Page 101 of Chasing After You
“Oh? Then why didn’t you talk to me about it before you did it?” she counters, and I move to where I’m within arms reach of touching her because I can’t stay away.Now that I know what it’s like to be her person—to be the person Mirabelle Walker looks at like I’m the most amazing thing she’s ever seen—I’m powerless to resist her.
“Because you wouldn’t have listened to me about why you need him.”
Mirabelle raises an eyebrow. “You overstepped, Henry. You should have talked to me first.”
I look at her knowingly. “Would you have said yes if I’d talked to you first?”
“I don’t know, but at least I would have had a choice in the matter of who was going to be my shadow.”
Women hurt my brain.So, if I’m following, she’s not mad I hired Tom, it’s that I didn’t ask her?
“Tom’s there to help keep an eye out for you. Mirabelle, you’re a public figure, whether you like it or not, and I worry that something might happen. If you want me to look for someone else so you can help pick, then we can find someone else. My first call was to Sam so that you would have someone you were already comfortable with, but he wasn’t available. Tom is who Sam recommended because he agreed you might be in danger, but if you want someone else, we’ll get someone else.”
She trails her fingers through the water, contemplating what I’m offering. “Tom is fine,” she finally says, tilting her head.
I creep closer to her, resisting the urge to smile because maybe that means I’m not totally in the doghouse. “So you aren’t mad?”
“I didn’t say that,” Mirabelle says, her dark eyes twinkling under the lights.
The rippling water is distorting the curves of her body that I’m desperate to hold.
“How can I make it better?” I ask, only a foot away from her now.
Mirabelle bites her bottom lip as she thinks about it, but all I can think about is biting that damn lip myself. I stop, mere inches separating us as a flush starts to creep up her neck. She can pretend to be unbothered all she wants, but her body betrays her every time. She reaches out, gingerly tracing the ink on my arm, and Mirabelle’s touch burns, the feeling branded into my skin like another tattoo. I let her touch me, my cock painfully hard as I hold still, letting Mirabelle explore, dancing over the patterns leading to the back of my bicep. “What does this one mean? I’ve always wanted to know.”
“The story of Icarus is a reminder of maintaining harmony between freedom and hubris, because if you fly too high to the sun, you can lose everything in the blink of an eye. I guess I probably should have kept that in mind while biding my time, or we wouldn’t be in this fake relationship trying to revive my career.”
The false truth lingers in the air as her eyes slide to meet mine, but neither of us corrects it.
Mirabelle leans forward, reaching up to rest her hands around my neck, silently communicating what she wants as she parts her lips. I lean down, taking the invitation to kiss her as Mirabelle pulls herself up to wrap her legs around my waist.
Fuck, yes.
Her hands roam over my shoulders, up into my hair, pulling on the short strands as I blindly move until I have her pinned against the side of the pool. The water sloshes between us as Mirabelle rolls her hips, grinding her core against my erection trapped between us.
I wrap my free hand around her wet hair, forcing her head back to expose her neck as a breathy moan fills the air around us. “Mirabelle,” I whisper her beautiful name against her skin.
Her nails dig into my shoulders as I press my hips against hers, the slight sting of pain feeling like nothing compared to the utter agony I’m in, using every ounce of my strength to not drive into Mirabelle. I refuse to let our first time be in a pool. I want her spread out in front of me, a whimpering mess before I make love to her in a way that will make Mirabelle forget any man before me. “H-Henry,fuck.” Mirabelle moans my name like a prayer, and I abandon the spot on her neck that makes her gasp to fuse our mouths together again.
She smiles against my lips, somehow reaching between us to wrap her hand around my cock, applying pressure the same way I showed her the other night. Her thumb rubs over the sensitive head, causing me to bite down on her lip as my body jerks at the jolt of pleasure.
This woman drives me absolutely crazy.
I pull back, an apology already on the tip of my tongue as Mirabelle grins at me, pressing a hand to her mouth. “You bit me,” Mirabelle says in disbelief. “Is it bleeding?”
Oh shit, her phobia of blood. I untangle my hand from her hair, gently moving her hand away to see a small split in her lip, but it’s not bleeding. I exhale a shaky breath of relief. “No, it’s not bleeding. I’m sorry, are you okay?” I ask, feeling a little embarrassed by how quickly I got lost in the moment.
Mirabelle laughs. “I’m fine, just surprised.”
I smile, trying to recover by leaning down to press a sweet kiss to her lips, much different from the passionate ones.
“Do you trust me?” I ask, looking Mirabelle in the eyes. Her face lights up in curiosity, and she nods slowly.
“Of course I trust you.”
“Will you sit up here for me?” I ask, patting the concrete on both sides of Mirabelle, and her cheeks immediately flush red under the glow of the lights.
“Henry, I’m naked.”
