Once and Again: Petal, Georgia, Book 1 (18 page)

Nathan stalked right up to her door and knocked.

She opened with a smile he quickly tasted until he made them both a little wobbly. “Good evening, Miss Travis. Our reservation is in fifteen minutes.” He looked her over and was sorry for it. She wore a pair of jeans that showed off miles of legs and her curves all at once. The shirt was exactly what he liked about her wardrobe, a mix of sweet Americana and red-hot siren. Her hair was in two pigtails. Red, shiny lips and big brown eyes. She was one hundred percent dynamite.

“So soon?” She slid a palm up his chest. “I was hoping, you know, for something naked and sweaty first.”

He groaned and took her hand, kissing the palm. “Stop that. Minx. We have plans and if I pause to disrobe you, we aren’t leaving for the weekend. You’re coming to my place tonight so I can debauch you properly at least three times.”

“Like I’m gonna argue. Though I will say I’d be just fine going to your place to get started on said evening’s plans.”

He took her hand and twirled her. “Nope. We got some dancing to do. And a little bit of public marking of territory. Come on. I want everyone to see you and know how lucky I am.” He guided her toward the car.

“You’re not going to pee on me are you?”

He laughed. “God you’re twisted.”

“I should hope so. I have to keep my game sharp or the floozies will be after you.”

He helped her in and then came to join her, leaning across the seat to get close enough to kiss her. “You’re the only floozie I want.”

True to his word, he took her to dinner, doting on her, laughing, kissing her fingertips and letting everyone know they were an item.

Out on the dance floor at the Tonk he pulled her close, swaying. She put her head over his heart, reassured by the beat there. “Doesn’t matter who knows. You understand that, right?”

“I do, but for my own reasons. What are yours?”

She looked up into his face. “I love you either way. Doesn’t matter who knows it as long as you do.”

He grinned and swooped in for a sound kiss. “You do?”

She nodded.

And that’s when he dropped to one knee and held up a ring box. “Then make me the happiest man on earth and marry me.”

She froze. Her eyes widening. “Nuh uh! Really? Jeez, Nathan! We’ve hardly been dating.”

A crowd had circled them and a few chuckles sounded.

“Really. And hardly been dating? I’ve loved you for going on a decade. That’s not rushing. I know you, Lily Travis.”

That got some awwws.

“I want babies. With you. I want a life. With you. I want you at my side forever. Let me be your man. Tell me you trust me with your heart and our babies.”

“I guess so. I mean, I get to have the sex and you living under the same roof so you’ll carry heavy stuff and fix gutters and things like that. It’s really a good deal.”

“I think I’m flattered.” He slid the engagement ring on, and the entire room hooted and hollered, celebrating along with them.

Beth stood up at the edge of the dance floor. “To second chances and friends!”

Nathan dipped her. “To love.”

“I’ll drink to that.” He pulled her to stand and led her back toward the table where her friends and family sat.

Her future looked bumpy at times. But oh so very bright.

From friends to lovers, to friends to lovers again. Second chances and reunions all in one. Nathan Murphy was her past and her future, and she couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would
bring
.

About the Author

To learn more about Lauren Dane, please visit
www.laurendane.com
. Send an email to Lauren at
[email protected]
or stop by her message board to join in the fun with other readers as well.
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Look for these titles by Lauren Dane

Now Available:

Chase Brothers

Giving Chase

Taking Chase

Chased

Making Chase

Cascadia Wolves

Wolf Unbound

Standoff

Fated

Trinity

de La Vega Cats

Revelation

Reading Between the Lines

Holiday Seduction

To Do List

Sweet Charity

Always

Matt is an expert and the Chase is on. Tate doesn’t stand a chance.

Making Chase

© 2007 Lauren Dane

Tate Murphy is a girl from the wrong side of the tracks. She grew up a million miles away from the easy life Matt Chase has had. She’s spent her life pulling herself and her siblings up and out of that trailer by the railroad tracks, and she hasn’t looked back. Matt Chase is a dream of a guy, and she’s certainly not going to turn down a short fling with one of the most handsome men she’s ever seen!

Matt Chase has watched each one of his brothers find love and he knows he’s ready for that too. It’s all a matter of finding the woman who captures his heart. He’s certainly sampled his fair share of them, but none has moved him the way Tate Murphy does when he goes to her shop to thank her for some cookies and a thank-you note.

But as Matt gets to know Tate and appreciate her strength and unique beauty, he also realizes she’s got some big self-esteem issues about her past. To build a future, he’s got to find a way past some big roadblocks.

Warning: this title contains the following: explicit sex, graphic language, some violence.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Making Chase:

He plopped down onto her couch and she stopped, looking at him, surprised. “What?”

“Yeah, not so good with the woo am I? I’d love for you to come here and sit with me.”

Tate didn’t know quite what to do. Matt Chase flustered the hell out of her. A sense of unreality settled into her. The guy, the donut of her dreams sat on her couch and wanted to kiss her? Did she hear him right?

“Tate? Did I say something to upset you? I want more than a kiss.” He stopped and shook his head. “What I mean is I want to take you out too. This isn’t just some fun way to spend my Sunday. Although, I’m certainly enjoying being with you. God, I’m usually more smooth than this,” he mumbled and she laughed, kicking off her shoes and moving to the couch.

“I don’t know what to say.”

Scooting so that his body pressed full against hers, he put a finger over her lips. “Then don’t say anything just now. I really need to kiss you, Tate. So I’m gonna.”

His hand slid up her arm and cupped her neck, holding her, tipping her chin up. Before she had much of a chance to register anything but the delicious heat of his palm, his lips found hers.

Slow. Incrementally building up the heat, he gently led her to open up to his tongue. She’d never been really crazy about kissing but she realized it was just that she’d never been kissed by someone who knew what he was about before. All the difference in the world lay right there.

He didn’t jam his tongue in her mouth and down her throat, he teased her with it, tasted her, tickled her with the tip. His teeth joined the action, coming in to nip her bottom lip from time to time until she nearly panted with wanting him more.

The heat of his mouth moved from her lips, skating along her jaw to the hollow just below her ear. A gasp ripped from her gut when he sucked there, the wet, warm sensation shooting straight to her nipples and then to her pussy, flooding her with moisture.

Needing more of him, she adjusted, sliding her hands up into his hair.

Matt had never wanted a woman more than he did as the taste of her rushed through him. She was soft under his hands, smelled right, felt good. These little sounds kept coming from her, little moans and sighs of need, and it drove him crazy. He didn’t want to scare her but if he didn’t get inside of her sometime soon his cock would explode.

Before he knew it, her hands had slid from his hair to his chest and she was opening the front of his uniform shirt. Hesitantly but with some strength, she pushed him back enough to get on her knees and part the front of his shirt. When she leaned down to brush kisses over his collarbone before moving to flick a tongue over his nipples, he jumped, breathing her name like a prayer.

Her hair was like silk over his superheated skin. Needing to see it all, he reached back and undid the clasp holding it up. It tumbled down in a sweet-smelling wave.

When one of her hands slid down his belly and her nails scored over his cock he moved back into action.

He took her arms so he could see in her face. What greeted him, passion-glazed eyes and kiss-swollen lips, made him suck in a breath. Holy shit she was beautiful.

“Tate, I want you. Are you with me?”

Swallowing, she nodded before licking her lips.

“Bedroom?”

She stood, held out a hand and led him toward the back of the house. He felt her tremble a bit, but as he was shaking too, it was hard to tell where he began and she ended.

Her room was messy and it made him smile.

“God, I’m sorry. I…well it goes without saying I wasn’t expecting to bring a man back here.” She motioned toward her unmade bed and turned out the light he’d turned on.

For some reason, that comment only made him want her more.

“Good.” He used his body to push her toward her bed until she fell back and looked up at him, her hair a brilliant corona around her head. “Tate, I want to see you.” He turned on the bedside lamp before moving to unbutton the bodice of the dress she wore.

The blush was back and she put her hands over his, stilling them. “Turn the light off, please.”

“But I won’t be able to see you that way. Tate, I’ve been fantasizing nonstop about your body for weeks now.”

“I can’t. Matt, please.”

Instead of turning the light off, he lay down on the bed and pulled her to him. “Tate, are you changing your mind about making love to me?” She shook her head but he saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes. “What is it, sweetness? Am I scaring you? Moving too fast?”

She buried her face in his neck and he burrowed through her hair to hold her. “I don’t want you to see me naked.”

“If you’re not naked, how can I be inside you?” That’s when it occurred to him he didn’t have any condoms.

“Just leave the lights off!”

“Tate, I want to see you. Would you deny me that pleasure?” He pulled his head back to see her face, hoping she’d smile but he got confusion, anger and a bit of embarrassment too. What the fuck? “Tate? What is it?”

She pushed at him and jumped up, pacing in front of the bed. “I’m not one of the women you’re normally with!”

“I know.”

She stopped and sneered.

“I mean,” he added quickly, “yes, you’re not like them. And that’s a
good
thing. Tate, you’re important, special.”

“Matt,” she sighed, sounding impatient. “Are you going to make me spell it out?”

“You’d better, sweetness, because I have no fucking idea what the issue is.”

“Dolly, Melanie, Lisa, Kelly—what do these things have in common and what do I not have that they do?”

“They’re vapid and shallow and you’re not?” Standing and going to her, he kissed her lips quickly, tossing his shirt to one side blindly.

“Okay, well, you have a point there. Although what the hell were you doing with them if so?” The air left her lips in a soft whoosh when he pushed her gently back down to the bed.

“Well you have a point there too. We can talk about the ramifications of that later because it’s totally getting in the way of me putting my cock into your body. And speaking of that, we’re not getting naked again why?”

“Because you go out with women who are drop-dead gorgeous and I am not! They’re all tall and thin and
cheerleaders
. I am, aside from having breasts and a vagina, nothing like them.”

He tried not to laugh, he really did but she was hilarious.

“What are you laughing at?”

He rolled and pinned her to the bed with his body, raining kisses down her chest, over the fabric of her dress. Pulling her skirt up, he traced the soft skin of her thighs with his fingertips.

“I’m laughing at you, Tate Murphy. I’ve never heard anyone but Maggie say cheerleader like it was some sort of disease. Frankly, I find it hard to find fault with women jumping around in tight sweaters and short skirts but I don’t think it has a damned thing to do with why I’m dying here for you and not with anyone else. I’m here because
you’re
here. I don’t want them, I want you. I want to see your body, I think you’re beautiful.”

“I can’t concentrate with the lights on.”

There was so much panic and emotion in her voice he let it go. Reaching out, he turned out the light.

“Better?”

“Yes.”

He found her mouth again and she relaxed, melting into him, hooking one of her thighs around his ass, arching her back to bring her pussy into contact with his cock.

Busy hands found the buttons on her bodice and made quick work of them, exposing her bra to him. He wished he could see more in the dim light that came from the open bedroom door but there’d be time for that later.

There wasn’t a catch between her breasts so he helped her to sit up to get the back hooks undone.

Sweet mercy, her breasts, even what he could see in the low light, were beautiful. Large, heavy, juicy, dark nipples.

While she sat up, he helped her get the dress off and tossed his pants, socks and boxers before returning to her. She’d slid under the sheets, which agitated him, but he began to really understand some of what Liv had said a few weeks before about what some people might think about Tate. Apparently Tate herself felt some of those things too. Well, that’d be next, showing her just how damned beautiful she was—cheerleader or not.

When their bodies came together, skin to skin he thought he’d lose consciousness it was so deliriously good. Fuck! Condom.

“Tate, uh, I have a problem.
Shit!
” She grasped his cock, giving a few slow pumps with her fist.