Free The Chase by Erin McCarthy Page B

wouldn’t have thought she could spend five minutes with Evan without wanting to choke the life out of him, and yet he was making her laugh and loosen up more than she had in months.
    This was the way she remembered what it was like to be with him—a lot of teasing and laughter and joy. And the heat. The sexual tension that had always been taut between them like a high wire.
    It was all still there and it was exciting. Exhilarating. Scary as hell.
    Maybe it was just the high of relief. The giddy sensation of knowing that Evan had cared about her. That he hadn’t been some kind of misogynist insulting his girlfriend.
    Whatever it was, when they cruised past the grocery store and into the town house complex, Kendall was anticipating what was ahead for her in Evan’s bed more than she was looking backwards at the past.
     
     
    EVAN tried to keep it under the speed limit, but it was damn hard. He was enjoying both driving Kendall’s car, and the bold looks she was shooting him. Combined, they had him eager to get her home and in his bed, and he found his foot pressure increasing repeatedly, before he got a grip and eased up again.
    Thank God it was a short ride.
    This was nuts. A complete twist on his day that he could have never anticipated, but he wasn’t one to turn down a golden opportunity. Not just to have sex. He was damn glad he and Kendall had cleared the air. It eased the hurt, the bitter rejection he’d felt, to hear her apology, to understand that she’d been hurt, too, and had reacted immaturely. The fact that she could admit that it had been on the childish side gave him a respect for her. If you couldn’t look back at your mistakes and take responsibility, then you were never going to grow and change. Evan could see now that he had wasted a lot of time taking his hurt over Kendall out on other women or, more specifically, on the concept of relationships in general.
    That had occurred to him somewhere on turn two of that old dirt track, as Kendall had sparred with him and he’d found himself enjoying her company in the way he hadn’t enjoyed a woman’s company in a very long time.
    Tomorrow meant nothing. He knew that. He knew enough about women, and Kendall specifically, to know that tomorrow she would wake up and regret that she’d had sex with him so quickly, and she would go weird. She would say they’d gotten swept up in past feelings and that they had both needed the closure.
    But they’d already had sex once, and she hadn’t balked yet, so he was determined to enjoy her while it lasted. Hell, maybe those things were true. Maybe he was getting carried away. Yet when he pulled into his drive and she put her hand over his, her fingers cool and soft, gripping his fist as she shifted gears with him, he really wasn’t sure.
    “Don’t trust me?” he asked. “I know how to put it in park.”
    “I know. I’m just reasserting my equality. My way of saying we got here together.”
    Something squeezed inside his chest at the word together . That shit had to stop if he was going to stay cool and in control. Evan took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers and lifting them to his mouth. He brushed his lips across her knuckles, watching as her eyes went wide.
    Pausing for a second while he nibbled at her flesh, Evan raised an eyebrow and told her, “Nice try. I was driving.”
    Her mouth dropped open, then her eyes narrowed. “So that’s how you want to play? What if I just dump you here in your driveway and go home.”
    “You won’t.” He hoped like hell she wouldn’t.
    “I think I will.”
    But Kendall’s plan to achieve this had her leaning right across Evan to try to open his door in some futile effort to kick him out.
    Which meant that she was splayed all across him, her arms brushing his chest, her chest brushing his thighs, her hair tickling his arm. Her position was remarkably similar to that of a woman going down on a man, and Evan felt an erection spring to life instantly.
    This