The Look of Love (The Sullivans #1)(36)

So instead of pulling him closer, she laid her hands flat on his chest. “They’ll all be waiting for you.”

His eyes were dark, full of desire, as he looked down at her. With a badly muffled curse, he straightened up. As soon as he stepped back, she threw off the covers.

“I’ll just be a second.”

“I’m heading over early to set up. You don’t need to rush.” He moved closer again, pulled her naked body against him. “God, you’re lovely. You make me want to call off the shoot today and just stay locked in this room.”

She wanted the same thing, but that want was too big, like an ocean trying to swell and crash inside of her, so she joked, “We’d starve.”

“What’s one day without food if I’ve got you?”

She knew he wasn’t serious, and yet ... he sure looked like he was.

Stepping out of his arms, she headed for the bathroom. “I just need five minutes and then I’ll come help you.”

His eyes were dark with the desire that was always there...and something she needed a moment to put her finger on.

“I really appreciate your help.”

That was it, she realized as warmth spread through her. He appreciated her. And not just because of what had gone on between them in bed.

They smiled at each other. She was just leaning in to turn on the shower when she heard him say, “Chloe?”

Feeling surprisingly comfortable being naked around him, she said, “Mmm?”

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

Another flush accompanied her smile. “I honestly don’t think I’ll ever be able to forget.”

“Me either,” he agreed with a wicked grin that said he had no intention of ever forgetting, and then, “I can’t help but wonder what would have happened next if we’d known each other better that night.”

“You’re not the only one,” she murmured as she turned on the hot water and stepped beneath the spray. She could feel Chase’s eyes on her through the glass door, even after it had fogged up.

Chloe smiled, feeling pretty and so wonderfully feminine as she soaped up and washed her hair. She had already been looking forward to tonight, after the shoot was done, when she and Chase could do all those wonderful things they’d done the night before.

But now that he’d put that image in her head of the bathtub, of what the two of them could do together in it...now her anticipation was all but running away with her.

By the time she got out of the shower, Chase had left the room. She wrapped one towel around her hair, another around her body. As she blow dried her hair, she tried not to look too closely at the bruise on her cheek. It was fading a little bit. She’d actually forgotten about it last night when she and Chase were making love. Because he didn’t look at her like she had anything wrong with her.

He looked at her like she really was lovely.

Moving back into the bedroom, she saw that Chase had folded her jeans and T-shirt and placed them on a soft chair in the corner. God, she’d like to burn those clothes. But they’d been what she was wearing to paint her little apartment a more cheerful color when her ex had surprised her.

Yesterday, she’d forced herself to put the horrible clothes back on because she’d been planning to leave after saying goodbye to Chase. But now that she wasn’t leaving until the end of the shoot, she couldn’t help but think of the rack of beautiful clothes in the living room.

Clothes she didn’t have the money to pay for.

Her stomach sank as she looked again at her ratty jeans. Would it really hurt if she wore another new outfit or two? She would pay Chase back as soon as she could.

Knowing she was rationalizing things, she made herself face the real reason for wanting to wear the new clothes: It would be as good as a promise to Chase that she really wasn’t going to leave. She owed him that, at the very least.

She poked her head into the living room to make sure no one else was there before walking over to the rack of clothes. “Just coming to find something to wear,” she explained to Chase.

His answering smile told her he understood the message she was sending him. Chloe had never been able to say so much to a man without saying a thing. Probably because she’d never been able to find a man who really understood her.

Not until now.

The thought made her legs a little shaky as she headed for the rack of clothes.

“The clothes are going to look great,” he said just before tugging at the towel around her body as she walked past, pulling it down below one breast, “but this might be even better.”

And then his lips were on her, tugging, sucking and she was dissolving into one big puddle of need. “You’re going to be late,” she reminded him breathlessly.

“Don’t care.” His words were muffled against her other breast, which he’d uncovered with another tug at the towel. A moment later, it was on the floor and he was lifting her up onto his lap, her legs going around his waist.

Someone could come in, Marcus could stop by any second, one of the models or Jeremy might need a word with Chase before the shoot began. But instead of voicing all—or any—of those concerns, Chloe worked to unbutton and unzip his jeans.

He pulled a condom from a pocket and then—oh yes!—a moment later he was lifting her hips up and then down over him and he was driving into her. Their mouths devoured each other and his hands were busy, one cupping and squeezing the curve of her ass as she rode him in the seat, the other on her breast, teasing her sensitive flesh between his thumb and forefinger, a beautifully sensual pressure that shot straight through her to her core.