Emancipating Andie

They both moaned at the contact, and the heat in his belly instantly ignited into a raging fire, blazing through his veins as a new urgency beat in his blood. He felt her writhe against his hand ever so slightly, and that was all it took to disarm him.

It was a blur of skin and lips and hands after that, both of them frantic, almost desperate. Chase had never been so in tune to a woman before; he was clued in to every detail of her, the cues she gave him with her movements, with her sounds, when he’d done something right, and he followed each one, playing her body like his piano, figuring out the melody as he went.

His attention was perfectly divided between learning Andie’s body and feeling her hands exploring his own. Every touch of hers, every kiss, was goddamn perfect, and when she finally reached between them and took him in her hand, he thought he might cry.

Chase breathed raggedly against her mouth, feeling her feeling him, and his eyes rolled back slightly before they fluttered closed. His fantasies of this woman were pathetic shadows of what she was capable of.

He shifted above her, needing to be closer, and the new position caused their bodies to align in a way that made Andie gasp loudly, followed by a groan that nearly ended it for Chase.

“Chase…please,” she panted.

“I know,” he breathed against her mouth, shifting his weight again, and the movement brought his hips into the perfect nook of her thighs. Instinctively, she arched her body toward him, seeking him out.

He lifted his hips off her, pulling back slightly as he brought his hands to the side of her face.

“Can we just…I want to…” he said through his labored breathing, and Andie nodded gently.

“Slow,” she whispered, understanding what he wanted.

He nodded, brushing the hair away from her eyes, and he saw the need there, saw his own overwhelming desire mirrored in her expression.

“Slow,” he repeated softly, bringing his hands to her face, and with one final breath to steady himself, he gently brought his body back to hers.

He thought he would have to concentrate on pacing himself, on controlling himself, but when she arched toward him, breathing his name as she took him into her body, he knew there was no way he would ever want to rush this.

He was instantly and completely overcome by her, and he welcomed it, letting the woman beneath him consume his very existence.

Her breath. Her sounds. Her body hugging him perfectly. The incredible friction. His name falling from her lips. Her hands on him, pulling him closer. The scent of her on his sheets. On his skin. Her hair fa

Perfect.

Every other sexual experience he’d had before this seemed like a fraud, like he’d been settling his whole life without knowing it; he thought he had understood, he thought he’d known what it meant to experience a woman, but Chase realized then that he had no idea what intimacy felt like until this moment.

It wasn’t long before he felt her thighs tighten around his hips, and he lifted his head from her shoulder, knowing what her body was telling him.

“Oh God, Chase,” she whispered softly as her head fell back.

He brought his hands to the mattress and lifted himself up, wanting to take in every second of what he knew was about to happen, and the shift in his position was all it took to push her over the edge.

Chase could feel it begin as the first cry left her mouth, and all the breath left his body in a soft rush as he watched her, her hand gripping the pillow beside her head as the other clutched at his back, her body arching up as the most beautiful sounds fell from her parted lips, swirling through him and in him and around him so that it took everything he had just to keep moving above her.

He had never seen anything so beautiful in his entire life.

And when her body finally began to relax beneath him, when her hand went slack on the pillow and her eyes fell closed, he watched a lazy smile curve the corners of her mouth as a breathy laugh fell from her lips, and he couldn’t help the grin that spread across his face over the fact that he was the one who had made her feel that way.

And even though Chase was close, he forced himself to slow down, wanting to give her an opportunity to recover; almost instantly, Andie surprised him by sitting up and shifting their weight until his back hit the mattress behind them.

She climbed on top of him then, their bodies reco

“Jesus, Andie,” he breathed. It was too much, seeing her above him this way, feeling the way she manipulated his body with her own. He sat up quickly, pressing his face into her neck as he went over the edge, groaning softly against her skin. She buried her face in his hair, continuing to move against him until she knew he was completely spent. As the rolling of her body gradually slowed, he felt her trail the tips of her fingers down the back of his neck.

“Chase,” she whispered softly against the crown of his head, pressing her lips into his hair, and he tightened his arms around her as he fell back onto the bed, taking her with him.

The room was filled with the soft, rasping sounds of their labored breathing as they slowly came down, and he brought his hand to her hair, gently holding her head against his chest.

His heart was racing, and he wanted her to hear it.

And he wanted her to know that from here on out, it beat solely for her.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Somewhere in the back of her mind, Andie realized she should be exhausted.

She and Chase had just finished making love for the third time, and that, coupled with the emotional turmoil of the evening, should have been enough to put her down for the count. Yet she felt a quiet energy coursing through her veins, keeping her eyes open. She lay with her head on Chase’s chest, her hand resting low on his stomach, and every now and then, her lips would curve into a gentle smile at nothing in particular.

She could hear Chase’s breathing, feel the gentle rise of his chest, and though his breaths were slow and rested, his hands on her body were not. He alternated between pulling his fingers lazily through her hair and trailing them over the skin of her back, her arms, her hands, anywhere he could reach.

Andie inhaled a deep breath, exhaling with a soft, contented hum, and she felt him press his lips to the top of her head. She smiled again as her eyes combed his apartment, taking it in for the first time since she arrived there earlier that night. It was, as Colin had once said, basically a closet with a bathroom. It was just one large room; the small kitchenette took up half of the space, and his bedroom/living room took up the other. His bed, the bed they were lying in, was just a foldout couch, and she could see there was a tiny bathroom off the kitchen.

There was a dinginess to the paint on the walls, to the appliances in the kitchen, the result of old age rather than uncleanliness; in fact, while the apartment itself was somewhat messy, everything in it was surprisingly clean.