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“That piece of toast and your leftover fruit this morning. Why don’t we both go get something? It will give us a break from these awful masks. I can’t stand these damn things.”
I looked down at Remi and ran my fingers down her arm. “They are terrible, aren’t they? I don’t like it when I can't hold her or kiss her.”
“I hate feeling my breath on my face every time I exhale. It’s suffocating,” he said. “As far as Remi... I just want time to play with her and get to know her.”
I glanced in his direction, nodding sadly. I was unsure if I’d be able to get past the guilt of keeping them apart. “I know you do.”
Chase bent down and pressed his cheek to the top of Remi’s silky head. “She’s so precious. Teagan.” When he straightened, he ran his blue latex covered index finger down her cheek. His eyes were glassy when he looked up at me. “I’d do anything to save her.” Chase was always so strong, so adamant that Remi would be fine, but I saw fear behind those tears.
I wanted nothing more than to comfort him and walked around the bed and instantly into his arms. I hugged his waist to hold him tight. I pressed my cheek to the front of his hospital gown and the steel chest beneath it when he enfolded me in a warm embrace. “You will. I know you will.”
Love rushed and overflowed my heart. I hugged him tighter, trying hard not to burst into tears. I loved this man more than anything. Once again, he’d become the center of my universe… and not just because of how much he loved Remi.
“I love you, Chase,” I choaked out. “So much.”
He cleared his throat and I knew he was struggling. “You know what you mean to me, Teagan. That won’t ever change.” His words were the miracle I didn’t deserve but had been praying for.
All I could do was nod, my throat too tight for words. I did know; now that he was here, with me. In the years apart when he would cross my mind, I wondered if he missed me in the same desperate way I missed him and my heart always came up with the same answer. I hoped he did, but after the phone call that broke my heart, I had to accept that he’d moved on, and it was the only thing that motivated me to make an attempt at a real marriage with Jensen. There was a lot of evidence to support that Chase was happy, but Jensen and I couldn’t conjure a relationship just because we thought it’s what we should do. It never worked, and Chase’s ghost was always between us.
I was still wrapped up with Chase and he rubbed a flat hand up and down my back. “Let’s get something to eat and have our talk, then we can come back and spend the night with Remi later. If I’ll be able to stand this fucking mask,” he added with a wry chuckle.
“What was that?” Laughing softly, I poked him in the ribs with a pointed finger then used it point at our sleeping child.
“Oops, sorry. No cussing in front of the kid. Got it.”
CHASE
I was anxious for the conversation I knew was coming, but I was just as anxious to be alone with Teagan.
I would have preferred to take her to a nice restaurant like a real date, but we were both tired and not dressed for it. Instead, we went through a Chinese drive through and I took her back to my shitty apartment with the food. It was barren and small, but it was clean. I’d barely been there, and now that Bronwyn was gone, her things wouldn’t be strewn around in a mess.
“This place reminds me of college,” she murmured as she followed me into the kitchen. “Not what I expected you to have now.”
“Why?” I threw Teagan’s keys on the small wooden table in the corner and walked past her. “You think now that I’m not dead broke, I would turn into David Beckham?”
Teagan moved up behind me and slid her arms around my waist, pressing her hands flat on my chest and stomach. “You’re better than David Beckham ever was.”
I smiled, huffing. “He wouldn’t agree.” I pulled out four red and white cartons, fortune cookies, and packets of soy sauce, sriracha, and sweet and sour sauce and set them out on the table.
“You are.” I felt her kiss my back through my shirt. “Bronwyn isn’t exactly Posh Spice in sneakers.”
My heart surged at the tinge of jealousy I heard in her voice. I took one of her hands and pulled it up to kiss the inside of her wrist. I was deliberately sexy in the way I used my open mouth to caress her. Her arms flexed, tightening around me in response.
“Mmmm….” She sighed.
Suddenly, I wasn’t hungry for food.
I turned inside the circle of her arms and easily lifted her up. Instinct had her legs and arms wrapping around my body like she’d done so often when we were together. One of my hands wrapped around her ass cheek and the other slid up her back under the curtain of her hair to cup the back of her head. She was dressed casually in jean shorts and a light pink blouse that suited her dark hair and brought out the blush in her peachy complexion.
She bent so that her lips were hovering over mine and she was playing with the hair at my nape.
“There’s my monkey,” I murmured, against her lips and she smiled. My tongue snaked out to slide sensuously along her upper one and her thighs flexed on my hips. My dick was already hard, and I wanted her so much it physically hurt. I sucked in a breath laden with her shampoo, perfume and the scent of her skin as our mouths collided in hungry abandon. Memories flooded my mind and heart. It was as if we’d never been apart.
The apartment was small and there was an old, ugly brown sofa less than six feet away. Somehow we ended up there, Teagan straddling my lap. I wanted her beneath me so I could press into her and so she could literally feel how much I wanted her.
The kisses were wild and we were hungry. She made passionate little moans that drove me insane. This was how want and starvation felt. My body throbbed painfully and I was dying a blissful death. Her mouth was frantic with mine and I sucked her tongue inside mine to slowly lave and suckle it.
“God, I want you so bad,” I panted in shallow breaths between kisses. My heart was thundering against hers and my hands roamed up and down her body, along the side swells of her breasts, over her slim waist and down the gentle swell of her hips. My pelvis surged into the cradle of hers. “You’re mine.”
