Page 73 of Wild & Worthy

His mouth moves against mine without any of the frantic hunger we’ve fallen into over the last week. I keep my arms wrapped around his neck and let myself melt into him, pressing closer as his hand stays warm against my cheek. It feels like accepting his apology with my whole body. Like telling him I’m done being angry when I can’t find the words to say it.

Chace seems to understand, because his arm tightens around my waist and he pulls me closer until my chest is flush against his. The softness lasts another few seconds before something shifts between us. His mouth opens over mine, the kiss growing heavier as my fingers tangle into the wet hair at the nape of his neck. His breathing changes, warm against my lips despite the cold water surrounding us, until he’s growing hard beneath me.

My entire body shudders at his closeness to my heat. After almost a full day of keeping him at a distance, all I want is Chace as close to me as humanly possible. I want him to bury himself inside me and make me forget all of it and lose myself in the familiarity of him. In the one place we haven’t had to question what we are to each other.

Apparently, Chace is thinking something similar because his grip tightens around me, one hand spreading across my back as he kisses me harder. I wrap my legs tighter around his waist and pull myself against him, earning a rough breath against my mouth before he catches my bottom lip between his teeth, then kisses me again. There’s only Chace’s mouth, his hands holding me against him, and the heat building between us, despite the cold biting at every inch of skin not pressed against his.

Then he pulls back, breathless. “Addie.”

I make a quiet sound of protest and try to catch his mouth again, but his eyes lock onto mine.

“I didn’t bring anything with me.” He murmurs against my lips, kissing them once.

“I’m on the pill. And I trust you,” I say, rubbing myself against him as if that’s confirmation.

“Good to know.” He rasps. “But you’re also shivering.” He brings his hands up and rubs my shoulders.

I blink at him. I hadn’t even noticed until he said it, but now that he has, I can feel the tremble running through me. “I’m fine.” I slide my fingers through the hair at the nape of his neck, playing with the wet ends while I try to pull him back toward me.

His eyes narrow like he doesn’t believe me for a second, but the grin slowly returning to his face tells me he’s enjoying my attempt. Before I realize what he’s doing, he shifts his grip beneath my ass and starts walking toward the shore with me still wrapped around him.

I sigh and tighten my arms around his neck so I don’t slip while he carries me through the water and up onto the rocks.

Once we’re safely out, he lowers me onto my feet but keeps one hand at my waist long enough to lean down and kiss me again. It’s softer this time, only a few slow presses of his lips against mine before he pulls away. “Let’s get back to camp. Get a fire going.” He glances toward the trees, then back at me. “We can’t miss the sunset.” He bends down, grabs my shirt from the ground, and tosses it at me.

“You suck,” I pout.

He starts pulling on his jeans, entirely too pleased with himself. “You’re the one who got all worked up and tried to ravish me. You can survive another hour.”

My mouth falls open. “I tried to ravish you?”

He just gives me that smug fucking grin, and I swat his arm as I pass him, grabbing the rest of my clothes off the rocks. I pull my shirt over my head and step into my shorts, ignoring the fact that he’s still standing there looking entirely too pleased with himself.

“Please.” I push past him toward the trail. “I could go days.”

“Yeah, right.” His hand cracks against my ass as I pass.

I yelp and spin around. “Chace!”

He’s already bending down to gather the rest of our things, laughing like an idiot. I glare at him for another second before turning toward camp, but I can’t keep the smile off my face.

Chapter twenty-seven

Chace

By the time we get back to camp, Addie is shivering even harder than she was in the water. The temperature has dropped considerably as evening creeps in, so she disappears into the tent to dry off and change while I get a small fire going and start pulling dinner together.

Somewhere over the last few weeks on the road, cooking for us has become my thing. Addie fought me on it at first, insisting she was perfectly capable of feeding herself, but it didn’t take long before she stopped arguing and started letting me handle it. Which is probably a good thing considering the girl can’t cook for shit. If it weren’t for me, we’d be eating SpaghettiOs straight from the can every damn night.

That thought makes me laugh as I stoke the fire, then grab the blanket and spread it out where we’ll have the best view of the sunset. I decided not to bother cooking tonight, so instead I packed a block of sharp cheddar I know Addie loves, her favorite crackers, and some watermelon I managed to chop up in the hotel room before she woke up this morning. It’s nothing fancy, but I know she’ll eat every damn bit of it.

Saying no to Addie back at the pool took every ounce of self-control I had. I wanted nothing more than to bury myself in her right there, but something told me I needed to wait. She’s clearly chosen to forgive me, or at least let it go for now, but I can’t shake the feeling that I owe her more before we keep going down this road. Even if whatever this is between us ends when we get back to Ashford Ridge.

I can’t really make sense of the feeling. I just know I need to tell her everything else I’m hiding. I’ve been with plenty of women in my life. That’s no secret. But Addie is different. More than that, I’m different with Addie. That thought scares the shit out of me, and I have no idea why I suddenly feel this need to lay everything out in front of her.

Maybe it’s because when I finally admitted how much I miss bull riding, she didn’t look at me with pity. She didn’t give me an, "Oh, Chace. I’m so sorry that happened to you,” or, my personal favorite, “It’s okay, you’ll figure it out.” She didn’t offer advice I never asked for or try to convince me everything was going to magically work itself out. She just listened. Accepted what I told her and, in her own Addie way, basically said, Okay. And?

That’s what makes me want to tell her the rest. I want to find out what it feels like to finally let it all go and give someone else the darker parts of me, without them trying to fix me. To have someone know the truth and just stand there beside me while I figure it out.