CHAPTER TWELVE:
It wasn’t long before my meetings with Chase had become more and more frequent. He was calling me four times a week, making me stay overnight with him at the Waldorf, buying me shit I didn't want but kept asking him for, raising the price of the items each time. He started taking me out to dinner at exclusive restaurants and raunchy nightclubs, the existence of which, the general population in Manhattan knew nothing about. He began making me dress up for him in the sort of clothing I never would have looked twice at, clothing even more ridiculous than what Kami wore. That was for our dinners. What he had me wearing to go clubbing was far, far worse. As were the clubs. Sex clubs, weekend long partying from Friday night to Monday morning. Booze, drugs, free sex, kinky sex, violent sex, every kind of sex imaginable and all of it public.
Any inhibition I'd ever had quickly diminished after being fucked in front of a club full of people, some watching, some touching, others involved in their own public fucking.
I stopped talking to Kami, I stopped going to the club, I was constantly cancelling my lunch or dinner dates with my father unless Chase was with me, discussing Frankie’s case.
And Frankie…Frankie was gone. I didn't visit him, I didn't write him, I refused to accept his calls. Gone. And I didn't care. And I did care. Half the time I didn't know what I cared about or what I was feeling, maybe because Frankie wasn't here to tell me how I felt and what I should care about and Chase could care less about anything other than what he was feeling.
My already precariously tilting world had gone and spiraled out of control and shit was dropping from the surface and being sucked into outer space. I didn't try to stop it, I didn't do much of anything really, except what Chase wanted me to be doing which usually involved his cock and an orifice on my body. Or several of them.
Then one day my world stopped spinning and I fell flat on my face.
It was a Thursday in late August. I was sitting on my bed at the club and I was glaring at my cell phone. It kept ringing and ringing and ringing. I was supposed to have met Chase over an hour ago for lunch at his office but I couldn't stop staring at the pregnancy test in my hand. The freshly peed on, undeniably positive pregnancy test.
My phone started ringing again. Knowing he wasn't going to stop, I answered it.
"Where are you?" Chase demanded.
"The club."
He didn't say anything. He knew I didn't go to the club anymore. I could practically hear the wheels in his head working overtime at this new development.
"Listen Chase, I, uh, can't-
"You can't what?" He ground out.
"I can't meet you today," I whispered. "I don't, um, feel good."
"What's going on, Eva? You felt fine yesterday."
No. I'd felt nauseated yesterday, I just hadn't told him.
"I think I have the flu," I continued in a whisper. "I just want to stay in bed, okay?"
"Eva, what the fuck is really going on?"
I took a deep breath. "Nothing Chase, I just don't feel good. I'm not up to cage fighting with you today."
He hung up.
I stared at the phone. I should tell him. If he was the father, he had a right to know. Only, I wasn't sure if he was the father. Early June, I'd slept with Deuce. I closed my eyes, remembering rocking back and forth overtop of his large, powerful body, watching every change in his hard face as my body worked his and that beautiful moment at the end when he’d tensed, our eyes locked and I felt him spill himself inside of me. It was greedy, I knew that even in my haze of need, but we had both been greedy. For that one moment, we were done pretending. I'd wanted it, he'd wanted to give it, and then I'd ran back to Frankie when it was over.
I choked back a sob. I was such an idiot. And I desperately needed Kami.
Grabbing my purse, my four hundred dollar Poppy Line COACH purse that Chase's personal shopper had picked out for me last week because it was designer but edgy and not overly expensive and Chase had decided it worked for me, I headed for Kami's. I was going to tell her what was going on and I would deal with whatever she threw at me.
The cab ride was uncomfortable but the elevator ride up to her penthouse was downright awful. My nerves were jumping out of my skin, add that to my constant nausea and I was headed for a full blown panic attack. By the time the elevator doors opened, I'd broken out in a cold sweat and was gripping my stomach.
It didn't help that it was Chase who was standing in front of the elevator and not Kami.
"Shit," I muttered and backed further into the elevator.
He slammed his palm against the sliding door, keeping it open. "What the fuck," He growled.
I stared at him. Seeing him here, in his home, Kami's home, the realization of what I'd been doing and who I'd been doing it with was even more awful than I'd imagined it would be.
"I…um…”
"I knew you lied to me," He bit out. "And you've got two fucking seconds to explain why before I pick you up, take you straight to my room and let Kami hear me fucking the shit out of you."
“Chase-
“I mean it, Eva. Unless you want Kami to hear you screaming my name you better start talking.”
I blew out a shaky breath. "I'm pregnant," I blurted out. "I needed Kami."
His eyes went wide. "What?"
"Pregnant, Chase!" I cried out softly. "Baby inside of me!"
He stared at me. No longer angry, no longer anything. Just a blank faced stare.
Then the strangest thing happened. Chase's eyes went soft. Chase didn't have soft eyes; he had cold eyes, blank eyes, calculating eyes, I'm going to fuck you blind eyes, but never soft.
It changed his entire face. And so did the smile that followed. Not his shark smile but an honest to god smile.
He looked…human.
I stared at him not knowing what to say or do, wondering what the hell he was so happy about. Then I froze because I realized Chase was happy. Chase. Happy. And he was happy because I was pregnant. This revelation brought me up short and my world resumed spinning.
“Eva,” He whispered, reaching for me. “I-
"EVIE!" Kami screamed, running up behind Chase. He immediately moved away from the elevator door and I stepped into their foyer and caught a velour sweat suit covered Kami as she barreled into me.
"Where have you been?" She squealed, squeezing me tight.
"Busy with Frankie," I whispered, staring at Chase over her shoulder. Arms folded in front of his chest, he was leaning against an intricately carved pillar smack dab in the center of the foyer, staring back at me. Smiling.
I closed my eyes and squeezed Kami back. "Missed you," I choked out.
"God Evie, me too. Devin too."
She pulled away. "Devin!" She bellowed. "Aunt Evie is here!"
She turned back to me grinning and her mouth fell open. "Evie, what are you wearing?" She whispered.
I looked down. Crap. I had been dressed to meet Chase for lunch. I wasn't wearing any of the elaborate crap he'd bought me but I wasn't wearing anything I would normally wear. Designer skinny jeans, artfully distressed, covered my legs, my tank top was a black, shimmery silk that both clung and flowed. All of this was paired with Jimmy Choo strappy black sandals and my black rhinestone covered COACH bag. I had blown my hair straight, then feathered it. I had a shit ton of makeup on and more jewelry then I had ever worn in my life, all of it expensive and chic. It wasn't me, whoever me was, and she knew it. We'd both had to wear uniforms to school but I'd always found a way to make mine my own and even though I'd worn a designer evening gown to prom I'd paired it with my chucks and hadn't done a damn thing to my hair. It had still been wet from my shower when the limo picked up Frankie and me.
I turned bright red as she continued to gape at me.
"I think she looks stunning," Chase said, his voice low, his eyes blazing. A surge of desire shot through me. I wanted his hands on me. I wanted the pain and the pleasure and humiliation he brought me and I wanted it now, was starting to breathe heavier just thinking about it. He saw this and he smiled his shark smile.
"No one cares what you think!" Kami snapped. She narrowed her eyes at me. "What's going on?" She demanded.
I swallowed thickly. "I had a meeting with the D.A. this morning. Frankie's bullshit you know? I didn't want to look like biker trash."
Sheesh. Lying to Kami made me feel filthy. Disgusting. I had never lied to her before, not once in twenty five years of friendship.
This seemed to placate her but she still looked suspicious. "You've never cared before, and you've never looked like trash because you aren't trash."
I opened my mouth, another lie on the tip of my tongue, but was saved from having to dig my hole deeper when Devin barreled into the room much the same way his mother had.
"Aunt Evie!" He screamed as I bent down to engulf him in a squeezing hug. I buried my face in his sweet smelling neck and fought the urge to cry. I had been avoiding both Kami and Devin, two people I loved more than anything for this bullshit with Chase.
"You look so pretty," He said, giving me a cute kiss on my cheek.
"Thanks baby," I whispered. "And you look very, very handsome."
"Amazing isn't it," Chase sneered. "How my very handsome son looks nothing like his mother or his father but more resembles, Mrs. Gonzalez, our housekeeper."
My eyes shot to Chase. It wasn't any secret Devin wasn’t his. Devin was dark. Both he and Kami were light. Devin had black hair, dark features and tanned skin that had nothing to do with sun exposure. He was taller and broader than any other four year old I had ever met. He looked every bit his father's son.
His father…Cox.
Kami glared at Chase. Thankfully Devin seemed oblivious, as always to Chase's digs.
"Kind of hard to have a child that looks like you," She hissed softly, "When your wife refuses to fuck you."
He shrugged. "As much fun as it was to fuck a dead fish, I've since found much better. Much, much better."
I closed my eyes. I had to get out of here.
Giving Devin another big hug, I stood. "Let's do lunch tomorrow. And some shopping," I suggested to Kami. "There's a new thrift store in SoHo that Snickers said has a boatload of mint condition Vinyl's." I tried to smile. "You know I have to hit that up."
"Who's Snicker's?" Devin asked.
"One of Papa Fox's friends from the club," Kami said. "All he eats are snicker's bars."
"What lovely names they all have," Chase muttered.
"Evie, lunch and shopping tomorrow sounds perfect but I want today, too. I was just about to drop Devin downstairs for a play date. I'll only be a minute and then we can go get pedicures, my treat, sound good?"
"Okay," I whispered, glancing at Chase, knowing he was going to be pissed at me.
Kami glanced over at Chase then back at me and her eyes narrowed.
"One minute, don't leave," She said, grabbing Devin's hand.
The elevator doors closed behind them.
"Cancel with Kami," He demanded, "Go straight to the Waldorf."
"God, you're an asshole," I hissed.
I found myself pressed up against the elevator, Chase’s erection grinding against me. I sucked in a breath.
“You want me,” He said coldly.
God, I did. I wanted him badly. Right here, right now.
“Go Eva. I’ll be there shortly.”
Thirty minutes later, I was at the Waldorf begging Chase to fuck me.