Page 23 of #Starstruck

Finally finished, I threw away the pad and returned the rest of the mop to the pantry. I washed my hands and grabbed a paper towel to dry them off. Then Chase handed me my glass.

“To new beginnings,” he said, holding his glass aloft. Would I ever get used to looking at him? To not having my breath catch every time our eyes met?

I nodded and clinked my glass against his. My mouth had gone so dry that I was parched. Like I’d just spent a week crossing the Sahara.

If there was a seductive way to drink a glass of water, my mouth decided to do the opposite.

I tipped my drink back too quickly and almost choked. I put the glass on the counter, and Chase patted me on the back a couple of times. I waved him off. “I’m okay.” Mortified and wanting to run into the bathroom to hide, but okay.

“Yeah, I hate when I’m drinking and the ice just attacks my face,” he teased.

He was funny. Why did he have to be funny?

“Yesterday when I assured you I was normal, I may have exaggerated slightly.” I was obviously an insecure freak who should be kept away from regular people.

“I think you’re kind of amazing,” Chase said, reaching out with his hand like he was going to touch my face. I backed up until I hit the sink. I braced my arms behind me, trying not to collapse in a heap. Because even though he hadn’t made contact, my skin felt like he had.

He put his hand down, his expression puzzled. A few beats passed before he said, “I make you nervous, don’t I?”

Uh, understatement of the year. But his movie-star ego didn’t need to hear it. “I’m ... I’m not nervous.”

He inched fractionally closer to me, one small movement with each loud, slow thud of my heart. “I don’t normally make girls nervous. Excited, yes. Overwhelmed. Shocked. Up for anything, usually. But not nervous.” This time he did touch me. His fingers tucked some stray hairs behind my ears. I closed my eyes and dragged in a sharp breath. All those sensations ... I totally got the overwhelmed reaction. And the excited and shocked thing.

And possibly even the up-for-anything impulse.

I opened my eyes and tried to deny it, but now Chase stood directly in front of me, his heat warming me, pulling me in. He put his hands against the counter on either side of me.

He’d trapped me.

“I think I know why I make you nervous.”

“I told you, I’m not nervous.”

A playful smile lit up his entire face. “Like I said, you’re a terrible liar.” He focused his gaze on my lips. He ducked his head toward mine. We were almost touching. So close, but not enough. I put my right hand on his chest, but whether it was to stop him or pull him closer, I didn’t know.

It was like a scene out of my favorite movie, complete with my favorite movie star.

His lips hovered above mine, his slow, steady breaths a huge contrast to my short, shallow ones. “Zoe.” Chase whispered my name, and it sounded like both a question and a promise. It made my knees buckle, my stomach tighten, and my pulse explode.

“Wait,” I told him, pushing at his chest. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” he asked.

“The garage door,” I hissed, breaking the spell he’d cast over me. “My mom is home. You have to go. Right now.”

Although my mother had matured over the last eleven years since she’d married Duncan, I didn’t want her to meet Chase and get all fangirlie and weird or talk about her own brush with fame. It was humiliating enough in school; the last thing I wanted was for him to find out.

But he wasn’t budging. I pushed against him again, and it was like trying to move a brick wall. A hot, muscular, well-defined brick wall, but still. “I’m serious. You have to go.”

“Are you embarrassed by me?” he asked in a voice that was both bewildered and amused. But at least he finally took a step back. I grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him into the living room. I grabbed his jacket off the couch and shoved him toward my mom’s bedroom at the back of the house.

“That’s not it. It’s ... difficult to explain.”

“Aren’t you a little old to be in trouble for having a boy over while you’re babysitting?”

“You just need to leave.” I opened a window, pulled out the screen, and dropped it on the ground. I’d put it back later. I indicated that Chase should use the exit I’d just provided.

“Do you seriously want me to climb out a window?”

---