Worth the Chase (14 page)

No wonder I would fall for the first girl who put me in my place, I grew up with Mimi as my mother and Corey as my father.

“I wasn’t hiding anything. In fact I was going to come and get some advice, make sure that I’m making the right choice. Now, all I’m concerned about is how I’m going to pay Chance back for setting me up.” I popped the top on my beer and took a swig, letting the coldness of the beverage cool my temper.

“He’s your brother, as if you could expect any less of him. Plus, his time will come soon enough,” he added, taking a drink of his beer and I nodded my head in agreement.

Silence settled over us and I knew that I needed to confide in him, tell him what had happened between Gia and me.

“It started out casual, as everything does. She was different though, the way her eyes ate up the distance between us. The way her teeth sank into her bottom lip every time I caught her staring at me. She wanted me, and I’m not the type of man to not give a woman a taste when I see them on the prowl.” I smirked, laughing to myself. How big of a lie that all truly was. We both should’ve known that there was no tearing us apart once we came together. We were toxic, but at the same time exhilarating. It was like watching yourself come back to life after every kiss.

“Basically she eye fucked you and you gave her what she wanted?” I nodded, answering his question.

“Then shit changed. My heart started to pound when she came around, and I questioned all my actions, because for the first time in my life I wanted it to just be her and her alone.” My heart clenched with every word, as if it knew I was talking about her.

“Obviously that’s not what happened,” Dad mockingly said. Chance and I both looked like him with the same body stature and smile, but I had his eyes where Chance had Mom’s. We favored her just as much, though, the perfect blend of both of them.

“Of course not. She pushed me away and ran at every chance. Then a lie was told. I felt used, so I pushed her away. Plus, the road I was on before I clashed with her isn’t exactly a clear path. She’s scared of my past, of what I’ve done and what it could mean for her. For us. Like most people say, a leopard never changes its spots. In this scenario, I’m the leopard. I can’t change my spots, and she’s having a hard time seeing past them to believe that she is different to me.”

“Let me tell you something.” He closed his eyes and then blinked them open real fast as if he was reliving something from the past. “I made some really bad choices when your mom found out she was pregnant with you and your brother. I was scared, hell I was terrified, ready to drink a whole bottle of liquor and waste away in an alley somewhere.” I laughed because it sounded like something he really would do and a lot like something I have done.

“And don’t even get me started on our
‘I hate you’
relationship. I gave her shit all the time, she busted my balls every chance she got. We pushed each other past one another’s limits. That’s what we did. We hated each other. I was an angry boy and she was just looking out for her best friend. I remember this one time, her and your cousin Jenna showed up to one of my parties and pulled a prank on me for being a dick. I’ll let her tell you all about that one day, but the bottom line is no one could compare to her because none of them held my heart. They simply weren’t your mom. I couldn’t walk away from her, even though I tried, even when she tried. She fought against us while I fought for her. For you and your brother, for us and our family.”

“And then this is where you tell me you had the happily ever after bullshit with the ride off into the sunset, right?” I asked as I raised an eyebrow.

He pursed his lips in annoyance. “No, son, relationships take work. It doesn’t matter if it’s love or friendship. To keep the boat moving you have to make sure both people are rowing. If one person stops, the whole boat stops.”

I gripped the beer in my hand at his words of wisdom. I had been the reason Gia and I’s boat stopped rowing. I had pushed her away when she was standing there trying to be more than what we were.

“Stop over thinking it, Chase.” My father’s hand landed heavily on my shoulder. “What’s meant to be, will always be. If you care for her, go to her. If she wants you and she’s running from it, remind her why she should want you above everyone else.” My head was pounding from all the information that he had shoved at me, but I had a much clearer understanding of not only how my parents had managed to stay together this long, but how I could manage the same thing with Gia.

The same way he fought for us, I needed to fight for her.

Thoughts of Chase filtered in and out of my mind over the next week. I wanted to go to him and tell him that he was it for me. That he had been since the moment he smirked at me and opened his cocky mouth, yet I was still afraid all of this was just a figment of my imagination and the second I admitted my true feelings to him he would take his right back. I spent my time away from him, in my room every chance I got. I didn’t want to make a rash decision, one that would come back to bite me in the ass.

“What are you going as tonight?” Taylor yelled across our basement apartment.

It was Halloween and a party was taking place here tonight at the house. I hadn’t had a ton of time to coordinate anything because my mind had been preoccupied with when I was going to tell Chase. I knew I wanted to tell him before this place got crowded with drunken idiots, but other than that I was clueless.

Picking up my newly folded stack of clothes, I turned around and placed them in my open drawer before closing it and grabbing the
Wal-Mart
bag that contained a pair of black ears, a tail, and facial paint off my door handle.

“Cat,” I yelled over my shoulder as I made my way back to my dresser, not even bothering to see if she was listening as I searched it for an outfit to wear with my new getup.

“As in pussy cat?” His voice was sex on a stick, and my heart went into overdrive the second his voice met my ears.

“As in a black cat.” I corrected him, knowing I couldn’t say pussy with a straight face in front of him. Instead, I kept my back to him, hoping he wouldn’t come any closer. My hope, of course, was lost the second I felt his front against my back.

“Did you ever think about what I wrote you?” His breath was warm against my flesh as his lips brushed the shell of my ear. I wanted to turn around and place my lips against his, showing him with my mouth just how much I had thought about the words he wrote me. Yet, I stood there gripping a black shirt in my hand instead of answering his question.

“Don’t keep me waiting, Gianna,” he grunted, as if he was feeling everything I was, as if he was on the same edge as me.

Before, I wasn’t ready to take the leap, but now I knew the answer was yes. It was all along if I’m being real with myself.

“My answer is yes,” I whispered it, and I wasn’t even sure why.

“What was that?” he questioned, as if he hadn’t heard me when the truth of the matter was he just wanted to hear me say it again.

“I said yes. My answer is yes, Chase.” I whirled around, not realizing just how close we were until my lips skimmed against his with the motion. His eyes were hooded as they darted from my eyes, across my chest and then up to my lips.

His dark hair was a mess, his eyes like blue flames. Before I could mutter a single word his full lips descended upon my own. He devoured me as if he hadn’t ever had a taste of me.

“Mmmm,” Chase groaned into my mouth, right before pulling away and leaving me a flustered mess. As I stared up at him, a hazy feeling settled into my bones. We were finally going to be official and even though it scared the daylights out of me, it meant that we had made some type of headway.

“I’ve missed the way you taste, the way you smell.” His nose skimmed against my neck, his scent just as intoxicating as his words that set my body on fire.

“I’ve missed you too,” I replied honestly, my voice raspy.

“To have you as my girl…” he paused momentarily, thinking over his next words I’m sure. “Is what I want. That way I can prove to you just how much I worship the ground you walk on.” His face was leaning into mine, his lips mere inches away.

“Excuse me.” Taylor’s voice met my ears and immediately Chase pulled away, his body no longer covering mine from her view.

“Yea− yeah?” I stumbled over my words, drunk on the presence of Chase alone.

Taylor was wearing a skin tight black dress, her red hair was all over the place and she had a pair of black glasses on.

“I was going to ask if you were getting ready, but I can see that you’re ready for one thing, and it’s most definitely not the party.” She smiled at me with a twinkle of mischievous in her eyes, before laughing and eyeing Chase up.

“She’s ready,” Chase responded with that arrogant smile marred all over his face.

“I bet she is lover boy.” Taylor rolled her eyes in mock disgust as she walked out of the room. Pulling myself from his embrace, I grabbed my stuff for the party.

“I’m claiming you as my own tonight. I can’t wait to be inside of you again, to stroke every single part of your body. No more rules, no more boundaries. Just you and me in our rawest forms, bared open completely to one another.” His words made my belly do this crazy little flop, the deepness of his voice had me wanting to shimmy out of my panties and let him stroke me as he brought me to ecstasy over and over again. I didn’t dare make that move, though. I held on to the little bit of willpower I had left in my body and turned to face him.

“Good. I look forward to being yours,” I said softly, my voice not even something I would recognize. My body felt flushed, my heart beating as if I had just run a triathlon. Before he could retort I was out the door, running from my room and heading straight to where I knew I could find Taylor.

For some reason, I stopped outside of her door. Maybe to calm myself before unloading everything that had just happened to me on to her, but the next words spoken by a very familiar voice caught me completely off guard.

“It’s nothing, Tay.” Chance’s words were soft, unsure, and vulnerable.

“It’s something, you know it. You’re just too damn afraid to admit it.” I could sense the pain and irritation that Taylor felt and that was all it took for me to know I had to bring an end to their conversation before things were said that would hurt long after an apology.

I pushed through her door and came face to face with a shocked Chance. The softness in his face turned to stone, his mannerism went from gentlemen like to being completely on guard. Something wasn’t right here.

“I came to get ready,” I shot at Taylor not really wanting to look at Chance anymore. His facial expression was pained and if I couldn’t ask questions as to why, I didn’t want to see it.

“Yea, what took you so long? I was waiting for you,” Taylor threw back at me, before looking at Chance to see if he would dismiss himself. He got the hint, barely whispering a ‘talk to you later’ as he disappeared through the same door I had just entered not even a second later.

“Spill the beans and I do mean right MEOW!” I growled, a look of anger in my eyes. She was hiding something and because I had been so caught up in my own shit I had failed to see it. A look of sorrow crossed her face just as she slammed herself down onto the edge of her mattress.

“I don’t even know what to say, let alone where to start.” Taylor’s sadness radiated through me. She was my best friend, we had grown up together and seeing her struggle through something this early in her college career made me want to be here for her that much more.

“How about the beginning? How about when you and Chance started meeting up?” I asked her as I sat down beside her.

“We haven’t been meeting up. We live in the same house. It’s not a crime to see one another, or to stop and talk.” I narrowed my eyes, something that my dad did often when he was questioning me and my brothers growing up.

“True, but you are saying it as if you are defending him and your relationship.”

Taylor rolled her eyes. “You’re looking at this entire situation wrong. Nothing is going on. We’re just friends. Just roommates, just normal college students.” It was in her words and the way she said them that made me aware of what was going on. I paused for a moment, then I wrapped my arms around her and brought her in for a hug.

“If you’re looking for more from him, then you should say it,” I said faintly. I could hear her heart beating, and I swear it felt like my own. Gazing down at her, I watched as her eyes filled with tears.

Taylor shook her head, blinking the tears back as she pulled away, “I don’t want more. I just want normal. I want love, and unfortunately sometimes life has other plans for you.” She smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

Taylor was amazing beyond words, and she deserved the world. One day she would get her normal, her love, and regardless if she could see it now or not− her more.