Chase
A bright ray of sunlight slices across my closed eyelids. A meager moan flits from her lungs; her body squirms against me.
“Chase.” My name is a breathy sigh floating on air. I tighten my grip, running a hand up her spine to the nape of her neck. Another whimper, another wriggle. So warm, so soft.
Apples. I can almost taste them on my tongue. I shift, attempting to deeper inhale the delicious body in my arms. Petite hands find my chest and push. “Chase. You’re squeezing me to death.”
Consciousness returns. My heavy eyelids crack open and survey my surroundings. I was drowning in dreams, clutching Kat like a life preserver. “Aren’t we cuddly in the morning?” she jests, sitting up with a yawn.
I press my palm against the mangled tree limbs peeking up from the edge of her tank. The sky was a dusky shade of purple before we finally fell asleep. She released the burden of the past holding her down and somehow seems different now. Her usual defense mechanism still sits on the surface, but her entire aura has shifted. Almost as if she’s lighter than she was before. Less guarded. Athena’s words ring in my ear. I'll never let anyone hurt her like that again.
Neither will I.
When my fingertip slips under the spaghetti strap, it falls down her golden shoulder. The semi I generally wake with is saluting at full mast this morning. The bed sheet draped across our bodies doesn’t hide the fact that I’m completely aroused. My abs contract under the warm touch of her fingers. She peers behind her, sucking her bottom lip between her teeth, and then slides off my bed. “I’m going to take a shower.”
I sit up and kick my legs over the side. Those little red shorts are going to put me in an early grave. The muffled sound of running water blasts through the paper-thin walls of my house. Thinking of Kat in the shower isn’t going to help the solid steel erection standing between my legs, and she doesn’t need another guy leering at her.
Grandma sits quietly in her room as I pass her doorway on my way down the hall. I wonder what today will bring. Maybe she’ll know me; maybe she won’t. Maybe she’ll break into show tunes and do a little soft shoe. It could happen. Nothing shocks me anymore.
I pace back and forth in the front yard with Aphro hot on my heels and a cigarette dangling from my lips. It’s barely ten a.m. and hot as balls out here already. The deep rumble of an engine calls my attention. The brakes squeal on the FedEx truck stopping in front of the house. Kat’s results. It must be.
My heart begins pounding in my chest. The cigarette falls from my lips as the man approaches holding a parcel bearing the company logo. “How ya doing today?” he asks.
Kat’s ridiculous dog yips from the landing. I pick her up and deposit her inside the house as the delivery guy holds out the electronic pad for me to sign. After scrawling my name with the plastic pen, he hands me the envelope and says goodbye. I watch him get back in his truck and drive away, my hands shaking down to the bones. The future of Kat’s well-being rests inside this package clutched between my fingers. I hold the truth, and now that it’s here, I’m terrified to see what’s inside.
I turn on the stoop and rush through the door. “Kat!” Speed walking through the house, I burst through the bedroom door without thinking twice. Droplets of water dapple the front and back of her clean blue top. I barrel into the room in a hurried frenzy to unload the mental weight of the secret we’ve been dying to know the answer to. “It’s here.”
Her jaw goes slack. She drops to the edge of my bed, looking at the envelope in my hand as if it were a bomb. “I can’t open it,” she whispers, pushing back the raven strands of wet hair sticking around her ears. “Please, Chase. You do it.”
The lump in my throat makes it hard to breathe. How will I tell her if it’s positive? How can I possibly be the bearer of the news that changes the course of her life this dramatically? I can’t. It’s impossible. But the terrified look in her warm, brown eyes hurts my heart more than whatever I’ll find in this envelope. “Whatever’s inside, we’ll deal with it. Okay?”
I flip it over and find the tear here tab. The sound of it ripping open shreds the tiniest bit of my heart in the process. My eyes feverishly scan the letter reading the results and all the fear, anguish, heartache, and worry leaks from my body in an instant. “It’s negative.”
“It is?” she asks, snatching the letter from my hand to see for herself. “Oh, my fucking God!” She jumps from the bed, hurling herself against me. Her arms and legs wrap around my body. I hold her tight, keeping her close, thankful for her second second chance.
“Thank you for coming with me. I can’t bear the thought of coming back in here alone.” The acrid smell of acetone hangs in the air as Kat and I walk through the salon at Luxe to collect her final paycheck.
“Katarina!” Devin, dressed as a man today, claps his hands together with a grin. “Girl! I’ve missed you so much!” With light footsteps, he meanders over and wraps his slender arms around her shoulders.
“Dushka here?” Kat’s voice is soft and weak. Coming back to the spa after being canned is hard for her.
“You just missed her.”
The breath she’d been holding blows out hard. “Awesome-sauce. I’m going to run back and grab my check.” She offers up a quick two finger wave before disappearing through the darkened hallway.
When the phone begins to ring, Devin jaunts back to the desk to answer. I hang back, just taking it all in. The drone of electronic filing drowns out the low hum of voices in the room. Desks hug the perimeter, each with a woman bent over another woman’s hands, but as I grab a seat on the red velvet bench, I feel all eyes fixed on me.
“You want a manicure?” The girl at the desk nearest to me giggles. When I look up, she smooths back her absurdly long hair. It’s sleek and shiny. Fire-engine red. The sunlight filtering in through the glass-front store actually bounces off it. She blinks her eyes in two rapid successions. Is this babe flirting with me?
“Nah. I’m just waiting for a friend.” She smacks her bubble gum pink lips and reaches for a bottle of clear acrylic. I remain aloof, but the chick doesn’t leave. She leans forward, shoving her chest in my face as she runs her perfect manicure over the snake tattoo that extends the length of my arm. “This is cool.” Oh, yeah. She’s definitely flirting with me.
Once upon a time, I would have jammed my dick so far inside this woman she’d have been begging for mercy, but that's not me anymore. I don’t need it. Life’s too short to waste time on empty conquests.
“Thanks.”
“How far up does it go?”
My gaze rolls toward Devin, who’s too busy on the phone to notice anything. Not that I’m doing anything wrong. She’s just asking about my ink. “It coils up the back of my shoulder to my neck,” I tell her, casually tugging on the neckline of my T-shirt to expose the top of the snake’s head.
“Don’t you have work to do, Lydia?” The stinging tone in Kat’s voice is a cotton ball compared to the vicious glare in her eyes. If looks could kill, this Lydia chick would be a corpse already.
“Thought they let you go?” She crosses her arms over her ample chest with a jutted-out hip.
Rawr! Hiss! Girls are so catty with one another.
“You want my job? It’s yours. Chase isn’t part of that deal.”
Lydia lifts her palm out in front of her. “Take a pill, Katarina. I didn’t realize he was yours, okay?”
Kat’s lips press into a thin pink line. Her gaze slides toward me then back to her ex-coworker. “He’s not mine, but it will be a cold day in hell before he’s yours.” Without another word, she takes me by the hand and drags me to the door, not stopping her hasty retreat until we’ve reached the car.
“Don’t let girls like that get under your skin, Kat. You’re better than that.”
“Lydia’s a bitch. I can handle myself around her. It’s just . . .”
With my finger on her chin, I force her to face me. “Just what?”
“Seeing her touch you. It bothered me.”
I raise both brows, letting her admission sink in. “You don’t have to be jealous—”
She tears her face away. “I’m not jealous! Lydia is gross, and I didn’t want her to get her cooties all over you. That’s all.” She glares out the window with her arms crossed over her chest in a huff as I start the car and pull away.