Page 33 of Sex, Lies, and Margarita Mixes

That could have just as easily been us.

Hell, it still could be.

Chase doesn’t speak. He doesn’t reach for me. He just waits. Like he knows what I’m thinking. He always knows.

I feel his eyes on me, and when I look up, all of the things I’ve been running from hit me at once.

I don’t want to fight like that.

I don’t want to flinch when someone touches my glass.

I don’t want to be scared of the silence.

I don’t want to end with nothing but leftovers and regret.

I just want him.

I just want Chase.

Always.

After everyone disperses, I find him on the back porch—shirtless again, of course, because this man refuses to heal me clothed—and I stop in front of him. He straightens but I don’t speak. I just reach out and take his hand and pull him inside.

I’m not ready to say it.

Not yet.

But I’m ready to show it.

We go to our room. We don’t have sex, but he holds me on the bed. And I hold him. Eventually, I move and mutter that I need to take a shower. He watches me as I head into the bathroom.

CHAPTER 5

YOU CAN KEEP THE RING (BUT I’M KEEPING YOU)

ROXY

* * *

I find him in the kitchen again—because of course he’s in the kitchen. He’s cleaning up the remnants of his untouched dinner.

He’s always feeding people. Fixing things. Healing the world one skillet and smirk at a time.

But not tonight.

Tonight, I don’t want fixing.

I want the man who broke me to put me back together with love, his hands, and his mouth.

He turns when I step through the doorway.

The second his eyes meet mine, he knows. The shift in the room is instant.

I’m not wearing anything under this robe. And I’m not here to make a speech.

He doesn’t grin. There’s no teasing.

Just hunger. A full-body ache I can feel from across the room.

---