I don’t know how I ever woke up before Chase Green. I don’t know how anyone wakes up without a human alarm clock bringing my dead to the world body awake with a glorious orgasm. I was dead in a dream, when a warm hand made its way down my stomach and past my navel, caressing my skin, all the way down to my core. I debated at first on smacking his hand away because I was so tired. And hungry. The pizza was ordered last night but barely touched. Our bodies, on the other hand, no piece of skin was left untouched.
His thick finger ventures in between my sex and even half asleep he makes me wet. He enters me and with his warm breath hitting the back of my neck, his tongue gently sucks on my earlobe, a morning moan flows from my lips.
“Good morning,” he whispers softly, pushing his finger deeper inside me.
I lay my head back, allowing him better access to my bare shoulder, his teeth gently grazing the surface of my skin.
“Feels like it,” I reply slowly, working my hips with the movements of his hand. The hardness of his dick pressed against my ass cheeks makes me crave more than just his finger.
“Oh, well, then we better make that good morning an explosive morning.” He works his finger faster, his mouth back on my flesh. He sucks to a point; I fear he’s going to leave a mark.
“Chase,” I moan out my warning to watch it.
But he doesn’t let down. His thrusts quicken and his free hand wraps around a chunk of my hair, gently pulling my head further back, allowing him access to my lips. His mouth is on mine and the moment our tongues collide, I explode. He doesn’t release me. He kisses me all the way through my release, until my body becomes lax in his hold. I feel his lips forming a smile and when I open my eyes, his shiny greens are staring back at mine.
“Now that’s an explosive morning.” He grins, pulling his finger out.
I roll to my other side so we’re facing one another, and he brings his strong arms around me, hugging me to his chest.
“Let’s play hooky today.”
“Kristen would kill us. Well, she’d kill you. She loves me too much.”
Chase chuckles, kissing the top of my head. I love his small gestures.
“Wouldn’t you save me? Without me your mornings would suffer.”
I press a kiss to his bare chest. “Well, I’ve seen her angry, so I’d have to just accept the fact that I was back to waking myself up. I would miss you, though. Oh—”
Chase startles me, flipping me so I’m flat on my back, his amazing body covering mine. “Say it ain’t so. You would save me.”
I fight to keep a serious face as I reply, “I really can’t confirm I would.”
His eyes light up and I secretly get excited at what he’s going to do if I don’t comply.
“You love me. You’d save me.”
“Yeah, but it’s still so fresh. I’ll get over it. Shit!” I start to scream when he begins to tickle me. “Chase, stop!” I cry.
“Not until you admit you would save me… and tell me that you love me.”
“No.” Wrong answer. He goes at it even more aggressively and I’m choking on my own laughter and pleas for him to stop.
“All you have to do is say it, and I’ll stop. Maybe even reward you.”
I refuse to give in. I shake my head because I’m laughing too hard to speak. That’s when he goes for the kill and starts squeezing my inner thigh.
“Oh my God! Stop! Fine! You win! I’d save you!”
“And?”
“I love you.”
“Again.”
“I love you,” I repeat.
He stops tickling. Thank God because I was seconds away from pissing myself.
“I love you too. And when I get my shit together, I want us to figure out our lives. I can’t do long distance with you, Katie.”
Wow. He just went deep on us. He can’t do long distance. But what does that mean? “Chase…”
“Don’t overthink it. I’m not asking you to leave your life. I’d come to you. Shit, I’d move across continents for you. If you’d have me.”
Jesus Christ.
“Chase,” I say his name, this time on a whisper.
“I know. It’s a crazy statement. This is crazy. We’re crazy. But I love you. And that’s all I care about right now.”
He sure is right. This is crazy. He can’t possibly be thinking straight. “Chase, what about your career? Your life back in Minnesota?” There’s no hiding the smidge of stress that flashes in his eyes.
“Do you trust me?”
“I don’t know. I’d have to think about—Okay! Okay! I do,” I finish, needing him to stop fucking tickling me. “I trust you.”
“Good. So just trust that I have some major changes in the future. I just need to work them out and then us? We’re going to take this thing a whole step further. Then further after that.”
I seriously love Chase Green right now.
“How about we put all this talk on hold and you use that pretty thing you have growing up my stomach and put it in that warm place waiting just for him. Then you can continue to show me just how much you love me.” My boldness causes a grin so wide, I feel another jolt of his hard cock on my stomach. He kisses me roughly, and I accept his challenge. He’s inside me within seconds and bringing me back to another screaming orgasm.
“How are we going to break it to Ellie and Gerdie?” he asks, grunting with each push. He’s so large and hitting so deep I can barely respond.
“Maybe they can share a room,” I moan, digging my nails into his tight ass.
“Fuck, that means you’ve considered us living together.” He pulls out and slams back into me. Shit. I didn’t even realize the intensity of my reply.
“For the weekend then maybe—”
Chase slams his mouth to mine, stopping me from finishing my sentence. “You can’t take it back now, Beller. You see us playing house together. Now I’m holding you to it.”
I can’t respond because he’s like a stallion slamming home over and over again, until my eyes cross and I’m threatening to bite my own lip off while my body explodes with sensations only Chase can provoke out of me.
“Fuck, I can stay inside you forever. I love you…” He trails off as his orgasm blasts through him, his hot seed releasing inside me.
“God, you’re hot. Last chance to play hooky.” We’re in the elevator on our way down to the ballroom. He’s holding my hand, as he always does, but maneuvering our connected hands to rub my ass.
“Stop, no. Again. I said I’d save you in the heat of the moment.”
He bends down, kissing the top of my head. I mentally sigh. Then realize I vocally sigh, when I hear Chase’s chuckle.
“I love your sighs. So innocent behind your badass persona.”
I give him my mean stare down, but that face. That smile. Those eyes. They melt me. We hear the elevator ding, letting us know we’ve made it to the ground floor.
“Letting this sexy hand go is the hardest thing I do every morning.” He lifts my hand and kisses the top of my skin.
I can’t help but smile. I’m in love. And I admitted it. I should probably pull my book off the shelves because I can’t relate to any of this love broken babble anymore. Chase Green saved me.
“Thank you,” I say, not really sure what it means. But it needed to be said.
He leans forward, covering my mouth with his. “I love you, Katie Beller.”
Trying to fight these new happy emotions that have taken over my body, I inhale a breath for strength and reply, “I love you too, Chase Green.”
The opening doors break up our moment and it’s like slow motion as our hands break away. Back to the author and model, business as usual. The only thing that doesn’t change are the big smiles we both carry.
Chase walks as close to me as he can, saying it’s a substitute for not being able to hold my hand. I blush like a damn school kid, because I’m sure we look like idiots.
Before turning the corner, we see Kristen hustling over to us.
“Shit, we’re not late, are we?”
Chase looks down at his watch. “Right on time actually.”
“Charlie! There you are. I’ve been calling your room.” Kristen halts right in front of us and stops to catch her breath.
“Yeah, sorry, I was… in the gym all morning.”
“Well, your agent has been in an uproar looking for you. She said she’s been trying to contact you for days with no answer.”
I look at Chase, and he’s gone stone-still.
“What do you mean looking for me?” His usual casual tone is off.
“She paged me first thing this morning. She’s in the hotel.”
It’s then I watch his face pale.
“Hey, you okay?”
“Mr. Bates, she’s very upset. You assured me all the paperwork was taken care of. She’s claiming she didn’t sign off on this part of the signing.”
Chase isn’t moving or responding.
“Chase, what’s going on?” I’m staring at him, but he’s just standing there in a blank fog.
“Mr. Bates—”
“There you are! Babe, I’ve been looking everywhere for you!”
We all turn to see a beautiful blonde. Legs for hours, curves in all the right places approaching us. I begin to feel unsure of what’s about to happen.
Chase quickly turns to me. “You said you trust me. Please just trust me right now, okay?”
“What? What do you—”
I’m cut off when the woman jumps into Chase’s arms.
What. The. Fuck.
“Babe is your phone turned off?”
Babe.
Babe.
Babe.
I take a step away from Chase. He senses my withdrawal. He drops the woman and turns to me, but his attention is taken away by this woman.
“Rebecca. What are you doing here?”
He knows her.
Of course he does. It’s his agent.
People call people babes all the time in California.
“I missed you. I wanted to surprise you.”
Agents shouldn’t miss their clients.
Fuck.
My stomach starts to turn.
Kristen grabs my arm. “Uh, Bailey, we need to get you to your table.”
I should probably leave, but as they say, it’s like watching a train wreck, unable to pull away. But this train wreck is my life, and I have a sick feeling soon to be my wrecked heart. I take a shaky step forward to address his agent.
“Excuse me. Hi, I’m Bailey. Author. You must be Charlie’s agent?”
Please be his agent.
“Yeah, his PR agent, but most importantly, his girlfriend,” she replies with beaming confidence.
There’s no way to hide the gasp as her words fill the air. His girlfriend. She said the one thing I begged not to hear. He couldn’t have lied to me and fed me bullshit just to end up playing me in the end.
I’m in shock.
I can’t stop staring at her as she smiles cheerfully back at me.
“Katie.” Chase tries to grab my hand, but I slap him off me.
“Okay then.” I begin blinking away the tears that I am shamefully about to shed. “Excuse me,” I choke out to our audience.
Once my legs start to work again, I run to the bathroom. I hear my name being called, but the door shuts behind me. As soon as I’m in the stall, I lean forward and throw up. Once, twice, a third time, before my stomach stops convulsing. I reach up, trying to grab for my ears that won’t stop ringing, but my stomach convulses again, throwing up for a fourth time.
“Katie, you all right?” I hear Kristen, her voice etched with worry.
“Fine.” I grab for some toilet paper, dabbing at my mouth, using the back of my hand to wipe the tears from my eyes.
“Are you sure? What just happened out there didn’t look fine.”
God, her acknowledging it means this isn’t a bad fucking dream. Girlfriend. He has a girlfriend. My stomach threatens to heave again.
“Honey, what’s going on? I thought you weren’t getting involved with Charlie Bates.”
And God, I wished I never did. Every single moment we’ve ever shared flashes through my mind, the pain crushing at my skull. The lies. His lies. I love you, Katie Beller. I grab at my head, closing my eyes.
“Katie, are you going to talk to me?” I hear her voice closer, the gentle knock on the stall door.
“Seriously, it was nothing,” I reply, my voice choked. I hold my breath, trying to keep in the ball of emotions raging inside my throat wanting to release.
“Katie, I’m not the bad guy here. Talk to me.”
No, the bad guy is standing outside this bathroom. Next to his girlfriend. A struggled gasp leaves my mouth and I lose the fight and the tears come in waves. I cry, hunched forward, holding my stomach.
I hear Kristen making a call. “Yeah, I need security to the east side of the hotel. We need to clear the hallway. Yes, of everybody. No one stays. That’s right. I pay enough money to this hotel. That’s right. Thank you. I want a call when it’s clear. Thank you.”
She knocks again. “Honey, let me in.”
I just want her to go away. I refuse to let anyone, even my best friend see me broken. So ashamed at what a fool I have become.
“Oh, fuck it,” she says and without opening the door, Kristen starts crawling under the stall door.
“Oh God, that’s disgusting, Kristen,” I groan, wiping at my soaked face.
“Yeah, well, the things you do for friendship.”
I move over, allowing her to slide all the way underneath. She finally stands and grabs for me. I hug her back and lose to another round of emotional sobs.