Game (Gentry Boys, #3)(37)

“Cut it out.” Hesitantly I took his hand. “Chase, I’m sorry I told you to f*ck off. I couldn’t stand the possibility of being a joke to you. I didn’t really want you to leave.”

He took a step closer. “What did you want?”

I squirmed. “I don’t know.”

Chase didn’t like that answer. “Yes you do.” He grabbed me, holding my face in his hands and running his thumb briefly over my lips. It made me a little breathless, how quickly his mood could shift from mocking player to intense man. It confirmed what I was already starting to suspect; his sarcastic behavior was just a thin artificial layer.

“Tell me,” he urged in a gruff voice and again I felt my heartbeat quickening. Being close to him would do this to me every time. Every damn time. There was no stopping it.

“I wanted you to stay,” I whispered. “In Vegas. And this afternoon. I wanted more. More than a quick round of sex. I wanted…I wanted to feel your arms around me.” It came out halting, uncertain, and I was pissed at myself because I couldn’t say it right, because I shouldn’t have said it at all. It was foolish.

Chase’s expression didn’t change. He continued to stare at me with curious intensity. Until I tried to pull away. Then he seized me around the waist and forced my body against his so gruffly that I gasped.

“Don’t do that,” he growled, sliding his hand up my back and into my hair. “Don’t say something like that to me and then try to run off.”

I jerked my chin up, challenging him. “Why don’t you lay it out then? Tell me what you want.”

“All right,” he agreed, loosening his grip on me slightly. “I want to f*ck you again, Stephanie. I want to make you come in seventeen filthy ways and use you however I please for as long as my dick holds out. Goddamn it girl, stop trying to walk away from me! You let me finish and then if you still want to run off I won’t stop you.”

I’d gotten angry at his vulgarity and torn my arm out of his grasp. But when he raised his voice I was startled.

Chase didn’t skip a beat, although he was gentle when he ran his hands over my shoulders and down my arms. “I want to know what it’s like to fall asleep with you, sweetheart. I want the privilege of waking up with you in the morning. I want to hold you. I want you to be mine.”

“Chase,” I said, looking him square in the eye and trying not to shiver from the effect of his words. “I don’t want to be one of many.”

“You’re not,” he said immediately. “I don’t want anyone else, Steph. I don’t think about anyone else and I’m sure as hell not going to touch anyone else as long as there’s you. I just really want to give this a chance. Do you?”

Chase mocked and joked endlessly. I’d known that even before we met, when he was just this hot guy who kept staring at me as he was surrounded by all the attention in the world. But he wasn’t joking now. He wasn’t playing with me anymore.

I kissed him. I felt every bit of his strength, especially when he crushed me against his hard body as our mutual passion reached the breaking point. I pulled away, breathless.

“Yes,” I whispered as he held me up. I might have fallen otherwise. “So take me home. Take me home and show me, Chase.”





CHAPTER TWELVE


Chase



When I knocked on Stephanie’s door earlier this evening I didn’t have any idea how the night was going to go. I just knew that I was going to try like hell to take Saylor’s advice and show this girl that I was better than I seemed.

“Take me home and show me,” Stephanie said and she wasn’t just being dirty. She wasn’t only talking about sex. Neither was I.

I took her in my arms and started to lead her back to where the truck was parked. She shivered as I held her tight and I knew I could back her into an alley and have her right now. But I wanted to give her more than that. I wanted to give her everything.

We didn’t speak on the drive. There was no need. I felt her watching me in the dark though. Jesus, there were no words for this. To find a willful, gorgeous girl who challenged you in body and soul and then get inside her in every way possible was overwhelming.

“Wait,” I said, parking the truck in front of her apartment. I went around to the other side and opened the door for her. She smiled with genuine pleasure and suddenly I knew I would sacrifice anything to put that look on her face every goddamn day.

She opened the door to the apartment and started to step inside but I pulled her back. I pressed her against the wall and let her feel how hard I was.

“You sure, Stephanie? Because once I go in there I’m not coming out again. You understand what I mean, sweetheart?”

I meant that if this night happened then she sure as hell wasn’t getting rid of me. I wasn’t going anywhere.

She slipped her arms around my shoulders, opening her legs a little and inhaling sharply when I pushed my knee between them, grinding on her. Stephanie nodded and pressed her * against the bulge in my pants until I groaned. She ran her lips along my neck and spoke in a near whisper.

“Chase, spend the night with me.”

From the way she was moving herself against me I knew I could make her come right here, right now. But I also knew I could make her come even better, even harder, if I took some time with it. I picked her up and enjoyed the eager way she melted into my arms. For a girl who at first glance seemed so distant and controlled, Stephanie seemed to like being overpowered. Shit, I got dizzy thinking about the possibilities.