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“Is it serious?”
“I want it to be.” Jesse shrugged. “Maybe. We haven’t gone out yet or anything like that, but we’ve been friends a while. We talk a lot, ya know?”
“About everything?”
He shook his head. “No,” Jesse said, in a low voice.
“If you want even half a snowball’s chance in hell with this girl then you need to. She deserves your complete honesty. So does Taylor.” Brendan gave him a brotherly pat on the back. “I know it’s scary, but sometimes you have to let yourself be vulnerable. Sometimes you have to risk everything to gain everything.”
“Yeah, man.” Jesse nodded. “I know. I’m gonna talk to her. And Tay.”
In fact, he decided, he was going to go see her. He glanced at his phone. It wasn’t that late. He had to see her.
Right fucking now.
The knock on her door was so light she almost didn’t hear it, and if she hadn’t dozed off reading on the sofa, she most certainly wouldn’t have. Chloe glanced at the time on her cell phone—almost midnight. She got up and looked through the peephole.
No fucking way!
Jesse rarely came by her apartment. She could count on one hand the number of times he’d been here, but he was here now and she wondered why. He stood in her doorway looking much the same as he had when she left Charley’s, except his long hair was loose and flowing past his shoulders. A foot taller than she was, he leaned against the doorframe and peered down at her with those lightning blue eyes and that boyish grin that turned her insides to goo.
“Jesse! What are you doing here?” She opened the door wide and stepped back to let him in. “Is everything okay?”
Jesse pushed himself off the doorframe and stepped inside. “Yeah, babe.” He pulled her in for a hug and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Everything’s okay. I was in the neighborhood and I wanted to see you.”
Chloe kept the smile that was bursting to get out, inside her. As thrilled as she was that he was there, outwardly her demeanor remained indifferent. She knew her worth and she wasn’t about to fawn all over him simply because he deigned to make an appearance at her door.
She lifted a brow. “It’s late, Jesse.” Then turned away to return to her seat on the sofa.
His hand reached for hers from behind. He grasped it and spun her around into him. Their bodies were flush up against each other, her free hand landed on his hard pec. She felt his heartbeat beneath her palm. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held her to his chest. His hair brushed her cheek as he slowly lowered his lips to her ear and softly spoke in his whiskey-smooth voice, “I wanted to see you. Alone.”
She knew this wasn’t a booty call—that just wasn’t Jesse’s style. Chloe also knew she should resist him and send him on his way, but the vibration of his voice in her ear made her shiver all the way down to her toes. It had a sensual hypnotic quality to it that every cell in her body responded to. She hoped he didn’t notice and replied without looking up at him, “What for?”
He rubbed his stubbled cheek against her soft one. “Oh, I thought our thumbs could use a break.”
She lifted her head, gazed up at him, and giggled. “Yeah, right.”
“Yeah, really.” Jesse took her by the hand and sat her alongside him on the velvet sofa. “I want to see your face when we talk, babe.” He still held her hand in his. He squeezed it in his palm and traced his thumb along her wrist.
Was this really the king of iMessage talking?
She cocked her head to the side and snickered, “Since when?”
“Since now.” He rubbed the back of his neck and then leaned in closer, cupping her face softly in his hand so his eyes connected with hers. “Since always.”
Eyes as blue as a warm tropical ocean stared into hers. Fathomless. She could get lost in them if she let herself. Their bottomless depths touched a place so deep inside her that even she didn’t know it existed until he found it.
She lowered her lashes and broke the connection. “Jesse,” she sighed, and subtly shaking her head pulled away.
“Babe, don’t. Please.” His fingers combed through her long beach waves. “I know you must think I’m a dick, but…”
Her hand reached up to grasp his fingers in her hair, stopping him. “I don’t think you’re a dick, but what I do think is that you don’t know what it is you really want.” Chloe lowered her chin. “I’m not your babe, so please don’t call me that.”
Holding onto her hand, Jesse stood. “Oh, but I do know what I want.” He pulled her from the sofa and held her against his hard muscled body. “I know exactly what I want.” He held her face between his hands. Warm lips settled on her forehead.
All she’d have to do was tilt her head back and those warm lips would find her mouth. Chloe wanted them to because she’d never felt his kiss, or the way his bare skin might feel against her own, and she wanted to know what that felt like.
With gentle pressure from his hands Jesse did it for her and those warm lips brushed across hers as he whispered, “You.”
