Ready to Love Again (Sweet Romance #2) (20 page)

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

Chase

I can’t believe I nearly called Alyssa my girlfriend. What a dumbass mistake to make on a first date. Thankfully, she either didn’t notice or decided to let me off for saying it. Then Jet went and introduced her to the band as my girlfriend and I swear I nearly died. Nothing was said about it though, she obviously isn’t one to make a fuss in public, and hopefully she won’t when we were alone either.

I look at her as she’s sat talking animatedly to Jet and the guys and I can’t help but smile to myself, she really is passionate about music and from the conversation, I learned that she is into all different styles of music. I am so glad I chose this as our first date. She’d mentioned DragonQuest to me in conversation at work before and I knew then that I would ask Mark, aka Jet, to let us backstage after a gig. We’d known each other for years and I’d been to so many gigs over the last few years. It even turns out that I’ve been to some of the same ones as Alyssa. She didn’t know they were playing so close to home, I guess she’d been busy with work, so I managed to get us tickets and passes. Seeing her eyes light up as she talks is well worth a hundred times what I paid for the tickets, and then some.

“So Alyssa, how long have you and Chase been an item?”

My ears pricked up at this question from Jet. I had hoped he wouldn’t pry.

“Oh not long,” she lied smoothly. I can’t believe she actually went along with it.

“How did you meet?”

“We met at work actually. I moved to the area a little while ago and found a job at Emerging Butterfly. I bumped into Chase on my first day there.”

“Cool. I’ve known him since we were teenagers, he’s a great guy. He’s also a lucky guy, how else would he get a hot tamale like you?”

Seeing the blush rise from her neck to her cheeks, I know I have to rescue her from this line of questioning, but I can’t help thinking she’s beautiful with rose-tinted cheeks.

“Alyssa, I hate to drag you away, but we do have somewhere to be after this and we’re going to be late if we don’t get going soon,” I interjected.

“Oh, and we were just getting to know each other,” Jet pouted and looked at us with puppy dog eyes.

“Man, that puppy dog eye thing might work to get a girl into bed, but I’m a guy, so it ain’t working on me,” I replied.

I reach my hand out to Alyssa and help her from the couch.

“It was great to meet you, Jet, but we do have plans. I’m sorry,” she said with a smile that could melt hearts.

“It was good to meet you too, Alyssa. You have such passion about music and you’ve been to so many of our gigs. Next time we’re in the area, I’ll drop Chase a text and we can all meet up again,” Jet said as he reached to hug her goodbye.

“That would be great, we’ll see you then,” she replied as she hugged him back.

We said goodbye to the rest of the band before leaving the way we came. We got all the way to my car—hand in hand—before Lys spoke.

“Hot tamale? Jet sure is something else, huh?” She smiled at me as I held open her door.

“Umm, that’s one way of putting it. He’s certainly unique.”

I closed her door and got in the car. We didn’t really have plans, but I wasn’t ready for this night to end.

“So, what are these ‘other plans’ you mentioned?” Her voice breaks my train of thought.

“Umm…Yeah…About that…” I didn’t know what to say. I hadn’t really thought it through beyond getting away from Jet’s prying.

“It’s okay, I could feel you were uncomfortable with Jet’s questioning. Lying about how long we’d been dating was easy, but the conversation would’ve just got harder from there.”

You can’t say Lys isn’t intuitive, but it wasn’t me I was thinking about.

“It was actually you I was thinking of, I was trying to save you having to lie. I didn’t really fancy telling him the truth after him assuming we were a couple though. I guess, well, I liked the idea of someone thinking we were a proper couple.”

“Truth is, I didn’t mind either.” Her response was so quiet that I thought for a moment I had imagined it.

All I can do is smile as I try to keep my eyes on the road but I’m drawn to take a quick peek at her beautiful face. I’m trying to come up with a plan off the top of my head that will keep her out with me tonight, but I’m coming up empty.

“We could go back to mine, open a bottle of wine, and call you a cab later,” I suggest as we head back towards Brockwood.

“That would be nice.”

I risk taking another glance at her and what I see fills my heart. She’s turned slightly in her seat to face me and the moonlight makes her whole face light up. Her mouth quirks to one side as she catches me looking her way. She has the sweetest smile and I want to do everything in my power to keep her smiling, always. Being unable to tell her how in love with her I am in this moment is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. But I must keep my feelings to myself for now, or run the risk of scaring her away. 

Tonight has been the best night I’ve had in a long time. It’s been such a long time since I went on a first date, I’d forgotten what it was like to feel that first rush of pure joy. My life was kind of a mess before, but now that Alyssa is in it, it seems a better place to be.

The rest of the drive back to my place is filled with a comfortable silence. If she were any other woman, I would think silence on a first date would suggest she was bored, but Alyssa Young isn’t any other woman. She’s beyond compare. I haven’t felt my heart filled with so much love since…well, just in a long time.

I pull up on my driveway and go around to her side of the car. It seems she has learned to be patient and wait for me to open it for her. She’s usually so headstrong she does everything for herself, but I was brought up with old-fashioned values and opening doors for a woman is just second nature to me. Alyssa looks at me as I offer my hand to help her from the car. She smiles and places her hand in mine. It feels good to touch her, even just the touch of a hand. I want more, so much more, but only fools rush in. I need to give her time to figure out where she wants to take it from here and I don’t just mean where she wants to take it tonight. I mean the future. I wonder if she can fall for me the way I have fallen for her.

I walk to my door with her soft hand safely ensconced in mine. I let us in and take her jacket to hang up for her. My hand is cold and empty, but not for long as she slips hers right back into mine as we walk into my kitchen.

“Red, white, or rose?” I ask as I walk to the wine rack.

“White please,” she answers as she drinks in the sight of my kitchen. She’s only been here once before and though I gave her a tour, she didn’t have the time to sit and appreciate all the hard work Parker had put in to making this house my home.

I take a bottle of white wine out of the rack, retrieve two glasses from the cupboard, and walk to the kitchen island. I look at her and see her radiant skin, the fiery red hair that reaches almost to her elbows and is tonight set in soft waves. But most of all, I am captivated by her eyes. They take me to another place entirely.

“This place really is stunning,” she says, breaking into my daydream of swimming in her ocean eyes.

“Thanks. I told you last time, my cousin Parker did a hell of a job on the renovations.”

I’ve always taken pride in my home. It’s the one place where I can come and be me. Over the years, I have had to get over so many obstacles that as soon as I found the job at Emerging Butterfly just three years ago, I knew I had to buy a house here and settle down. I had been living in rented accommodation until I bought this place. It wasn’t much more than a shell in the beginning but over the next several months, it began to take shape and became a true home.

“He did a superb job. I absolutely love the view from the windows too. It looks across some beautiful land.”

“You should see it in daylight, it’s even more beautiful. Would you like to go through to the lounge?”

“Sure,” she agreed, hopping down from the stool.

I led her into the lounge and set her wine on the coffee table next to the couch. I turned on my iPod dock to play some music quietly while we chatted.

***

I ask Alyssa if she wants to watch a movie, considering she’s stood browsing my large selection of DVDs. I left the choice to her and she chose wisely. I get up to put the movie on and as I take the case from her, our fingers brush, causing her skin to break out in goose bumps. I don’t think she’s realised I noticed. I smile to myself, liking the reaction our touch has on her.

We sit together on the couch and though it’s relatively warm in the lounge, I grab a throw blanket and pull it over our laps. Admittedly, it’s a bit of a ploy to get us to remain close. I reach for the remote and inhale the sensual scent of her—it’s like a mixture of whatever fragrance she’s wearing and the sweet smell of the wine—I lean a little closer and she snuggles into me unexpectedly. I place my arm across the back of the couch and she takes it as an invitation to lean further back against my chest. She places her head in the crook of my arm and we remain like that for the duration of the film. I wonder if she can feel that my heart has been racing all this time. I can’t put my finger on why, but she brings out something in me that has been dormant for the last three years. I haven’t felt like this about a woman since then. Sure, I’ve dated a couple of women, but I never wanted to get as close to them as I find myself wanting to with Alyssa.

I look down at the woman in my arms and know I would do anything for her. I would protect her with my life. She doesn’t know it yet, but I want her to be mine for as long as she’ll have me. Forever would be my goal. I didn’t think I’d ever feel like this again, but now Alyssa has come into my life like the light into the dark and I can finally feel again. I spent too long being numb and that Alyssa is breathing life back into me, slowly but surely.

The movie ends and I realise both of us have been silent while it was on. I don’t know how she feels, but for me it was good just holding her close and watching a film without having to speak. It was comfortable and I feel content.

“That was a great movie,” she says as she sits forward to retrieve her wine glass.

“The Crow is a cult classic,” I said as I got up to fetch the wine bottle from the kitchen.

“Tell me about it. I heard over the years that they were going to remake it and I always hoped they wouldn’t. Nothing could beat the original. There are some films you just don’t mess with. It was so sad how he died while they were making it.”

“I agree. The sequels weren’t even worth making in my opinion.”

I get up and walk to the kitchen, Alyssa close on my heels. As I get to the island and grab the bottle, I turn around and see that she is but a breath away. She steps into me and I place the bottle back down behind me. I look in her eyes for a moment before my lips come crashing down over hers. She kisses me back with an eagerness that makes me twitch in my boxers. I reach my one arm around her and bring her that final inch closer to my body, her tempting body is finally flush with mine and it only serves to make me harder. I want her, I mean really want her. I don’t want to fuck her, I want her in my bed, and I want to make love to her.

I seek out her tongue with mine and taste the sweetness of the wine. I wrap my other arm around her and as the kiss deepens I grab a handful of her hair, pulling back gently to allow me access to her throat. I want to kiss her from top to toe. I place feather light kisses down one side of her neck and I feel her shiver in my arms. I know she’s aroused and I wonder if she can feel me growing ever harder where I’m pressed against her. I feel hands roam my chest and my buttons start to come undone as Lys kisses me harder and opens my shirt. She runs her hands across my bare chest and I can barely contain the groan that comes from my throat at the contact.

Next thing I know, my shirt is lying on the kitchen island and Lys is running her hands down my back, her nails tracing a line right down my spine. I moan and nip her bottom lip between my teeth. As I reach for the hem of her t-shirt, she bats my hand away and whips the top up over her head, momentarily breaking our kiss. After a brief second, her lip are back on mine and I skim my hands across her bare skin. Her skin feels silky and I can’t keep my hands still. Feeling her begin to undo the button at the top of my jeans, my cock strains against the material, begging to be freed.

“Should we take this somewhere more comfortable?” Lys asks as she gets my zip undone.

I don’t reply, instead I take her hand and lead her to my room. Maybe this wouldn’t normally happen on a first date, but I’m not complaining. It isn’t as if we haven’t done this before. Thinking about the last time she was in my room, I start walking a little faster. We finally get to my room and I barely have time to open the door before I feel her arms around me. She runs her hands down my chest as she stands behind me. She lightly rakes her nails down me as she did my back and my cock is now yearning to be inside her. Turning around, I take her face in my hands and kiss her. She melts into the kiss, instantly granting me access to her tongue. She pushes my jeans down my legs and I begin to undo the button of her jeans. A mental image of how sexy her ass looked in them tonight makes my hands move quicker. We stumble towards my bed, undressing each other as we go. Soon we are at the foot of my bed, me in just my boxers and her in matching bra and panties, our other clothes scattered on the floor. I look at her and see hunger flash in her eyes. She looks at my boxers and I know she can see how much I want her. No sooner have I thought that than she places herself as close to me as she can, she offers me her mouth and takes my hands in hers. She places my hands on her ass and I struggle with the fact that there is still material—albeit quite flimsy—between us. I slide my hand up her back and unclasp her bra. She lets it fall down her arms and then removes it completely. Hands all over each other, she presses herself against me and I gently lay her down on the bed. I lay myself over her, resting on my forearms. Nuzzling into her neck, I inhale her scent and place kisses along her jawline, then down her neck. I kiss slowly down to the mound of her breast and then cup her in my hand, flicking the tip of my tongue across her nipple before nipping it between my teeth. Her nipple taut and delicious, I move to do the same to the other one. She moans and I feel the vibration against my skin. Feeling her wriggle slightly underneath me, I catch her hip with my free hand, holding her in place.