New Year's Resolution: Romance!: Say Yes / No More Bad Girls / Just a Fling

Arch groaned. “So much for subtle, sweetheart.”

“Brianna had to leave unexpectedly,” Ashley put in smoothly. “Chase hired me to take over as hostess.”

“Hired you?” Her eyebrows climbed high on her forehead, and her gaze darted between Chase and Ashley.

“I work for a local florist,” Ashley explained. “And I happened to be at the right place at the right time—meaning here at the house—when Chase found a need for someone to help out.”

“Found a need,” Arch echoed.

At the smirk in his voice, Chase sent him a quelling look. “Ashley, Arch is my former college roommate. And June—”

“Has this sudden need for some girl talk.”

Ashley looked alarmed. “Oh, I—”

“Actually, I need help pinning a strap,” June said, plucking at the silk of her slinky red dress. Her smile beamed wide and guileless. “You’ll help, won’t you?”

And with that, Chase saw his hostess head off into the metaphorical sunset with his best friend’s wife. Frowning, he glanced over at Arch. “I don’t want her scaring Ashley away.”

“She’ll just pump her for all her personal information,” Arch said in a cheery tone.

Chase groaned. “That’s what I mean.”

“What else do you mean?” his friend asked. “Brianna takes off and an hour later you’ve got Ashley moved in?”

In less than an hour, Chase thought. “Just for the week,” he assured himself and his best buddy. He shrugged one shoulder. “I saw her and it...it seemed like a simple solution.”

Arch was gazing at him.

“What’s with the pitying expression?” Chase demanded.

“Nothing’s simple when it comes to women, you should know that.”

“Hell,” Chase said. “Don’t go there, please? Sure, she’s pretty and all.” Beautiful. “But I asked her because I needed the assistance.”

Not true. What he needed was that midnight kiss he was planning, just to satisfy his curiosity and so he could neutralize this odd fascination she held for him. Once that was out of the way, he could devote his attention to the important business of the rest of the week.

He managed to get Arch onto other topics and then included some others in their light conversation as the musician continued to play. It was when the servers began circulating with trays of crystal flutes filled with liquid bubbles that Chase realized midnight was nearly upon them. June was standing near her husband, her arm around his waist as they swayed to the music.

Ashley was nowhere in sight.

As the countdown began, he was torn. Leave his guests or seek out his hostess? It would be better to stick with the crowd, he decided, ignoring a spurt of disappointment. Foolish to feel it, especially when the last time he’d been so eager for a New Year’s kiss he’d been thirteen years old. At Tammy Martin’s house, he remembered. Her parents were out for the evening and she’d been babysitting her little brother and sister.

“Ten,” the people on the dance floor chanted, arranging themselves in a circle.

Ridiculous to want to look into Ashley’s upturned face as the clock struck twelve.

“Nine.”

No, it wasn’t imperative that he dive his fingers into her flowing hair.

“Eight.”

Would her breath hitch as his mouth neared?

“Seven.”

He’d trace his nose across her warm cheek, drawing in her crushed-petal scent.

The voices of the people surrounding him rose. “Six.”

Shoving his hands into his pockets, he rooted his feet to the ground, even though his gaze wandered, looking for any sign of her.

“Five.”

He recalled Tammy’s kiss—his first—and hadn’t that changed his life? A boy taking his first step to becoming a man.

“Four.”

Move, his gut piped up. Find out where Ashley’s been all our life.

On the crowd’s roar of “three,” he bolted from the great hall.

At “two” he saw movement in the library at the end of the passage.

“One” sounded in the distance when he breached the doorway. Ashley, who had been standing contemplating the small fire burning in the grate, whirled. The notes of “Auld Lang Syne” drifted into the room, wrapping around them like ribbons, he thought, then instantly shoved away the fancy.

Still, her big eyes and her tense posture drew him forward. Her fingers clutched the lace overlaying her skirt. Chase hauled in a slow breath as he came to a halt before her. “You’re missing midnight,” he said softly as if his voice might spook her.

She smiled a little. “The clock ticks on without me.”

It seemed to come to a standstill to Chase as he stared down at her upturned face, her sooty lashes a perfect frame for her expressive eyes. There was wariness in them.

“Don’t be afraid of me,” he whispered.

Her gaze slid to the side. “Of course not,” she scoffed.

“Or shy.”

Her gaze flicked back to his for a moment. “I’m not.”

Only with him, he thought, and for some reason he liked the idea of that.

The last notes of the song died out. The guests’ voices stopped singing and they went back to chatting. In the background, the pianist continued playing the traditional song, embellishing the original melody. Chase stepped closer to Ashley and cupped her bare shoulders in his hands. “Happy New Year,” he said, and, bending his head, placed his lips on hers.

She tasted like champagne and roses. But it wasn’t that which got him. It was the tremble that racked her frame. Something moved in his belly, lust and another emotion that reached up to clutch his heart like a fist. His tongue touched her bottom lip, and even as she trembled again, she opened her mouth. He took a tender foray inside, not pressing but trying to please instead.

When her hand came up to wrap around his wrist as if she had to hang on for dear life, it was Chase who shuddered. Sweet, he thought. So damn heady and sweet.