Changed by His Son's Smile (13 page)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

B
Y
THE
TIME
they returned from Parakou, the moon was rising and darkness was closing in. Spud had a simple, late meal waiting for them, ready to be warmed.

Swimming was clearly an exhausting activity, as Drew’s eyes kept closing at dinner, his face nearly dropping into his plate of spaghetti. With his grandparents chuckling, Dani decided there was no hope in trying to get more food in the child that night. She followed Chase as he carried Drew, barely able to awaken him enough to get bedtime necessities done before he was in a deep sleep.

Dani pulled Drew’s covers over his shoulders and kissed his cheek, his little rosebud lips already parted in deep slumber. “’Night, baby boy.”

She pulled the mosquito netting around the bed before turning to Chase in the darkened room. He stood there with his hands in his pockets, staring at her with such intense concentration it was almost unnerving.

“I guess we should get back to dinner,” she said. “Help clean up.”

He stood silently for another long moment before he finally spoke. “Thank you for today. I know my parents had a great time with you and Drew. And I did, too.”

“I couldn’t believe how much he loved the water. You were right—at this rate he’s going to be swimming before his next birthday.”

He placed his wide palm against his chest and raised his eyebrows. “Did I hear you say I was right about something? I need to sit down.”

“I’m pretty sure I give you credit when you actually
are
right. Which does happen occasionally,” she said, trying to lighten the mood, which had weighed heavily on both of them all afternoon.

He didn’t even smile, his serious eyes seeming to study her. Maybe he could see what she was thinking. Feeling. Finally understanding.

“I’m...sorry about the Panama thing. It was wrong of me to not talk to you. I just...” He shoved his hand into his hair. “I felt desperate. I don’t want to leave without you agreeing we should get married. Without us
being
married.”

After learning what she had today about his brother, she understood much more than she had just hours earlier. And the pain of his rejection when she had proposed to him didn’t hurt quite as much as it had before.

As she looked into his eyes, she allowed herself to see what she hadn’t looked for back then. Hadn’t bothered to observe. The vulnerability deep within their chocolaty depths when all she’d noticed had been his utter confidence. His utter determination.

What must it have been like for him to be living his carefree teenage life, focused on school and his friends, only to lose his brother so suddenly and shockingly? The fact that she’d known Chase for over a year and he’d never mentioned it showed her he still carried the pain of it deep inside.

“I’m not ready to make a commitment to marriage, Chase. But I understand things better now.” She clasped his hand. “We have a little time before you go to Panama. When you leave...”

He pressed his finger to her lips. “Shh. I don’t want to talk. I don’t even want you to say you’ll marry me right now. We’ve done too much talking in circles, arguing, trying to figure out what to do and how to do it. All I want is to kiss you and be with you.” He cupped her face in his hands and gave her the softest of kisses, and like before, it was too much and not nearly enough.

Too much to be able to walk away, feeling nothing. Not nearly enough to satisfy the craving her body couldn’t help but feel for him. The craving she was no longer trying to resist.

She wanted those same soft kisses everywhere on her body.

Need bloomed within her as she wrapped her arms around his body and pulled him close, her breasts tingling at the heavy beat of his heart against them. “The only talking I was going to do was to say, ‘Make love to me.’”

His lips curved and his eyes gleamed in the low light. “Now, that kind of talking I’m good with.”

He kissed her, soft, teasing, coaxing. But coaxing wasn’t necessary. The moment his mouth covered hers, gently drawing her tongue inside to dance slowly with his, she was lost. He tipped his head to one side, exploring her mouth so thoroughly she could barely breathe. His fingers pressed into her hips and pulled her against his hard body. Her heart thumped hard against her ribs and just as she sank deeply into his kiss, fumbling at the button of his shorts, wanting him so much her knees wobbled, his hands dropped to her shoulders and he set her away from him.

She stared at him, confused. His eyes smoldered, dark and dangerous, and the curve of his lips promised all things carnal and wonderful. So why wasn’t he touching her? “What—?”

“I found a place for us that’s a little more fun than a bed.” His voice was low and sexy. “More like what we enjoyed in Honduras. For days, I’ve been thinking about you and me, there, naked under the stars. Let’s get in the car and go.”

She couldn’t wait to make love with him, and he wanted to go on a road trip? “We made love in a bed plenty of times in Honduras. I’m for that. Your room. Like now.”

He laughed, a deep, smoky rumble. “I like it when you’re all bossy.” He pulled her close again for a hard, intense kiss that was over all too soon before he set her away from him and pulled his phone from his pocket.

She folded her arms across her thumping heart, staring at his phone in disbelief. “You going to call 911 for help? Good idea, because I just might have to hurt you if you don’t immediately demonstrate some of your amazing sexual skills.”

That low laugh of his, louder this time, seemed to reverberate in her own chest. He pressed his palm to her mouth. “We agreed on no talking, remember?” With that annoying smile still on his face, he lowered his head to nibble her neck, her lobe, his moist tongue touching the shell of her ear. “Unless the subject is sex. So let me tell you what I want to do to you.”

His breath slipped across her skin and the rumble of his voice was filled with desire. “First, I want...”

“Less talk, more action.” She slipped her hands inside his T-shirt, up the smooth skin of his ribs to lightly abrade his nipples with her short fingernails as she ran her mouth across his jaw. Beneath her hands, his heart pounded and his muscles bunched.

“To strip off all your clothes and see every inch of your skin,” he continued in that deep voice so full of sexual promise she about threw him down on her bed to get on with it. “All day you teased me, wearing that little bitty swimsuit of yours. I want to—”

“Get naked and horizontal right this second?” She slipped her hand down into his shorts, seeking the biggest object of her desire.

He quickly pulled her hand out of his pants and heaved a breath. “You always were an impatient cheat.” He texted into his phone as she massaged the hard ridge beneath his zipper. He grabbed her wrist again with a breathless laugh. “Damn it, stop.”

“You kiss me until I can’t remember my name then say stop?” Nearly dizzy with wanting him, she forced herself to step to the bed and sat, but the distance barely slowed the aching heat pooling low in her body. “Fine.”

If he planned on continuing his hard-to-get game, he was in for a surprise. On alert, she watched him, ready to make her move. Which would be that as soon as he came close enough, she’d pounce and yank him down next to her.

Yeah. She felt her own lips curve, anticipating what fun it was going to be, wrestling around on the bed and stripping off their clothes. Somehow she doubted he’d keep up the delay tactics and resist.

Except he was still looking at his phone, and her amusement faded into downright irritation. All the teasing all week, even their lovemaking of a few nights ago, had left him cool and in control while she was practically melting for him?

Then the surprise move was his. Two steps to the bed, and he effortlessly scooped her up into his arms. With quick strides he carried her out into the hall.

Okay, maybe he had a good plan after all. She pressed closer, wrapping her arms around his neck and nibbling at his lips. Beneath her hands, his back muscles flexed and tightened. “I hate to remind you,” she said, giving his lips a teasing lick that left his own tongue chasing after hers, “but we can’t just leave Drew.”

“What, you thought I was texting my broker?” He practically kicked open the door and carried her out into the warm, sultry night. “Mom says she’ll watch Drew.”

Her blood began to pump faster and her body hummed in anticipation. He’d thought to call for babysitting, which must mean he had something very delicious in mind. She ran her mouth across his skin, loving the taste of him, the curve of his jaw, the slight abrasion of his skin.

“If you don’t stop, we’re not going to make it any farther than the backseat of this car.” His eyes glinted down at her, eyelids half-closed, and it wasn’t too dark to see that the smile was gone from his face, replaced by a hunger that was exactly what she wanted to see. The same hunger rising within her and leaving her breathless.

He yanked open the door of the Land Rover and practically dumped her inside, before shutting the door and jogging to the driver’s side.

The engine grumbled to life and Chase hit the gas, apparently in a hurry. And that was fine with Dani.

Wondering why such an old car had bucket seats instead of a nice, long bench, she attempted to cuddle up close to him, touching her lips to his chin, his cheek, his ear. It wasn’t too difficult to ignore the hard plastic between the seats, but the gear shift was darned annoying.

She wrapped one hand behind his head and flattened her other palm against his body, giving him slow caresses that made him suck in his breath. Teasing touches beneath his shirt to feel the smooth skin over hard muscle there. Combing through the soft hair in the center of his chest then down. Pressing against the zipper of his pants, which was currently strained to its limit.

He grasped her hand and held it motionless and tight in his. “You trying to make me wreck the car?”

“No. Just trying to hurry things up.” She pressed closer against his shoulder, ignoring the stupid gear shift digging into her thigh. She sucked gently on his throat, every sense tuned to his scent and his taste and the feel of his skin.

“I do have to actually change gears, Dani.” His voice was a low growl. “Please move over for just one minute. We’re almost there.”

Oh, right. The gear shift wasn’t just an in-the-way annoyance. “Sorry.” She straddled his lap and the bounce of the car on the rutted road pushed his hard erection right where she wanted it. The sensation was so erotic, she moaned. She tunneled her fingers into the thick, soft hair she loved to touch and very nearly gave him a full mouth-to-mouth kiss, but figured that wasn’t compatible with him actually being able to see and drive.

“God, Dani.” He gave a breathless laugh. “If you wiggle against me one more time, I’m gonna run off the road into a tree. Do you have some kind of death wish?”

“No.” She knew the man could practically drive in his sleep. “Just remembering how much fun we had in Honduras. How crazy you made me back then. How crazy you make me now.”

“You’re crazy, all right. But I like it.”

The car suddenly veered to the right and bounced even more for another thirty feet or so before coming to a jarring stop.

Immediately, his arms wrapped around her, and the kisses between them became frenzied, their bodies rubbing together until Dani thought she might come undone with all her clothes still on.

Chase yanked his mouth from hers, and their panting breaths mingled in the air between them. His eyes glittered in the darkness. “I didn’t drive all the way out here to make love to you against the damned steering-wheel. Come with me.”

“I just about did.”

His quiet laugh filled the car before he shoved open the door. Still holding her in his arms with her legs wrapped around his hips, he somehow managed to grab thick blankets from the backseat and stride with her toward a small cluster of trees.

She quit nibbling his face and neck to see where they were going. Probably would be a good idea to help with the blankets instead of just hanging onto him like a baboon.

She slid her legs off his hips and wasn’t sure she could actually stand up. “Give me one.”

Together, they laid the blankets over whatever spongy, soft, and dark plant life was thriving beneath the trees. “What is this stuff?”

“I don’t know. Don’t care either, except that the minute I saw it, I thought of lying here with you, watching the stars.”

“I didn’t know you’d gone anywhere since I’ve been here.”

“I haven’t.”

His eyes, shining in the darkness, were filled with both desire and tenderness, and his meaning finally sank in. “You mean, you thought of me even before I showed up in Benin?” she whispered.

“Thought of you. Wondered about you. Dreamed of you.”

His quiet voice slipped inside her heart until it felt so full, it was hard to breathe. He reached for her, held her close, and for a moment the heady sexual desire that had consumed them earlier gave way to a quiet, aching connection. To what they’d had before.

To what they still had now.

He loosened her hair from its band. Pulled off her shirt between kisses. Caressed her collarbone, her shoulders, her back as he slipped off her bra. Pleasured her breasts with his mouth as he pushed off the rest of her clothes.

Then it was her turn. But she couldn’t go slowly, as he had. His kisses, his touch had ignited the smoldering fire he’d lit within her earlier, and she made quick work of his clothes until they were both naked, with the cool night air skating across their skin.

She pushed him down onto the blanket and looked into his handsome face. At his shining eyes and sensual lips curved in a smile.

“You make me think of a wood nymph up there, naked and beautiful with your curly hair shining in the dark.” His big hands slid up her thighs and his thumbs slipped into the juncture between them, stroking her slick skin until she gasped with pleasure.

“If I recall my mythology, Greek gods liked to play with wood nymphs. Are you a Greek god?” She said it teasingly, breathlessly, but it was, oh, so true that he looked like one, with his gorgeous, muscular physique, his dark hair, his eyes flecked with gold, and the kissable shape of his beautiful lips.