Chapter 26
Chase
Istood there, staring down at Finn sprawled across my couch. His cheeks were flushed, and he was breathing hard. He looked wrecked. He was beautiful like this, with his hair a mess, his lips swollen, and his eyes half closed in that post-orgasm haze that made him look younger and softer.
I’d done that.
I’d made him look like that, made him come undone with my mouth and hands and words. The power of it should have been enough, should have satisfied whatever this was between us.
But it wasn’t.
I wanted more.
My brain was doing something complicated—something that felt dangerously close to feelings.
I wanted—
What did I want?
Finn’s eyes opened slowly, focusing on me. A lazy smile spread across his face.
“Well,” he said, his voice rough. “That was . . .”
“Unexpected,” I finished.
“I was going to say ‘incredible,’ but unexpected works, too.” He pushed himself up to sitting, wincing slightly. “Jesus, Chase. Where did you learn to do that?”
“Law school.”
“They teach blow jobs in law school?”
“No, but the stress makes you very motivated to figure things out.” I was stalling, making jokes, doing anything to avoid the thing I wanted to say. “You want some water?”
“Yeah, that would be—” Finn stopped. Only then did he seem to remember where he was. “Actually, I should get going.”
He stood—still naked, still beautiful—and began gathering his clothes from where they lay scattered across my living room floor.
My hand moved before my brain could catch up. I grabbed his wrist.
“Where are you going?” I heard myself ask.
Finn’s head cocked as he looked up. “Home? It’s late, and you have work tomorrow—”
“I don’t care about work.”
“Chase—”
“Stay.” The word came out more desperate than I’d intended. My grip on his wrist tightened. “Please.”
“I . . . what?”
What was I doing? This wasn’t how this worked. I hooked up, I enjoyed it, I sent the guy on his way.
I did not ask someone to stay.
I didn’t make it complicated.
I didn’t—
“I want you to stay,” fell out of my mouth.
My voice sounded wrong, smaller and less confident.
The version of me that had just taken control and reduced Finn to a puddle of sticky goo was gone, replaced by someone uncertain and needy.
“I know it’s crazy and I shouldn’t be asking or .
. . hell . . . this is so stupid. I know it’s too soon. We barely know each other. But I—”
I stopped and drew in a breath.
“Finn, I don’t do this,” I said, motioning up and down his naked body like he was some prize on The Price is Right.
“I don’t hook up, and I never bring people home.
I work and I sleep. Then I work some more.
That’s my life. That’s all my life has been for, well, forever.
” I laughed, sounding slightly manic. “And then you walked into my bar—shit, no, I walked into your bar. I crashed into you on a sidewalk, and then I kept coming back because I couldn’t stop thinking about you and your eyes and your goddamn accent.
I squeezed my eyes shut and could still see the way you looked at me like .
. . like I was interesting instead of just another overworked associate. ”
Finn was staring. I couldn’t read his expression.
“And tonight was—it was fun. No, it was incredible. You’re incredible.
But . . . I . . . I don’t want it to end here.
I don’t want you to leave and have this just be a thing that happened.
” My free hand found his other wrist. I was holding both now.
“I want you to stay. I want to sleep next to you and wake up with you in the morning. I want to hold you all night and know that this is real and not just—”
“Chase.” Finn’s voice was soft.
“I know I sound insane—”
“Chase.”
“—and I’m probably scaring you off and ruining whatever might—”
“Chase, stop.” Finn stepped closer, closing the space between us. “Breathe.”
I tried.
“You want me to stay?” Finn asked slowly.
“Yes.”
“You want to hold me all night.”
“Yes.”
“You want this to be real, maybe the start of something, whether that ends up as friendship or whatever?”
“Yes. God, yes.” My voice cracked. “Is that—is that too much? Too fast? Too—”
“It’s perfect.”
A smile bloomed across Finn’s lips. It was that soft, genuine smile that made my chest tighten each time I’d seen it from across the bar.
He freed a hand and raised it to my cheek. “You’re kind of a mess right now, you know that?”
“I’m aware.”
“It’s cute.”
“It’s pathetic.”
“It’s honest.” He stroked my cheek with his thumb, and I was suddenly aware my other hand was still gripping him like he might disappear. “I’ll stay. Of course I’ll stay.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He leaned in and kissed me, soft and sweet, nothing like the desperate, heated kisses from earlier. “But I need to text Priya so she doesn’t think I’ve been murdered.”
“Okay.”
“And you need to stop looking at me like I’m about to change my mind and bolt.”
“I’m not—”
“You are.” He stepped back, his eyes glittering with amusement. “You’re doing that thing with your face.”
“What thing?”
“The lawyer thing. The ‘I’m preparing for the worst possible outcome’ thing.
” Finn tossed his clothes onto the couch, clearly not planning on covering his naked body, a decision I wholeheartedly supported.
“I want to stay, Chase. I want to sleep next to you and wake up with you and see what you look like when you’re not exhausted from working fourteen-hour days. ”
“Okay.”
“But there is one condition.”
My heart seized. “Um, okay. What?”
“I don’t do bad coffee, and your kitchen looks like it hasn’t been used since, well, ever.”
“I’m not great in the kitchen.” I chuckled. “But the crepe place down on 7th has great coffee . . . and the best breakfast in town. How about an early morning date before I have to go into the office?”
“That sounds perfect.” He kissed me again. “Now where’s my phone?”
I laughed—actually laughed—as Finn turned and bent to search his clothes. The vertical smile that grinned at me was adorable.
Phone secured, Finn turned back, and I took his hand—the same hand I’d been gripping like a lifeline moments ago—and led him toward the stairs.
He was still naked and unself-conscious about walking through my house without a stitch on, despite the floor-to-ceiling window that exposed him to all of Ybor.
Oddly, in that moment of relief and bliss and renewed hope, only one thought ran through my mind:
Diego will never let me live this down.