He toyed with the knot, in no rush to untie her. “You made me wait two years.”

She opened her mouth with a smart reply—something about him kicking her out of his bed—but he slid a hand under the robe and she lost the words.

“You were dodging me after our dance.”

“You know how this town is,” she said, struggling to concentrate as he lazily trailed his fingers up her thigh. “Word of scandal moves faster than Daddy’s Derby horses.”

He shrugged, tugged her closer still so she was standing between his legs. “So let them talk.” His fingers had almost run out of thigh to climb. If she moved, even an inch, his hand would be right where she wanted it.

She kept her hands to her sides, forcing herself to be still. “Don’t be shy now.”

He grinned up at her, leaned forward, and pulled the knot on her robe loose with his teeth. Dropping the tie to the floor, he ran his hands over her exposed torso, still damp from her shower. His rough palms flattened against her abdomen. He traced a circle around her navel with his thumb, sending goose bumps across her skin.

His eyes grew darker and her breathing quickened. When he replaced his thumb with his hot, open mouth, she moaned. His mouth, his tongue, around her navel, lower. He ran his tongue up her belly and licked the underside of her breast.

She grabbed his shoulders, and he growled softly, gently repositioning her hands by her sides.

“Not yet,” he said, voice gravely.

He pressed his mouth against her hipbone, nipped that sensitive spot with his teeth, ran his hot, open mouth over it.

She trembled and fisted her hands as he trailed his mouth across her pelvis to treat the other side to the same delicious torture. The hot ache of pleasure grew between her legs. She wanted him there—his fingers, his tongue, his thick cock.

His hands slid around to her ass and pulled her down so she sat in his lap, straddling him.

When he found her breast with his hot mouth, she whimpered. Heat, pleasure, and desire all shot through her. She rocked her h*ps and found him, erect and thick through his pants.

He slid her robe halfway down her arms as he went to the next breast—sucking, licking, teasing her nipple.

He raised his head, breathing heavily against her neck. “I have waited too long to touch you, too long to taste you,” he said, nipping at her lobe, “to be satisfied with a quick f**k against my office door.”

She tilted her head to give him better access as he alternately ran teeth and tongue along the column of her neck.

He stood suddenly, holding her weight against him and letting her robe fall to the floor.

She wrapped her legs around his waist and nodded toward the bedroom.

He chuckled, then surprised her by setting her on the breakfast bar. “Lean back,” he commanded, his voice husky.

She propped herself on her elbows, and he spread her legs, looking so long and hard at her sex that she squirmed and shifted to close them.

He stopped her, work-roughened hands high against her inner thighs. “You’re too beautiful for words.”

Some too big, too unexpected emotion tightened her throat, and she couldn’t respond.

Suddenly, he propped her legs on her shoulders and slid his hands under her ass. Then his wet mouth was on her, hot and greedy against her sex. She drew her knees up instinctively, opening herself to him and he explored her with his tongue. He teased her clit. Licked, sucked, kissed. His beard scraped lightly against the sensitive skin, heightening her pleasure.

She wanted him inside her, filling her. She wanted him kissing her. She wanted him to never stop what he was doing with his lips and tongue and, sometimes, the light scrape of teeth.

When she didn’t think she could take any more, he slid two fingers inside her, and she flew apart, rocking her h*ps as the orgasm tore through her.

When she opened her eyes, he was smiling down at her. He scooped her off the counter and carried her to the bedroom.

She sank into the down comforter and he lowered himself over her. Sliding his unbuttoned shirt down his arms, she pressed her mouth against his bare chest, raking her teeth along his hard pectorals.

He threw his shirt aside and discarded his pants.

“Protection,” she murmured, but he was already sliding on a condom.

When he lowered himself, she arched her hips, desperate to feel him inside her. He didn’t rush. He sat cradled between her thighs and cupped her face with his big hands.

His eyes went soft, and her heart tripped as he ran his thumb tenderly along her jaw line. “I’m sorry if I hurt you that night.”

She put her finger to his lips. She couldn’t have this conversation. Not now.

He watched her, his gaze never leaving hers as he entered her. He watched her as he moved inside her, breaking eye contact only to trail kisses along her jaw or across her collarbone.

She wrapped her legs around him, moving with and against him and letting the pressure build. When her orgasm wouldn’t hold back any longer, she dug her nails into his back and felt his release as she pulsed around him.

After, as she inhaled deeply of his scent, brushed her lips over the hot, damp skin of his neck she wondered at her stubborn heart. Still so in love after all this time.

Chapter Nine

Resting on his elbows, Chase smoothed a curl behind Addison’s ear and looked down at her with soft eyes. “Did I ever tell you you’re amazing?”

She smiled up at him, thinking how good it felt to have his weight on her, his heat warming her. “I don’t think you’ve mentioned it, but go ahead. I’m listening.”

“From that first day I met you,” he said, rolled over and stretched out on his side, “I knew you were something special.”

“You avoided me,” she said, grinning. “You hardly gave me the time of day that first summer. Glared at me every time I came into the garage.”

He grunted. “I wasn’t about to pursue the gorgeous eighteen-year-old daughter of the man who had just given me the opportunity of a lifetime.”

She stroked his cheek, watching the emotions play across his face. “You loosened up once I left for school.”

“The distance made you…safer.”

“You were a good friend,” she said. He had no idea how badly she’d needed that.

“Then you left.” He set his jaw. “I hated every minute you were gone, kept turning it over in my brain. What I should have done differently. If I should come after you. Or if I was being an egotistical ass for thinking the move had anything to do with me.” He swallowed. “I’d do it differently if I had the chance.”

She pulled back. “Don’t do this,” she said softly, shaking her head, a sick feeling blossomed in her stomach. “Don’t make tomorrow any harder than it’s going to be.”

He squeezed her hand. “When you came to my house that night, I wanted you to stay.”

She stiffened, the sick feeling growing. “Don’t ruin tonight. Don’t do this.”

He took a deep breath. “I told you no because I wanted more than just one night and I was too much of a coward to ask for it. I told you no because I’d fallen in love with you.”

She squeezed her eyes shut. Pain and joy warred inside as she pulled herself out of bed.

Swallowing hard, she yanked a tattered tee from her closet and pulled it over her head. She didn’t want to hear this. She didn’t want to be tempted to stay.

“Stacey told me about Paris,” he said.

She spun around. “Told you what?” she asked.

He stood, fisting his hands and studying her. “That you’re unhappy. That you’re spending more time making copies and setting up lunch dates than working with fashion.”

“It’s a start,” she defended. Which was ridiculous because there wasn’t a moment of her job she found worth defending.

“She said you’re homesick.”

“Stacey should have kept that information to herself.”

“There’s more than sex between us, Addy. I’m willing to take the risk if you are.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “I can’t.” Hurt and misery flashed across his features, and she wished she was as selfish as Emily accused her of being. She wished she believed she was worth the sacrifice he'd have to make to be with her. “I’m not in love with you.”

Chapter Ten

Chase was ripping the shingles off his roof when Richard Duval pulled his Charger in front of the house and cut the engine.

From his position on the roof, Chase gave the other man a once-over and went back to taking his frustration out on the roof.

“What’d that roof ever do to you?” Duval called out, climbing the ladder.

“I’m not in the mood for company right now,” Chase growled.

“Well you’re making enough noise to wake the dead, so deal with it.” He climbed up the last rung, stepped onto the roof, and surveyed Chase’s progress.

“Aren’t you supposed to be entertaining all those family members who came to town for Stacey’s wedding?”

Duval ran a hand through his salt and pepper hair. “They’re making me crazy. I needed to get away.”

Chase gave a sharp nod.

“Your neighbor called me. Emily thought I should know you spent the night with my daughter.”

Chase let out a breath. “Don’t worry. It won’t happen again.” He tossed Duval a crowbar. “If you’re going to be here, make yourself useful.”

Duval ignored him and took a seat a few feet from where Chase was working. “Last night at the reception, you said you wanted to talk to me today.”

“Turns out there’s no need.”

Duval nodded and was silent a moment. “I know my daughter’s in love with you.”

Chase snorted. “Funny, a few hours ago she told me she wasn’t.”

Duval winced. “That’s probably my fault.”

Chase raised a brow. “How do you figure?”

Duval lifted his shoulder. “She was eighteen when you came to town. I saw the way she looked at you. Didn’t like it. I told her you were too old for her. That if she took up with you, you’d be on the fast train back to your life on the streets.”

“She was eighteen. I was a felon, not an idiot.” He blew out a breath, deflated. “Not that it matters.”

“I know my daughter. I see how she looks at you. If she said she doesn’t love you, she lied.”

Chase dropped his hammer and sank down next to his boss, his friend. He rested his head in his hands. “I don’t know what she wants from me. The only thing she’s ever asked for—”

“Spare me the details, okay?”

Chase studied the older man. “Can I ask why you’re here trying to make me feel better instead of punching me in the face?”

Duval chuckled. “Well, that was my first instinct when Emily called.”

“Thanks,” Chase said, dryly.

“Then I saw how miserable my daughter was this morning, and I knew there was more to it.”

“I’m in love with your daughter.” Chase said, picking at an asphalt shingle. “Have been for a long time.”

Duval nodded. “Figured that out.”

“It needed to be said.” Chase ran a hand through his hair and cut his eyes at the man. “Does that mean I have your blessing? If she’ll have me?”

The old man’s chest puffed out a moment. “Hell, I trust you like a son. Better you than some other bastard.”

Chase pressed a hand to his chest. “I’m touched.”

Chapter Eleven

Addison jarred awake when she realized her driver had pulled over the town car along the side of the road.

“Is there a problem?” she asked rubbing her eyes. She’d not slept the night before—her heart ached too much after Chase left—and now the exhaustion was catching up with her.

“I’m afraid so,” a deep familiar voice said from the driver’s seat.

Her pulse tripped. “Chase?” She swallowed hard. She was imagining things. When she’d first moved to Paris, she’d spotted him at least once a day, and now that she was leaving, it was happening again.

He turned to look at her, a self-conscious smile not reaching his eyes. “I can’t let you go,” he said. “Not again.”

She shook her head, her chest aching with how badly she wanted him. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.

She climbed over the seat to be next to him. “Last night,” she said, “when I said I didn’t love you?” She grabbed his hand, squeezed. “I lied.”

He exhaled audibly. “That’s going to make the romantic abduction I have planned for you considerably less awkward.”

Laughter bubbled through her lips, and she shook her head, eyes moistening. “I can’t let you give up everything for me.”

“I would,” he said gruffly.

She squeezed her eyes shut. “No, I don’t want that. I’ll talk to my father. I’ll see if—”

“I’ve already talked to your father,” he said, cutting her off. He touched her face.

Her jaw dropped, emotion clogged her throat. “You have?”

He reached for her, pulled her into his lap, and she melted into his heat. “He requested I get you to move home, but if you would prefer Paris—”

She kissed him, love and hope swelling so big inside her.

“I’m in love with you, Addison,” he said softly, stroking her cheek.

“I love you too.”

“Enough to give up Paris for me? Because I’m willing to move, but I draw the line at getting manicures. I know metrosexuals are all the rage but—”