Chapter Two
Jamie
After the few drinks and the very weird afternoon with Grant, I eased myself onto the couch and fell asleep. Day drinking was fine if and when I actually continued it. I hadn’t even noticed Kay slip away and head back to work.
I had fallen asleep thinking about Grant, Chase, and that damn blue folder. Why had Grant looked through it? None of it made sense to me, but I needed to do something about it.
I rolled over, hugging the pillow, and closed my eyes tighter, wanting to fall into a deep sleep and forget about the day-to-day stress of things. I felt myself hovering just above falling asleep when I heard the faint chime of my phone. Reluctantly, I reached over and grabbed it off of the coffee table.
Ugh. I opened an eye, attempting to focus and then batted the other eye to balance out the blurriness. The most recent text was Chase, but I had somehow missed two texts from a number not in my contacts. Apparently, I had slept, at least a little, but I cringed at the thought of who might be sending a text.
Anxiously, I clicked on the unknown number and read the text, confirming everything was on schedule and that they were looking forward to whatever progress I had made. How is it these people think I’m working for them? Oh that’s right—I had a bundle of cash from them I hadn’t returned.
I didn’t respond. I couldn’t. Not until I got my head on straight. I tapped open Chase’s message.
Dinner tonight? My place in two hours?
My heart pounded in my chest. Just hearing from Chase drove me crazy. My palms began to sweat, and I felt a tingling between my legs, wanting to feel him again…and then it all washed away at the thought of the previous message.
I quickly texted back to accept his offer. Then I peeled myself off of the couch and dragged my sluggish body to the shower.
Two hours later, I looked at my reflection in the glass of his front door one more time. I had second guessed myself at least a dozen times on the way over. Sorting through the dresses in my closet yielded nothing I liked, so I chose to raid Kay’s closet. I knew she wouldn’t mind. I had settled on a maroon sundress that fell just above my knee. I was a bit bigger than Kay was up top and definitely stretched the material to its max. I wondered whether it was too much cleavage.
Adjusting the dress, I finally gave a knock on the door. Chase opened the door a moment later. He was dressed casual. More than I had ever seen him dressed down before. A simple pair of khaki shorts and a blue tee that he filled out perfectly. No shoes, just bare feet.
I giggled to myself as I checked out, of all things, his feet. As many times as we had been naked together, it had always been dark, and his feet were the last thing I had been thinking about. I wasn’t sure if I could ever be with a man who had ugly feet. But, then again, it was too late to not be with him.
Thankfully his feet were gorgeous, as if there were such a thing as gorgeous male feet. It was clear that Chase definitely knew what the inside of a nail salon looked like, or he had someone who came to his house to take care of him.
That seemed more likely.
After a brief hello, he led me to the kitchen and picked up from where he had apparently left off cooking.
“You do like Italian, don’t you?” he asked.
I watched as he sliced up mushrooms and set them aside next to several other small dishes that were filled with ingredients.
I loved a man who could cook. In the few times we had been together and talked, I had never pictured Chase as that type of guy. A relationship guy. Someone to come home to, or call when I was bored or needed someone to cheer me up.
“I do. Can I help with anything?” I asked as I perched myself across the large granite kitchen island and watched his strong hands work the knife. “I’ve been known to make a mean macaroni and cheese.” I giggled to myself.
“I’ll handle the cooking tonight, but maybe if you’d like to pick out a wine from the closet over there? Something that would go well with Chicken Marsala.” Chase waved the knife toward a door at the far end of the kitchen.
“Sure, I’ve got this.” If there was one thing I knew a little bit about, it was wine. Granted, working at The Fox Hole didn’t put me in contact with fancy wines, but at least I knew a few types. I doubted he had anything I was used to drinking, though—wine from sale shelves at the local Piggly Wiggly.
I opened up the door and Chase immediately yelled across the kitchen. “The light switch is on the right. Careful, I haven’t put some of them away yet.”
I flipped on the switch and gasped. I had not been expecting what was in front of me. The room was almost half as large as the kitchen and was lined with wooden shelves, all filled with bottles of wine. Without counting, I would guess there were at least five hundred different types, shades, colors, and styles. All were organized by the color and territory. Maybe I didn’t know wine. Not like this.
“Anything particular you’d like?” I asked, hoping he would give me the exact bottle instead of making me guess.
“How about a red? Maybe grab two of them.”
I took a few more steps into the room and grabbed two bottles, one from the shelf in front of me and one from a few shelves higher. Those would work. I trotted back to the kitchen, proud of my selection as Chase stood at the stove, beginning to sauté the mushrooms and spices.
He glanced back over his shoulder and smiled, looking at the wine. “Nice choice. There are some glasses behind you. Would you mind opening the bottle while I finish this up?”
I could feel the smile on my face stretch from ear to ear. Chase, in front of the flaming stove, a towel tossed over his shoulder, barefoot, in shorts and looking sexy as hell. I closed my eyes and shook my head, almost feeling as if what I was seeing was some sort of weird dream.
It didn’t take long for Chase to finish cooking and for us to have polished off almost an entire bottle of wine. He informed me later that my selection would have cost about six hundred dollars in a nice restaurant. I mean, I’d enjoyed it, but it honestly wasn’t any better than some of the other ten-dollar bottles I’d had. Besides, it still had the same effect; I was already buzzed.
Whether it was the alcohol or the culmination of the last few days and seeing Chase in a different light, I felt myself wanting him in a different way. I had never really been one to settle down.
I’d never really had a boyfriend, at least not someone I dated, and definitely not in college. The last six years of my collegiate life had been about studying, my female friends, working my ass off to pay bills, and then doing it all over the next year. Zack was the last guy I had dated, on and off, for the last year. It hadn’t been anything special and our dates usually consisted of appetizers at one of the local bars and a few drinks. Once in a while we’d binge on some bad TV, and of course sex. I did need my fix.
I thought about Zack for just a moment, and then compared him to Chase. It was clear that one was a boy and the other, all man. I was actually feeling like an adult, more than usual. More than a kid in college with real-world responsibilities.
Chase grabbed the almost finished bottle of wine and poured the rest in my glass. Then he opened the second bottle, laughing. “You definitely have good taste. This one isn’t quite as expensive as the last, but it was one that I had purchased in an auction. This bottle is about two hundred and fifty,” he said as he pulled the cork from the top of the bottle. “Come, I want to show you something.”
He tucked the bottle, with the cork loosely placed in the end, under his arm. Then he grabbed his glass and extended his hand, allowing me to take it. He led me through the house. Really, it was more of a mansion. The last time I had been here, I never made it out of the main room.
We walked up the large winding staircase and ended up on a landing that was almost as large as my entire apartment. He pulled me past two large leather chairs that sat next to the bookcase and led me down the hallway to some double doors at the end.
“Hopefully, we haven’t missed it,” he said as we walked through his master bedroom suite.
A four-poster bed sat in the center of the room, flanked by large, dark wood nightstands. Everything in the room was perfectly placed and as if it were a model home, ready to be photographed for a magazine. Not a single personal picture was anywhere to be seen.
“Here,” he said, placing the bottle and glass on a table beside two glass doors that led out to a balcony.
Pulling open the doors, I stepped outside to see a bright pinkish sky as the sun set over the river in the distance. Chase wrapped his arms around me, pulling me close, his head nestled next to mine as we both watched the last few minutes of sunlight.
As the sun finally fell beyond the horizon, he gently kissed my neck. A warm shiver traveled down my spine. I spun in his arms, kissing him fully on the mouth, the taste of the red wine still on his lips.
This kiss felt different. Passionate, but at the same time tender, loving, wanting. It was something I hadn’t felt with a man, ever. He kissed me deeper, his hands tracing my back down to my hips as he pulled me closer.
I could feel his hardness pressed against me and I knew in that moment I needed him. My body ached for his in ways it hadn’t before. Chase’s kiss deepened as he led me to the long, padded, leather lounge on the balcony. He slid up my sundress, exposing my ass in the dusky light as he cupped each cheek, lifting me to straddle him as we continued to kiss.
I pushed my hips into him, wanting to feel his body against mine. I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling his strong shoulders.
“Take me,” I whispered in his ear as I took in a shuddering breath. My legs already felt weak from squeezing around him.
Chase spun, gently laying me on the lounge. He stood tall in front of me. Instinctively I reached for the button on his shorts. I unfastened them and allowed them to drop to the ground. His cock, now free, throbbed with every beat of his heart as he removed his shirt, exposing his tan, toned body.
In one move he grabbed the hem of my sundress, pulling it over my head and leaving me naked, except for the thong I had worn which was already soaked with my wetness. Without hesitation, I slid off the thong and guided Chase to lie on top of me.
“Now,” I whispered again, my body begging him to enter me.
I tossed my head back as electricity pulsed through my body, sharing myself with Chase. My legs intertwined with his as we both thrust in unison. I dug my fingers into his back, pulling him closer, his body against mine, as he nuzzled his face into the crook of my neck.
“I’m yours,” he whispered.
A rush of light flooded my closed eyes as my entire body pulsed and I climaxed. Chase’s moan masked my own as he lifted himself off of me, releasing. A second later he collapsed next to me and trailed kisses over my cheek and shoulder.
* * * * *
For a strange reason, I couldn’t stay with Chase that night. After we made love, an overwhelming feeling of guilt, smothered in the feeling of love, began to crush me. I slipped out and headed home, hoping to calm my feelings with another drink.
I rarely drank the hard stuff straight, but tonight I wasn’t up for delaying what I needed. And what I needed was a slightly clouded head. I poured the only tequila I had in the house, a cheap bottle intended to be mixed with the sickeningly sweet mixes, and topped it with just a dribble of lime juice.
Drinking down the warm, smoky liquid with a bite of lime, I opened the folder that had been sitting on my coffee table. I thumbed through the pages, reading each one, even those I had seen before.
There it was, on the last page. Dunamis.
That note, from my anonymous “employer,” had instructed me to get info on Dunamis.
The company Chase was working with was Dunamis, and Chase was the person I was supposed to be spying on. Chase. Not Grant.
A sickening feeling hit me all at once as I ran into the bathroom and threw up.