“Don’t strain yourself,” I murmured in an auto response.
“Just listen.” He waited a beat to see what I would do or say next. For once I didn’t act on the impulse to chuck something at his head, regardless of how appalling it would be to mar a face as devastating as his. “Don’t leave. I want you to spend the night. I’m not ready to let you go, not after what we shared. Stay the night with me.”
I opened my mouth, but my voice got stuck in my throat, clouded with too many emotions. Instead, I nodded and pressed a sweet kiss to his luscious lips. A girl could get used to this. “What do you plan on doing about Devin and my mom?” I asked, poking holes in his plan for the night.
He kissed me. “I think it is date night,” he murmured and kissed me again. “And they are going to be too busy to notice that you are not bunking with Lexi.”
“Living on the edge.” This was one night I was willing to risk getting busted.
“Always.” His head dipped toward my neck. “Now let’s get some sleep,” he said, sliding a hand under my borrowed t-shirt.
I giggled. There was going to be no sleeping if he kept sipping on my neck like that.
***
I awoke to a pounding that rattled the walls.
“What the he—”
My first thought was busted.
Shoving my hair out of my face, I reluctantly lifted my head off the pillow that still smelled like Chase. He was gone. But the hammering at his door was very much still there. I groaned before getting ready to propel the covers aside and drag my sleepy butt to the door.
“You better be decent because I am coming in,” Lexi said, cracking the door to Chase’s room.
“Why are you making so much racket?” I asked hoarsely, squinting my eyes.
She stepped into the room with an absurdly large grin on her lips. “Saving you from getting grounded,” she replied.
Mom never grounded me, but there was always a first time for everything. I sat up, trying to focus on what Lexi was saying and not be distracted by the memories of last night. “How is breaking the door down helping?” I asked.
She rolled her sea-green eyes. “The parentals are downstairs making breakfast. I volunteered to get you before things got messy down there. Chase looked ready to tackle your mom when she announced that she was going to wake up her lazy daughter. You should have seen his face.”
I sniffed bacon grease, black coffee, and golden maple syrup now that the bedroom door was wide open. “Ugh,” I grumbled.
She leaned against the bedpost, eyeing my ruffled appearance with a smirk. “So, I assume by the stupid silly grin on my cousin’s face and your general morning grouchiness that the two of you fin-a-lly sealed the deal.”
In more ways than one. I dropped my head into my hands. “Oh my God, does everyone know?”
She ticked off the names on her manicured nails. “Travis—yes. Emma—yes. My dad—yes. Your mom…” She shook her long blonde hair. “Nope. She is too busy falling head over heels for my dad.”
I didn’t know which was worse, my mom in love or that all of Spring Valley knew what I was doing last night. I stand corrected, who I was doing last night. Stupid backwoods small town. “Well, if this isn’t going to be the most awkward breakfast ever.”
“I never knew how much fun having a human friend could be. You never fail to entertain.”
I gave her the stink eye.
Chapter 23
I padded down the stairs, hiding behind Lexi, in my rainbow knee-high socks, after I forced her to make a quick pit stop at her room so I could put on something other than Chase’s borrowed t-shirt. That was sure to draw a few raised brows from Mom, and there was already going to be enough attention on me.
Rounding the corner, my eyes clashed with Chase’s. “Cute, Punky Brewster,” he said when he spotted me.
I narrowed my eyes at him. My socks might be flashy, but they made me still feel like a little girl, just the way I wanted Mom to see me, not as a sex-crazed teenager. “You’ll regret that later,” I forewarned under my breath.
No doubt he read something sexual in my words, seeing as he shot me a dangerous grin over his giant glass of OJ.
I went straight for the coffee pot and poured myself a mug, loading it with cream and a bucket of sugar. Travis was lingering in the kitchen, snatching a piece of bacon every time my mom turned her back. Devin was eyeing his son suspiciously.
“Did you sleep well, honey?” Mom asked as I weaved my way through the kitchen toward the circular table.
I burnt my tongue on the scalding coffee and swore.
Chase leaned back into his chair, smirking like a baboon.
Travis snickered with a mouthful of bacon.
And Lexi coughed, covering a giggle.