Between the Seams (9 page)

Despite her teasing words, desire had punched her—hard—in the belly at the thought of going back to her place...or rather, probably his place, considering she was currently staying with her grandmother.

“Generally, no. And not with you. Definitely not with you.”

Their bodies continued to sway together, almost of their own volition, and Jo realized that the words held a ring of truth. One dance wouldn’t be enough, couldn’t be enough.

His fingers dug into her hip and his breath was ragged in her ear. “What are you thinking?”

She lightly, almost imperceptibly, rubbed her cheek against his, her already frayed nerves sparking at the feel of his stubble against her skin. And she took a chance, decided to be bold and follow Jenn’s advice to live in the present rather than the past. “That I really, really want you to kiss me.”

Jo felt the slight stumble her words caused, and smiled.

Chase pulled away from her, tunneled those long pitcher’s fingers through his hair. “I need some fresh air. How about you?”

Suddenly feeling unsure, Jo tucked her hair behind her ears and bit down on the inside of her cheek. “Um…sure?”

Chase grabbed her hand and led her through the bar to the back entrance, which opened up to a patio area where folks could enjoy food, conversation, or just escape from the crowd inside. Tonight, it was empty. Everyone was inside, wanting a piece of Matt.

Without warning, Chase turned, grabbed Jo’s other hand and pushed her up against the back wall of the building. The fairy lights strung around the edges of the patio cast his face in shadow. Her heart rate picked up, slammed against her chest as if she’d just finished sprinting towards the finish line. He pressed his lower body into hers, pinning her against the wall.

She idly wondered if she should be scared at this new, unseen side of Chase, but was absolutely thrilled instead.

Dimly, her gaze focused on nothing but his face, every part of her body
aware
of his body pressed against hers. Josh Abbott Band’s “Oh, Tonight” floated through the air, muted by walls and doors and the bubble of desire wrapped around them. Chase softly sang along with the song, reciting lyrics about being kissed on the mouth and fighting feelings for a long time.

Before she could formulate a thought—much less a response—Chase claimed her mouth with his own. Hard. Hurried. Like she was water in the middle of the desert and he’d been walking for days. She kissed him back, met his tongue thrust for thrust.

Jo’s fingers dug into his shoulders, holding on for dear life.

Too much. It was all too much. His lips. His tongue. The feel of him, hard and ready and apparently big pressing her between her thighs.

She was drowning. She needed air.

Was she sure this was what she wanted?

His fingers tunneled through her hair, grabbed hold at the base of her head.

She’d never been one to enjoy hair pulling, but holy hell just like that she felt her body go up in flames.

My God, we really are going to set the world on fire.

Jo’s hands drifted from Chase’s broad shoulders to his chest. Around to his back and then to his stomach, which was flat and taut through his t-shirt. Back around, where they settled on his ass and grabbed, trying to pull him even closer.

Chase’s hands unwound themselves from her hair, smoothed over her neck to her face, which he cupped with both hands. They fed on each other’s mouths, desire pooling and aching between her legs, in her belly. Her breasts felt full, tender and heavy, her nipples hard and too sensitive against the cups of her bra.

He backed her up fully against the wall before reaching down to pick up her boot-clad feet and guide them so that they were wrapped around his waist.

Pinned fully against the wall with her legs locked around that taut waist, her sundress bunched around her hips, the only thing between their bodies was a flimsy pair of panties and the denim of his jeans.

His hands cupped her bottom, helping to hold her up while his mouth left hers to trail hot, wet kisses along her jaw and then along her neck. He rubbed against her, the bulge behind the denim creating a delicious friction that only left her wanting more.

Chase sucked on her neck, bit down lightly and pushed against her harder. Jo gasped and moaned, too lost in sensation to care if anyone heard her.

The friction against her clit, his hands on her ass and his mouth at her neck were too much. Not enough. God, she wanted more. Needed more. She needed his hands all over her, that amazing mouth on her breasts and him deep inside of her.

His hips tilted against her again, and she could feel the pressure building, but didn’t want to go there alone.

“Chase.” His name came out on a breathy moan.

“Hmm?”

Jo swallowed, trying to clear her head long enough to tell him what she wanted. He pushed his hips against her again, and slipped one hand under the elastic of her panties. Her broken thoughts scattered as his thumb played at her entrance, swirling and dipping, teasing as his denim clad cock continued to rub against her clit.

He captured her lips again, thrust his tongue into her mouth in a way that could only make her think of his hard length thrusting into her. His thumb pressed inside, thrusting in time with his tongue and his cock against her clit. She wrapped her arms around his neck, grabbed his thick brown hair with her hands as her body moved in time with his.

Her tongue met his thrust for thrust, her body moved with his pelvis and thumb, falling naturally into a rhythm together. His thumb pressed deeper, swirled before being replaced with two different fingers, which pressed into her, stroking, coaxing.

A new pressure built, one she’d never felt before with anyone else.

Too much. It was too much.

Oh, God.

Her orgasm broke, spasms that gripped his fingers and that she felt from the top of her head to her toes. Her scalp tingled. She felt like her entire body was on fire, exploding and pulsing as liquid heat rushed from her body and soaked his hand and her panties.

Stunned, Jo opened her eyes and met Chase’s gaze. Those melted chocolate eyes looked like they’d been sprinkled with cinnamon—hot and sweet.

He kissed her again, long and hard, and her body tightened against his fingers again. Her breath hitched, and he pulled his mouth away. His gaze roamed over her face, unfulfilled desire etched across it.

“Are you gonna come for me again?” he whispered.

Her inner muscles convulsed again. Once. Twice.

“Not without you, Chase.”

His eyes darkened and the hand still cupped around her ass flexed.

“Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Take me home with you.”

He brushed a sweet, hesitant kiss over her lips and nodded. “Do you want me to go grab your purse, or do you want to?”

“I’ll get it.”

Slowly, reluctantly, they pulled apart from each other. Jo set her feet back on the ground, her knees wobbly and thighs shaky. For long moments they just stood there, staring at each other before Jo finally broke the spell and said, “I’ll go get my purse and meet you in the parking lot.”

Chase nodded and grinned. “Make it quick.”

Jo couldn’t hide her smile as she walked back into the bar on unsteady legs.

~~*~~

Chapter Eleven

Chase drew an unsteady breath and ran his hands over his face, Jo’s scent still on his fingers. His dick grew harder, which he hadn’t known was possible.

The heavy July air settled around him, and he tried to strike a casual pose against the driver’s side door of his truck as he waited for Jo to join him.

A lethal combination of nerves and desire gripped him, churning in his stomach and tossing around in his brain.

Chase
thunked
his head against the window behind him.

Breathe, Roberts. Breathe.

He couldn’t remember the last time he’d wanted a woman so much. Jo did something to him, twisted him up inside until he didn’t know which way was up or down. Twisted him up so that he lost his head and did stupid, erotic things in public.

How they hadn’t been caught was anyone’s guess, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. The last thing they needed were headlines about a local businessman (and Matt Roberts’ little brother) and the daughter of the town’s formerly best-known adulterer getting caught doing the hanky-panky behind a local bar. He had a reputation and business to think about, and she had a grandmother she didn’t want to disappoint. Not to mention if word got back to her school he was pretty sure she could lose her job.

Chase glanced down at his watch.

Where was she?

He looked back to the entrance of the bar, willing her to walk out while at the same time wondering what the hell he was doing. This was Jo. His childhood friend. First love. Only love, if he was being honest with himself. The girl who’d one minute been his best friend, and the next would barely look at him.

Suddenly, she was there, walking towards him, and all of the crap from their past didn’t seem to matter so much. Her flimsy cotton sundress fluttered around her knees. Brown, embroidered cowboy boots lovingly caressed her calves. His palms itched to replace those boots; she had amazing legs. Legs he’d fantasized about ever since that day at the lake. Her full, firm breasts strained against the buttons that marched from her cleavage to her waist. His fingers twitched involuntarily as he raked her body with his gaze.

And then she was in front of him, her breath a little less uneven and her color not quite as high, but in the dim lights of the parking lot he could barely make out the hardened peaks of her nipples pressing against the blue cotton of her dress.

They stood there for long moments, staring at each other. Lust and uncertainty played across Jo’s face, and Chase was glad he wasn’t the only one feeling those things.

“You rode here with Jenn, right?”

Jo swallowed and nodded.

He inclined his head towards his truck and smiled. “Hitch a ride with me?”

“Sure.”

Chase followed Jo around to the passenger side, opened the door and held it as she grabbed the oh shit handle and hoisted herself into the big, black pickup. He closed the door and circled around to the driver’s side.

Once enclosed in the relative privacy of the cab of the truck, he turned to look at her, knowing that everything he was feeling was written all over his face.

Jo reached out and cupped his cheek. “You okay over there?”

Chase snorted. “Isn’t that supposed to be my line?”

Jo laughed and leaned towards him so that she could brush her lips over his. He felt the light touch all the way to his groin.

Her lips were gone almost as soon as they touched his. “Take me home, Chase?”

He turned the key in the ignition and threw the truck into drive without waiting to make sure the glow plugs had warmed up. Hell, it was still ninety-five degrees outside. He wasn’t sure they had much warming up to do.

Chase pulled out of the parking space he’d backed in to and made a left out of the parking lot. They made the trip in silence, the radio the only sound. As he turned on to Veteran’s Boulevard he reached over and grabbed her hand, needing the feel of her to anchor him in reality.

It had been a long time since he’d taken a woman home. The last one had been well over a year ago, and had blabbed about it on some internet message board where sports groupies went to swap stories. After the chastising phone call from his mother and the teasing text from his brother, he’d made the decision to no longer take women to his place. Instead, he went to their’s—until that had ended, too.

Now here he was, speeding through the night towards his house with a beautiful, eager woman beside him. Nerves once again pushed, threatening to ruin his night.

This was Jo. No need to be nervous. Except he couldn’t help but be nervous. Usually, he didn’t care about the scars. They were there and had helped make him the man he was today. He knew some women saw them as a turn-off, while others thought of them almost as exotic. Others felt sympathy. Those were the ones that really grated.

What would Jo think?

Sure, she knew about his childhood illness, or at least of it if not the down and dirty details. But she’d only seen the scars that one time, the summer before everything went to hell. Would they turn her on? Weird her out? Would she feel sorry for him?

Reflexively, his hand tightened its grip on hers at the thought of Jo being grossed out, and then looking at him with pity from those big blue green eyes.

He could feel those eyes on him now as he made the turn into his neighborhood by the lake. Instead of addressing any sort of concern, she commented, “Nice neighborhood. Movin’ on up a little, huh?”

Chase grinned. “Just a little. Not that I don’t love the neighborhood we grew up in, but the places here have bigger yards.”

“Privacy?”

He glanced at her quickly before making the turn on to his street. “How’d you guess?”

“You’re a fairly private man, Chase Roberts, and I can’t say I blame you.”

They reached his house, and he hit the garage door button. The door rolled up, and he pulled his big truck into the garage.

“How the hell did you manage to get this thing in here?”

“Custom garage. When the house was built, I asked them to increase the dimensions on the garage so I could park in here.”

“Privacy again?”

“That and thieves. No use leaving a big truck out where it’s easy pickings. Tailgates and trucks both vanish pretty quickly in a border town.” He turned off the truck and hit the button to lower the garage door. As it went down, Chase got out, rounded the hood of the truck and opened Jo’s door for her.

“Such a gentleman.” She smiled down at him.

“You might not be saying that later.”

She blushed, swung her legs out of the truck so that her toes rested on the running boards and said, “I hope not.”

Desire punched him in the gut again, and Chase couldn’t help but assist her out of the truck. Anything to put his hands on her.

Jo’s body slid along his as he helped lower her to the ground, the friction causing her dress to slide and bunch up around the tops of her thighs. Slowly, Chase stepped back, deciding that maybe distance would be a good thing—at least until they got inside and there was a proper surface available. Preferably a horizontal one.

He took her hand, turned and led her into the house. The garage opened into a large utility room. On a panel beside the door an alarm tone sounded. Chase punched his PIN into the number pad and the buzzing stopped.

He opened the door that led from the utility room and almost tripped over Winchester.

The three-year-old Great Pyrenees lifted his big head off the cool floor, shot him a baleful look, sighed and
thunked
his head back onto the floor.

Chase nudged Winchester with the toe of his boot. “Come on, Win. Up and at ‘em.”

Sighing, Winchester heaved all one hundred and twenty-three pounds of muscle, fat and fur, took three steps into the kitchen and away from the door and plopped down again.

Chase heard a chuckle from behind him. “He’s quite the character, isn’t he?”

“You have no idea,” Chase said as he led her into the kitchen. “Sometimes I swear he thinks he’s a human rather than a dog.”

“Is it okay if I pet him?”

“Absolutely. You’ll probably end up with a friend for life.”

He watched as Jo walked over to where Winchester was sprawled across the floor, drool already puddling under his big snout. She squatted and held out her hand. Winchester lifted his head and reached out to nudge her palm with his nose.

Slowly—because Winchester rarely did anything quickly—the big dog got up and stood so that he and Jo were eye to eye. He gave her a once over, sniffed a few times and then wagged his tail seconds before placing his big paw into Jo’s still outstretched hand.

“Oh, he’s giving me paw!”

“He doesn’t do that with just anybody.”

Jo looked up and over at Chase. “So you’re saying I’m special, huh?”

Chase nodded, and Winchester decided he wasn’t getting enough attention, so he nudged Jo’s other hand with his nose until she turned her attention back to him.

“Insistent, aren’t you big guy?”

Chase chuckled. “I’m pretty sure he thinks the world revolves around him.” He reached out and scratched behind Winchester’s ears, coaxing out his big doggy grin.

“Such a happy boy. You’re just a big happy boy, aren’t you Win?” Jo buried her fingers in Winchester’s double coat. Winchester, apparently in doggy heaven, did something he rarely did to anyone other than Chase—licked Jo’s chin.

“Oh, thank you, Win. Thank you for the kisses. You’re such a sweet, handsome boy.”

Win snuggled closer and buried his head in Jo’s chest. She laughed as she lost her balance and gracelessly ended up sitting on his kitchen floor. Win, never one to miss a prime opportunity, snuggled as close as he could before plopping his big body into Jo’s lap. He let out a contented sigh, and looked up at Chase as if to say, “Ha ha. Snooze you lose, buddy.”

Jo laughed and stroked her fingers through Win’s thick fur. “He’s definitely a charmer. Aren’t you, Winchester? You handsome boy, you.” The dog’s tail thumped once. As Chase stood there in the middle of his kitchen, staring down at this woman and his dog, the words from the song that had been playing back at the bar, “Oh, Tonight,” filtered through his head, the part about it being too late because the singer had already fallen in love.

While he didn’t think he was there yet, he was man enough to realize he was treading in dangerous waters here.

“Do you need anything to drink?”

Jo looked up at him and grinned. “Some water would be great. If you could help me get up it would be appreciated; while I’m very much head over heels for Winchester here, this floor isn’t exactly comfortable to sit on.”

Chase laughed and then clapped twice. Winchester lifted his big head and glared. “Come on, big guy, gotta get up and move.”

Winchester sighed—again—and hefted his big body up. Sensing that Chase wasn’t playing around, he made his way to the gigantic dog crate in his corner of the kitchen, entered it and flopped back down.

The dog taken care of, Chase reached down and offered Jo a hand. She took it and used it to help herself up off the floor.

Chase pulled open the door of the fridge and reached in and grabbed a couple bottles of water. He handed one to Jo before asking, “So do you want the full tour now or later?”

He wasn’t sure where the abruptness of his question came from, but Jo didn’t seem to mind.

“How about we do an abbreviated tour right now?”

Chase nodded, took her free hand in his and led her through the kitchen and into the living room. “This is the living room.”

“Mmm. Nice.”

He gestured toward a closed door to the right. “That’s the formal dining room. It gets used maybe once a year.”

“As is the case with most formal dining rooms.”

“Yup.”

They turned and started up a curved staircase, which opened up to a large loft area.

“This is the loft.” He gestured to their right. “Those are the guest bedrooms and my home office.” He turned them left and led them to a closed door. He reached out, nerves dancing in his stomach again.

Get a grip, Roberts, it’s not like you’re a virgin bringing home a girl for the first time.

“And this is my bedroom.”

As he crossed the threshold the lights came up until the room was diffused with a warm glow.

Jo wandered further into his bedroom, and he clicked the door closed; if he didn’t, Winchester would decide to intrude.

Chase walked over to his iPod docking station, turned on some music and watched as Jo explored his bedroom. Placed her purse on his dresser. Touched the smooth oak that was stained a dark, rich brown. He watched as she sauntered over to his king-sized bed, with its light green coverlet and tan sheets and wondered what she was thinking.

Instead of asking, he simply continued to watch her movements, realizing that he liked the look of her here.

Jo trailed her fingers over the green coverlet before turning and walking—slowly—back to him. She stopped inches away.

Randy Roger Band’s “Kiss Me in the Dark” filtered through the in-ceiling speakers that were connected to the iPod dock, and Jo wrapped her arms around his neck. “Dance with me?”

Chase lifted an eyebrow. “This is kind of an odd song to dance to, beat and all.”

“I know.” She smiled, and suddenly all of her bravado was gone. “I get the impression that both of us are dealing with some hella nerves right now, though.”

“Is that right, counselor?”

She nodded. “I know why I’m nervous, but what about you? What’s got you so tense?”

Instead of answering he pulled her into his arms and began to sway their bodies. It wasn’t in time with the music but he didn’t care—he just needed something to stall.

He turned her question back on her. “What has you so nervous all of a sudden?”

She shook her head. “Nu uh. I asked first.”

He sighed. “It’s, uh, been a while and I don’t want to disappoint you?”

Jo pulled back enough so that she could see his face. “How long is ‘a while’ for you, cowboy?”

“About a year.”

She stumbled slightly before regaining her composure. “Seriously? But you’re so…a year, really?”