moved on? Even without the sex first? That would definitely be a new one. Unless he’d decided she wasn’t worth the trouble. She cast a look at herself in the mirror across the room and wondered what he saw. If maybe . . . he’d found her lacking. Less sophisticated than the girls he typically dated. The hurt that thought caused her told her she’d already let herself fall maybe just a little too far.

A knock at the apartment door jolted her back to the present. When she started to call out for Honey to answer it, she remembered her roommate had already left for her afternoon physics class. With a sigh, she tossed her mascara down onto her secondhand dresser and clicked through the apartment on her high heels.

“Who is it?”

“Delivery man.”

Louis. A feather-winged creature took flight in her stomach. She started to open the door but decided not to appear overeager. “How did you get in?”

“Some guy with a captain’s hat downstairs.”

She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “So much for security.”

“I’m persuasive.” A long pause. “You realize you haven’t opened the door yet, right?”

“Maybe I’m wearing a towel.”

“I’ll be right back.”

She lunged for the peephole to look out at him. “Where are you going?”

He looked straight at her. “To get a battering ram.”

Her lips spread into a smile, but she quickly turned down the wattage and opened the door. “Hey,” she said casually, trying not to stare at the shopping bag in his hand.

“ ‘Hey’?” He laughed under his breath. “That’s all I get, huh?”

“I was just about to leave for the audition.” Wow, she was pettier than she thought. Giving the guy a hard time for not calling on a Sunday. Who was she turning into? “What’s in the bag?”

Louis came toward her, until she had no choice but to move and let him into the apartment, or let him walk straight into her. Tempting, but she had a feeling that if he got that close, she’d be late for the biggest opportunity of her professional life. She closed the door behind her and turned, ready to explain that she only had two minutes and not to get any ideas.

He immediately backed her up against the door, his muscular body aligning with hers. Pressing, pressing, until she had to suck in her stomach to let him closer.

His breath fanned her ear, sending her pulse into hyperdrive. “Mad at me for not calling?”

“Nope,” she said too quickly.

“Yes, you are.” He dropped the bag with a thud beside her, then lifted his hand to curl it around the back of her neck. “Good.”

“Good?” Irritation prickled along her skin. Irritation. Not awareness. Right. “Are you playing games with me now, Louis? I thought that was my job.”

“It is. And you’re good at it.” He pulled back to stare at her mouth, but he didn’t kiss her. “I don’t play games. But I’m also not going to be the guy who you keep blowing off.”

Her throat felt tight. “I didn’t blow you off.”

He ignored her, massaging the back of her neck with his thumb. Holy hell, it felt great. Everything about this felt great. Having him close. Breathing in his scent. She wanted to sink into him and never come up for air. “I want to know that you’re not going to disappear every time we have a bad moment or my sisters show up looking like something out of a haunted house. I need you to stick. The f*ck. Around.” Their thighs melded together, his belt buckle nudged her stomach. “You’ve been keeping me awake at night since we met, and until now, I honestly didn’t know if you felt anything for me. So, yeah. If you’re mad at me for not calling? Good.”

Holy wow. She’d never been more turned on in her life. Everything he’d said had been fair. He’d accurately called her on her bullshit, and she liked that. A lot. There might even be a small part of her that got a thrill over keeping him up when he should be sleeping. “Are you finished?”

His minty breath warmed her lips. “Why?”

“So I can kiss you.”

He sucked his bottom lip through his teeth as she watched in shameful fascination. God, he really did have the most amazing mouth. “No kissing this morning.” What? Had she heard him right? “You want to be kissed, you come and find me later. You come to me.”

“That definitely sounds like a game,” she said sharply.

“Maybe. But it’s a game we can both win if you’re not stubborn.” Before she could deliver a response, his mouth moved away from hers. Bracing himself with his hands on the doorjamb, he very slowly lowered himself toward the ground in front of her. On the way into a kneeling position, he dragged his partially open mouth between her breasts and over her belly, deep groaning noises vibrating through every spot he trailed over. When he landed on his knees, he gripped her hips and pressed his mouth between her legs, sending her falling back against the door in a rush of sensation. She only had mere seconds to feel the heat of his mouth through her dress before he took it away.