His lips brush the skin on my neck, and my body reacts. Goose bumps break out along my flesh, and heat bubbles in my stomach, spreading down between my legs. I twist in his arms and he kisses me. Hard. Desire explodes inside me and his lips against mine aren’t enough. I grab the hem of his shirt and yank it up. Chase raises his arms, letting the shirt slip off easily.
We melt into each other again. Chase gathers my hair in his hand and pulls it to the side, mouth going to my neck. He sucks and kisses, and a moan escapes my lips. My hands explore his back, feeling every pound of muscle beneath my fingers.
And then I feel something else. A little mound of scar tissue and I remember the mark I saw on his back this morning. I run my finger over it, distantly wondering what happened, but more focused on what’s currently happening.
Yearning.
Warmth.
A growing need to feel every single hard inch of this man.
We fall back onto the couch, with Chase on top of me. I widen my legs, welcoming him in between. Want swells inside of me, turning desperate with each kiss Chase gives. He sits up, tearing his mouth away from mine, and gathers my dress up around my waist. And then he stops.
“I see flashing lights,” he pants. “Through the trees.”
“Crap. The cops are almost here then.” I put my hands on his chest, admiring the tattoos. “I lost track of time.”
“Yeah, it did kind of slip away.”
He’s still on top of me. I’m still tracing the black lines of his tattoos, following the curves of a sun that’s inked onto his flesh. I slide my hands up and over his shoulders, bringing him back down to me. “We should go.”
“Yeah,” he whispers, putting his lips to mine. “We should.”
I’m lying down, but the world is spinning around me. I’ve never felt like this before. So damn attracted to someone. Hardly able to control myself. Desperate for more.
In the first time in over a year, I’m feeling something other than numbness and pain. I’m alive again, and living feels good.
Having more control than me, Chase gets up and picks his shirt up off the floor, turning it right-side out and putting it on. I smooth out my dress, fish my keys from my purse, and put my shoes on. We get into my car and speed down the gravel drive, coming to a stop just in time for the police to turn off the private road and onto my parents’ driveway.
Chase and I wait by the front door. The police car stops and I recognize Rob before he’s fully out of the car.
“Hey, Sierra,” he says, eyes going to Chase. Trying to suppress a smile, he gives me a small nod of approval and comes around the car. His partner, a younger man whose name escapes me, stands outside the car, looking at my parents’ house in awe. It is impressive when seeing it up close for the first time. I take the ostentatious curb appeal for granted. It’s just home to me.
“Did the security people talk to you?” I ask, turning to unlock the door.
“Yeah. They said a motion sensor picked up movement. Is it Marley again?”
“I think so.” I open the door and step in, sliding my hand up and down the wall to find the switch for the chandelier that hangs above us in the two-story foyer. “Come on in and have a look. None of the other motion sensors picked up anything, so it has to be Marley or someone’s been hiding in the sunroom for hours and finally decided to get up and stretch their legs.”
Rob laughs. “That sounds like the most likely cause.”
“I knew it.” I shut the door and take my shoes off out of habit. My mom would throw a fit seeing Rob and his partner walk into the foyer with their shoes on, but I’m not asking them to take them off. Chase, however, sees me take mine off and follows suit.
“Holy shit,” Rob’s partner mumbles, running his eyes up the sweeping staircase. I lead the way to the sunroom in the back of the house, turning on lights as I go.
“Marley?” I call, pausing in the threshold in the sunroom. His cage is open, and the extra clips my mom put on to keep him in, lay in pieces on the ground. “That bird is too smart for his own good.” I shake my head. “Well, we know who the culprit is. Unless the person who’s been hiding in here also took Marley with them. Which seems unlikely. So you guys can go.”
“You need help finding the bird?” Rob asks.
“Nah, he’ll turn up, but thanks.” I walk Rob and his partner out, closing the door behind them.
“How the hell are you going to find a bird in this big house?” Chase asks, eyeing the large foyer.
“Marley is an African Grey. He’s pretty big and if he’s not already in the kitchen trying to get into the pantry, I’ll make popcorn.”
“Popcorn?”
“He’s obsessed. But he can only have like one or two pieces at a time because it’s not good for him.”
We go back through the house and into the kitchen. Marley is sitting on the lip of the fruit bowl, working on an apple. He looks up when he sees us, ruffling his feather.
“Dead men. Dead men,” he squawks.
Chase looks at me, eyebrows pinched. “Did he just say what I think he said?”
“Yeah. I tried to teach him to say ‘dead men tell no tales’ from Pirates of the Caribbean but it was too long of a phrase. So now he just says ‘dead men’ when he sees me.”
Amused, Chase shakes his head. “That’s not creepy at all.”
I go to the counter, holding out my arm. Marley takes another chunk out of the apple and lands on my arm, walking up to my shoulder. He rubs his beak—sticky with apple juice—on my face. I gently stroke his feathers and grab his half-eaten apple.
“Come on, mister,” I say and turn. “It’s bedtime.” I put Marley back in his cage, give him the apple, and shut the sunroom doors. “I can disable that sensor,” I tell Chase, pointing to the little detector on the ceiling. “So if he gets out again, he’ll be confined to this room and won’t set off the alarm again.”
“Good idea.”
“Thanks for coming with me.”
“Sierra, you can stop thanking me.”
“Okay.” I smile like I do when I’m nervous, becoming suddenly aware of every sensation in my body. We head out after I close up the house, and the whole time I’m mentally going over what I should say to Chase because I know he’s going to ask me if I want him to stay.
I do.
I miss having someone next to me. I miss waking up with strong arms wrapped around me. I like not being alone. Saying that out loud will come off lame. Pathetic maybe. Part of me nags away, demanding I just come out and say it.
We get into my car and I haven’t said a word.
I drive as slow as I can, trying to muster up the courage.
I say nothing.
The car comes to a stop in my driveway. I look at the time before I shut it off. It’s three twenty-one in the morning. Three. Two. One. I can do this. I close my eyes.
“I guess I’ll head out,” Chase says.
Three. Two. One.
I open my eyes, looking right at Chase. Moonlight dances across his handsome face, casting shadows on his stubble-covered jaw. I remember the texture of his scar under my finger, the way he felt pressed up against me.
Three…two…one. “Stay.”
His hazel eyes lighten. “Okay.”