by Stacey Lynn
I throw my wallet and room key into my back pocket and hold my hand out to her. To my surprise, she takes it as if it’s the most natural thing in the world.
“Let’s go get you relaxed,” I tell her. She follows me, not questioning why I’m walking her down to the spa. Why am I? I have no idea except for maybe the fear that she’ll take off if I let her out of my sight.
She’s silent in the elevator and for the walk through the hotel lobby to the spa. My sense of smell is assaulted when we get close to the door. I can never understand why women need to slather themselves with so many different smells when men don’t care, but Mia loves this girly shit; so girly shit she gets.
As soon as we reach the check-in counter, she turns to me. Her lips are turned slightly down and she looks uncertain when I look down at her.
“Thanks for doing this for me. I know I’ve been a bitch, and I’m sorry.” I frown, watching her look so nervous around me. It’s something new I’ve never seen in her before and my heart sinks, wondering what she’s going to tell me. “I’ve had a lot going on these last few weeks, but this massage is exactly what I need.” She leans up, kisses me softly on the cheek and takes a step away, letting my hand go. “So, thanks again. I’ll see you when I’m done?”
I stand there, nodding like a fool, and watch her walk away. And I can’t stop wondering the entire time she’s gone – what in the hell does she have to be so nervous about? Breaking my heart and running? Or finally admitting she wants me?
By the time my massage is done, my body feels completely relaxed while my head feels more confused than ever.
I truly had no idea I was so stressed out until Chase’s hands were on mine this morning, immediately erasing all the anger I had so quickly stored up when our plane arrived in Napa.
I’m not being fair to him and I know it. I’m still upset that he trapped me here, although who am I kidding? If I really wanted to leave, I could have called a cab and had it take me to the nearest open airport in San Francisco. I could have been on a plane late last night, or at a hotel far away from Chase and his ridiculous plot to get me alone with him. I could have demanded a separate room. So why didn’t I?
The question has been in the front of my mind since I stepped into the gorgeous hotel room and realized all the work he put into our weekend trip.
But I have more than just losing my job to deal with. I swallow the lump in my throat at the thought. My anger at Chase and planning to help Nicole with her wedding has temporarily made me forget about all the other bullshit going on in my life, but being alone this morning has given me the time to solely focus on all my fears all over again. I don’t have to return my doctor’s phone calls to know what she’s going to say. I’ve known it’s been coming for years.
I close my eyes, letting the pressure of the water beat down on me.
He wants all of me for one week, but what he doesn’t realize is that I have always given everything I have to him. I just don’t have anything more to give. He looks at me as if he can see something in me that simply isn’t there. I can give him this week because maybe if he finally sees me for who I truly am, he’ll finally realize that I can never give him what he wants.
I step out of the shower dressed only in my towel and grab a bottle of wine from the wine fridge in the kitchen. The best part about this weekend? Free, fabulous tasting wine from the local wineries. I smile as the fruity and smooth texture of the Riesling wine hits my tongue and slides down my throat.
I pick up my cell phone and type out a text to Nicole.
I’m so pissed at you for your part in this weekend. Thanks a lot.
I add a smiley face so she knows I’m just giving her a hard time. I’m upset, but I had it coming to me.
Nic: Payback is a bitch, yeah? :-)
I smile, knowing she’s talking about when Zack and Nic first met and I gave Zack her address and phone number as soon as he showed an interest her. I knew from the beginning he’d be good for her, even if it only led to a short-term fling to get her moving on from the loss of her family.
She’s probably been plotting her revenge for over two years. Payback is mostly definitely a bitch.
I sigh when I spot the hot tub on our private terrace. If I’m going to stay here this weekend, I’m determined to enjoy it and push the rest of my problems to the back of my mind until I absolutely have to face them.
I’m in the middle of tying my bikini top behind my back when I hear the door to our suite open and then close. Chase is at my doorway in seconds and then freezes immediately.
His eyes go hazy looking for a second as he just stands there, watching me wearing my short pajama shorts and a half-on bikini top that is really nothing more than a couple triangles and a few pieces of string.
I smile at him, looking at him over my shoulder. “Are you going to stand there staring at me, or do you want to help me put this on?”
He grins devilishly and takes a few steps closer. I turn around and hold out the strings for him behind my back but he doesn’t take them. Instead he leans over me – more like towers over me – and brings his lips close to my ear. I wonder if he enjoys watching me shiver and come apart under his warm breath and sexy voice.
“I most definitely do not want to help you put this on.” But even as he says it, he’s tying the strings at my back into a knot. And then he slowly wraps his hands around to the front of my stomach, slowly covering my abdomen before rubbing them around to my back and up to the sides of my swimsuit top. “I take it based on how you’re dressed and not packed and ready to leave that you’ve decided to say?”
He spins me around so I’m facing him, leaving his warm hands at the top of my hip bones.
“I’ll stay.” I watch him breathe out a sigh of relief at my news and then I look him up and down. He’s dressed in a pair of jeans that are ripped at the knees – from wear, not fashion – and a tight simple black t-shirt that flexes perfectly across his chest. “I thought I’d get in the hot tub and enjoy the view for a little bit. Wanna join me?”
I walk past without waiting for his answer, knowing he’ll follow me. And with my decision made to stay and enjoy my time, I feel less stressed than I have in months. I can do this.
“So what made you decide to stay?” Chase asks me. We’re sitting in the hot tub, facing one another with the hills to his back. We haven’t said anything since he joined me, but I’ve been slowly raking my eyes up and down his entire body.
It’s not just that Chase has a nice body. It’s perfection in the finest form. A true work of art with every muscle defined on his eight pack down to the ‘V’ just above his waist band. His colorful tattoos all over his shoulder make me want to lick and taste every mark that is on his skin.
Sexual chemistry has never been our problem.
I run my eyes down his chest and his arms that are spread wide over the edges of the tub and smile. “It’s a nice view, I need to relax, and the free wine doesn’t hurt.”
“So nothing to do with me.”
I shrug. “I said the view was nice.”
In a blink of an eye, he pulls me to him so I’m straddling his lap, my wine splashing all over the place.
“You going to give me this week like you said you would on the plane?”
His eyes give me a challenging look, and this time, I’m willing to take the dare. I don’t know if it’s the heat from the water, or my desire to avoid the decisions I have to make in the upcoming weeks, or just the simple fact that when he looks at me like this, I realize that I really do like Chase.
“I’m all in,” I manage to get out right before his lips crash into mine. I only hope we both escapes with our hearts and heads still firmly intact.
When the kiss ends, we’re both breathless but he lets me go. I move back to my seat in the hot tub, safely away from his touch and the way his fingers make my skin sizzle whenever he’s near.
Even Chase has gotten into the wine tasting tour he brought me on. Several glasses later, everything seems a little bit
brighter. The highlight of the day has been the tour that took us into a wine caves carved right into the side of the mountains where all of their wines are stored and aged. I can’t believe that I’m here, in Napa Valley, tasting delicious wine with a man who is sex on a stick and looks at me like he wants to throw me down in between the rows of the vineyard and have his wicked way with me.
We’ve spent the afternoon, holding hands and walking through our private tour that Chase arranged, tasting everything from their White Zinfandels to Cabernet Sauvignons that they harvest on their land.
“This is absolutely amazing,” I say after taking a sip of the most delicious Cabernet Sauvignon wine I’ve tasted in my life, followed by some of the most exquisite scallops and lobster I’ve ever consumed. The food at our resort is incredible. Everything is decorated in straight modern lines but with romantic lighting that makes me want to sit down, put my feet up, and never leave.
I hiccup after I finish my glass. It may be time to cut me off.
“You ready to get out of here?” Chase asks, laughing softly at my slight tipsiness.
I moan through my mouthful of lobster. “No way, I could stay here forever.”
“We can always come back tomorrow for lunch.”
I peer at him over another forkful of food as he smiles at me. Smiling at me like I’m the most precious thing in the world to him, like if I could only fall in love with him, he’d prove his love to me every day for the rest of his life. Or mine.
The thought is so heady I sober almost immediately, pushing away my completely spotless plate. I am definitely not one of those women who care about what they eat in front of men. Chase hasn’t seemed to care as I’ve moaned and groaned through my entire meal.
I nod. “I’m ready. What next?”
“You might need to get to bed … my bed.” He adds at the end with the hint of another challenge in his eyes. One that I’m not quite ready to accept although I have no doubt in my mind where the night is ending. But with the look in his eyes, I can’t take it yet.
“Let’s go dancing.”
He studies me for a minute, making me feel like he’s trying to ferret out and unravel every secret I keep closely guarded. And then nods.
“My hands on your hips, rubbing our sweaty bodies all over each other?” he says, placing his napkin on the table and reaching for my hand as he stands up. “Sounds like perfect foreplay to me.”
Oh my God, can Chase dance. Choosing his option of going to bed would have been a safer bet. At least there I could turn the lights off and pretend I can’t see him. But in this nightclub, my insides are a quivering mess every time Chase grips my hips, pressing my back against his chest. Which is a lot. He hasn’t had a hand not touching me, pulling me to him in some way, ever since we got here and I’m not only regretting switching only to water, but rethinking my entire plan of being able to keep Chase away. When his hands are on me, caressing my stomach and down to my thighs before moving back up and holding me possessively around the nape of my neck, pulling my hair back slightly so I have no other choice but to look straight at him as he grinds his hips into me, I simply can’t think.
I can only feel. And damn it if he doesn’t feel like the best thing that’s touched my body in probably ever.
I’m lost in the music and the feel of Chase’s body against mine when he spins me around so my back is to his chest. One of his thighs presses in between mine from the back and his arms wrap around my waist, pulling me against him. There isn’t a single inch separating us right now and I can feel his heart pounding against my back and his breath against my cheek.
As he runs his hands up my waist, and then laces my arms around his neck before he brings his hands back to my hips, I feel his arousal pressing into me. It makes me remember the first time we were together.
“I’m surprised you didn’t leave with Nic tonight,” Chase says to me quietly. We’re sitting on the tour bus. All the guys have showered and finished their concert and Zack is upstairs slamming things against the wall in his room. Chase and Garrett went up there immediately after Nicole left in a taxi to try to calm him down, but he screamed a stream of obscenities and locked his door.
Short of kicking it down and busting the door, there’s nothing anyone can do for him right now.
I take a sip of my water and look to Chase. “I know Nicole. She’s going to go home and stew about this for days, avoiding everyone, me especially. I can’t do anything for her right now, but she’ll work through this. She really likes Zack and I know it’s scaring her right now.”
“Because of Mark?”
I nod. “She feels guilty for moving on, like it’s too soon. But she deserves it and it’s not like anyone expects her to say single forever. Mark would hate that, especially.”
He smiles at me. One corner of his lips tweak up and a mysterious gleam appears in eyes. “I’m glad you’re here. And I’m glad I didn’t have to wait for you to come to L.A.”
I smile. My worries about Nicole flee my brain. “Why are you so happy about this?”
He pulls me up from the couch, not seeing the wicked grins Jake and Garrett are flashing him, and walks me backwards toward the back room. I know what’s in that room. It’s the room Nicole slept in, the room she fled just hours ago. But somehow, I’m not thinking about her. All I’m thinking about is this large sexy man in front of me, pulling me toward a bed, and I can’t wait to see what he has planned for me.
“Tell me what you’re thinking, babe.” His voice is low in my ear, just barely loud enough to be heard above the pounding bass on the dance floor. I’m shocked we’re still here. I was so lost in my memories of Chase that it felt as if I was transported back in time. My body shivers, remembering how good it felt to be so completely surrounded by Chase that night.
But there’s no way I’m telling him that. Instead, I shake my head.
“Want to know what I was thinking about?” I’m pretty sure I don’t. I’m almost positive he’s going to tell me anyway.
“I was thinking about the night of the FMCA award show,” he whispers huskily into my ear and his hands start moving slowly against me. I moan. Thank goodness he can’t see me even though I know the blush on my cheeks has expanded to my neck and throat. “We got home that night and I helped you shower.” Helping me shower is describing the term loosely. Chase yanked me into the shower before we even got our clothes pulled off, ruining my fancy dress in the process, and then pressed me up against the wall before I knew what was going on and cleaned every single inch of my body. First with his tongue, lips, and hands, and then once we were good and dirtied up, washed me again with soap.
His memory, coupled with mine makes me cave. “I think that bed sounds like a really good idea now.”
We’re a fumbling mess of hands and kisses by the time we reach our room. Chase moans against my throat as his hands fumble with the zipper of my dress. He’s pressed me up against the dresser in his room and I’m trying to kick my shoes off, but they’re strapped too tight and I can’t reach them.
“Chase, stop.” I get the words out and he immediately pulls back.
“What?” He pants it out, his breathing heavy. He looks flustered and disappointed.
I smile. “I can’t get my shoes off.” I wiggle my foot and he looks down at them. A small smile appears.
“Leave them on.” He pulls me back to him again. He ignores the zipper this time and lifts it up to my waist. My legs open up and he slides in between them, pressing the tight bulge of his jeans against me. His hands go to my waist and he holds me even tighter. My body begins to tremble as the thick cotton of his jeans moves against the thin fabric on my panties. His lips come back to mine, and I lick my lips, thinking he’s going to kiss me again, but he doesn’t. They brush lightly against mine and he rests his forehead on mine.
“Do you have any idea how much I want you?”
I look down at the bulge in his jeans and smile. I wiggle against him and he groans. “I think I have a pretty g
ood idea.”
“You are so beautiful, babe.”
Without another word, he picks me up and carries me to his bed. He sets me down gently before standing over the edge, slowly removing his own shirt. I think a small amount of drool runs down the side of my mouth. Chase’s body is just fantastic. There aren’t words to describe how hot he looks with his tattoo that starts at his chest and wraps around his shoulder. I love tracing it with my fingertips and watching him shiver beneath me. His body is large and perfectly defined.
“Chase.” His name comes out as a whisper. I can hardly think straight when he looks at me with such desire in his eyes. My hands go to my underwear and I start pulling them down, but Chase bends over and stops me.
He shakes his head and I frown. “I want to do this.”
I nod and he climbs on to the bed. My hands go to his jeans and I unbutton them, softly cupping the bulge in his jeans with one hand.
He moans and I feel my panties slowly pulled down my legs. The lace tickles my knees and calf muscles as he slowly, torturously so, removes them.
“I need you,” I whisper again. Chase’s eyes moves to mine as his hands start massaging my ankles, moving slowly but firmly back up my legs. When he reaches my thighs, my hips buck against him, silently telling him how much I want him.
He leans down and kisses me softly. “Let me make love to you, Mia.”
A lump instantly appears in my throat and I turn my head away from him. Love? A strange nervousness fills me and I feel the sudden urge to escape. To run from this man who is so desperate for me, I can see it in his eyes and in the firm feel of his hands against me, as if he knows those words would scare the hell out of me and he’s pinning me in place. Keeping me from running.
“Look at me,” he whispers into my ear, but I shake my head, refusing to look at him. His hands leave my thighs and his body presses against me. He feels perfect and I let out a whimper because he feels so good against me. His hands cup the back of my neck, his elbows next to my shoulders, and he turns my head so I have no other choice but to face him.