Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (10 page)

“Right this way Mr. O’Neil,” she
says as she
sways
her hips seductively down the narrow
hall. “You’ll be in the Rainforest suite tonight.” She glances behind Chase at
me like she just noticed I was there.

A suite! Did Chase seriously
just bring me to a motel? Was this one of
those charge
by the hour type of deals?
Now I know what Chase meant by
‘relaxation’.
  Well it was about to be a whole lot of not relaxing
for him in a minute when my knee introduces itself to his balls.

Chase holds the door open for me
and I step in already tensing for a fight. When I enter there’s a small
bathroom to the right with a separate area for changing and a low bench with
white fluffy bath towels. A clear glass door leads to an outdoor area with what
looks like a hot tub. Oh ‘
kay
that’s what Chase was
talking about. I feel the tension release from my shoulders as Chase sets his
bag down.

“Well were you surprised? Have
you ever been here before?” He asks as he rifles through his bag and pulls out
a pair of black board shorts.

I look back at him with a smile,
“No I haven’t but you really are a good planner. This is exactly what I
need,
you wouldn’t imagine how many aches and pains I get
from waitressing and then running around campus all day. And not to mention
hauling
Calebs
butt around sometimes, he’s getting to
be a little porker.”

He walks into the bathroom and
shuts the white curtain that separates the room into two. I slide out of my
jeans and shirt and throw my hair into a messy bun. Chase steps out with his
shorts on, “Wow you look amazing Leah. I’m not
gonna
lie and say I didn’t have ulterior motives in bringing you here, I just wanted
to see you in a bikini.” I shove him playfully as we walk out the glass door to
the enclosed area surrounded by three tall walls. There’s an outdoor fireplace
in the corner that’s lit and surrounded by small waterfalls and low lighting.
“Well you don’t look to bad yourself Mr. O’Neil.” And that is far from the
truth. He looks sexy as hell. His chest as I suspected is broad and firm with a
flat stomach and his trunks are hung low on his hips.

We both slowly sink into the hot
tub sitting on opposite sides. “
Ahh
,” I moan. “That
feels so nice.” Chase looks over at me with a smirk and shakes his head. I
notice he brought his bag out with us and set it near the edge of the tub. He
begins to pull out two wine glasses and a bowl of strawberries.

“Wow you seriously think of
everything don’t you?” I ask as he fills a glass with champagne and hands it to
me. I take a small sip and set it to the side.

“Well you’re not supposed to
bring drinks or food in really so I just smuggled some in,” he says as he comes
across to my side with a strawberry in his hand. I reach for it as he brings
his hand up and he
wags
a finger at me and shakes his
head, “Open.”

I slowly open my mouth as he
sets the strawberry inside and I bite it off leaving the green stem in between
his fingers. His green eyes have clouded over as he looks down at me when my
tongue darts out and I lick my lips. I quickly change the subject trying to
ease the sexual tension I feel building up.

I point toward his chest and
arms, “So what do
all of your
tattoos mean?”

He looks down at me with a smirk
clearly telling that he knows exactly what I’m doing. Instead of moving to the
other side, he sits down next to me running his fingers lightly up my arm.

“Well some of them don’t have
any meaning at all I just liked the design so I got ‘
em
.”
He points to the elegant looking writing on his biceps. I squint my eyes to get
a closer look and realize they’re names woven into an intricate design;
Amy
,Katie,Kristy,Rachel,Sarah,Belle
.
What does he get one for every girl he’s dated, like a tally or something?

“These are all of my sisters. I
told you I’m really close with ‘
em
, this was just a
way of me showing how much I love them,” he points toward a spot on his chest
where there’s a small heart with mom written in the center. “And obviously you
can tell who this is for. I’m not
gonna
lie, I told
you I am a bit of a
mamas
boy.”

“Those are really sweet. I’m
glad you have such a close relationship with your family, that’s something that
I’ve always wanted. Unfortunately my mom just wasn’t interested.” I take a sip
of my champagne as Chase looks over at me with a look I can’t quite figure out.
Pity, maybe?

We talk more about his family.
He tells me more stories of how it was growing up with so many girls around. He
talks about his parents and their divorce, how their split was actually pretty
amicable and he was lucky enough to get a great step dad a few years later when
his mom remarried.

I complain about my job at
Ginos
but also about how much I love it, getting to know
all the new people and the regulars that come in for my morning shifts. I tell
Chase about the nursing program and how far along of come in the short time
I’ve been on campus.

A phone rings near the outside
door and Chase jumps out of the water to grab it as I watch the water trickle
off of his beautiful body. And I just want to lick it all off. Whoa there
settle down girl. “Okay thanks,” he pauses as he listens. “No thank you, I’m
good. Yup, yup I’m sure, thanks.” He hangs up the phone and reaches in to get a
towel, holding it out for me. “Sorry Leah our time here is up.” I reluctantly
step out of the water and Chase wraps the towel around me as we hurry out of
the cold air back to get dressed.

“What was that about on the
phone?”

“Huh? Oh just to let us know our
time was up.” He says as he towels off and starts to grab his dry clothes out,
setting them on the bench.

“And….” Clearly there was more
to that conversation than he is letting on.

He looks back at me with a
smirk, “And that girl at the front desk was trying to give me her number but I
told her no.”

“Why? She was clearly checking
you out, you should go for it.” I say as I grab my change of clothes out and
head towards the bathroom.

“Well there’s kind of someone
I’m interested in. Not kind of really, more like a lot.” He answers back.

“Oh.” I simply say. I guess he,
unlike Gage, was taking the whole let’s just be friends thing seriously. Maybe
I should tell him I changed my mind. “You dressed?” I ask before stepping back
out.

“Yup you’re good,” he says as I
come back out and see him pulling his shirt back on and catch the top of his
boxers.

We walk back out towards the
lobby and the girl at the front desk gives Chase a sad look as we walk past her
and wave. 

“Thanks for bringing me Chase. I
had a lot of fun with you and the guys. And the hot tubs really did help me to
relax. I think I need to start doing that like weekly.”

“I would be more than willing to
come with you. If you know you need company or anything.”

I laugh, “Sure I don’t think I
would ever mind your company. So I was talking to my friend Remy that I work
with. She said that her and Mark were going out tomorrow and she invited him to
this party were going to next weekend.”

“Yeah Mark mentioned that, he
asked me to come along after our gig that night.”

“Ok cool then I’ll probably see
you there.
Allys
practically forcing me to go.
I am so not dressing up
though.”

“Really?
I was kind of looking forward to that,” he says with a chuckle. We both get out
of the jeep and go up the stairs to our complex.

“Well thanks again Chase. We’ll
have to hang out again soon when I have some free time.” I say as I shuffle
through my purse for my keys.

He tenses his jaw like he wants
to say something but doesn’t. He leans over and gives me a swift kiss on the
cheek while I lean against the door.
“Night Leah.”
The
door to my apartment opens and I stumble back as Ally holds the door open.
“Jeez Al!”

“Oops sorry
Leah,
didn’t know you were out there,” she says guiltily.

I snort out a laugh, “Bullshit
Ally. You’ve probably had your ear up to that door the whole time.”

“Sorry I couldn’t help myself.
‘Can’t wait to hang out again soon’,” she says with air quotes in a sarcastic
tone. “Really Leah you’re going to be just friends with Chase? He is freaking
sex on a stick, not to mention a sweetheart.”

“Al I just
don’t
need that
right now but he’s fun to hang out with when I have the time.
Besides he said he was interested in someone.”
Even though I
definitely wouldn’t mind breaking my no dating rule for Chase.
I mean
wow one little peck from him and my insides all turn to mush.

“Well you could always just
spend that time having wild crazy sex with him instead. And really Leah I don’t
see him as the player type, if he’s interested in anyone it’s you.” She says as
she follows me into my room. I pull my wet bikini out and throw it into my
overflowing hamper. Ally raises an eyebrow at me. “What did you need that for?”

“Oh Chase took me to this place
that has their own individual hot tubs, it was pretty cool.”

“Trust me I know exactly where
you’re talking about.
Me
and
Skylar
have been there a few times,” she looks at me with a sly grin on her face, “but
we don’t need bathing suits.”

“
Ew
Ally! I’m glad they use plenty of chlorine. Thanks
for that mental image.”

“Well I think Chase probably had
the same idea.”

“Whatever Ally,” I say as I push
her towards the door. “He was a perfect gentleman and we are just friends.
Now GOODNIGHT.”
I emphasize.

“Sweet dreams, I know who
they’ll be about.” She says with a wave as she skips out the door.

The next two days consisted of
work and school. I ran into Chase a few times in the hallway as one of us was
either going in or out and we would stop to exchange a few words before heading
our respective ways. On Wednesday I had a break in between classes and work so
I ran home and changed into a pair of black yoga pants and a loose fitting
t-shirt so I could do some laundry and hit the gym that I still hadn’t made it
to. I didn’t bother to pick Caleb up because I would just end up having to turn
right back around to drop him off and that would probably not go over very well
with the little man.

After sorting my clothes into
two washers and starting them up, I head into the small gym that’s attached to
the laundry room. It consists of two treadmills, some weights and an exercise
bike with a TV mounted in the corner.

 I start up one of the
treadmills and set a timer so I could switch my laundry over. Some reality show
was playing and since I hadn’t since any of this season I crank the volume up,
no one else was there to be offended by the crazy antics of the show. I start
off at a brisk walk and slowly work up to a light jog.
Phew I was really out
of shape.

Back home I wasn’t really
involved in any extracurricular activities besides the ones Ally dragged me to
like save the earth or homeless shelters but I had always enjoyed running.
Sometimes it was my only escape from the bullshit life dealt out, plus Caleb
didn’t mind going for a ride in the jogging stroller I picked up at a garage
sale for a steal. I hadn’t gotten much of a chance to do it since moving here
but I really needed to fit it into my schedule, I could already feel some of
the stress from school lifting off my shoulders.

My timer went off and I slowed
down on the treadmill, dabbing at the sweat that had accumulated from my work
out. I went back into the laundry room and switched out my clothes into the
dryer. I took some change out of my laundry quarters and grabbed
a water
out of the vending machines and took a long swig. I
head back towards the gym to run some more while my laundry was drying.

“Hey Leah,” I heard as I rounded
the corner back into the gym. There was Chase in a pair of black athletic
shorts and nothing else sprawled out on the bench with the weights.  I
could get used to this view while working out.

“Hey Chase, how have you been?”
I ask as I start my treadmill back up. I reach over and grab the remote to turn
the TV down.

He pauses as he sets his weights
down and takes a break. I can already see a light gleam of sweat running across
his abs. I feel my tongue dart out before I quickly tuck it back into my gaping
mouth. Chase might be a little shocked if I start licking all that up for him.

“I’m good, just ran down here to
get a quick workout in. I’ve really been slacking lately.”

“I know me too. I’ve always been
a runner but I haven’t had much time. Plus I don’t know much of the area and
good places to run.”

He shakes his head at me and
lays
back down to raise the barbell up over his head. “Yeah
it’s hard to find
time,
I was so in shape in high
school, I played soccer and baseball. I feel like such a bum now, I hardly ever
work out,” he grunts out as he sets the weights back down. “I do run every once
in
awhile,
I could show you some good spots.”

“Yeah that would be good. Maybe
we could get together Friday morning.”

“Yeah that sounds good, I don’t
think I have anything going on. So are you taking a date to the next party
weekend?”

I pause as I try to remember
what exactly he’s talking about, I’m a little distracted at the moment as I
watch the muscles in his stomach ripple.“Oh the Halloween party? No, I’m just
going with Ally. I’m really not looking to date right now. I’m meeting up with
Remy too, she said her and Mark
are
going together.”