9. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Belinda

I don’t know how it was that he and I got stuck, with just a week and a half till Christmas, putting up more lights and more garland. Sure, some strands might have burnt out, and we were stuck fixing it, but that didn’t seem fair.

I think Chase noticed, and therefore his mom made him fix it and somehow, I got roped into this. Mind you, they also left us alone while they went shopping. Again, not fair in my opinion.

“You didn’t have to buy more for my mom, you know,” he told me as I untangled one of the new sets I had bought.

“I didn’t think she was going to have me put it up this year. I bought it after everything was done. Did you have to open your mouth those the lights were done for?”

“It looked odd in the house,” was his smartass remark.

I rolled my eyes at him, making him smirk.

“What, Chase?”

“Don’t make me use them.”

I wrinkled my nose at that, not understanding at all.

“Come again?”

“I think you’d make a hell of a sexy looking light Christmas tree. Plug the strand in, seeing the lights play over your skin, the glow it would cast, and then licking the same spots to watch them glisten.”

Uh, fuck me!

Where the hell did that come from? I mean, okay sure, just a few days ago he and I were having a fun snow day and the whole wife comment came out. And okay, sure, we had flirted some since then.

But sexual?

And that?

The Chase I knew had never gone down that road. Of course, this is now how many years later and I know damn good and well he didn’t save himself.

Which left me to wonder, what had he learned in ten years?

“I…uh…” I was utterly speechless.

“No slacking,” he teased, changing the subject and I was grateful. I mean, I just couldn’t even process that right now.

“Not slacking,” I mumbled, my mind more jarred than I’d like. I also knew me and there was just no way I was going to be getting over that anytime soon.

I twisted my lip as I watched him.

He looked older, more of a man than the boy I left. His shirts certainly got more fill to them with his muscles, and I could have sworn I saw a tattoo on his arm that traveled upward to his shoulder I assumed. Not to mention from the days of climbing in and out of a saddle, his legs got more defined and well, that was an ass I wanted to squeeze.

Ugh, no, not the road to go down.

“Whatcha thinking about over there?”

Don’t say anything, B. He doesn’t need to know your thoughts.

“Your tattoo. I was curious if there were any more on your body that I couldn’t see.”

Really?

He slowly lifted a brow, his eyes raking over me as I sat on the floor.

“Are you asking to see them?”

“I mean, I was just wondering. Didn’t have to show me.”

“I got a few after you left. Haven’t really gotten anything in years though. Ones on the ribcage, the other on my chest.”

“Can I see them?”

Oh. My. God.

What the fuck was wrong with me?

“Depends?”

“Depends on what, Chase?”

I watched in fascination as he pulled the strand of lights taunt, as if it were a belt in his hands.

“Depends on if Santa needs to put you on his nice list, or his naughty list.”

I don’t think I’ve ever been so unsure of what each list would entail.

“What happens on Santa’s nice list?”

“Hmm, well, you’ll get the show of the tattoos. But then I’ll just put my shirt back on and we can finish.”

Not a bad idea. I still get to see a chest that I’m sure looks about twenty times better than I could recall.

“And what happens on the naughty list?”

“On the naughty list,” he said, working the lights around his arm, flexing it, and making my mouth water with the veins popping out.

Yes, please, to forearm porn!

“Go on,” I whispered, licking my lips.

“You get to see the tattoos up close and personal. Because you’ll be under me, with the lights around you, as I push into your center over and over.”

That one! I wanted to be on the naughty list.

“And how did I get on…the…uh…the…ni…naughty…list?”

He grinned as he walked over, crouching down right in front of me.

“You have to show me you’re just as naughty to get something like that.”

Oh, he wanted to play that game. He wasn’t the only one who’s changed over the years.

“Not a problem.” I pushed him, making him fall on his back and took the blue and silver garland in my hand, tying it around his hands then tying it around the leg of the chair that was next to us. “I tend to like my men at my mercy.” With that, I ripped his shirt open, admiring the view of a strong chest with its small smattering amount of hair and the ink sprawled over it.

God, he was a gorgeous man.

Without thought, I leaned down, pressing my lips to his. He had turned me on with his words. Honestly, words I never thought I’d hear him say again.

And if we were taking that honest road, after the few weeks of his temperament, I could have sworn he didn’t even see me that way.

But now, now I may be questioning it.

Especially as his lips pressed right back against mine. And then his tongue swept across them, seeking access. Access that I was readily open and willing to give.

His tongue flicking and moving with me set everything ablaze.

I pushed my body against his as if I couldn’t get enough of him. As if he would be gone any moment. It’s possible that in the back of my mind, he might play that hot and cold game again, but I could feel his hardness, and I just couldn’t see him pulling away.

Not when he felt that in need.

He moaned, arching up, but with his hands bound, he couldn’t get very far, and I broke the kiss, breathless, to smile at him.

“Not cool, B,” he muttered from swollen lips, and I couldn’t resist going in for another deep kiss, rubbing my legs over his hardness.

He growled and hell if that sound didn’t shoot straight down to my core.

I don’t know what he thought he was going to do, but I was in control for the moment, and I wasn’t going to let him go.

“Damn, I missed those,” I whispered, moving my lips from his and down his neck. I licked over the vein that ran along the side, and then smirked. “When’s the last time you had a love bite?”

“You.”

That was all the answer I needed. His neck was one of his biggest weaknesses, and if there was anything I loved doing, it was making this man melt.

So, I sucked on the spot where his neck and shoulder met, loving how his body jerked, and he moaned.

“Fucking hell, don’t stop,” he cried, his arms flexing to be released. I closed my eyes, savoring the sound of and feel of him. His breath hitched and then he gave another jerk of his body, easily breaking the garland and grabbing my arms to pull me away.

I stared at him, dazed for a second before he grabbed my hand and held it to the front of his jeans where a telltale sign was forming there.

I made him come just by that?

“For sure on the naughty list,” he growled, and he wasn’t the only one with a wet spot.