Carving our own destiny instead of letting others dictate it.
Deciding who we are and what we want to be.
It’s Austin Chase Love stepping out of the shadows.
I’m so fucking proud of him.
There’s no telling what time it is when the Spruce people start clearing out, heading on back to their homes, and the number of people in the house steadily decreases. I’m sure we’ll see all of their faces again come the Fourth. Wily’s passed out on the couch where Raj and Fiona just were—and there’s no telling where Raj and Fiona have gone to. Singing bad karaoke in the media room? Gone to bed? Who knows. Even with the night coming to an end, there’s a lingering and undeniable sense of victory and freedom in the air no one can deny.
I wonder if that’s what inspires Austin to suddenly pick me up in his arms, crash his lips to mine, and take me up the stairs.
And push through my bedroom door.
Drop me on the bed. Peel off my clothes.
Then his own.
He crawls over the bed on top of me and takes my face into his hands like a precious treasure, eyes burning into mine with the same intensity he had tonight on that stage, when he took hold of the world and made it listen the only way he knew how.
“You sang my song,” I murmur to him, his face over mine.
The corners of his sexy lips pull up. “All of them are yours.”
“But you may have to rewrite it now.”
He puts a kiss on my cheek. A kiss on my neck. His body is so warm, the parts that touch me. His legs entwined with mine. His hard cock against mine, grinding ever so slightly together. His big, guitar-loving hand caressing my face as he gently places kiss after kiss on my chest, on the other side of my neck, back on my lips.
“Is that so?” he asks, breathless.
“Yeah … because I’m not so sure it’s true anymore.”
His kissing stops. He hovers by my face, eyes on mine, bright and expectant. “What do you mean?”
I hook my arms around the back of his neck and pull his face to mine for another kiss. After seeing him up on that stage, all of those beautiful words and melodies pouring out of his soul, I just can’t seem to get enough of his lips tonight.
“Maybe I was wrong.” I kiss him. “About love songs.” Another kiss. “Maybe I’ve been wrong since the moment we met.”
He smirks, smoldering me with that cocky look in his bright eyes like I just pinned a badge on him. “Oh, I know.”
I lift my eyebrows. “You know?”
“You were wrong since the start. What do you think I’ve been doin’ this whole time? It’s been my only mission since you first got under my skin.” His face comes closer, voice lowering to a gravelly taunt. “To prove you wrong …Timothy.”
I grab hold of him and flip my man right onto his back, which knocks that smug look right off his sexy face.
Now it’s me on top of him, straddling his waist and smirking down at him cockily, my hands on his chest, pinning him to the bed. “Do you think you won, then …Chase…?”
He bites his lower lip as he starts gyrating his hips under me, teasing me with his hardness. “Oh, I won, alright. I won the whole damned thing with you.”
His fingers slide all the way down my back and take hold of my cheeks, digging in.
Something flickers in his eyes.
Something sincere.
“I won the whole damned thing with you,” he repeats, only now, I think he means something else entirely.
My heart skips a beat, watching him look at me like that.