One of her hands came out from under the blanket to grip the pillow, and the blanket slid down to just under her perfect breasts. I almost covered her back up since I knew she’d been cold, but I let my gaze travel up her throat to her face; her mouth was barely open, those incredibly long eyelashes I loved were resting against her cheeks, and her long hair was falling wildly around her face, shoulders, and chest. I knew I’d never forget this moment, but I never wanted to forget exactly how she looked that very second. I flipped the page on my sketchpad and took a deep breath before starting to replicate everything that was my princess. I just hoped she didn’t wake up and freak out about this.
The movie was almost over by the time I was finishing and a loud explosion caused Harper to jerk awake.
“It’s just the movie,” I said low to reassure her, and let my fingers trail across her cheek. “Don’t move yet, Princess.”
“Don’t move? Why?”
“I’m almost done; give me another minute or two.”
She stilled but thankfully didn’t ask any more questions. I finished up the drawing and slid out from under the pillow to kneel on the ground in front of her. Her breath caught and her eyes heated and I couldn’t help but look down to that perfect lip that I’d just spent time re-creating. I wanted to kiss her so freakin’ bad; this beautiful girl had no idea what she did to me. It was no longer a matter of just wanting to kiss her, I needed to kiss her, needed to know exactly how those lips would feel against mine.
“Why couldn’t I move?”
Her words broke through, and I stopped my advance on her, “Oh, um. Well . . . here. Just don’t freak out, okay? I wasn’t trying to be creepy.”
“You’re not supposed to tell someone not to freak out—those words alone cause them to freak out.”
“Okay, well then don’t hit me or use your pressure-point training on me again.” I took a deep breath and held the sketchpad in front of her and watched as her cheeks went bright red, and her mouth popped open. “Shit”—I took it away and wondered how I could have thought it would be a good idea to show her that—“I knew it was creepy.”
“Chase, that wasn’t creepy. Can I see it again?”
Um. Hell. No.
Her wide eyes held mine and pleaded with me. “Please.”
Okay, now that look definitely wasn’t fair. I would give her anything she asked for if she looked at me like that. I gave her the paper and tried to smile, but I was still freaking out over being a freakin’ creep and drawing her while she slept. “I’m sorry, but you looked too perfect. I couldn’t let that opportunity pass.”
Her cheeks went red again, but I forced myself not to take it away as she spent minutes that felt like hours going over the drawing. “Chase, it”—she cleared her throat and shook her head slightly—“it’s incredible.”
“Yeah?” I wasn’t sure if she was saying that to make me feel better, but the way she looked up at me and smiled the sweetest smile I’ve ever seen come from her pushed the last of the worries aside.
“Yeah.”
Her eyes bounced back and forth between mine, and like she suddenly realized how close we were, they went down to my mouth, and I heard her next intake of breath. When she looked back up into my eyes, I could see the indecision in hers and wanted to beg her to choose me. I don’t know who started leaning toward the other first, but just then a string of explosions sounded from the TV, and we both jerked away from each other. I looked back up at the TV, then over to my parents and Bree; I’d completely forgotten where we were and who we were with. My mom was smiling widely and trying to keep her eyes off us, and I exhaled loudly as I looked back over at my princess.
“I um, I have to . . . I’m gonna go get some water.”
I shook my head and pushed her back onto the couch. “I’ll get it, Princess, just stay there.” By the time I got back into the living room, she was on the large chair with Bree, and I wondered if I’d just hurt any chance with her again. “I gotta go in to work; see you guys later.” Handing the glass to Harper, I squeezed Bree’s shoulder, then went to kiss Mom on the cheek.
“Chase, don’t leave; everything will be okay,” she whispered softly.
“I can’t be around her right now, Mom. See you later.”
I drove home to waste time before going in to the shop and regretted it as soon as I walked in. All the guys were sitting around the couches eating and watching the game; Drew was the first to speak up.
“Holy shit. I think I’m starting to forget what you look like.”