Page 63 of Tracing Holland

She nods and leans against my shoulder.

“Ok, fine,” I say finally.“But how do we explain this to the others?”

“Explain what?That I want to go along to support my friend Casey in his time of loss?”

I grin, and meet her gaze.“True.”

She returns it and pulls me in for another kiss, this one more persistent.“You do understand that we will have to tell Callie and Casey, though, right?There’s no way I’m going two days without touching you,” she explains lightly.

I smile against her lips.“They’ll keep our secret,” I assure her, letting my desire match her own.I love her irritated groan as the fire starts to consume us again.

“Ugh, what is wrong with me?It’s like some Pavlovian response.I see you and immediately want your clothes off,” she mutters between kisses.“Do you have any idea how annoying that is?”

I laugh as she tugs at my shirt in frustration.“I have an idea, yeah.”

“Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around, though?”she whines.

“Ha.Don’t worry.You’re always naked in my head,” I assure her with a grin, pulling her against me.She smacks me before we attack each other again.This time she seems desperate to explore every inch of me as she rakes my body like she didn’t just own it for the last couple hours.I love every second of it, love how her touch soothes and burns at the same time, how she stirs my fire and consumes it.

“You probably have arrangements to make, don’t you,” she breathes, showing no mercy for my plight.

“I do,” I manage, my blood searing, my breath coming in gasps as she moves over me.Her mouth.Her skin.Her smile.

“You should go do that.”She clearly loves torturing me.

“I should.”

When her hand slips past the waist of my jeans, I’m pretty sure my veins are about to explode from the pounding.Her eyes ignite at my reaction, and she only intensifies her unfair raid on my will.

“It seems like you might be ready for another quick round of practice before, though?”she teases, and I flip her over, kissing her hard as I lock her against the sheets.

I pull back and study her beautiful face in amusement.“And it seems like you don’t understand how hard it is to get a flight to Houston.”

We haveto take what we can get in terms of flights, but with Kenneth and Tess’ logistics star power behind us, we manage to find four tickets out early Tuesday morning.

There’s an outpouring of support and sympathy for Casey and no one questions his leave of absence, or the three of us going with him.Especially, since our fortunate schedule break means we should make it back in plenty of time for Friday’s show.Of course, none of them have a clue about the actual complexity of this trip.

I don’t know how Wes takes the news about Holland’s involvement in our drama, but I can’t imagine it went well.She hasn’t said a word about it though, and I’m not interested in discussing him any more than we have to at the moment.We haven’t told Callie and Casey about our budding relationship either, although it’s getting harder and harder to hide our attraction the more time we spend together.Our assigned seats are scattered all over the plane, but we manage to manipulate our way into the same row after we board.I dare anyone to say no to Callie Roland and Holland Drake when they turn on the charm.

It’s a small plane with only five rows across.Callie wanted to look out the window, Casey knew he’d be buried in his laptop, and I’m across the aisle with Holland on my other side.An elderly lady has our window seat, but we can’t tell if she belongs with anyone else.She’s said nine words since takeoff: “Let me know if the air bothers you, honey.”

Casey is on his computer the second the flight attendant won’t kill him for it, and I can feel Holland’s amusement beside me.He has his studio headphones on, eyes locked on the screen, so I have no problem returning her grin.

“Is he ever not working?”she whispers.

I shrug.“Probably, but not that I’ve seen.”

“Penchant for Red, right?”

“Yeah.Their debut went platinum a few months after it released.He’s already working on new stuff.”

Her eyes widen as she leans forward to give him another look.“Really, wow.Not bad for a side project.”

I smirk.“Yeah, right.I’m pretty sure we’re his side project at this point.”

“Hey, man.Can you listen to this for me?”Casey interrupts, smacking my arm to get my attention.I take the headphones he’s shoving in my face and slide them on, giving him a nod when I’m ready.

My jaw nearly hits the tray table as he starts the track, and I stare back at him in disbelief.He’s grinning at my expression, and I shake my head before turning again so I can focus on the music.When the song finishes, I pull the headphones down and face him in awe.

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