Want Me (Coopers Creek Book 3)

by Bronwen Evans

  She closed and locked her office door and grabbed her cellphone. She started up the Eric Church song again and hit the voice record button on her phone. Doing her best to sound sexy, she sang along with it. Then she listened to it, thinking that it wasn’t half bad. She attached the file to an email and then texted Chase.

  * * *

  Chase sat in his hotel room, watching TV and biding his time until Anna got back to him. He hoped that she liked his gifts. It was the first time he’d done something like that, and he felt restless with anticipation over how she’d react.

  He’d just changed channels when a text came in.

  Anna: Check your email.

  Chase: Why?

  Chase laughed when she played his game by not responding. He opened his email and found her message, arching an eyebrow when he saw the audio file. When he heard the intro, he grinned, but he was confused why she was sending him the song until he heard her start to sing.

  “Holy shit.”

  He got up and paced while she sang. Her voice wasn’t pitch perfect, but the sultry way that she sang sure as hell captured his attention. Desire shot through him as he remembered the way she’d looked, felt, and tasted the other night when they’d made love.

  “Oh, my God. If that fucking airport isn’t open tomorrow, I’m driving to one that is,” he told the empty room.

  He played it twice again and got hornier every time he did. Finally, he picked up his phone and called Anna.

  “Well, howdy, cowboy,” she said.

  He smiled at the laughter in her voice. “Girl, you sure know how to turn the tables on a man. I love it. You’ve been holding out on me. You have a pretty voice, and I’m hard as a rock right now.”

  Her wicked laugh made him grin. “Now you know how I feel.”

  “Are you at work?”

  “Yeah. I have some stuff to finish up.”

  “Damn. I was hoping for some video sex.”

  She started giggling and he laughed with her.

  “Phone sex?” he asked, hopefully.

  More giggling.

  “Well, I guess it’ll just be me and my hand tonight then.”

  A loud feminine guffaw met his ears, and he cracked up.

  “Might have to do it two or three times. I better not listen to that song again, or I’ll be up all night and make myself sore.”

  “Stop! I can’t breathe!”

  “All right, all right.”

  When she’d recovered, she said, “Thank you so much for all my gifts. You’re so sweet. I love the Betty Boop lamp. I’ve never seen one like it.”

  “You’re more than welcome,” Chase said. “It’s a collector’s piece. I’m glad you like it.”

  “Are you going to be able to get a flight tomorrow?”

  “I sure hope so. It’s a real bitch being stuck here,” Chase said. “Wanna sleep over tomorrow night, assuming I can get there?”

  She hesitated a moment before she said, “I’d love to.”

  Damn, but that made him happy. “Awesome. I’ll let you know when my flight’s coming in, but you can go over anytime you want to. There’s a key behind the painting of the old ship. Just tip it a little and you’ll see it.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Yeah. It ain’t like you’re gonna rob me or anything. Lola will be happy for the company.”

  “Okay. Well, I hate to go, but I have to get back to work.”

  “All right. I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t work too hard. Later, honey.”

  “Bye.”

  * * *

  Around eleven that night, Anna settled in bed with her laptop and a glass of wine. She was going to play around on Photoshop for a while since she’d bought the new version. She’d spread the blanket from Chase over her bed and her new Teddy bear sat beside her against the headboard. She smiled as she recalled her conversation with Chase earlier. Driving him crazy had been so fun.

  Her Skype popped up, and she recognized Chase’s icon. Smiling, she answered.

  “Hey, baby,” he said, grinning. “Whatcha up to?”

  “Hi, yourself,” Anna said. “Just playing on the computer. Where are you? It’s noisy.”

  “Yeah. I’m at my friend Kiki’s club. Wanna come to Karaoke with me? You can watch me sing. Any requests?” he asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “They got everything.”

  “Can I think about it?” Anna asked.

  “Sure.”

  In the background, she heard a man come on the loud speaker system. “Up next is Chase the California Cowboy singing a challenge song.”

  Chase said, “Oh, no. Who put that in?”

  “That’d be me,” said a man who must be standing close to Chase.

  “You suck,” Chase said. “Anna, I’m gonna hand you off to my buddy, Big T, so you can watch me make an ass of myself.”

  The view changed and a black man who Anna recognized as Big T, the famous rapper, came on the screen. “Yo, Anna. Your man is crazy. You know that, right?”

  Anna couldn’t believe that Chase was friends with someone so famous or that she was now talking to him. “Hi, Big T. It’s nice to meet you. He’s something else.”

  “You can say that again. Just watch this. He’s gonna kill me for picking this song,” Big T informed Anna with a big smile.

  He moved up close to the stage and Chase came into view. The first strains of The Good Ship Lollipop started up. Chase burst into laughter and missed his cue to come in.

  “I can’t sing that!”

  Big T laughed. “You got to. No getting out of challenges.” He hollered to the DJ, “Freddy, start it over!”

  “You bet,” Freddy said.

  “Damn it,” Chase said, grinning.

  Anna settled in to watch as the song began again. When Chase started singing in a falsetto voice, she laughed. He flipped his hair, skipped around the stage like a little girl, and sashayed up to the edge of it while the crowd cheered and laughed. By the time the song was over, Anna’s sides hurt from laughing so much. Chase curtsied a couple of times and then came to retrieve his phone from Big T.

  “How’d I do?” he asked her.

  “I’ll never hear that song without thinking of your performance. That was hysterical. You got into character really well,” she said.

  “Thank you. You wanna hang out for a while? There are some really good singers here, and Big T is gonna do a song, too.”

  Since she was wide awake, Anna knew that there was no sense in her trying to sleep. Besides, she’d rather spend the time having fun with Chase and his friends.

  “Of course, I do,” she said.

  “Fan-dam-tastic! I’ll introduce you to Kiki. You’ll like her,” Chase said.

  For the next hour, Anna was entertained by Chase and company as they sang, traded jibes, and told funny stories.

  “Aw, damn. My battery is dying, Anna,” Chase said. “Thanks for coming along tonight. It was the next best thing to having you here. I’ll bring you here sometime, okay?”

  Anna fought back her surprise and apprehension. “That sounds great.”

  “Cool. Okay. Nighty night, darlin’.”

  “Nighty night.”

  He grinned, and then the screen went black. Anna sighed and leaned her head back against the headboard. What the hell was she going to do about the situation with Chase? They were supposed to just be taking things one day at time, but he was talking about taking her on trip to New York. Not something you did in a casual relationship.

  Try as she might to resist, Anna knew that she was falling for Chase. It was the only thing that explained how much she already missed him even though she’d just spent time with him. Seeing him made her so happy. Happier than she’d ever been with Greg, even back when it had been good between them.

  In the beginning, Greg had been considerate and sweet. His blond good looks had attracted Anna, and she’d liked his dry wit. They’d been together about six months when they’d moved in together. Not
long after that, the abuse had started and had continued until she just hadn’t been able to take it anymore.

  She’d finally gotten up the nerve to plan her escape and had run away back in May. She’d had to move twice. Chicago was a big place, and she’d been able to get lost in the city. Then she’d decided to move to another big city to make it even harder for Greg to track her down.

  Anna was careful not to post on social media under her real name, and she never posted pictures of herself. She also didn’t get on Facebook or Twitter on a regular basis. She’d closed all her old email addresses and changed her passwords once a week. Even though it cost extra money, she’d bought two new phones since leaving Cincinnati in May. She always made sure the GPS was turned off, and she never let websites track her movements.

  Now here she was on the cusp of a new relationship, and she was scared to get involved deeper with Chase. Holding back all her secrets felt like she was lying by omission, and it made Anna feel guilty. What was she going to do?

  She had to do the right thing by telling him so he could decide if he still wanted to see her. Some guys would run when they found out about her situation. Was Chase one of them? She didn’t think so, but she wouldn’t know until she’d discussed it with him.

  Tomorrow was Friday, and she prayed that Chase would be able to get home. She decided to enjoy the night with him and then have some serious discussions over the weekend. Feeling better about the situation, she plugged in her laptop and sat it on the other side of her bed. She started Chase’s CD and put it on replay. Then she turned off the lights, lay down, and fell asleep to his singing.

  Chapter 11

  Inhaling the scent of coffee, Anna started truly waking up as she poured a cup and sat down at her desk. Her cellphone rang, and she smiled when she saw that it was Chase.

  “Hi,” she said.

  “I’m gonna be at my place by noon. I don’t care what you have to do to get out of work, but be there and be naked.”

  He hung up leaving Anna to look at her phone in wonder over his forceful command. A smile spread across her face as excitement built inside. She had a meeting that morning and one in the afternoon, but for once, she was going to lie and get out of it.

  Picking up her office phone, she called Tom.

  “Oh, hi, Anna. How are you?” he asked.

  “I’m fine, thanks. I’m sorry, but I have to leave after the meeting this morning. Chase McIntyre called and said that he has some sort of emergency with those new mailers he ordered,” she said. “He wants to have a working lunch. I’m sure that Tristan can run the afternoon meeting since it’s just routine material to go over.”

  Tom said, “Whatever it takes to keep his business. We knew when we took him on that he’d be unpredictable. That’s fine.”

  “Okay. I have no idea how long it could take. It’s always hard to get him to focus,” she said.

  Tom chuckled. “Tell me about it. He called last week to ask me a couple of questions and we ended up talking about all kinds of stuff before we got around to business.”

  “I’m not surprised,” Anna said. “Okay. I’m going to finish preparing for the morning meeting. I’ll see you there.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Anna hung up and did a happy dance where she sat in her chair. Then she went back to work. Her job was too important, and she couldn’t afford to drop the ball and put it in jeopardy over a man. Her life depended on the money she made. Flaking out during that meeting wasn’t an option. With determination, she put Chase out of her mind as much as possible and went back to finalizing her presentation.

  * * *

  When Chase arrived at Horizon, almost everyone he passed greeted him and wanted to chat. Normally, he’d have enjoyed catching up with them, but there was only one person he wanted to see, and he fervently hoped that Anna was waiting upstairs for him. Even as he laughed and joked with a group of people on the elevator, he silently urged the conveyance to go faster.

  Chase hadn’t been so wild for a woman in… he tried to remember and came up with the answer: never. Even when he’d been heading out to a date, he’d been happy to stop and chitchat with whatever employees he encountered as he left the building. Not that day, though.

  When the elevator completely emptied on the 13th floor, he quickly entered the code that would bypass the other floors, taking it directly to his penthouse. Then he leaned against the wall, trying to calm himself down a little bit. Had it really been only three days since he’d been with Anna? It seemed more like six months.

  Chase ran a hand over the bulge in his jean-clad crotch, glad that he’d had his garment bag and briefcase to hold in front of him. He’d been able to keep his body under control until he’d reached LAX, but the closer he’d gotten to Horizon, the hotter his blood had run. Right now, he felt like he was back in Texas during the height of summer when it was 120° in the shade.

  What was it about Anna that turned him on so much? Was it her initial shyness? For damn sure she was the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. Auburn hair, green eyes, and a lush body that he wanted to have wrapped around him all the time.

  Looking at the floor numbers, he saw that he had four more to go. “Hurry the fuck up!” he yelled and kicked the wall behind him.

  It didn’t get him there any faster, but it blew off a little steam. He pulled out his keys when the elevator finally reached his floor. The doors opened, he found the right key, and stepped off. Looking up from his keys, the sight that greeted him almost made his pressure cooker of desire explode.

  Anna stood against the wall by his apartment door wearing only one of his dress shirts. One of her pretty legs was bent at the knee with her bare foot resting on top of the other one. Her wavy hair cascaded down over the front of the shirt, the lovely shade contrasting beautifully with the white material. And the come-hither look in her eyes made his temperature climb still higher.

  While he stared at her, she took a condom packet out of the breast pocket. She might as well have waved a red flag in front of a bull. Chase dropped his stuff where he stood and tossed his white cowboy hat aside.

  He strode up to her and snatched the condom from her fingers. “I told you to be naked.”

  She gave him a seductive look and reached for his belt buckle. “I don’t take orders from you. Ask me nicely.”

  “All right, then. Will you please get naked so we can screw our brains out?”

  Anna undid his fly. “That’s better.”

  Chase groaned and ripped open the condom wrapper when she freed his erection. Then he brushed her hands away when she went to stroke him and quickly rolled the condom down over his throbbing cock. Hooking a hand around the back of her neck, he pressed his lips to hers in a demanding kiss. He grunted when she bit his bottom lip and shoved his jeans down a little further.

  In return, he grabbed her shirt and yanked forcefully. Buttons popped, flying everywhere. Grabbing her ass, he hoisted her up, pinning her against the wall and giving her no choice but to wrap her legs around him. Even though he felt like a bull moose in rut, he entered her slowly, careful not to hurt her.

  Gripping her tighter, he pulled out and thrust in again, her gasp of pleasure telling him that it was time get down to business.

  * * *

  Chase filled her so completely and each stroke sent bliss surging through Anna. Moaning into his mouth, she took his hair out of its ponytail so she could bury her hands in the thick mass. She’d never been a fan of long hair on a man, but that had changed when she’d met Chase. It fit his personality, and she found it sexy as hell.

  He relinquished her mouth to bite her neck and started moving his hips harder and faster. She’d been as ready for him as he’d been for her, and every pounding thrust drove her closer to completion. Hanging on tightly to his shoulders, Anna started keeping rhythm with him, striving towards their common goal.

  Meeting his gaze, Anna saw that his eyes had turned almost black with desire, and her heart raced even faster to know t
hat she made him so crazy for her. She couldn’t look away from him, didn’t want to. The storm in his eyes was too fascinating to miss, and she wanted him to see that she felt the same way.

  His nostrils flared, and then he did something so sexy that it pushed her right to the edge. He bit his full bottom lip and his brows drew together in concentration. It was a look she’d never seen on Greg’s face, but she recognized it for what it was. He’s waiting for me.

  It was amazing how that one little movement was so incredibly erotic, and Anna wondered if he’d done the same thing the first time they’d been together. She’d been too lost in pleasure at that time to notice, but she noticed now.

  The first ripple of pleasure hit her, and she whimpered before whispering, “Come with me, Chase. Come with me.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  His next thrust suffused her whole body with ecstasy and the force of the sensations made her breath catch. When her lungs resumed working, a cry burst from her, echoing off the walls.

  Chase’s hands tightened almost painfully on her flesh and he ground his hips against her as his shoulders bunched. “Oh, shit, baby! Yes, yes, yes…”

  Even while in the grips of her own climax, the look of pleasure on his face mesmerized her. She took his face in her hands and kissed him, seeking his tongue when he parted his lips. They traded moans of bliss and satisfaction as they kissed while both of their bodies relaxed.

  Gradually, Chase let her slide down until her feet rested on the floor.

  * * *

  Looking in Anna’s lovely eyes as they stood there in the lobby as their passion ebbed away, a phrase reverberated in Chase’s mind. Tell her you can’t have children. But he couldn’t. His heart reached out to Anna’s with a message that he yearned to say aloud. I love you.

  But instantly, he shied away from it, locking it behind the protective walls he’d put up long ago. He fell back on his usual safeguard, hiding his innermost feelings with humor.

  Caressing Anna’s cheek, he smiled. “Well, now that we have that out of the way for the time being, how are you?”