The Look of Love (The Sullivans): Chapter 14 + Audiobook + Exclusive Commentary from Bella
I hope you loved Chapter 13 of The Look of Love (The Sullivans)!
If you’re a romance reader, you likely know about the concept of “romance tropes”. If this is your first time reading a romance novel, a romance trope is a common theme like “best friends to lovers” or “love triangle.” In Chapter 14 of The Look of Love I use the “friends with benefits”, aka “it’s just great sex” trope. It’s one of my favorite tropes, in part because it’s a good way to give the character time to come to grips with their actual feelings. You probably won't be surprised to hear that it’s rarely just sex.
If you’ve missed any of the previous chapters you can find them here:
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13
Enjoy Chapter 14!
Note: You can also listen to THE LOOK OF LOVE for free!
AUDIOBOOK:
Chapter 1 / Chapter 2 / Chapter 3 / Chapter 4 / Chapter 5 / Chapter 6 / Chapter 7 / Chapter 8 / Chapter 9 / Chapter 10 / Chapter 11 / Chapter 12 / Chapter 13 / Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
copyright 2022 Bella Andre / Oak Press, LLC
Please Note: My books are sexy and emotional love stories. Which is to say there will be lots of scenes where the hero and heroine are smooching (and doing much, much more!) in nearly all of my posts. 😍
Chloe had been honest. Painfully so.
So had Chase.
She’d even offered to walk away from him. She’d tried to be honorable, just as he’d been with her.
But Chase was clearly a realist. Just as she was. And they both knew that their physical connection was undeniable. Unstoppable.
“I know you don’t want to hear that I’m falling in love with you,” he said softly. “But that doesn’t make it any less true.”
Oh, God, she shouldn’t want to hear that he was falling for her, not when it scared her to death to know how deep his feelings ran. And yet, she couldn’t deny the warmth that spread through her at knowing what she’d come to mean to him.
He was standing now, facing her. Waiting.
There were a million excuses she could have made, a dozen lies she could have tried to tell.
But she couldn’t.
“I’m sick of lying to myself. I can’t do it. Not with you.” The admission came out before she could pull it back, and she willed herself to be brave.
Fortunately, it was easier to be brave with Chase than with anyone else. Because she knew that he loved her.
“The truth is that I won’t be able to control myself around you, either. The truth is that even though I can’t give you what you want, even though I should be the one to let you go find someone who’s capable of loving you the way you deserve to be loved, I don’t want to walk away from you. From this. I can’t give you what you want. All I’m capable of giving right now is sex. Just sex.”
Oh, God, what was wrong with her? Why was she letting herself get in any deeper than she could handle?
“Then that’s what we’ll do.” He held out a hand to her. “Have lots and lots of great sex.” He paused, his expression serious. “But not until you feel better. Not until you’re not shaking anymore from having to relive that night.” He lifted her hand to his lips. “I’m sorry I made you go back there, Chloe. I’m so sorry.”
“You needed to know,” she told him. And, surprisingly, she felt a little lighter for having shared her story with someone who cared for her. Deeply, truly cared.
She walked all the way into his arms. “I feel much better,” she told him.
“There’s no rush,” he said, even though both of them knew that there was, as their days together ticked down. And she didn’t want to waste another second thinking about what Dean had done. Damn it, hadn’t she vowed that he wouldn’t steal this from her, too?
“I really do think I’m ninety-nine percent of the way there,” she said. “Think you’re up to helping me get that last percent back?”
Chase stared at her for a long moment before his mouth moved into a sinfully sexy smile. And then his lips were sliding across hers so softly she almost couldn’t feel his kiss.
But her body reacted instantly.
A few seconds later, he kissed her again. Just as softly. She tried to kiss him back, but he pulled away before she could. Another kiss, too gentle and quick for her to do more than just wait for it.
No, damn it! If they were going to do this “just sex” thing, she couldn’t let him give her these soft, senselessly enticing kisses. From here on out she needed to make sure things stayed physical, not emotional.
Having sex, not making love.
Hot kisses, rather than sweet.
Amazingly, she knew exactly where to start. “Let’s—”
He pressed another one of those soft kisses against her lips.
“—go—”
Another kiss.
“—outside.”
That finally stopped his mind-bending onslaught, and it occurred to her that he’d been trying to kiss her into submission. A gentle capitulation.
And, oh, if he did that long enough, gave her enough of those sweet kisses that stole her breath and made her heart pound with wanting…well, she could see that he just might end up drawing a promise out of her that she wasn’t ready to give.
A promise in return for pleasure.
Chase had told her he wasn’t going to give up. But she was just as firm in her position. So if he was going to try to make tonight about emotion, she was going to make sure they erred on the side of the physical.
Her resolve firmed just as he came at her with another one of those sinfully sweet kisses aimed straight at her heart. Pulling away before it could land, she led him to the French doors and out to the balcony off the bedroom. She didn’t need to hear his questions to know he was wondering what the heck she was up to.
Well, he’d just have to wait and see.
At the last second, she realized they were going to need one more thing before leaving the room. “Where are your condoms?”
Out of her peripheral vision, she could see his erection grow bigger, taller. “In my bag.”
“Get one.” She smiled at him, a smile that felt wicked and different. But not bad. Liberated. “At least one.”
His eyes narrowed, a muscle jumping in his jaw, at her command.
She gave him another wicked smile, along with the brush of her hand across the stubble beginning to cover his jaw. “You don’t like me telling you what to do?”
“On the contrary,” he responded, his words raw and rough, “I like it a great deal.”
Darn it, she was trying to keep a handle on things here. He shouldn’t be able to turn everything on its ear with just a few words.
The night air still held some of the warmth of the day, but it was cold enough that she could feel it slide across her overheated skin. It felt good, like a splash of sense. Just enough sense to keep her purpose in place, but not enough to have her put a halt to being with Chase altogether.
When they were all the way outside, she turned back to him, plucking the condoms from his fingertips—he was clearly a hopeful, and extremely virile, man given the stack he’d brought out—and placing them on the balcony railing within easy reach.
She let herself look at him for a long moment, the way he stood before her in the moonlight, utterly confident in his nudity. Of course he was. Any man—any person—this beautiful should be confident.
He took her hand, and his thumb rubbed sensuous little circles against the inside of her palm. “I knew the instant I saw you.”
“What—” She should stop this, move back to playtime. But her mouth was a traitor with another question. “What could you have possibly known?”
“Nothing,” he replied with perfect honesty. Honesty that immediately cut through any protests she might have made. “And everything.”
She didn’t understand.
Or, rather, she didn’t want to understand.
She needed to keep things simple. Sex and heat. That’s what their connection was. That was all it could possibly be until she had her life figured out and back on track.
“We’re good in bed together,” she told him, and then, to make sure they stayed on the purely physical track, “That night at your brother’s house, out on his porch, what did you want to do to me?”
His eyes burned into hers, a whole new level of intense. “You know exactly what I wanted to do to you.”
“Show me, Chase.”
A second later, he had her backed into the railing, one hand in her hair, the other on her hip. They’d been like this enough for her to recognize the way he liked to hold her.
She liked it, too. So much. There was sizzling pleasure in his arms. But comfort found her there, too. A sense of safety that he would always hold her just right. Not too tight. Not too loosely, either.
Fortunately, his mouth descended on hers just then, sending her thoughts into flight.
She hadn’t thought he could kiss her better than he already had. Oh, how wrong she was.
This kiss was hotter, went so much deeper, was so much more dangerous, than any that had come before.
She couldn’t breathe, didn’t even care that she was quickly losing her hold on reality as her sole focus centered on his mouth, the way his tongue found her most sensitive spots, the way his teeth knew just where to bite, just how hard to tease her. And then, oh, God, he was doing just what he’d done before, running kisses across her cheek, then down to her neck, to the hollows of her collarbones.
The anticipation of what he was going to do had her trembling even before his tongue slid against her skin.
She held her breath, only to have it come gasping out as he made contact.
“Lovely, Chloe.” His seductive praise was a whisper just below her earlobe, and she shivered with unrepressed delight as his teeth found her there and lightly pressed into the sensitive flesh.
“You didn’t bite me there.”
“I wanted to.”
A whimper escaped her as she realized that she was a fool to think she could lead Chase anywhere. His gentleness did not preclude his power over her emotions.
He laved the small bite before moving his attention back to her shoulders. She never would have thought that she’d be sensitive, reactive, on that part of her body.
How incredibly wrong she was.
Chase lifted his head. “Too many clothes.”
She was on the verge of opening her mouth to remind him that she was naked when it hit her: He was pretending. Pretending they were rewinding back two nights. Giving her the fantasy, per her request.
His fingertips moved to her shoulders where the silky straps of her dress had been. Slowly, deliberately, he slid those phantom straps aside. “Lift your arms for me.”
There was no reason for her to raise her arms. She didn’t have any clothes on, no dress to get off. Her breasts were already there, bared—and aroused—before Chase.
It would have been enough for her if he’d laid her down and taken her on the wooden slats of the deck, right then and there. But, oh, wasn’t it so much sweeter to play this game?
To pretend.
And to lose herself in heady anticipation.
Moving her hands and arms as if she were trying to slip free from the straps of a dress, she lifted them up and shimmied, just as she had two nights ago.
She went to lower her hands when Chase said, “Just like that.”
She waited for panic to take over, for the urge to lower her hands. He’d promised not to hold them in place again, and he was keeping to that promise. But wasn’t asking her to do it almost the same? And shouldn’t she be feeling something other than the heady warmth that was moving through her, head to toe?
“Lovely.”
He ran the fingertips of his free hand over the swell of her breasts, and she arched into his touch. One broad fingertip began slow circles over her skin. Slowly, way too slowly, he came closer to the tightly puckered skin that was so desperate for his touch.
“Chase,” she moaned when instead of giving her what she needed, he turned his attention to her other breast.
“Mmm?”
He didn’t look up from the torturous circles he was making on her flesh. Her arms trembled from the way she was holding them, but she didn’t lower them.
“Please,” she begged, “I need—” She bit her lip on another moan as he came almost to the tip, then backed away and ran his finger down into the hollow between her breasts.
He paused his hand there, right in the center of her chest, where her heart was beating so hard for him, then leaned forward before she could get her brain to kick into gear, and kissed her softly.
Thoroughly.
Possessively.
The hairs on his chest teased her breasts, driving her even crazier than she already was.
And then, before she could shift or blink or beg, he lowered his head and took one of her nipples into his mouth. She needed to lower her arms so that she could steady herself by holding on to him, so that she could grip the back of his head and hold him there—oh, yes, right there!—while he gave her the pleasure she’d been craving.
Everything narrowed down to the lash of his tongue upon her, the coiling heat inside her belly, his warm breath against her chest. Chloe lost all track of time as he laved her breasts, as he loved every inch of her torso—the peaks, the curves, the hollows, the shadowy undersides, the spaces between her ribs. And then he was moving lower still, dropping to his knees, holding her waist with his large, strong hands, holding her there for him to devour.
His tongue and lips and teeth held no mercy as he destroyed her soul, knocking down her defenses one inch of skin at a time.
And then he was nudging her legs open wider, before covering her with his mouth, and she was holding on to him for dear life, knowing she’d never live through this pleasure, that it was too big, too all-encompassing, far too sweet to be real.
To be hers.
She thought she heard the words, “You taste like heaven,” and then his tongue was going deeper, replacing his fingers inside of her, sending her rocketing off into another impossible orgasm.
Her legs began to crumple, but he was already there, holding her steady.
Not letting her fall.
Later she would let herself marvel at the fact that she’d been standing stark naked at a public winery with a man’s face between her legs, crying out so loud that anyone on the property could have surely heard. And had to have known exactly what was going on.
But now, tonight, how could she possibly care about any of that? Not when all that mattered was pleasure.
No. That wasn’t what mattered. Not really.
It was Chase.
He was what mattered.
The thought nailed her straight in the center of her heart just as he shifted, standing up. His hands were still on her hips when he kissed her. She tasted herself on his lips; but more than that, she tasted him. Tasted his hunger. Tasted his need.
Tasted just how much he cared about her.
Loved her.
She wanted to pull away from that truth, from him, from her past, from her own fear, but even if he hadn’t chosen that moment to say, “Turn around for me, lovely girl,” even if his hands hadn’t been helping her do just that, she wouldn’t have had a chance in hell of leaving him just then.
He had her, body and soul.
And not just because of the orgasms.
Moments later, she was facing the moonlit vineyard, and he was placing her hands on the rails. “Hold on,” he said softly, seductively. “And don’t let go.”
She wanted to think he was talking about the rail, but she knew what he really meant.
He wanted her to trust him. He wanted her to believe that his love could be enough to change her life.
Tears rushed her even as her arousal spiked higher than ever before at nothing more than the sound of Chase ripping open the condom wrapper.
“You’re even more beautiful like this than I knew you would be.”
She turned her head, a light breeze taking her hair with it as she looked at him over her shoulder. “Chase.”
He positioned himself at her entrance, so hot and hard she could hardly believe it. She held her breath, waiting for the moment when he drove into her, when he filled not just her body, but her heart, too.
But he remained still, his eyes on hers.
“I love you, Chloe.”
She gasped as he finally took her. Her head fell forward, hung down as she gripped the rails and took what he was giving her, as she pushed back against him just as hard. His hands moved from her hips up over her waist as he took her, and soon, his palms were full of her aroused flesh.
Never. She’d never done anything this decadent. This depraved. This delicious.
This beautiful.
She’d made this plan to have sex outside to make sure things stayed purely physical. Entirely on the surface.
It should have been impossible for them to deepen their connection while having sex standing up, out on a balcony. It should have been inconceivable that she would feel even closer to him while he had her bent over the rail with her breasts in his hands while he was thrusting hard, deep, into her.
If ever there was an act that should be just sex, it was this, a man and woman who had been perfect strangers just days ago, desperate and panting as they came together.
And yet…
Somehow it was beautiful. So beautiful that her eyes were damp.
And her heart was fuller than it had ever been.
In perfect unison, he pinched the tip of one breast at the same moment he slid the fingers of his other hand between her legs.
She shattered.
* * *
Chase lifted Chloe into his arms and carried her back inside the bedroom. Her eyes were closed, and as she blinked to try to open them, he pressed a kiss on one eyelid.
“Shhh.”
A kiss for the other.
“Time for bed.”
She snuggled in tighter to him, his exhausted sex kitten.
Again and again, she amazed him.
Humbled him.
Her playfulness, her willingness to take a risk despite her past…he wasn’t sure she realized that she was showing him all those things out on the balcony.
He knew she’d wanted to prove to him that she could play in the “just sex” big leagues. Instead, she’d trusted him—trusted herself—with something different. Daring.
Sex in the bathtub had been mind-blowing.
Sex on the balcony, watching her grip the rails so hard her knuckles turned white, watching as she gave up control and bucked against his hips to drive him deeper inside…there wasn’t a word for what that had done to him.
Well, maybe there was.
“Love.” He whispered it against her cheek, felt her stir slightly, even though she was almost out.
He would have been perfectly happy if the only place they ever had sex was in bed. Well, not perfectly happy, but the fact was, regular sex with Chloe was a million times better than crazy sex with anyone else.
Only, the truth was that Chloe was a woman who liked—who needed, who craved—adventure. He wasn’t sure she realized it yet. But he did. And he wanted to live those adventures with her. Beside her. Within her.
He laid her down on the bed, her head upon the pillow, and when she didn’t loosen her hold on him—even half-asleep, she couldn’t fight what they had together—he slid beneath the soft sheets with her. She immediately shifted to curl against him in the way they’d slept the past two nights: her back to his front, her hips cradled against his perpetual erection. She pulled his arms around her like a blanket and settled deeper into his arms with a contented sigh.
Lovely.
His.
Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for Chapter 15!
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