Page 60 of #Starstruck

He went completely still but said nothing.

Oh no, I’d done it. I’d ruined everything. I couldn’t have just waited to see where things went. No, I had to have explanations and definitions, and now I’d freaked him out. “I get it if you just want to be friends. That’s fine. I just don’t have very much experience with things like this. I haven’t dated all that much. No, I’ve dated a lot, just not the same person more than a few times. So I’m not an expert and ...”

Just shut up,my brain told me.Shut up!

Without a word, Chase took me by the wrist and led me into the mansion, away from the dance floor and the other guests. He walked so quickly that I almost tripped a couple of times in my stupid high heels. He took me upstairs, and I ignored the people giving us a mixture of strange and knowing looks.

He pulled me into a slightly darkened room, stopping to close the door behind us. Then in one smooth and sure motion, he whirled me around and pressed my back against the door. He stood directly in front of me, almost as close as we’d been just a few minutes earlier on the dance floor. He put his hands on either side of my head, pinning me into place. He looked angry, and though I probably should have felt a bit worried, it was strangely thrilling instead.

“Why would you think I’m not attracted to you?” His voice sounded deeper, rougher.

My heart pounded so hard I could barely breathe. “You ... you don’t act like it. You’ve never even tried to kiss me.”

I saw his Adam’s apple bob slowly, and he stayed silent, not moving, not speaking. When he finally did say something, I almost jumped out of my oversensitized skin. “Do you know what I want to do right now?”

His voice had a rawness to it, a rasp I didn’t recognize.

“What?”

“What I want is to lock this door. I want to tear this very nice dress off you. I want to throw you on that bed, and I want, more than I have ever wanted anything, to spend the rest of the night showing you over and over just how attracted I am to you.”

Heat bloomed in my chest, and my lower abdomen tightened at his words. “Oh.”

The right side of his mouth pulled up in a rueful half smirk. “But I can’t. Because I like you and care about you, and I respect you. And your decisions. Even if I’m going to be personally responsible for California’s next water shortage, thanks to all the cold showers.” He moved closer, trapping me between him and the door, and my breath knotted in my lungs. “I haven’t kissed you yet because I was afraid if I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop.”

There was nothing I could say. Mainly because I now shared his concern. If I was this excited just by standing close together, I didn’t know how I could handle it if he kissed me.

Chase brought his right hand down, running his fingers along the side of my face, leaving trails of fire. He moved his hand to the back of my head, massaging my scalp while his palm pressed against my cheek. Our noses grazed against each other as his lips hovered above mine, mingling our breath. It made my lungs constrict and my legs threaten to give out.

“Zoe ...” He said my name as both a plea and a warning.

I realized he was offering me the chance to say no. To move away.

I didn’t.

“Tell me I shouldn’t. Tell me to stop.”

Still, I stayed quiet.

“I put an entire ocean between us so I wouldn’t do this. I’m not known for my restraint. I don’t trust myself.” He used his other hand to rub this thumb across my jawline and over my tingling lips, sending shivers cascading down my spine.

Somehow I reached up and slid my hands to his chest. I could feel how fast his heart was beating. Just as quickly as mine. The air around us felt charged, like the feeling you get when you stand outside just before lightning strikes. “I trust you.”

With a growl of both disbelief and need, his lips crashed into mine, like waves against a cliff in a storm. Which sent me into shock because of a total system overload. So many sensations overwhelmed me at once that I didn’t know what I was feeling. Every part of me, including parts I didn’t know I had, responded to his passionate kiss.

Forget the butterflies. He had unleashed the entire zoo.

“Kiss” felt like a poor description of the way he ravaged my mouth. I thought I understood what kissing should be like. I was seriously mistaken. Because no one had ever kissed me like this before. Not with this hot, hungry intensity. Not with this confidence, this surety, this level of skill. Like somebody would be grading him later on how well he kissed me, and he planned on getting anA.

And going for extra credit.

His lips glided over mine in a rhythmic frenzy that had me tilting against him, holding on for dear life. His insistent, wild, bruising kiss made me dizzy, and I concentrated on the taste of his mouth. The feel of his muscles underneath my hands. The sound of his labored breathing. The delicious heat from his body pressing against mine. The intoxicating, masculine scent of his expensive cologne.

The pleasure of it all flooded through me.

My hair came undone as he ran his unsteady fingers through it, tugging and soothing, those sensations balanced by the pressure of his firm lips moving on mine, igniting sparks with each touch. He devoured me, making my body shudder from all the waiting, all the pent-up frustration and denial he let go with his kiss.

I’d been right. I knew that if Chase burned, I’d be consumed. We were like two bonfires edging closer together, merging into one super fire, glowing hotter and brighter in the night.

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