I Seduced His Rival: Now the Hockey Star Wants Me novel · Chapter 8 of 24

Chapter 8: By Heart

"Not here," Chase said. "Come outside. Please."

The song was ending.

Across the room Luc was by the windows, watching us, very still.

I should have walked back to him.

I followed Chase out the side doors onto the terrace instead.

I needed to know. Three years, and I needed to know.

It was freezing out there. The harbor was black, and the planes were coming in low over the water toward Logan.

Chase took off his tux jacket and put it around my shoulders.

He'd never done anything like that before.

"You read it," I said.

"Yeah."

"When?"

"That week. That day, actually." He leaned on the railing next to me. "I found it in my bag after practice."

"You never said anything."

"I was nineteen, Finola. I was a freshman. Everybody was watching me. I didn't know what to do with something like that."

"So you did nothing for three years."

"I kept it." He turned to look at me. "That's not nothing. I kept it in my desk. Do you know how many girls have given me stuff? I threw all of it out. I kept yours."

My throat hurt.

It was everything I'd ever wanted him to say, out loud, on a terrace in the cold.

It was three years late and it was coming out of the same mouth that had called me furniture a month ago.

"Why now?" I said.

"Because I was scared before. And now I'm not." He stepped closer. "I've always wanted you. I just didn't know how much until I saw you with him."

"That's not the same thing as always."

"Finola. Dump Thibodeau. Come home. Come back to me."

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