The Look of Love (The Sullivans #1)(60)

Straight into Chase’s loving arms.

Chapter Nineteen

Chloe woke up with her legs entwined with Chase’s and his eyes on her as he propped himself up on his elbow. “Good morning.”

She felt sleepy and warm and impossibly content. “Hi.”

Chase gently stroked the hair back from her forehead with his free hand, but even though his touch was gentle, even though she was still pushing sleep away, she could feel how tense he was.

Their night had been so incredible, start to finish, she’d barely been able to keep up with it, with the incredible pleasure of simply being with Chase.

The perfect, romantic dinner.

The fun game of bocce ball.

And then lovemaking so sinful yet sweet, so totally beyond any ecstasy she’d ever thought to experience.

“I love you.”

The tiniest bit of tension went out of his expression, out of his muscles, as he smiled down at her, then pressed his mouth to hers in a gentle kiss that somehow managed to steal her breath away without even trying.

She shifted on the bed so that she was sitting up against the headboard. The sheet didn’t cover her br**sts, but the last thing she was thinking about was modesty. She could feel herself stalling, hated that she was making things even more tense...but everything she was feeling had come on so suddenly that she was only just barely managing to process her emotions as they flooded through her.

“I don’t want you to go.” Chase’s passionate words resonated all the way down to the very depths of her soul. “I love you.” He slid his hands over hers. “You love me.”

“Chase, I—”

He pressed one finger over her lips. “Please, just let me say one more thing.”

She paused, then nodded.

“I know you want to prove some things to yourself. But you don’t have one single thing to prove. You’re an incredible woman, the sweetest, strongest person I’ve ever been fortunate to know. I don’t have one single doubt that you can take care of the things you want to take care of by yourself.” He caressed her cheek and she had to turn her face into his warmth. His love. “Let me help you. Let me be there for you. Let me be there beside you. Let me be your strength in numbers.”

All night long as she’d slept in his arms, her subconscious had been spinning, working to figure out how she was going to deal with everything. And for the past four days she’d been basking in wonder at the sweetness in every one of Chase’s smiles, at the heat of his kisses, at how good she felt with him, at how wonderful and unexpected his words of love were. She’d tried to convince herself that leaving was still the right plan, that it was something she had to do to know her own strength.

But love—the love she could no longer deny feeling for Chase—had changed everything.

Especially her stubborn belief that she needed to go it alone to prove that she was strong, to prove that she wasn’t a victim. Who was she kidding? Only a fool would walk away from this man.

She’d been a fool once before. But she’d learned from her mistakes: She wasn’t going to turn away from a love this pure, this real.

“That first night you found me,” she said softly, “I knew I would never trust a man again. I knew it wasn’t even possible. But then you walked into my life and turned it completely upside down. And suddenly, everything I knew, everything I believed came into question.” She shook her head. “I didn’t want to ask myself those questions. I didn’t want to make the mistake of hoping again. I didn’t want to end up believing in the wrong thing again. It was easier, so much easier, just to cling to those old feelings. It was easier to tell myself—to tell you—that our connection was just physical. Somehow I had to find a way I could justify not denying myself your touch, your kisses.”

Chloe realized it was just as well that she was naked with Chase on the bed as she confessed her innermost thoughts, her final secrets. She was done hiding anything from him. From here until forever, she’d willingly give him her body. Her heart.

And her soul.

“All along I think I knew our connection went way beyond physical. All along I think I knew nothing would be able to stop me from falling in love with you. No matter how many times I tried to tell myself that I was going to leave, that I needed to leave, that striking out on my own was the only option, another piece of my heart broke just trying to imagine leaving you. I thought being strong meant going solo, meant standing on my own two feet without needing anything or anyone to lean on, but then I heard you talk about your family, I watched you with Marcus and I saw the way you work as a team with your crew. You showed me that the real strength comes from learning how to trust again. You make me want to be brave enough to love again.”

Chloe moved closer to Chase, the sheet falling completely off her lap as she went to her knees in front of him on the bed, his hands held tightly up against her heart.

“I still want to be stronger, I still want to be a better person...but when I’m with you, I’m already the strongest, the best I’ve ever been. Your love makes me feel like I just might find the woman I’ve been searching for inside myself all these years.” Her tears were falling now, one after the other, as she professed the truth of her feelings. “I know we need to leave this fantasy world soon, but I don’t want to leave you. Not now. Not ever.”