back, move away. It was hard for me to take in a breath without his scent clouding my mind.
“ You know what they say— life happens.”
His chuckle was loud. “I thought that was shit happens.”
Laughing with him, I said, “I think it all amounts to the same.”
One of his hands took hold of mine. I coughed at the heat of his touch, practically choking on the last roll of laughter still trying to come out.
“ Tell me something.”
I stared at his large tanned hand swallowing my brown one. “What’s that?”
“ How could I be so blinded by Leeza’s false glamour when there was a woman so much more beautiful and emotionally sincere than her?”
Licking my bottom lip, I rolled it inward between my teeth and thought for a moment. I was never good with hypothetical questions, especially those surrounding the opposite sex and their reaction to gorgeous shallow women. As a full-figured girl, I wasn’t foolish about my looks. I knew I was more than just ‘a pretty face’. However, I could fill up my hands and feet with how many times men looked past women like Kalan and me for the Leeza’s of the hour. Pulling my gaze from our hands, I looked up into his face. “Men. What woman can understand them?”
“ I guess we’re easily distracted by shiny objects.” As he stared back at me, his fingers linked through mine and glided up and down the sides as if mindless.
Chase may have been absent to what his hands were doing, but my thoughts were fully focused on his touch and the tingling sensations set off by it. “Probably.”
“ I still recall Kalan’s sophomore year in college when she brought you home during spring break to go deep sea fishing with the family.”
I groaned and tried to pull my hand away. “Oh, don’t remember that. I was sick practically the entire two days we were at sea on that rented boat. Embarrassing.”
His grip held. Not hard, but firm enough that it kept our fingers linked. “When I think about that week we spent in that beach house I don’t think about you being sick, I think about how much I wanted to kiss you from the moment you stepped out of Kalan’s car.”
If it was possible to swallow one’s tongue, it would have happened to me at that moment. I couldn’t believe the words I’d just heard coming from Chase’s lips. “What?” The single word squeaked out of my tight throat.
“ I restrained myself because I didn’t know if it would be wanted from you and I didn’t want you to feel uncomfortable through the week.”
Oh, Lord. I recalled how attracted to him I had been. I felt like a silly, lustful teenager. Here Kalan and her family had welcomed me on their trip and all I wanted to do was find myself in my friend’s cousin’s arms. “I…I—”
“ I know I’ve probably shocked you. My instant desire for you caught me off guard, too.” His thumb stroked the sensitive area of my palm. “After that week, Kalan brought you home to Charlotte so often you became like a family member. Then you moved here and seemed to solidify your place in the Henderson clan. So, I kept my feelings to myself.”
Fate was a cruel bitch. That was the only reason why I’d been trapped in a house with a man I’d had fantasies about for years and worked hard to push those feelings away only to have him tell me he’d experienced the same pull toward me. In light of the fact that his ex-fiancée had just walked out of his life barely an hour ago, I wouldn’t allow myself to believe this was anything more than a man clearing his emotional conscious. It was the alcohol he’d consumed talking.
“ Chase…” I cleared my throat. “I’m not sure what you want me to do with this information. Right now you’re just hurt because, Leez—”
“ Come here, Oriana.” He tugged my hand, ending my words. Grabbing my other hand, he pulled until I rose from my seat and stood before him.
“ You just need to rest…” I babbled on. “In the morning you will have a clearer