Worth the Chase (16 page)

“We didn’t do anything wrong. In fact, this whole situation is stupid. The cops got called for no reason. It was just a little scuffle.” My father cast a look my way that said shut up, causing a groan to escape my mouth as a reply.

“Oh stop it! Seriously, Dad? If anyone has explaining to do it’s you,” I spat at him. Chase looked at me cock-eyed and my father seemed to grow angrier.

“I have nothing to explain to you!” he replied as he slammed his fist against the table.

“Oh, yeah? Well, neither do I! I’m an adult, and I don’t see why you just happened to be here when all of this was going down,” I stated with a raised eyebrow. His demeanor shifted from FBI mode to dad mode in a blink of an eye as he sat there trying to come up with an excuse.

“I know that work didn’t bring you here because Mom would have called and told me.” Chase seemed lost, his facial features turning from a frown to a look of confusion quickly.

“Alright! I asked to be assigned here. Uncle Devon and I thought it was a good idea. First it was for Taylor, to make sure she adjusted easily and no one tried anything on her because she was a freshman. You don’t know how many cases of assault on females we hear about because some inexperienced college girl was date raped. And you know how Taylor is, she is so much like your Aunt Tegan. So trusting in nature. Since you happened to be here too, I was looking out for you as well. I knew when the call came in from your address this evening it was something bad. I was worried, and then when I arrived here and saw Chase, your boyfriend in here… you can imagine what I was thinking.” The hurt was evident in his eyes. I understood why he did what he did, but there was no need to be spying on us.

“It’s wrong, Dad. We don’t need a babysitter.”

“I can disagree with that given the situation that transpired tonight,” he shot right back at me, forcing me to roll my eyes.

“Sir, it’s really not what they are making it. Shit went down before this and I was simply sticking up for your daughter,” Chase confessed. My stomach twisted in knots thinking back to that day that Simon had hit me. It may have been an accident, but it still happened.

“What went down before this?” My father’s eyes darkened as they zeroed in on Chase’s.

I could hear the inhale of air enter Chase’s body as he heaved in breath after breath. “The guy that could possibly press charges against me is Simon. He has money and family ties in the school, so he is always walking around like he owns it and thinks he can do whatever and get away with it. I know he had a thing for Gia, hell a lot of guys did since our freshman year. I always thought she was too good for me, that I was never good enough for her, so I stayed away until I couldn’t anymore. But that’s not the point. The point is, one day after class I saw him and her together. He had his hand on her waist and her hand was trying to move his, but he wouldn’t let go. I went up to him and told him to let go of her which led to him running his mouth as usual. Gia tried to diffuse the situation so no one would get hurt or in trouble. She got caught in the middle of us, right when he decided he was going to hit me, and instead his fist came down and landed across her cheek.” His words were venomous, and I watched as my father’s hand went straight to his gun holster.

“He hit her?”

“Yes, sir. He hit her. So I took him down. Gia got me to let him go and the situation was dead to me, though I admit I was waiting for another opportunity to get him. Tonight he presented that chance when he showed up to our Halloween party. He pushed me into Gia, making her fall down onto the ground. That was all I needed.” Chase’s eyes locked onto mine, there was a sadness deep inside of them that made me want to jump into his lap and wrap my arms around him.

The room grew quiet, my father’s deep breaths meeting my ears as I stood from my seat and found my back up against a wall.

“I could kill that little bastard. How dare he touch my daughter?” His gun came down on the table, the sound of metal against wood filling the room.

“Exactly. Now you see why I knocked the fucker’s tooth out. He can take his charges and shove them up his uptight ass,” Chase stated.

I ran my fingers through my hair trying to find a way to calm my father down as he begun pacing back and forth in front of me and Chase. I didn’t know what he was going to do next, all I knew was that the anger he was feeling was radiating around him in a ball of fury.

Dad paced the floor for a few more seconds, before reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a key. He walked over to Chase and undid his handcuffs in complete silence. The moment the cuffs came off of Chase’s wrists, he rubbed circulation back into them and my father walked around the table, over to where I was standing against the wall.

“You’re my daughter at the end of the day and nothing outside of that matters more to me. If this Simon guy hurt you, laid a finger upon you as Chase has said then his life is now in my hands.” His face showed the hurt he was going through. I knew he would beat himself up over this, feel as if he should have protected me more, which is why I had never said anything to my mother or him.

“What’s going to happen now?” Chase asked my father just as he turned on his heels to face him.

“Now, I take care of business. The charges will be dropped, I’ll be sure of it because now we have leverage over him. If he refuses, then we press charges against him, but don’t worry about anything. He won’t refuse.” Chase’s eyes grew wide with understanding as a smirk formed on his face, his smile was just as sinister as the one spread wide across my father’s face.

“Chase!” I exclaimed.

“What? At least you know your dad cares enough to put some asshole in his place and handle him for hurting you.” He shoved from the chair he had been sitting in since I entered the room and headed straight towards me, but as soon as his hand touched mine my father stepped between us.

“Remember those words you just spoke, Chase. If you hurt my daughter, I’ll take that personally and I’ll dig your grave myself right in my backyard.” I stood there with my dad in between us and guilt weighing heavily on my chest.

My dad was a protective man, who believed in family above anything else. It may not have seemed like that big of a deal when I had first lied to him about Chase being my boyfriend, but at this moment as I saw the love he had for me flood his eyes I knew that it truly was.

“I have to tell you something, Dad.” I paused, waiting to hear or see what his next move would be. His eyes met mine, the look on his face holding me still.

“Go ahead,” he calmly said, almost a little too calm for my liking.

“When you first saw me and Chase together…” I cleared my throat. “We weren’t really together. I lied to you, hoping that you wouldn’t get mad at me for having some random hook up. I mean I’ve heard the lectures so many times. I knew you not only wanted me, but AJ, Michael, and Brendon as well to wait for the right one. I’m sorry if I disappointed you by not waiting, but most of all I’m sorry for not being honest with you.” My cheeks flamed like someone had struck a match against them. A smirk pulled at his lips, and I let out the breath I had been holding since the moment that I had lied to him.

“I know, sweetie. Your mother told me. I had made a promise to her not to say anything. I knew all along, I was just waiting for you to come clean. Like that time you and Taylor destroyed your mom’s flower garden riding bikes and told us that the neighbor’s dog did it.” Dad chuckled before getting serious once again, “I was just hoping that you could work things out with this guy and that maybe I would be seeing him at Thanksgiving. Something about him makes it hard not to almost like him.” Relief filled every orifice of my body as my dad winked at Chase.

He had known all this time.
A strangled laugh left my throat.

“Thank God. I thought he was going to kill me,” Chase mumbled under his breath as sweat clung to his eyebrows.

“I still will if you hurt her.” My dad added right before placing a kiss upon my cheek and walking out of the room. I had never been so happy, relieved, and excited in my life. Now nothing could hold us back from chasing our dreams together.

A passion deeper than hate had brought us together, fate had played its tricks on us, but a need deeply rooted in love had refused to let either one of us walk away.

Walking into the foyer of my family home, I came to a halt as everything came to life around me. My uncles sat in the great room of the house watching the annual Thanksgiving football game, their beer bottles clanking together as a touchdown was made by the home team. My mom and aunts occupied the kitchen, prepping and cooking the food for dinner that would take place that night. Instead of popping my head in to speak, I bypassed the kitchen knowing if I stepped foot in there my mom would put me straight to work. Their chatter could still be heard as I snuck down the hall and into the media room where my brothers were currently watching the Thanksgiving Day Parade with Chase, my grandfather as well as Taylor’s.

I spotted him as soon as I entered the room, my body going into overdrive the second I saw him. He looked up at me through heavy lashes as he discussed something with my brother AJ. I wasn’t sure what the conversation consisted of, but it must not have been much of anything considering Chase got up dismissing himself rather fast the second he saw me.

“You look so beautiful. Every time I see you it takes everything inside of me not to take a bite of your sweetness.” His lips trailed against my throat as he wrapped his arms around me.

“Oh stop it, would you.” I smiled, shoving at him softly while giving him a small warning look. We had to stop, especially with every set of eyes in this room on us. Plus I had yet to lay eyes on my father, which meant he could be anywhere, and everyone knew Alzerro King was good for sneaking up on people.

“What? It’s not like the fun we had in the movie theater could make up for the fact that I want you every single minute of every single day.” He winked at me, wiggling his eyebrows. My cheeks heated at his reference to last night. God, he knew better than to bring up a moment as exciting and frightening as that right now, but then again Chase loved teasing and testing me every chance he got.

His fingers threaded into my own as his lips descended to my ear. “I won’t forget the way you rode my fingers last night, or the whimpers that escaped your beautiful mouth as I dove into your wetness.”
I couldn’t forget either
, I thought as my teeth found my top lip, bearing down slightly.

“Bite that lip all you want. Shove me away all you want, but it doesn’t change the fact that I bet you’re practically dripping for me right now. Just like you were last night.”

“Chase…” I groaned quietly in his ear.

“Just think about it until you have it memorized. Until it’s a memory you can’t help but revisit when you are frenzied for my touch− because I’m going to blow that one right out of the water.” No matter how much I pushed the memories of our time spent on our date to the back of my mind− they surfaced, throwing me back into yesterday.

“We’ll take two tickets to Mocking Jay Part 2,” Chase spoke to the movie attendant, exchanging money for tickets within seconds. I stood next to him anxiously, my stomach filling with butterflies. This was the first time we had been able to sneak off for alone time since we got to my parents’ house two days ago.

We headed to the concession stand, ordering a large drink, popcorn, and sour patches. As Chase salted and buttered the popcorn, I filled our cup up with orange soda. Then we headed towards the feature room that was playing our movie, our free hands entwined in one another’s.

The room was all but empty, minus the two other couples sitting closer to the front row. I guess that was the benefit of going during the holidays, everyone was spending time with their families, so most places that were usually packed weren’t.

Once settled into our seats comfortably, I finally spoke, “I’m glad I was able to actually leave the house with you alone and not get conned into taking my brothers. Or worse, my mom or dad taking it upon themselves to tag alone.”

Chase turned to me, a look of mischievousness in his eyes. “Me too, seeing as I haven’t been able to kiss you or roam your body with anything other than my eyes since the moment we arrived.”

“Believe me, it hasn’t been easy on my end either. I’m used to being able to touch you wherever I want, whenever I want. Imagine how I feel with my dad watching my every move.” Not saying that my dad was blocking any funny business at every turn, but he barely left us alone. There was always someone around and it had become far more than sexually frustrating.

“Shhh, we have two hours at the very least right now,” he whispered against my lips just as he dropped his upon mine. His breath was hot and caused every single hair on my body to respond. Goosebumps covered my skin as he skimmed his fingers over my arm. He had this magic about his touch. It caused my blood to turn hot, and all rational thinking to go out the window.

Breaking our embrace, I realized the movie hadn’t started yet, just the previews running for other movies. I pulled away even further, but Chase pulled me back in, forcing my lips to collide with his in a fiercer manner.