Best Served Cold

“Chase.” She pointed at my store next door. “You totally deserved that, and you know it.”

“What changed your mind?” I asked the question before I could stop myself. “What made you stop bitching me out?”

Sighing, she stood up straight and took a few steps back into the counter behind her. She gripped the top of it. Her eyes darted down to the ground, and she quickly let go of the counter and wrapped her arms around her waist.

“Rae?”

“You were too nice.” She met my eyes with a one-shoulder shrug. “How could I hate you when you were so nice? Then the other night on the beach…” She tightened her grip on herself. “Everyone can change their mind, Chase. Even when I said I needed to figure out if the way I felt was just because you were right here or if because those feelings were real.”

My heart thumped in my chest. What was she saying? Was she saying the way she felt was real? That there was something there? That we had something again?

“What are you saying, Rae?”

“I’m saying I don’t know. I still don’t know.” She drew in a deep breath, seemingly not letting it out.

I knew. I fucking knew. I knew what she was saying to me.

And what she was actually saying was a pile of shit.

I dropped the spoon. It fell to the counter with a clatter and bounced onto the floor. The metal clinked as it scattered, flipping a few times before it came to rest against the wall.

I only had eyes for Rae.

I reached her in steps. Barely anything at all. She didn’t move. Not even a flinch.

Not a damn thing as I cupped the back of her neck and pressed my lips to hers.

She could tell me she didn’t know all she liked, but she did. She fucking did. She fucking knew how she felt and she knew it was damn real.

If I had to kiss her to make her admit how she felt about me, then you could bet your ass I was going to kiss the ever-loving fuck out of her.

And that was what I did.

I grabbed her face and kissed her.

Rae gripped my shirt, her nails tickling me as she wound the material in her hands. She was already pressed against the counter, but she kissed me back hungrily, tugging me right against her.

Blood pumped through my body. I kissed her harder than I’d ever kissed anyone in my life. Goosebumps erupted over my skin. I felt like I was going fucking crazy.

I slid my hands down her body as hers moved up mine. Lifting her onto the empty counter, I stepped between her legs and pulled her right against me.

My cock was rock hard, and I wanted her to know.

I wanted her to know what she did to me.

I wanted her to know how badly I wanted her.

Rae’s hands curved around my neck as she pressed herself into me. She wrapped her legs around my waist, and as my cock nestled firm between her legs, it took all my willpower not to groan.

Fuck.

I wanted her. I wanted her so fucking bad it was almost painful not to undo my pants, move her underwear to the side and take her right here on this counter.

All I could say was thank fuck the blinds were down.

I pulled back and touched my nose to hers. I couldn’t keep kissing her without taking it further, and I was certain that having sex in a place that sells food would get her shut down.

“I can’t—” I took a deep breath and leaned back so I could meet her eyes. “If you keep kissing me like that, you’re gonna need an awful lot of disinfectant.”

Rae brushed her thumb over my jaw. Conflict waged in her eyes, and I could see that she was trying to decide what to do.

She was trying to decide whether or not to take this further, because if she did, she knew the game was up.

She’d have to admit she had real feelings for me.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE – RAELYNN

I didn’t know what to do.

I knew what my body wanted. The throbbing between my legs was intense, and my heart was beating straight out of my chest. Desire tingled as it flushed through my veins.

I already knew that what I was feeling for Chase was nothing residual. They were so real I could reach inside and tug them out to put on display if I really wanted to.

It’d been, what? A week? Ten days? How long had it been since I started this renovation and he plowed back into my life like a comet? Because that was what it felt like.

It felt as though he’d flown into my life at lightspeed, bringing a blazing trail of change with him.

If I gave into what my body—and very obviously his—wanted, there would be no turning back. There would be no more denial, and the only thing left would be seeing if we could make a relationship work again.