Second Chance Summer (Chance #1)(46)
Author: Emma Hart

“You can’t dance.”

“You didn’t think I could sing either.” He curls his hand around my thigh. “You were wrong there.”

So, he has a point.

I groan when he grabs my hands and pulls me up. My body presses against his as I steady myself in my heels, and I look up at him. His face gives nothing away, but I know the eyes.

“You really wanna dance?” I unlink our fingers and slide my hands up his arms.

“Yep.”

“Then we’ll dance.” I hook my finger in the collar of his shirt, tugging him after me and down the steps to the floor.

Reese puts his hands on my waist from behind when we reach the bottom, and I let his shirt go. I sway my hips to the beat of the music and the crowd swallows us up, drowning us in bodies. It doesn’t take long for Reese’s hands to make their way down to my hips and for his chest to be flush against my back. I sweep my hair round to one side, exposing my neck, and lean into him. I rest my head back on his shoulder as we move together, hooking my arm up and around his neck. He turns his face, his lips ghosting along my collarbone tantalizingly and his hips pressing into me.

I falter when he presses between my ass cheeks, harder than I’ve ever felt him. My breath heaves as his fingers probe across my lower stomach. My muscles tighten with his movements, and it’s like he’s directing all my feelings downwards and crafting them into a tight ball of sexual want and need.

Or it could be because the combination of him against me and his breath blazing across my hot skin in public is turning me on more than I care to admit.

He flattens one hand against my stomach and the other wanders to the hem of my skirt. I hold my breath, somehow still dancing, somehow still thinking, somehow still standing. He flicks his fingertips beneath the material and they’re dangerously close to my throbbing core. My hips grind against him, and I dig my fingers into his neck and slip my hand round to his back, like I can pull him tighter against me. Like that simple act will calm the fire raging inside me.

Reese drags his hand from my skirt and up my body, cupping my breast as he does it, until it’s holding the side of my face. The other presses harder onto my stomach and his lips hover against my ear.

“We’re leavin’.”

That’s all he says before he lets me go and drags me through the crowd to the doors. A doorman opens them, nodding to us, but I barely spare him a glance.

I can barely breathe. All I can focus on is the way our bodies felt against each other on the dance floor. How everything else disappeared.

Fresh air smacks into us as we step outside and around the corner, and a harsh tug on my hand spins me. My back slams against the cold wall and lips press to mine. I whimper against his mouth, grabbing his shirt at the waist. One hand tangles in my hair and the other splays across my back. Our bodies are taut against each other, and I couldn’t move even if I wanted to.

His tongue is probing and harsh in its movements, and the only thing driving this kiss is passion. It’s pure. It’s raw. It’s real.

My whole body tightens, and I whimper again, pushing myself into him even more like there’s an ocean between us. He dives his tongue in and out of my mouth, teasing me, and he nips and grazes my swollen bottom lip with his teeth.

“You better get your ass in my f**kin’ truck before this wall sees more action than its damn well meant to.” He pulls away and gazes at me with heavy eyes. Eyes that promise more. Eyes that promise everything.

“Where is it?” I breathe out and move with him, not wanting to let him go. Not wanting to stop at all, because I don’t.

He leads me to it wordlessly and all but shoves me in the cab. I cross my legs on the seat as he gets in and pulls away. I can feel the tension between us, zinging back and forth, so heavy I can taste it with every panted breath I take.

“Where are we-”

“Don’t,” he rasps out. “Don’t talk to me, Kia, unless you want me to pull over and make love to you right here on the side of the road where anyone could see us.”

I swallow, staring out the dash. With the way I feel, it’s tempting.

Very tempting.

Instead, I stay silent until he turns off-road onto a dirt track. He drives through some woods, until the sounds of the road have gone. We stop and Reese turns the keys, killing the engine. His door slams as he gets out, walks around the truck, and yanks mine open. He hauls me from the truck and my body slides against his. His hands cup my ass and his lips find mine, softer than before. I sink my fingers into his hair, and he walks us backward.

He lifts me into the cab of the truck and begins to feel around. He grabs a bag I didn’t know was there and pulls out two blankets, laying them down, before putting me on them.

“I took a lucky guess you’d be leaving with me tonight,” he whispers, crawling over me and looking down. “And I took a lucky guess we might not make it home.”

I rake my fingers back through his hair as he lowers his body against mine.

“Very lucky guess,” I whisper back, hooking my leg around his.

He takes my mouth with his, swallowing whatever words I had left to say, and covers my body with his.

~

“I miss the stars.”

“You’re lookin’ at ‘em right now, baby.” Reese’s fingers comb through my hair.

I sigh, snuggling into him closer. “I know. When I’m in New York, I mean. I miss them then. It’s so bright with the city lights you can’t see them.”

“Yeah, but the lights ain’t all that bad.”

“No,” I agree. “The city lights are amazing in themselves, especially at New Year, but there’s somethin’ about the stars. They’re… I don’t know. I think it’s the country girl in me.”

“You can take the girl out of the country…”

“…But not the country out of the girl,” I finish, tilting my head back and smiling up at him. “You’re right. Even when I didn’t want to, all I could think about was coming back for the summer and bein’ in the country again. No constant sirens, no crazy taxi drivers beeping their horns and no constant hum of life. I don’t know how people go to the city and never leave.”

“I bet city people think the same about us, though. How we can live in the country, in the quiet, and never feel the need to leave.” Reese shifts slightly. “If you could, would you change it?”

“Change what?”

“Your choice. Where you go to school. Would you go to New York, or stay here in Alabama?”