Trying not to panic, she reasoned that heart rates were supposed to be a thousand beats per minute, right? Yes. She was medically trained. That was totally normal.
“God, you’re so beautiful,” he breathed against her hair. The warmth of his breath spread across her scalp, causing goose bumps to pop up all over her skin. “I love this dress on you.” Krista could feel the deep vibration in his chest as he spoke.
“Thank you.” She was barely able to speak but had somehow managed to get out. “You look nice, too.”
He stopped swaying to the music, and she felt him pull his head back. She opened her eyes to see why he had stopped.
One brow lifted as he said in a tone of disbelief, “Just nice?”
She slapped his chest and let out a small laugh. “Shut up.”
A smile spread across his face as he pulled her tight to him once more. Laying her head against his chest, she felt a little bit of the tension that had been causing her to feel like she was seconds away from passing out, break. Now that her blood pressure was down to a level that was not putting her in danger of a heart attack, she began noticing things.
Krista allowed herself the luxury of melting against the solidness of Chase’s body and absorbing how right it felt to be in his arms. The arms that held her were the only arms that had ever ignited both the feeling of safety and unbridled passion in equal amounts. She also noticed how much he’d filled out. He was no longer an adolescent on the brink of becoming a man. He was a man. All man.
His thumb rubbed in circles on the slope of her lower back. She remembered that his thumb had rubbed in circles on the slope of her lower back at the first middle school dance they’d gone to. Only this time she wasn’t wearing a turtleneck sweater. This time her back was bare. She was so thankful that the dress Amber had designed for her was backless. She could feel the ridges of the calluses on his thumb, caused by years of plucking strings on his guitar. The ragged edges brushing across her smooth skin sent a delicious thrill zinging straight between her thighs.
Their bodies moved in perfect rhythm to the music that was playing over the speakers. It felt like only seconds and the song was over. She began to walk off the dance floor—not because she was trying to get away from him, only because she was scared that, once his arms weren’t securely around her, her wobbly legs would not be able to hold her up.
Just as she started to move away, the acoustic sounds of the opening chords to ‘their song’ rang out. She would have known the beginning of that song anywhere. She was by no means a musician, but she knew that the chord changes were A Cm D E.
She froze and looked up into Chase’s honey-colored eyes.
A look of concern crossed his face. “I had nothing to do with it,” he said at the same moment his own voice filled the room.
“I can hear her heartbeat for a thousand miles
And the heavens open every time she smiles”
It was a recording of his performance at the Grammys. The same one she listened to every night. On repeat. In her bed. Alone.
Without saying another word, she folded herself back into his arms. He wrapped his strong arms around her and swayed to the music. It was hard for her to process that this was actually happening. She was slow dancing with Chase.
As they shifted back and forth to the slow melody, he started softly singing against her ear.
“And when I’m returning from so far away, she gives me some sweet loving, brighten up my day. Yes it makes me righteous. Yes it makes me feel whole. Yes it makes me mellow down into my soul. She gives me love, love, love, love crazy love.”
* * *
As Chase held Krista in his arms and sang softly to her, he realized that in this moment he had everything he’d ever need. All he needed was her and his music. He didn’t care if he ever sang in front of a stadium full of people. If she was his sole audience for the rest of his life, that would be fine with him.
Her hands were wrapped around his neck and she was snuggled so tight against him that when he moved, they moved as one. Swaying to the music, Chase did his best to keep his hands in appropriate areas. Which was extremely difficult since his body was wound tighter than a drum and demanding that he slip his hands down to cover the rounded curves of her backside. His palms tingled at the thought.
Instead of giving in to his body’s demands, he simply rubbed the silky smooth skin on Krista’s lower back. Krista’s body simultaneously felt so familiar to him yet completely unknown. Which he guessed made sense. The last time he’d touched her, explored her, had been over a decade ago.
The song came to an end and another slow song began playing. A classic—Otis Redding’s Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay. They didn’t miss a beat, just continued to sway to the music. Chase knew that they were in a room full of people whom he was sure were a captivated audience—since most of them were her family members—but this moment, on the crowded dance floor with Krista enveloped in his embrace, felt intimate. More intimate than anything he’d ever experienced with any woman since he’d left Harper’s Crossing.