“I figured every guy there would want you,” I say seriously.
“I’m not that pretty, Chase.”
“Devaney, you’re the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.”
“Like I said before, big fish, little pond.”
“In that little pond, you used to like to kiss me. I’m thinking if we’re going to truly become friends again, it is going to be required.”
“Oh, really?” she says, but her hand moves from my abs, where it was resting, to the waistband of my swim trunks.
I reach out and push a stray piece of hair out of her face. Which causes her to shiver.
“You cold?”
“Uh, kinda,” she says, but she’s lying.
There’s no way she could be cold when I feel like I’m on fire.
Lights me up inside.
Devaney
The second the thought crosses my mind that I wish Chase would kiss me, he does.
I’ve done my fair share of making out—especially with him.
But I’ve never been kissed like this before.
His kiss is so soft, so tender, and so full of emotion that I almost want to cry.
Chase picks me up, and I wrap my legs around his waist, not wanting him to go anywhere. He takes a few steps backward and sits down, me in his lap.
He kisses me softly and then suddenly kisses me with more intensity than I ever knew existed.
This is definitely not the best-friend kiss.
It’s the kiss that lights me up inside.
That causes my heart to race.
My blood to rush.
It’s like when the gas is on for too long before you light the grill, and there’s practically an audible whoosh as it ignites.
His hands move under the towel I have wrapped around my shoulders and push it off. Suddenly, my wet bra is gone, too.
All I can do is respond to him.
It’s like my brain is on overload, and it can’t quite process the way Chase’s chest feels against mine after all this time. Or the way his lips blaze a trail of fire down my chest.
I resort to some kind of mimicking mode.
After he kisses my chest, I greedily run my lips down his. When he pulls me closer, I grip his waist tightly.
It’s then that he makes a noise that sounds like a growl. It’s a primal noise. One that turns me on.
And when he slides his hands into the back of my underwear and he lifts me up, stripping them off me and flinging them onto the deck, I push his board shorts off and move back on top of him.
I can feel his hardness against me.
And all I can think is, Please.
Please don’t tease me anymore.
Please get closer to me.
Please be my everything again.
“Please,” I say breathlessly. “Please.”
Then, all I can think is, Please, don’t stop.
Like, ever.
Eventually though, he collapses against me.
I kiss his neck. The neck that has always been my favorite scent. And I wrap my arms around him tightly.
He runs his hands through my hair and says, “Devaney,” which is the most beautiful thing I’ve heard in a very long time.
But at the same time, I’m also thinking, I can’t believe I just slept with Chase.
Again.
“This might be the best night of my life,” Chase says.
“Because of the sex?”
“Not just because of it,” he says with a chuckle, “although that was as incredible as ever. You gave me back your friendship. At least, I hope that’s what the pizza meant.”
“Is that what you want? For us to be friends?”
“If you are asking if I want to be just your friend, no. But more than that, I don’t want to lose you from my life again. You and I get each other. We always have. I love your brother, and there’s a lot I tell him, but I’ve never been as close to anyone as I am with you. Or as honest. When we stopped being friends, I sorta felt like you’d died, but then I still had to see you. And that was almost worse.”
“Like a constant reminder that you’d failed?” I ask him, totally understanding.
He leans back further, studying my face, his eyes narrowed in on me. “Is that how you feel?”
I nod.
“It’s in the past,” he says. “Let’s focus on the present.”
“Ohmigosh, Chase, speaking of presents. Happy birthday! I got you a present. I wish I had brought it with the pizza.”
“Oh shit,” he says, glancing at his sports watch. “It is my birthday. My parents are going to kill me.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s after midnight.”
“That’s why I’m home. Although I always used to spend the night, so I could help throw confetti and stuff on you. It was always so much fun! I remember your mom telling me that your dad, every year since they were little, would wake her up by throwing a whole bunch of stuff at her. Like candy, toys, confetti. And that’s how it became a family tradition.” But then I look at him in realization. “Oh, but you’re not there. You’re out here.”
“And I left my phone on the deck.”
“I don’t have mine either.”
“And I didn’t tell anyone we were leaving.”
“Shit. Are we going to be in trouble?”
“I don’t know, but we’d better get back,” he says.
As we come around the corner toward our cove, he says, “I was going to turn off the lights and motor and sneak in, but that would make it look like we were hiding something. So, I won’t. Okay?”
“Okay,” I tell him.
Although I wish we could have stayed in the boat forever, I know his family is not going to be happy that he’s not home. I consider going with him, but he says he’ll deal with it if they are still up. He walks me to my door and gives me another really good kiss.
The kind of kiss that I missed so desperately.
“Text me when you get in bed. I’m not ready to tell you good night just yet.”
And, yes, I swoon. “Okay,” I say happily, practically skipping through the front door.
“Where have you been, young lady?” my dad’s deep voice says sternly.
“Uh, out.”
“Just because you’re in college and you can do whatever you want there doesn’t mean when you come home, you don’t have to let us know where you are. We’ve been worried sick. Gosh, I hate when you make me sound like my mother,” he says, which causes Jennifer, who is sitting on the couch next to him, to chuckle.
She comes over and gives me a big hug. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I was just next door. I took pizza over after the game, and then Chase and I took the pontoon out. I’m sorry you were worried.”
“We’ve been calling your cell,” my dad says.
“I didn’t plan on being gone long.” I point toward the ceiling. “It’s up in my room. I just—” What the heck am I even supposed to say? I want to go up in my room, lie in my bed, and relive what it felt like to be back in Chase’s arms.
And text him.
“Did you two make up?” Jennifer asks, studying me closely.
I know my clothes are all wrinkled and wet, and I suppose my hair is a mess, and my lips are probably red from so much kissing, but I could look this way if I’d been out in the boat. Right?