Up for the Chase Page 7

  When his lips finally reach mine I don’t want to pull back and I don’t want to stop. I barely even feel the rain pouring onto us. His mouth engulfs mine as the pool water and the rain slide down our faces. I hear the gate slam shut to the pool area and then a young male voice say, “Y’all can’t do that out here.”

  Chase nods his head as I lower mine so the attendant can’t see the embarrassment that has spread on my face.

  Chase leans down and says, “I’m going to need you to walk in front of me,” and I can’t help but laugh out loud. We wait for the guy to leave and we get out of the pool wrapping up with a towel and making a beeline for the room. I hear Chase tapping his foot as we waiting in the elevator to let us in. The second the doors close around us I feel Chase’s body against mine and I can feel his erection pressing into my lower back, just thinking about how turned one he is, is causing me to grow hotter. He slides his hand between me and my towel and then skims his hand on my thigh as he makes his way up. He slips his hand underneath my swimsuit with one, swift, motion and almost not to waste any time he slips a finger into me. I moan as my head falls backwards onto his shoulder and he rubs my clit with the pad of his thumb. His motions start moving faster and my knees begin to shake as I hear the ding for our floor. He quickly slips his hand out and wraps his arms back around me as we make our way down the hall, but I’m more focused on keep my legs from collapsing around me as we casually walked down the hall and he again leaned across me as he slides the key card into the slot and I couldn’t help myself, not wanting the moment to die I lean into him and I let my lips linger on his neck and my body heightens when I hear a moan escape his lips. His face moves over to me as he forcefully presses his lips to mine and pulls me inside of the room. As the door clicks shut I feel my back pressed against it, and his mouth devours mine again.

  I let the towel drop from around me as he does the same thing. He slides his hands down my body gripping me by my ass, picking me up, and carrying me to the bed. I feel my back lay against the cool covers as his body comes over top of mine and I feel him reach around me and untying my bikini top. I gasp as I feel the warmth of his mouth on my nipples. I feel him lower himself over me as he trails kisses along my body making sure to kiss the now pink line that sits on my stomach. As he slides down my body he reaches over and pulls at the bathing suit bottoms and slides them down my legs. He smiles at me as I sit up and slides his shorts down and he lowers his head to my face as he positions himself between my legs. l feel my body expand around him as he presses into me.

  I lay on the bed panting as he leans over and kisses me on the cheek and for the first time in three years I think that I can actually feel my heart start again. I fall asleep with Chase’s muscled arm across my body and the nightmares stay away for another night.

  I watch Chase smile fade as he looks to me and then down to Avery as she stops and turns around looking at me,

  “Mommy, there’s a man at our house.” She states the obvious.

  “I see that baby.” I see the hatred in Chase’s eyes as he hears our exchange. “Avery, why don’t you go inside and turn on the TV.” I tell her walking past Chase and unlocking the door, and handing her our take out. “Here sweetheart, will you take this.” When I turn around it seems that Chase is still in shock when he finally looks to me and I’m not sure the emotions that succumbs his face.

  “Chase, look.-,” I wanted to say that l didn’t want him to find out this way, but he cuts me off by throwing the flowers on the stairs and storming off. “Chase, wait.”

  “No, Ariana. What do you want me to wait for?” he pauses for a second and when I don’t answer he continues to start again. “What I get it, you have a family now, and you don’t have time for anyone else.” He pauses slightly and it’s almost as if the light bulb comes off in his head. “Wait, a minute,” He pauses wanting to ask how old she was.

  “She’s five, her birthday is April 1,” I pause looking at the ground, fumbling with my fingers.

  “Fuck,” he shouts looking back to me and shaking his head, “And you never even told me.”

  “What the fuck did you want me to do?” I shout at him, “You left without a note, or a fucking phone number.” I say stepping closer to him, “I woke up and you were gone with no way to get a hold of you, I tried after I found out, for a year. You made it pretty obvious that you didn’t want to be found.” I'm yelling now.

  “I can’t be here,” he says and turns around and walks away from me, again.

  “You’re a coward.” I shout after me as he walks away from me, yet again.

  “Yeah, well you fucking are too. You should have told me yesterday.” I have no more words because I know that he is right. I should have told him yesterday. So, I watch his back round the corner and walk out of my life, again. Only this time he found out the truth.

  I remind myself that I need to go back inside, to my child. As I walk up the steps I wipe the tears away from my cheeks as we go inside.

  “Mommy, who was that?” she asks.

  “That was an old friend.” I tell her looking out the window with her.

  “He made you sad?” she asked leaning up and wiping a tear away from my face.

  “Yes, baby, but it’s alright. Mommy will be fine. Here let’s watch some cartoons.” I tell her switching on the TV, but I don’t pay attention to them I just think back to Chase. I think back to that 4 of July.

  We had decided we were going to drive out of the way to Vegas for the 4th; it was now the 1st, as we pulled up to the Bellagio and walk inside. It’s so busy that night when we decide to go out they don’t even question my fake ID, as we enter the clubs. We dance and I feel Chase’s body grind against mine, and I can’t help but let a moan out of my mouth, we take shot after shot and before I know it we are back in the hotel room, with the full length window looking out over to the water and he has me pressed up against it pushing in and out of me. I moan louder than probably was possible as he let his teeth nibble on the side of my neck.

  “CHASE,” I screamed out as I exploded around him, and he grinned to me taking me into the bathroom. I knew that he wasn’t finished and I could only guess that he was giving himself time to cool down.

  “You weren’t done yet,” I say to him as he sets me down on the counter and begins to stroke me as I throw my head back and moan. The ecstasy I feel as he is still inside of me and his finger fumbling with me almost sends me over the edge. I guess he can feel the excitement that fills my body because he starts in again. I can’t even think straight as he rocks into me again. I feel myself building up again as he rocks into me one last time and I can feel both of us exploding at the same time. He smiles down to me as he walks over and turns the shower on,

  “Come on, get in with me,” he smiles and as I try to climb down off of the counter I feel my wobbly legs and laughing I say,

  “We should probably stick to a bath,” I see the pride in himself course over his face and he smiles again turning off the shower and then running a bath.

  I let myself fall into the water as he slides in behind me and I lean my body against his as he takes his hand and lightly rubs my shoulders.

  l am brought back to the present as I hear SpongeBob singing his theme song and I reach over and turn the channel, I hate it when she watching that crap, I truly believe that it makes people stupid, but she never minds as I turn on another network and she smiles to me.

  That night in Vegas I knew that I loved Chase, hell I still love him, and he has been the only man that I have ever loved, watching him walk away from me tonight, it broke my heart more than waking up to find him gone.

  But he is right; I am a coward.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chase

  I have a child. Fuck. I think as I walk into a restaurant, up to the bar, and sit at the counter. A perky brunette walks up to me and asks if she can get me anything, I order another shot of tequila.

  “Bad day?” she asks. And I nod my head, “You have no idea.”<
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  “Well, what happened?” I look up to her thinking at first that she is trying to hit on me as Sandra did the other night, but I see that she is actually concerned, she reminds me a lot of Ariana, FUCK I don’t want to think about her.

  “I just found out I have a kid.” I smirk as I look up to her, “A five year old.” And her face hardens.

  “Chase?” she asks me and I am taken a back for a moment when she calls me by my name.

  “How did you know my name?” I question her, but I’m pretty sure that I already know.

  “I’m Hannah,” she says and then we both in unison say, “Ariana’s, best friend.” she smiles, “Ah I see that she talked about me when she was MIA with you touring the country,”

  “Yeah, well we talked about a lot of things.” I tell her waiting for my shot. She smiles as she holds up a finger and asking me to hold on as she approaches the other bartender and he nods as he looks over to me. She walks back over and I look at her questioning.

  “I’m going to take a break, we need to talk.” She says and ushers me to one of the table at the side of the building.

  “Talk about what?” I ask her, she doesn’t know anything about me what is she going to talk to me about.

  “I look, I know that I don’t know you, but I know R, and I know Avery. I love Avery more than you could know, she is really a terrific kid, smart as hell, and she reminds me of R sometimes, but most of the time I don’t know where this tiny little person came from. 'That’s when R tells me that she reminds her every day of you of the times that the two of you spent together. She really did plan to tell you. Hell, she looked for you for a year. She called Will and he had no idea how to find you. She finally had to change her number because her dad, as much as I love Mr. McCree, well he started harassing her. When he would drink, after he kicked her out of the house when he found out that she was pregnant, she thought that it would be the last time that she ever spoke to him, but it wasn’t he would call her and tell her how much of a disgrace she was to him.” l really have no idea what to say. “I remember asking her when she changed it, what would happen if you tried to find her, and she took this heart breaking sigh, and told me that you clearly didn’t want to be found. When you left in California, it broke her heart. When she found out she was pregnant, it terrified her and The Major kicked her out gave her some cash for an abortion and told her that she could come back when she was no longer pregnant, but she couldn’t do that. She came and stayed with me for a few weeks, and we started looking for you. She wanted to talk to you about the decision together, but when that failed she decided to make the decision by herself. I came home from classes one night and she wasn’t there I was terrified. I called her a dozen times and she finally called me back telling me that she was out at the beach. I went down there to see her, she was broken, she had been crying all day. I tended, hell I still do, to forget how truly fragile she is because she always seems to tough. She told me that she wanted to go home, that she wanted to pretend this never happened, that you never happened. She wanted to pretend that she wasn’t completely broken, but she couldn’t. She needed the security of having a place to live; she wanted to be normal, to go to college. She called the next day and scheduled the procedure.” I’m not sure where she is going with this statement. “I went with her that day; she had an ultrasound they showed her Avery. And she cried, she cancelled the appointment and she moved here.”

  “Why are you telling me this, Hannah?” I ask her, I want to be pissed not feel bad for her.

  “Because you need to know, you need to know the difficulty that she has been going through.”

  “Because, all of this, it’s my fault, right?” I ask harsher than I want to.

  “Chase, you ran away, you took off and left her all alone. Fuck, you came back to find her. Too bad she’s not exactly what you were expecting. It happens, but guess what that extra, no matter how much you don’t want to admit it; she’s apart of you, and she will always be. How do you think I knew it was you?”

  “I just figured that Ariana told you that I was in town,” I shrug.

  “She did, but Avery looks identical to you, minus R’s eyes.” I knew that she was right and I’m not sure how at first glance I didn’t realize that she was mine. “Take it for you what you want, but Ariana, she still loves you, I can see the heartbreak every time she looks at Avery. Don’t hate her just because she couldn’t find you.” she frowns when she looks up to me and walks away. I get up walking out of the restaurant and just wander around the city. I think to myself the entire time, and I can’t help but see her walking next to me like she did in Vegas so many nights in a row, walking all around the city, she seemed amazed by all the lights. I can see why now walking through Savannah.

  I find myself at her front door again as I walk up the steps and knock. The door swings up and I am face to face with my mini-me. Two things happen at that moment; it almost knocks my breath away, and I at that second want to run away without looking back but I don’t, I stay with my feet planted.

  “Avery, I told you not to open the door to just anyone.” Ariana says walking over to the open door and stopping in her tracks as she sees me.

  “Mommy it’s your old friend,” mini-me says to her. I’m not sure why, but her explaining me like that kind of hurts me.

  “I see that, baby.” Ariana says and then Avery turns back to me and frowns.

  “I don’t think I like you very much.” I stand confused by her.

  “Why is that?” I wonder.

  “You made my Mommy cry.” And now officially my five year old daughter has broken my heart for the first time.

  “Avery, go upstairs and play.” Ariana demands.

  “Mooooom.” She whines.

  “Avery, now.” She stands firm, and I smile at her and turn to watch Avery run up the stairs I can only guess to her room. “What are you doing here Chase? Didn’t you say enough earlier?”

  “I’m sorry, Ariana.” I say still standing on the outside of the house. “I reacted poorly." She sighs loudly.

  “Honestly, no you didn’t had I been in your shoes I probably would have flipped out as well.” She walks over to the door. “Come in, we should probably talk.” I have to resist the urge to kiss her. “So, what made you come back?”

  “Well, honestly I probably would have come back tomorrow once I realized what an ass I was,” I notice her look to the stairs, “But I stopped some place to have a drink, and well I met Hannah,” she laughs at me and smiles, “I understand why you two have been friends for so long.” She laughs. “But she told me about everything since you have been back.”

  “She shouldn’t have done that.” She hardens.

  “Stop it,” I tell her, “I told you before you don’t always have to be so tough.” She shrugs as we walk into the living room and sit down. “This place is amazing.” I tell her and she laughs.

  “Yeah, with a help to my mother’s money. It’s the only thing I have bought with it, I wanted to make sure that Avery and I would have a place to live.”

  “Well, that’s very adult of you,” I laugh to myself.

  “Well, I have to be now.” She shrugs, causing me some guilt.

  “Sorry,”

  “No, that wasn’t meant to come across like that. It was ultimately my decision to have her. They just showed her to me and I couldn’t do that to her.” she looks back over to the stairs and smiles.

  “Honestly, I’m glad you didn’t. I know that I don’t really know her, yet, but I want to. So, I’m just curious but did they give you like an estimated date?” she laughs out and I said it because I knew she would laugh at it.

  “The first week of July.” She tells me and I now can’t help but laugh.

  “Ah, Vegas,” I say to her remembering that Weekend all too Well.

  “Vegas,” she nods along with me laughing.

  “That was good weekend.” She laughs at me again.

  “It was a good summer.” She smiles to me and I Wonder if
she has been reminiscing about it as much as I have.

  “Mommy,” we hear sound from upstairs and she smiles at me getting up off the couch and walking over to the stairs.

  “You can come up with me if you want.” She tells me and I stand up walking over to the stairs with her.

  “Ariana, how are we going to explain to her?” I ask.

  “I’m not sure yet.”

  “Does she ever ask?” I can’t help but wonder.

  “Yeah, but she doesn’t really understand, she just knows that her friends have dads and she has asked why she doesn’t have one.” she shrugs and I walk up with her to Avery’s bedroom at the top of the stairs. I can’t help but watch her ass as we walk up the steps.

  “Av, What is it?” she says and I walk in behind her and Avery looks to me questioning me.

  “Mommy, who is he.” She says as if she doesn’t believe I’m an old friend.

  “I told you Av, he’s an old friend.” She says again.

  “But I’ve never seen you get upset after talking to an old friend, not like you were today.” I frown a bit and I look to her hating that I made her upset.

  “Well his name is Chase, does that help at all?” Ariana asks her.

  “Is he the prince?” she asks and I look from them confused.

  “Yes, sweetheart he’s the prince.” She grins widely, not meeting my eyes, and I’m pretty sure I see some blush… the prince?

  “Prince?” I can’t help but ask trying to laugh and I can see Ariana glare at me a bit telling me to let it drop.

  “Yes, prince. Mommy tells this story, about a prince with strange hair and a pink haired princess and how they lived a storybook romance, but one day the prince had to leave unexpected,” I wonder how her vocabulary is so good, “but he leaves the princess with a gift, and I already know that I am the gift, so that would make you my daddy, right?” I grin to her, and she has managed to break my heart and then mend in within twenty minutes.