Chapter 30
Chloe
Casual—Chappell Roan
I moved on top of her, kissing down her jaw, not stopping until I reached the crook of her neck. I sucked. I wanted to leave
a mark. My mark, like I wanted people to know: Chloe Murphy was here.
It felt so right, her body against mine, like this was the destination we’d been hurtling towards this entire time. As if
every disagreement, every fight we’d had was resolved with the press of my lips against hers.
I couldn’t stop myself from touching every inch of her. Like I was trying to catch up on everything I’d missed. My fingers
skimmed down her side, pressing against her breast through her satin pj’s, catching her hard nipple in my fingers, rubbing
softly.
How would she feel, her legs wrapped around my neck, over my shoulders, pulling me closer? Her hands between my thighs? How
would she sound when she came? I wanted to know, immediately and all at once, greedy and enthusiastic for more and more of
her.
I kissed further down the sliver of cleavage her buttoned shirt allowed, a little drunk on her body. Tilting my head up, her
gaze caught mine, her brown irises nearly entirely black with lust. She looked unwound.
“Is this okay?” I asked, biting down on my eagerness, my fingers pausing at the buttons of her shirt.
When we kissed a year ago, it hadn’t come out of nowhere for me. I’d known I was attracted to girls as well as guys, but I hadn’t acted on it until Inés.
One kiss from her, and my world exploded.
I’d pretended that it hadn’t happened, the intensity of even the memory overwhelming. But since then, I’d tried to push the
boundaries with my parents, breaking out of the cage I’d been in. Henrik had been a key, allowing Mom and Dad to relax their
grip a little.
“Yes,” Inés replied, a half-looped smile curled on her lips.
Grinning, my fingers worked at the buttons. I was shaking slightly, nerves still burning off. Her shirt undone, I slid my
hands under the silk, her bare skin so soft under my fingertips.
I’d been waiting and waiting for this moment since the storm, when I walked in on her changing. Longer maybe, remembering
her in a bikini at the beach house, walking across the beach like some kind of siren.
My mouth found her breast, groaning loudly as my tongue flicked against the peaked nipple. She shuddered under me, arching
her back. I slid my hand along her back, pressing against her spine and keeping her close. Inés knotted her fingers in my
hair as I sucked harder, biting lightly with my teeth.
“Dios mío.” Her voice was breathless. I looked up, her head rolled back, eyes closed. Seeing her as weak for my touch as I was for
hers was shocking and intoxicating. She was so beautiful, full eyelashes and sharp edges, but here she was, undone for me.
More. I wanted more. Needed more.
My hand found her other breast, fingers curling and pressing and pulling, the feel of her overwhelming.
“Harder, please,” she begged, and I obliged, grinning as I bit down, pulling the sensitive skin between my teeth. Her back
arched again, her hands finding my breast, pressing it hard against my chest. “Joder.”
I moaned, seeing stars and unable to stop myself from thrusting my hips against her, dragging my core against her thigh. The
contact nearly sent me into a tailspin.
My hand skimmed across her hard stomach, her abs carved perfection. She felt incredible against me, her body a tool for our sport. I pulled back a little, her hand lifting from me, and I noticed the small scar on her wrist, the thin line of healed skin.
Without thinking, my hand softly found her arm, kissing each line gently. Her breathing hitched, both our chests heaving as
I turned to her other arm.
Her gaze was fixed on me, her mouth open and irresistible. I kissed her again, unable to stop myself, and enjoyed her immediate
reaction.
This wasn’t like the last time. It might have felt similar, an explosion blowing up everything I thought I knew, but there
was no running from this. There was no hiding.
I wanted her, rough edges included.
Dragging my lips down her chest, I didn’t stop moving, fighting the urge to tease and gain myself another one of those breathless
noises from her, and instead continued until I reached her waistband.
The second my fingers dipped underneath, pulling the material south, her body froze tight. I knew immediately something wasn’t
right, used to her relaxing under my touch.
I pulled away, looking up and finding her brown eyes wide. The fog of lust had cleared and been replaced by an anxiety that
gave me pause.
“Are you okay? We can stop,” I urged, listening to my senses.
She shook her head, but I still kept my distance. “No, it’s not that.”
I shifted, trying to ignore the growing feeling of already missing her body reacting under my touch, her rough kisses, fingers
tangled in my hair. “What is it?”
“I’m just . . .” She paused, pulling her legs up. I was briefly distracted by a pull of her swollen lip in between her teeth.
Inés motioned between us. “Overthinking this.”
I let out a heavy breath, seeing the anxiety curling at her edges. I could understand where she was coming from. How easy
it would be to let this get complicated.
“Let’s take a moment, let it breathe,” I suggested, satisfaction washing over me as I watch her rigid body loosen.
“Okay, yeah, sure.” Inés moved again. “That was . . .”
“Bad?”
Her gaze met mine, her head shaking vigorously. “No, good. Excellent.” Her gaze caught on the mirror behind me, and her fingers
pressed to the base of her throat, moving her shirt open, giving me another glance at her chest.
I lost all functional thought at the sight.
“Did you leave a hickey?” Her hand held her shirt, revealing the purple dark skin.
I took another moment to enjoy my work. “Maybe.”
“You are definitely a terror,” she gasped, clutching at a pillow from behind her, throwing it at me. “How am I going to hide this?”
“I guess you’ll have to wear a scarf,” I suggested, earning myself another pillow to the face.
“It’s July.”
“Maybe try a turtleneck?”
She fell back onto the mattress, and I was so tempted to get on my knees, crawl up her body, run my lips up her bare chest,
tease her with my tongue again.
“I hate asking this,” I said. “But you’re going to have to close your shirt if you still want to stop.”
Inés looked down, as if not realizing that the buttons were still undone. Her grin was the picture of pure evil. “Why? Am
I distracting you?”
I shifted my weight, putting my hands under thighs, trapping myself. “Yes.”
She pushed up onto her side, that same devilish look still across her face, her fingers running up her stomach, my eyes stuck
on the motion.
Fuck. She was so hot it was suffocating.
“Do you want to touch me again?”
“Yes,” I said. “But I think we should stop. You wanted to before . . . and right now you’re making it incredibly difficult to think straight.”
“That’s the point.” She winked. A laugh escaped me. “You’re right.” Her hands grabbed her top, fingers working at the buttons.
“We should talk, and you make me want to make it incredibly hard for you. I enjoy it when you babble.”
“You do kind of melt my brain.”
“Thanks, I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“It is,” I said, my words causing her to pause slightly, as if she was caught off guard. I watched her again, every movement
of her body, the gentle rise and fall of her chest. And I came to a decision, an idea of what I thought was best. “I think
we should date.”
Her brown eyes narrowed on me. “You don’t want . . .”
I cut her off with a shake of my head. Take the lead, Chloe. Tell her what you want. “I think a one-night stand is more likely to get complicated.”
“If we don’t rush it,” she finished, seeing where I was coming from.
I nodded. “We can make sure we do it right.”
“Yeah, that’s smart,” Inés answered, but I could sense the hesitation, as if she was still trying to figure out how she felt.
Her mouth opened, but it was another moment before she managed to come up with any words. “I didn’t expect . . . I didn’t
expect you to want to date.”
My brows pressed together. “What? Why?”
“I’m not the girl people date.” I hated how easily she managed to summarize her point. “I’ve always been just a hookup with
other women. They would always say, ‘Let’s keep it casual,’ and ‘Why do we need to put a label on it?’ It made me feel like
I wasn’t worth the commitment. In the end, I learned to tell myself I wanted one-night stands, that it would hurt less. But
it was always a lie.”
“I thought that was your style,” I said cautiously.
As long as I’d known her, been around Henrik and even just around the court, it was clear that Inés was known for a fun time.
That she was the one who wasn’t seriously interested.
It hadn’t occurred to me that it might not be her choice specifically.
It never occurred to me just how deeply I might have hurt her when I never called.
Inés gazed up at me, a sad look in her eyes. “When that’s what people expect from you, how they treat you, it’s easier to
go along with it. It was fine for a while, but it never felt like what I wanted was important.”
I couldn’t handle it anymore. Instead, I allowed myself to move closer to her.
Reaching out, my hand found her jaw, and I tilted her head to hold eye contact.
“Don’t do that.” I shook my head, swallowing the sadness that had built up at her words. Her brown eyes stared up at me. “Don’t
lower your standards to meet what other people give you. Demand more. You’re worth that.”
She held my gaze. “I’ll try.”
“Good,” I replied, the moment between us stretching too long. I sat back, still close, but any moment when I wasn’t touching
her was like living in black and white.
“What about Henrik?” she asked, concern filling her eyes.
My eyebrows bunched together. “What about him? We aren’t together anymore.”
Inés let out a heavy sigh, shoulders slumping. “I mean he’s one of my best friends. He was there for me when not many people