Page 128 of The Convict Gets His Girl

"So what happened with Whiskey?" Jewel finally broke the silence as she grabbed the remote and turned the television on.

He sighed, his breath ruffling a lock of hair that had fallen across his forehead. "I picked her up from school with him. I thought she'd love it. She's been riding him around here after school since the day after you brought him home. But she seemed... embarrassed. I just don't know if she was embarrassed about the horse or about the fact that I'm the one that picked her up."

He half turned to face her on the couch, his hand on the back playing with the hair of her ponytail. Goosebumps broke out over her skin, and she shifted closer.

"Neither of those make sense. She loves you—and that horse," Jewel said as an afterthought. The way Destini followed him around in the past week and a half had not gone unnoticed. It had made Jewel frustrated, as it reminded her too much of how Destini used to follow her dad around when he'd come to Houston for the holidays. She'd always craved male approval, and as she entered the teenage years, had seemed to reject her mother's opinions.

It was all natural, and Jewel didn't resent their developing relationship. She just wished she and Destini could recover some of their previous easy-going relationship.

Jewel shook her head. "There has to be something else. Maybe she got the rejection email at school or maybe something else happened at school."

"Maybe." He shrugged, his eyes clouded with doubt. She reached over with her free hand and set it on his knee, offering comfort yet again. "When she comes in, we'll ask her."

She handed him the remote, leaning closer as she ran her hand up his thigh. "No, we need to give her space and let her work through her feelings. When she's ready, she'll come to us."

Chase shook his head and took the remote, sucking in a breath but otherwise not responding. Destini shuffled back into the room, a forced cheeriness in her step as she held up two bowls of popcorn. "What are we watching? I brought snacks."

Jewel leaned back against the couch, letting go of Chase's thigh and taking a bowl of popcorn as Destini settled next to her. She shared the bowl with Chase, balancing it partly on her leg and partly on his.

"Romcom classic," Chase replied. His taste in movies made Jewel smile. He was always such a softy beneath his rugged exterior.

The three of them settled into the rhythm of the movie, sharing laughter and the buttery popcorn, letting the flickering images cast a spell over the room. Chase's arm found its way behind Jewel on the couch, but he kept a respectful distance, mirroring the chaste companionship they had maintained in Destini's presence.

The way he angled his body closer to hers so he could reach the popcorn made her nose fill with the scent of him. It both drove her to the edge of distraction while making her relax.

When Destini's phone buzzed, she excused herself with an apologetic grin. "Gotta take this, it's Skye." Her steps retreated down the hallway, leaving Jewel and Chase alone with the glow of the romcom bathing them in soft light.

ChapterForty-Seven

Jewel and Chase sat close on the couch as they both reached into the popcorn bowl. Their hands met, and his fingers intertwined with hers. She glanced at him, his hazel eyes burning for her in the low light of the movie.

"Finally alone," Chase murmured, turning to Jewel with a smile that crinkled the corners of his eyes, his gaze promising more than a few laughs with a movie. Her heart raced in anticipation, and she finally admitted that she'd missed him the past few days. Missed his touch, his silent love.

"Chase." She'd meant it to be a denial, but it came out like a prayer of need.

Her breath caught as they moved closer to each other, their bodies almost magnetically drawn together. When her lips met his, she moaned and melted into him.

The taste of salty popcorn lingered on his lips, but the passion flared like a salty explosion, a taste she had been craving for so long, she'd nearly forgotten it. She'd gone years without this, without him, yet one week without his kiss had her questioning everything.

His arm behind her wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her closer until she was nearly laying across his chest, one hand still holding his in the bowl while her other settled on his wide chest. The soft fabric of his t-shirt had her fingers flitting back and forth.

Their embrace grew into a passionate exchange of kisses, a release of emotions that had been suppressed for too long.

It was as if the magnetic pull between them was impossible to resist, a force of attraction that drew them together like two planets in a cosmic dance. It was what had brought them together all those years ago, and again when she'd moved to town. It wasn't just a need for comfort but something deeper.

As their tongues dueled lazily, the excitement and tension in the air grew, building and expanding until it could no longer be ignored.

He pulled her sideways across his lap, her ass settling over his dick hidden by thick denim fabric. She angled her head and wrapped her arms around his neck, taking him deeper yet not nearly deep enough. She wanted him branded on her soul, beneath all the fragile layers of her heart that she hid from the world.

The sound of footsteps startled Jewel, and she leaped up, her heart racing with a cocktail of desire and guilt. Her hands shook as she straightened her shirt.

Destini paused in the doorway, brows rising as she took in the spilled popcorn over Chase and the floor, Jewel standing next to the couch holding her swollen lips, and Chase pulling a couch pillow over his lap.

Destini smiled and rolled her eyes. "Oh my God, you guys are the worst."

Jewel scowled, kneeling and raking as much popcorn into the bowl as she could get. "I don't know what you're talking about."

She stomped into the kitchen, emptying both popcorn bowls and rinsing them out, trying to calm her racing thoughts. Sexual frustration mixed with disappointment in herself. She'd never brought a guy home to meet Destini, but here she was, making out with Destini's long-lost father.

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