Page 91 of Keep Me Never
“Yeah.” He sighs again, catching Ari’s eye from between the wooden slats of the deck. “I better go get that mocktail.” He pushes to his feet, but before he goes, he looks down at me with that same smile he’s always had. “You know I’m really happy for you, right? For the both of you?”
My mouth curves up and I nod, watching him disappear into the house.
I sit there a little longer, enjoying the scene around me and then push to my feet, keeping my blanket around me as I make my way down the deck leading to the sand.
Chase sets down a few logs, and rubs his hands together before coming over and kissing my cheek.
“I think they can handle the fire from here.” He playfully tugs at my blanket. “Come on, Angel. I’ve got a better idea for how to get you warm.”
My brows lift, and I turn my head his way, intertwining our fingers as he takes my hand. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yep.” He nods. “One that the others haven’t figured out yet, or we’d definitely have to share.”
“I’m officially curious.”
He kisses my knuckles, and together we walk along the same stretch of beach we’ve walked many times before, only all those times it wasn’t as a couple. It was as friends and always with a few others.
I can’t help but smile at the man beside me. Of course he catches me looking, and a small smirk appears.
“What?” he teases, shaking our clasped hands a little.
“Nothing.” I grin, biting back a laugh when he gives me a playful glare.
As I face forward, a familiar pergola built into the tallest hill of the sand catches my eye, a gorgeous white swing hanging beneath it.
“Don’t tell me Lolli said she’d share her swing with us? We all know how territorial she is over this thing,” I joke, but it’s kind of true.
This is the swing she and Nate fell in love on. His dad made it for his mom once upon a time, and he brought it all the way from their hometown, hundreds of miles away, as some grand gesture that only she knows the true importance of.
“Nope.” That one word is all he gives and then we’re trudging up the sandy hill.
“Are we coming to hang out with her?”
“Oh, no. She’s tucked away in her bed by now, movie on loud and ice cream bowl propped up on that baby belly.”
“That is oddly specific.” I laugh. “But it does sound about right.”
“She may or may not have texted me and said as much,” he admits with a grin, and then the back deck of her and Nate’s beach house comes into view, only there’s been an added addition that wasn’t there the last time I came to my studio and slept over.
My eyes slide to Chase’s, and a sudden thrum builds behind my ribs, a jittering, restless energy that has me squealing. I pull my hand from his, my feet softly padding up the steps as I run to the already-open, already-steaming, deck-top hot tub. The blanket falls from my shoulders, and I dip my fingers in, my smile yanking over my shoulder.
A soft curve forms on his lips and he bends down, picking up the blanket and hanging it over the small towel rack.
“We’re getting in, right?”
“I figured we’d roll our pants up and—” He cuts off, my pajama shirt already pulled over head and dropped to the ground. “Dip our feet in it,” he finishes absentmindedly, his eyes roaming over my chest. “Or not.”
I pull my bottoms off next and climb the mini-steps against the side, sliding right in.
I gasp at first, sucking air in and stretching my ribs as the heated water shocks my body a little. I smile his way, lowering until I’m up to my neck, a long-satisfied sigh instantly spilling from my lips.
Chase chuckles, and in one quick movement, his top is gone, giving me the glorious view of his golden chest. He’s all bronzed skin, cut in all the right places, demanding my gaze without mercy.
My eyes lock on the trail that disappears beneath the waistband of his sweats, and my breath trips a little, heat curling under my skin.
I pretend not to notice, or at least I try, but there’s no ignoring the way my pulse flutters wildly in my throat.
His hands go to the waistband next, and my stomach tightens. He sheds his pajama pants, leaving him in just black boxer briefs that cling to his hips in a way that feels wildly unfair.
