Being Chased (13 page)

Chase had taken Gun
ner aside earlier and asked him what he’d do in his situation. Gun had shocked the hell out of him by asking the same thing Layton had—was she worth losing his job over, and if so, he should go for it. Would wonders never cease? But damn it if that’s the answer he didn’t want to hear. Gunner was supposed to be the voice of reason, telling him to stay the fuck away, not be some goddamned romantic.

As they walked
, Chase wished he could hold Julia's hand but knew it'd be wrong. He also realized that he didn't want her to think he was coming on to her only because he'd been drinking, which seemed to be the status quo. But there was such a current between them, a heat that was undeniable. He wondered if she felt it too.

His question was answe
red right after they walked inside the bar. As everyone went to find a table, Julia grabbed his hand and pulled him into a little recess, pushing him against the wall with her body, smashing her mouth to his. The hunger they both felt was unreal; they clutched each other tightly as their tongues swirled wildly together. Chase turned them around, pushing her to the wall, his hand hooking behind her knee, hitching her leg to his hip. Grinding himself into her, his lips crashed down on hers. Christ, he wanted her.

"
Chase?" A female voice behind them rang out. “Is that you?”

He
turned toward the voice then immediately released Julia's leg, quickly pulling himself away from her. He cursed under his breath then responded to the woman he’d once thought he’d spend the rest of his life with. "Tracy?"

"Hi,"
Tracy said looking from Chase to Julia and back.

Holy shit!
It's the girlfriend! Run!
All the blood left Julia’s face.

"Hey,"
Chase answered. Well, he'd been caught in a compromising situation to say the least. Tracy looked expectantly at Julia again and back at Chase. "Oh, Tracy Hayes, this is Julia Cooke. Julia, Tracy."

I can't look at her
! I was kissing her boyfriend! But wow. How can she be so calm? Why hasn't she slapped him yet? Or me? Or slit our throats with a Ginsu knife? Maybe they have an "open" relationship? Ugh.

Taking a deep breath,
Julia looked Tracy in the eye. "Hello. It's nice meeting you." Riiiight. "Um, I should go see where everyone is." Julia made her way past them, cutting her eyes at Chase with a scowl. This contretemps was 
so 
not happening. And jeez. Girlfriend was gorgeous. Crap.

"I'll be there in a minute,"
Chase said to Julia as she walked away. Well, hell. What a fine predicament to be in. Not that he gave a shit what Tracy thought. It was just that he'd been caught making out with Julia. So unprofessional. And yet so fucking hot. But then Julia had just shot him that "Go to hell" look as she walked off. 
Always one step forward and two steps back with her, damn it.

As
Julia walked away, she glanced back to see the
Fuck me, I've been caught with my pants down
look on Chase's face. 
Five more minutes and that might've been the case. 
She snickered. 
Wait. What are you thinking? Dude's grinding himself all into you and he has a girlfriend? What a douche! But, God, it was so hot. No! You can't think that way! He's a cheater! Why would you want to be with someone who cheats? Been there, done that. But you’re not guilt-free either. You instigated it. Oh, why do you even care? Get it together, Cooke. Screw him and his girlfriend.
“I need a drink… or five,” she mumbled to herself.

"So, how are you?"
Tracy asked.

Chase
was pissed. Here stood the woman he'd thought had been "the one," and after walking out on him two years ago, she wanted to know how he was? 
Fucking fantastic, after you ripped out my goddamned heart. And yourself? 
"Good, you?"

Actually,
he realized that he was really just extremely annoyed. Tracy had interrupted him and Julia to exchange niceties? Not cool. And wasn't it great that he now realized he couldn’t care less about her.

"I'm doing okay. I'm working as a secretary in the city. My boss is this horrid woman, but there's a really fancy web design firm that's supposed to have a sec
retarial position opening. Jenny works there, you remember her, right? She says she put in a good word for me, and I should be hearing something soon. I think I could really add something to the company because I'm so good with people. You remember how everyone loved me, right? Like all your friends always wanted to hang out when I was with you? God, I can't believe it's been so long since we've seen each other. Oh, I'm not with Brian anymore if you were wondering. Yeah, that didn't work out. He was kind of a worthless loser. He lost his job and wasn't interested in finding another one."

Chase
looked at Tracy through narrowed eyes
. I actually wanted to marry this woman? Seriously? Why?

Thank God for small favors.

"Oh, well, that's too bad. Well, good luck with your job situation. It was nice seeing you again, Tracy." Chase wanted to find Julia and explain things to her.

"Wait,
Chase." Before he could get away, Tracy looped her arm through his, putting her other hand on his bicep. He hadn’t introduced Julia as his girlfriend, so she thought she’d give it a go. "God, I've missed how muscular you are.” She squeezed his arm admiringly. “Uh, what are you doing tomorrow night? I'd like to catch up with you. Are you free?" Tracy looked up at him with her signature pout that used to make him give in to her every time.

Annnnd
that shit didn't stand a chance anymore.

"S
orry, Tracy, I'm not free. I’ve got to go."

“But—” she started, but he released his arm from her grip and
headed toward the table to find Julia without even looking back. Seeing Tracy again made things a lot clearer to him. He realized that Julia was an angel compared. He loved that she was such a smartass, that she was kind and didn't use who she was or other people to her advantage. He loved how she'd taken the initiative tonight, loved how her body had felt against his. And wrong or not, they needed to talk about what’d happened between them.

Upon approaching the table, he didn't see her anywhere.

"Where's Julia?" he asked.

"She left,"
Lily said. "I thought you went with her."

"Yeah, dude. She said she wasn't feeling well and that you were leaving,"
Oz replied.

"She left?
What? Fuck!" Chase quickly made his way out of the bar and upon not catching sight of her, hailed a cab. What the hell was she thinking?

H
e gave the cabbie the address of the Tower then called Julia’s cell phone but only got her voicemail.

"
Julia! What are you 
doing?
You know you're not supposed to go anywhere by yourself! What the hell were you thinking? Call me back when you get this so I don't have a goddamned heart attack. I'm heading to your apartment. Call me. Please."

Jesus H. Christ.
What if something happened to her? He'd been watching carefully the past several days but hadn't seen anything suspicious—no weird looks from anyone, no being followed by a mysterious car—but that didn't mean anything, especially since she was by herself right now. Who the hell knew who was out there just waiting for this moment? Chase suddenly felt sick. If anything happened to her, he'd rip someone apart. And right now, Tracy topped the list.

****

Julia stood on the terrace of her apartment, looking out on the city as she leaned against the railing, her arms crossed and resting on it. She really wished her mother were there to talk to her. God, she was so confused. She knew her mom would've known what to say.

The past several weeks had been nothing but a crazy whirlwind that'd just swept her along twisting and turning her every which way, and each time she'd been thrown into
Chase's arms. It had to stop. And speaking of throwing—she'd practically thrown herself at him tonight. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He was probably so embarrassed that he'd been caught by his girlfriend. Julia was sure he'd blame it on the alcohol. She could see him now begging his girlfriend to forgive him, telling her that Julia had seduced him, literally dragged him into that little niche, but she meant nothing to him and she'd all but launched herself at him and he'd been taken off guard.

Ugh. How embarrassing.

Thing was, though, Julia couldn't believe how sexually bold she’d been when it came to Chase. And she knew it all had to do with him. He brought out something in her that she didn’t understand, a fearlessness, a confidence, a raw sexuality that she hadn't known was there, which blew her mind because she hadn't slept with anyone for two years, since she’d broken up with Josh.

She’d been afraid to.

See, Josh not only screwed with her credit card, he’d also done the same with her head. He’d only been her second lover, so she was still reluctant to try some new things sexually with him. He’d been much more experienced, and when she’d told him no on a couple of occasions, he’d told her that she was a horrible lover and didn't know how to satisfy a man. She knew he’d said those things to hurt her, mission accomplished by the way, but it had made her question whether she really could fulfill a man sexually, hence her two year sexual sabbatical. But she felt different when she was with Chase. Josh had never made her feel that way, so maybe what he’d said wasn't true. Or maybe it was. God, who knew?

"
Julia!" Chase yelled as he came rushing in the door.

"Oh, shit
." She wiped the tears away that'd been threatening since she got home and were now finally falling. Of course they were. Right when she needed to appear strong.

She could hear
Chase running down the hallway, opening her bedroom door and calling her name. She took a deep breath and decided to face the music.

"I'm here," she said as she walked inside.

As he came back into the living room, he strode angrily over to her, glaring down at her, his eyes looking a little crazed. Or was it panicked? "What the fuck were you thinking? I can't believe you did this! You don't know who's out there watching you! What if something had happened to you? There are crazy assholes out there! You just don't get it!"

Does he really care about me that much? No, he's j
ust worried about losing his stupid job.

"I'm fine."

"
This
 time! That was so stupid, Julia! Fuck!" God! He was so pissed he wanted to punch something. Now he paced as he continued chewing her out, fists clenching at his side. "You have no idea about any of this! How serious it is! 
No idea!
Did you even know that yesterday they found the body of a twenty-four year old woman who was the daughter of another of your father’s friends?
”
He stopped and took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, looking at the ceiling while rubbing his hands over his face, then shook his head as he looked at her, pacing once again. “Your dad called to tell me last night. There are bad people out there, Julia. People who don't give a shit about anyone or anything but themselves, who'd do whatever it took to hurt you.” He stopped again, his anger back, hands going to his hips then he pointed a finger at her, biting out, “But you don't think! Jesus! Use your fucking head! Do you not care at all about your safety? About your father? What would he think if something happened to you?"

Oh, he did
 
not
 just play the Allen card. Like 
he 
really gave a shit about her.

"Whatever." She crossed her arms over her chest.

Now he lost it. "What? Oh, my God! You're behaving like a two year old! You could've seriously been hurt tonight! Someone could've gotten you and done God knows what!" He stared at her in disbelief.

The anger boiled up inside
Julia as she listened to his ranting. His I'm-so-concerned-about-you attitude wasn't fooling her. Like he cared. Not that she felt sorry for herself, she just knew that money was the main concern here as it always had been with the men in her life. Chase was just afraid of being fired and losing his paycheck.

"I'm not behaving like a child.
Seriously, Chase, like you even give a damn about me! You only care about your precious job! You're just like Allen! All you see is dollar signs! The Monday after we kissed and you said you needed this job, I knew you were just like him," she spat at him.

Chase
's brow wrinkled and he just stared at her trying to comprehend what the hell she was talking about. Yes, he needed this job, but how could she think it meant more to him than she did? Well, duh, he'd been telling her that he couldn't get involved with her because he didn't want to lose his job. That might've done it.

Ya
think?

But worse
was that she thought he was like Allen. She'd interpreted his needing this job into meaning he preferred money over her. Great.

She forged ahead.
"And then you're getting your rocks off by constantly messing with me, making me think you want me. What the hell 
is 
that? You have a girlfriend! But I guess I 
knew
 you did, so I'm not much better!” She closed her eyes and hung her head then looked back up at him. Answering his confused look she said, “I saw you together in the pictures online, but for some idiotic reason I just keep getting caught up in this bullshit!" She scowled as her tears now fell freely. Ugh! Being female sucked. She hastily wiped the tears away, pissed that she was showing this much emotion.

Chase
cleared his throat and took a deep breath, trying to talk calmly to her, trying to explain. "Julia. I'm nothing like your father. I told you that I needed this job to get through law school. It has nothing to do with money. Well, it does, but not that I'm obsessed with it or anything. And as for Tracy, she's—"

Julia
waved him off. "Just stop. I don't care, Chase. I don't want to hear it. I'm through. There's nothing here. I thought maybe there was, but I was wrong." She closed her eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry for putting you in that position tonight. I'm sure you had to grovel like hell, begging your ass off to keep your girlfriend. I hope things are okay. If this caused any problems, I'd be more than happy to talk to her. I'm tired. I'm going to bed."

He
watched her go to her room, wondering how the hell things had come to this. He sat down on the couch, leaning back against it and running his hands over his face again. He thought about how she’d grabbed him tonight, how she'd been the one to come onto him. That was damn hot. He wondered how far things would've gotten if Tracy hadn’t interrupted them.