CHAPTER5
Carinna
Istare into his eyes as I help her to the dance floor when the DJ starts playing a slow, sexy song. Other people step up around us and rock back and forth in each other’s arms but all I see is him. His bright blue eyes so full of love and desire that I can’t look away. Everything around us fades away to background noise and lean into his arms, resting my head on his chest, hearing his heartbeat under my ear, beating faster as I wrap my arms around his lean waist.
After a minute or two I look up at him, my breath freezing in my throat when I see the heat burning in his crystal eyes.
“Did you mean it, Chris?”
He nods slowly, his eyes warm. “I meant every word. I’ve missed you every damn day since I left. I couldn’t forget you. I dreamed about you so many nights. I just couldn’t stop remembering how beautiful you looked. I even dreamed about making love to you again.”
My cheeks flush and I dip my head. But his hand cups my jaw and he lifts it up. “Surely you realized how much I wanted you when I showed up here? I didn’t come here for the festival. I came here for you. To see if there was anything left for us.”
My mouth drops open and I gasp, stunned. “Really? You came back for me?”
He nods, his firm lips tilting. “I didn’t realize that I was going to be a father too but I’m so damn happy.” A shadow crosses his chiseled face. “And so damn sad…mad. So many fucking things. You shouldn’t have had to deal with our mistake all on your own. That was my responsibility too.”
I glare at him, tugging back in his arms until his muscular arms clinch around me. “I don’t consider Maddy a mistake.”
“You misunderstand me. I’m not saying she’s a mistake. An accident maybe. Unless you planned on being a single mom.”
“No,” I chuckle. “ She was a surprise. But I’ve never regretted her for one single moment.”
“I wish I could say the same.”
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was just so surprised and you had already had your first song play on the radio when she was born. I used to play it for her all the time when she was a baby and tell her that was her daddy. It always settled her down at night.”
Tears start in his eyes and he looks away.
“I really am sorry. I thought you needed to take the chance to make something of yourself and I didn’t want to be a drain on your career before it even started.”
“Can we just agree that we both made mistakes? This is a chance for us to start over. To explore what might still be.”
I nod my head. “I’d like that, I think.”
“Good. Let’s go to your car.”
“Excuse me?” My voice hits a level that only dogs can hear as he whips me around and drags me outside. We don’t even make it back to my car. Instead he turns me and crowds me into the brick building, the texture rough against my back. But I don’t give a shit when his hands slide under my t-shirt and run along the waistband of my jeans. Rough and calloused from playing the guitar, his fingers strum my ribs and my belly, sliding up to cup my breasts.
I gasp and my head falls back lightly, lost in the wild feelings that his hands create. Fire flares up under my skin where his hands touch and follows each stroke, skittering underneath and into my bloodstream like a drug.
“Oh god, Chris. That feels so good.”
“You’re damn straight it does.” He’s wider than I remember. His shoulders like iron under my hands. His biceps flex as he shifts, angling to keep me hidden in the dark and for just a moment my head clears.
Is he hiding me because he’s ashamed of me and what we have or is he hiding me because he doesn’t want anyone to see what we’re doing?
Before I can ask, his hand skims underneath my jeans and strokes the soft curls between my thighs. It feels like my lungs collapse as all the air is drawn out of my body, my legs shaking, barely standing. If he wasn’t holding me against the building with his own body, I swear I would fall over.
“Chris?” I whisper, my head spinning and my breath sawing out like I’ve just run miles.
His fingers slither along my lower lips until one of them sinks inside so slowly, making me moan in desperation.
“Oh my god!” I whimper, the pressure building inside my body. He leans closer and his mouth caresses my ear lobe before his teeth latch on to it, tugging gently.
“I’m gonna make you come so hard, you’re gonna know exactly who this pretty pussy belongs to and always will. It’s mine,” he growls and shivers dance on my skin at the gruff tone.
Lord, I love the way he says things like that. My body constricts around his fingers and he chuckles.