Chasing Leah (Journey Series) (23 page)

We both dig into our soup and
after finishing off my large bowl, I’m glad
to see
a
bit of my appetite coming back. Chase takes our
dishes back
into the kitchen and begins
to rinse them off, placing them in the
dishwasher and tiding up the kitchen. What a little Suzy Homemaker! This would
make for a perfect picture if he had one of those girly aprons on.

“Uh Chase?”

“Yeah baby,” he calls from the
kitchen.

“You think you could help me with
taking a shower or something? My hair feels super gross.” I’m not used to
having to depend on people taking care of me and this is definitely an awkward
feeling question to have to ask Chase.

He practically runs back into
the living room after my request and scoops me up off the couch. “Of course, I
can definitely take care of that situation,” he says with a wink. “You need a
bath though, doctors orders.” I roll my eyes at his eagerness but know he’s
telling the truth. I’m sure it would be a sight trying to take a shower without
getting my cast wet.

Chase carries me into the
bathroom and drapes me across the countertop before filling the bath for me.

“Now the easy part, getting you
out of these clothes,” he says as I lift my arms for him and he pulls my shirt
off and goes to work on my bra.

“Are you trying to say I’m easy
Mr. O’Neil?”
“Trust me you are anything but easy Leah.” I slightly raise my hips for him as
he glides my pants and underwear down to pool onto the floor. I silently thank
Ally for the matching lacey set that she brought for me. Chase had seen all the
goods plenty of times now but I still liked to look good for him. He places a
swift kiss on my lips before scooping me up again. “But that’s what I love
about you.”

He eases my body slowly into the
steaming water and I stiffen my leg a bit, hanging it over the edge of the tub
to not get it wet. “Well this is a little awkward, at least your here to help
me the first time.” He turns to grab things off the shelf and I notice he has
all of my shampoos and body wash set next to his. I relax back into the bath as
his long slender fingers massage my scalp.

“
Mmm
that feels so good,” I moan out as he starts to work the body wash down my body
with a wash cloth. He finishes up as I continue to soak and relish the feel of
his fingers lightly grazing my skin. I hear his breath catch and I
peek
an eye open at him.

“What’s the matter?” I ask as I
notice his sullen expression. “This,” he says as he gestures up and down my
body. I follow the trail of his fingers and take in the amount of bruising
covering my body especially covering my chest where the seat belt must have dug
in. I also had a few stitches on each arm. “That jackass is lucky he’s locked
up right now. He really wouldn’t want to deal with me,” he says with a growl.

“I’m here Chase that’s all that
matters. And really I’m fine, just a little sore.”

“You’re so strong Leah,” he
kisses my forehead before rising up from his knees. “I’m
gonna
go put a few things away, you relax for a bit and I’ll
come
help you get out when you’re ready.”

“Babe, babe,” I hear as I feel a
light shaking on my shoulder and peel my eyes open. Chase is standing above me
with a towel outstretched in his arms. “Sorry, I must have fallen asleep for a
minute.”

“Must have been real quick I was
gone for about 10 minutes and you’re in here snoozing away. You ready to get
out?” I nod my head as he leans in to pull me out, wrapping the towel around me
and I’m instantly taken back to our first night together. I wrap my arms around
his neck as he heads towards the bedroom and places me in the middle of his
bed.

“I just talked to my Mom. She said
that Caleb was napping and as soon as he woke up she would bring him home.”

“Oh that’s great. I can’t wait
to see
him,
this is like the longest we’ve ever been
apart. I’m glad your Mom was able to take good care of him.”

He nods his head back at me. “Yup
Mom loves having him around but I know he’s excited to see you. I didn’t know
what you would want to wear so I just grabbed one of my shirts for you. Let me
know if you need help with anything.” I toss the shirt off the bed and
scootch
myself back near the headboard, unwrapping the
towel from my body. “You’ll do just fine.” I try to pull him closer to my body
but he quickly backs up. “Leah I don’t think we should yet, I’m scared I’ll
hurt you.”

I shake my head at him and reach
for his hand to pull him closer. “Don’t worry, I’ll let you know if
your
bumping into anything that you’re not supposed to. It
might be a little awkward with my leg but I think we can make it work.”

He slowly lowers his body 
back down to the bed and reaches up to my lips, doing his trademark Chase kiss
that I love with his playful nips on the outside of my mouth and pushing
slowing in with his tongue to explore my mouth. His lips are full on mine and
the warmth of his mouth shoots to my toes. He abruptly ends the kiss and
lightly pushes my head back as I try to protest with him by wrapping my hand
around his neck to pull him back.

He
wags
a finger at me, “Nu uh. I need to kiss every inch of this beat up body.” I let
myself relax and flop by head back on the pillow as he works his way from my
mouth down to my neck where he lightly sucks on that one spot right behind my
ear that he knows I love. I feel his warm breath as his tongue brushes across
my collarbone and he then stops to pay attention to each of my breasts, lightly
kneading and sucking each one.

He makes his way down my belly,
swirling his tongue around in my belly button and then dropping his head
between my thighs
that
 
he’s
wedged open slightly with his
knee, placing tiny kisses on my inner thighs and blowing his warm breath
between my legs as I arch my hips towards his mouth. Oh this is definitely
something different. I moan out his name as he continues to place light kisses
on my thighs and then dips his head between my legs. That’s how the tongue ring
feels down there. I had been wondering about its usefulness ever since I had
caught the glint off of it the first night I met him. I was never letting him
take that out.
EVER.

The familiar tightening began as
I moaned out to him and then I felt the sudden absence of his tongue before I
felt his familiar weight slide back up my body before positioning himself over
mine and gently pushing in. Yup this could definitely make me forget any aches
and pains, even broken bones.

Leah

After a few days of basically being
waited on hand and foot by Chase, even after my constant objections, I was
beginning to feel a little bit of cabin fever. Chase was with me almost every
minute which I didn’t mind at all but I wasn’t used to having everything done
for me by someone else. When he couldn’t be around, he made sure to enlist the
help of some of his sisters and his mom, Mary which I probably couldn’t have
lived without them there. Caleb had a little bit of the cabin fever too. He was
used to going to daycare or running errands with me so he had so much bottled
up energy, he was constantly bouncing off the walls.

I really did enjoy their company
and it helped to pass some of the time with the girly stuff that Chase just
wasn’t into. They fought over who got to paint my nails and play with my hair.
And Caleb insisted his nails be painted too so he convinced us to at least do
one of his toes.

Chase wasn’t too happy about
that when he got home explaining to Caleb that real men do not have painted
anything and he helped him to remove it. I even let my favorite of the brood,
Belle, deck me out with her princess makeup and accessories. Chase couldn’t
contain his laughter when he came home late that night from a performance to my
clown like appearance from letting a three year old do my makeup.

Mary loved to come over and take
care of me especially. She was constantly in the kitchen whipping up some new
creation or tidying some kind of mess. And with Caleb there were plenty of
them. She had more energy than anyone I’ve ever seen and she always did it with
a smile and not a hair out of place.

I had plenty of downtime to
study for exams though and Remy came over to help me out with the classes we
had taken together. Her and Ally had both left the night before after our
goodbyes to head home since they didn’t have any classes on Friday. Even though
I was only leaving the house to take exams, I was excited to get some fresh
air.

“You about
ready to head out baby?”
Chase calls from the kitchen as he sets all
three of our cereal bowls in the sink. I tuck my calculator and a few extra
pencils into my bag before zipping it up and Chase walks in to grab it for me,
setting my crutches down in front of me. “All set. Ally said my first
instructor is expecting me around 9:00, so we should be heading out. Who knows
how long it’ll take me to get around with these things,” I say as I lift myself
cautiously and balance on the crutches. Chase zips up
Calebs
jacket for him and grabs his small backpack.
He was going to keep him occupied while I was taking my exams. “I’m ready
Mommy!” He squealed out grabbing one of
Chases
hands
and pulling him towards the door. Yup he was definitely ready to get out too.

“You sure you don’t want me to
just carry you, it’ll be easier that way.”

“No Chase I’m good really,” I
laugh out as I hobble to the door. He follows behind me with my bag and quickly
passes me so he can make sure I make it down the stairs alright before opening
the front door for me.

 
I hadn’t gotten a chance to see his new truck
that he had picked up from the dealership the day before and I breathed in the
new car scent as he helped me in. The truck was one of those extended cabs, so
there was a small backseat that Chase already had
Calebs
brand new car seat strapped into.

“Well at least you got one thing
out of the accident. I think I like this more than the jeep,” I say as I
examine the brand new leather interior.

“Trust me if I wanted something
new I would of gotten it, we didn’t need you getting hit by a car for it to
happen,” he replies with a wry smile as he throws the truck in reverse for our
short drive to campus.

He stops at the curb to drop me
off at my first building after I insisted I could get there by myself.  He
was heading out to finish up some last minute shopping which I hadn’t even
gotten a start on. I’m sure that would be interesting with Caleb. “Bye buddy.
You
be
good for Chase, no running off okay?”

He nods his little curls at me
with a smile and a wave. “I’ll be good.
Promise.
It’s
our guy time, Chase said.”

“Okay well no picking up any ladies
while you’re out. See
ya
in a few hours,” I say as I
lean over and give him a quick kiss. “I love you.”

His green eyes twinkle at my
words and a smile lights up his face. “I could hear those words from you over
and over and never get tired of hearing them,” he says as he returns my kiss.
“Good luck babe even though I know you don’t need it. Love you.”

I hobble towards the building
and glance over my shoulder as I pull the doors open. Chase is still sitting
there to make sure I get into the building without wiping out. I roll my eyes
but feel a tug at my heart as I head in for a long day.

After a few hours that it takes
to finish my four exams I’m finally free for winter break. The material covered
on each exam was all something that I had studied pretty well, so I was
confident that I did well. It also didn’t hurt that my study partner, Remy, had
already taken two of the exams but we didn’t need to pass that information
along to any of the instructors.

I make my way back to the front
lobby to pull out my phone to let Chase know I was finished when I felt a
strong pair of arms wrap around my waist from behind. I lean back and let the
broad chest and firm body behind me take in my weight as my hair was pushed
aside and open mouthed kisses were feathered up and down my neck.

“
Ya
know I don’t think my boyfriend would really approve of this,” I say as I close
my eyes feeling the warm breath on my neck.

“Oh yeah you have more than one boyfriend?
Does he get you all hot and bothered as easily as I do?” He whispers in my ear
as he traces his fingers over the
goosebumps
running
down my arms.

“Nope you’re the only one that
has that effect,” I say as I twist my body around and run my fingers through
his hair.

“Mommy I thought I was your
boyfriend,” Caleb says as he wraps his tiny arm around my cast free leg. “Chase
doesn’t get to be.”

“Oh sorry buddy I totally
forgot. Yup you are my one and only boyfriend,” I reply with a wink at Chase
who has an offended look on his face that’s quickly replaced by a wink of his
own.

“So did you finish up your
shopping early?”

“Yeah I only had a few last
minute things to pick up and I figured I could meet up with
ya
out here,” Chase says as he grabs my bag from me. “Sure, you were probably just
trying to get here quick enough so you could carry me out of the classroom.”

He barks out a laugh as we make
our way to his truck, “You know me too well baby.” He opens the door and I
slide in as he places my crutches under my feet and straps Caleb in. “Didn’t
you say you needed to do some shopping too? We could make a few stops while
we’re out if you’re not ready to go back to the apartment yet.”