Crazy Love - Krista & Chase (32 page)

“Well, it seems to be working.”

Chase halfheartedly nodded as he pushed off the table and ran his hands through his hair. Blowing out a puff of breath, he paced to the other side of the room. Then he suddenly turned on a dime and headed her way. Stopping in front of her, he motioned towards the couch as he said, “I need to talk to you.”

Forget warning bells. Blaring sirens were going off in her head. A yellow neon sign reading “Danger!” flashed in her mind’s eye. Her stomach was flipping and flopping like a fish out of water as she slowly sank back down on the couch.

“What is it?”

Chase sat down beside her and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his legs, staring down at his hands. “I wanted to have more time to tell you about this, but a lot of the media already know.”

Oh god
. Krista thought she was going to throw up.

“Basically that prick of a manager has committed me to a forty-city US tour that kicks off tomorrow night in Atlanta.”

“Uh huh.” Krista swallowed hard, still waiting for the bomb to drop and her happily-ever-after to explode into pieces.

He turned towards her and held out his hands like he was trying to make her understand the significance of the words coming out of his mouth. “I leave tomorrow before the ass-crack of dawn.”

“Is that it?” she asked.

“Yes. I’m going to be gone for
six months
,” Chase stated, dramatically emphasizing the timeline.
Seriously?
She knew she couldn’t hit him, but she felt her hands fisting. So instead of socking him, she threw the cap to her water bottle dead at his chest.

“Hey! What was that for?” he asked, looking down at where the clear plastic had tagged him.

“New rule, rock star.” She pointed her finger at him. “No more saying ‘I need to talk to you’ over your
schedule
! You travel for your job. A lot. I get it. Stop being so dramatic about it. You almost made me throw up.”

A look of shock then relief flashed across his gorgeous face. Breaking his own self-imposed rule, he reached out, his fingers tangling in her hair as he covered his mouth with hers. It wasn’t a long kiss, but it held more passion, more love than she thought most people were even lucky enough to experience in a lifetime.

As he ended the kiss, he whispered against her lips, “I love you, Krista. I’ve never stopped loving you, and I won’t stop loving you until the day I die.”

“I love you, too.” Tears of joy threatened to fill in her eyes. “But if you keep pulling shit like that, I’m not going to like you very much,” she said as she swatted at him.

He chuckled as he ducked out of the way. Reaching behind him, he picked up his guitar, placing the strap around his neck and setting it on his leg. “Stop distracting me, woman. I have to warm up.”

Her eyes widened. “
I’m
distracting
you
? Mr. I Need To Talk To You?”

“Hush. I’m trying to serenade you,” he smiled as he strummed the opening chords to ‘their’ song. As he sang to her in the back room of a crowded auditorium, the rest of the world disappeared.

K
rista crept into her room, trying to be as quiet as possible. Closing the door behind her, she waited for a moment for her eyes to adjust to the darkness. When they did, she could make out Chase’s sexy, soundly sleeping form in the middle of her bed.

After the benefit, she’d had to stay and deal with some catering issues. Then the cleaning service had flaked, so she’d organized a makeshift crew out of women in evening gowns and men in black-tie. With everyone chipping in, it hadn’t taken as long as she’d thought it would.

Chase had stayed around for a while. He’d offered to help numerous times, but since the one task she’d given him had ended in a call to 911, he’d agreed to meet her at home. The incident, which was now being referred to as “the cougar brawl,” happened when two women who were old enough to be Chase’s mother (actually they were both older than Abby!) had started throwing punches and pulling hair over who would collect the tablecloths alongside Chase. They did this all in floor-length gowns. Krista wouldn’t be surprised if it showed up on YouTube. After several promises of the naughty persuasion, Krista had finally convinced him to come back to her house and wait for her. That had been hours ago.

Moving across the room, she tried not to be disappointed about the fact that Chase was leaving in a few hours and she hadn’t gotten to spend his
one night
back in town with him. On the bright side, she was really looking forward to climbing into her bed and snuggling up against him. She hoped that even though she had a queen-size bed and the bed they’d shared at his mom’s house had been a twin, he would still wrap his arm around her and pull her against him. In his small childhood bed, they hadn’t really had a choice.

The week they’d spent together before he’d left for Austin had spoiled her. Every night since he’d left, she’d tossed and turned in her sleep. Several times, she’d reached out for him before she’d really been awake. Obviously he hadn’t been there.

As glad as she was that Abby was out of the hospital, it did mean that she hadn’t even had Bear beside her as she slept. More than once, Krista had offered to keep Bear at her house until Abby was back on her feet. Abby had thanked her profusely but assured Krista that she was feeling better than ever, which Krista knew was not just lip service. Abby was doing great. She’d redecorated her house and allowed Chase to hire contractors to fix it up. Krista never would have thought that a stroke would end up being a good thing.

As she sank down on the chair in front of her vanity, she reached behind her neck and unhooked her mom’s beautiful teardrop necklace.

“That’s your mom’s, isn’t it?”

Chase’s voice startled her, and in a repeat of earlier in the day, she almost fell off her chair.

“How long have you been awake?” she asked as she readjusted in her seat.

“Since you closed the door.”

“Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did.”

She looked at him and shook her head. He grinned, seeming pleased with himself that he’d won that exchange.

She took off her earrings as her exhausted body began tingling to life with renewed awareness as she felt the heat of Chase’s stare watching her every move.

“I was so proud of you tonight,” he said, sitting up and moving to the side of her bed.

“Proud of
me
?” she asked, looking at him like he must be kidding. “
You
were the one who performed and brought the whole crowd to their feet. You were amazing.”

“Yes. Proud of you. There are what, eight other women who were supposed to be running that event? And from what I saw, when the shit hit the fan, you and Amber were the only two who didn’t freak out and got the job done.”

Amber had been a lifesaver. Honestly, Krista would not have been home before tomorrow afternoon if Amber hadn’t been there. The two of them had worked well together. But it hadn’t been anything special.

“I just cleaned up messes. That’s all.” Krista stood and crossed to her dresser. After pulling out Chase’s shirt (the one she’d kept since middle school), she slipped off her dress. “It was no big deal.”

When she reached back to unhook her bra, she realized that she was still wearing her heels, which surprisingly had not been as painful as she’d anticipated. They actually had good arch support. Still arch support or no arch support, she was dying to get out of them.

“It
was
a big deal,” Chase said, his eyes following her as she crossed back to the chair. “You handled every situation with class and a level head. It was amazing. Even I wanted to lose it after the cleaning crew didn’t show up, but you just rolled up your sleeves, figured out what needed to be done, and got it done. It was sexy as hell.”

“Sexy, huh?” she laughed as she sat back down on the chair, being careful not to sit on the edge in case anything spooked her.

“Yes. Sexy,” Chase rasped, the look in his eye causing a fluttering deep in her belly.

Krista wanted to get in bed with him and follow up on that fluttering ASAP. Taking steadying breaths she leaned down and began to unbuckle her shoe.

“Leave them on,” Chase’s gravelly voice commanded.

She was about to ask why when she remembered his promise in the dressing room. The fluttering feeling in her belly turned to a pulsing ache as her core tightened in anticipation. Krista’s eyes lifted and she watched with bated breath as Chase stood in a fluid commanding motion and stalked across the room. He stopped directly in front of her, his eyes staring down at hers.

Krista’s head tilted back, unable to break away from his captivating stare. Looming over her, Chase looked overwhelmingly sexy. Dominant. Male.

Even though her eyes were locked on his she could see his dark gray drawstring sweats which rode low on his waist. There was a large bulge sticking out of them that made her mouth water and drew her gaze lower like a magnet. On her way down, her eyes drank in the lean lines of the strong muscular planes of Chase’s chest and the dips and contours of his rippling abs.

How he was able to be in this kind of shape while maintaining his career, she had no idea. Krista shivered as her inner walls began pulsing without him even laying a finger on her. Her breaths were coming in shallow pants as her entire body became fiercely heated with desire. Chase’s breaths were also labored as he exhaled loudly through his nose.

Part of her wanted to reach out, remove his pants, and put his large manhood in her mouth. Krista wanted to feel every intimate ridge of his length as she worked his shaft with her tongue and lips. She was sitting in the perfect position to do just that. But something stopped her. As much as she wanted to make love to him with her mouth another part of her wanted to wait, let him take the lead, and surrender control completely for one night.

Decisions, decisions
. What was a girl to do?

“Stand up,” he instructed firmly.

Her entire body clenched with need at his authoritative tone.

Ding, ding, ding! We have a winner!
Decision made.

Rising slowly, she felt her body quiver with excitement. She lifted her heavy eyelids up, when her gaze peeked out below them and met his, her legs began trembling beneath her. His compelling stare was dark with passion.

His light amber eyes were fixed on hers as he roughly commanded, “Turn around.”

Krista’s heart beat erratically in her chest as she did what he’d told her to. Her vision was blurry with passion as she pivoted around, her back facing Chase’s chest.

Part of her was still warring with letting him take the lead completely, to give her body and it’s responses over to him. Krista liked control. She needed control. She’d already trusted Chase with her heart and had been rewarded with more love than she even knew existed. She was hoping for similar rewards for trusting him implicitly with her body.

“Do you remember what I promised you?” his deep voice sent a lightening flash of arousal to her sex.

She nodded, unable to speak at the overwhelming sensations rioting through her. Excitement. Desire. Need.

When her eyes focused again, she realized she could see both of their reflections in the mirror of her vanity table in front of her. The window on the far wall in her room let in enough light that she could see them both clearly. Chase stood behind her, hands at his sides, his large body framing hers.

Their eyes met in the mirror and he asked in an even tone, “What did I promise you?”

“Stripping, bending, and burying.” Her voice shook uncontrollably as she spoke.

Krista knew that Chase was just as turned on as she was. She’d seen the tenting in his sweats and the look in his eyes, and she’d heard his heavy breathing. So how he was able to do so much talking, so calmly, was beyond her grasp of understanding.

Keeping his eyes trained on hers, she felt his hands move up the slope of her back. A shockwave of tremors radiated through her body. He touched her with a gentle authority as he unhooked her bra and slid the straps off her shoulders. She watched through the mirror as the black lace fell to the ground in front of her, revealing her bare breasts.

Chase’s jaw ticked. It made her happy to see that she wasn’t the only one being
affected
by this encounter. He may do a better job of containing what he was feeling but that just made his small tells even more exciting.

His roughened hands moved down the sides of her body, his large palms skimming over her ribs, dipping in at her waist, and continuing down her hips and thighs, pulling her panties down. She lifted one leg and then the other as he removed her clothes, stripping her bare.

She could feel his breath down her back as he stood back up behind her, his arms hanging loosely beside him. There was something so thrilling about being totally naked in front of a mirror with Chase watching her through it. A carnal ache settled low in her belly as hot lust whipped through her.

The anticipation of what was to come was almost too much to bear. She could feel the evidence of how aroused she was and wanted him to feel her wetness, to touch her in her neediest place. She wanted to watch as his talented hand rubbed the delicate flesh between her legs until she came apart against him. She wanted his hands on her. Now.