by Weil, J. L.
I touched a cautious hand to Chase’s shoulder. “Chase,” I warned, in a firm yet soft tone. I had to stop this now.
Chase flinched. He eased his clutch on Brody, but not without a good shove into the wall first for satisfaction. “Next time, not even Angel will be able to stop me from wiping the floor with your face.”
“Was that necessary?” I asked, as we turned down the hallway.
“Define necessary?”
I huffed and hurried to my next class. Sometimes crossing words with Chase was so exhausting, and it was one of those days.
By the time school ended, I was fried. The more I simmered about what could have happened in the hallway, the angrier I got. He could have exposed himself. Lexi. Travis. Me. The drive home was utter silence. We were each mulling in our own parties of rage. Fun.
The moment my foot crossed over the threshold of my front door, I rounded on him. “What the hell was that?” I demanded.
He wasn’t the least put off by my disapproving tone. “I’m sick of him looking at you like you were a hot piece of ass. Not after what happened.”
I rolled my eyes walking straight into the kitchen with him fast on my heels. “You didn’t need to get all Rambo on me.”
“That was for his benefit, not yours.” His tone dropped below freezing, but I was too self-involved in my own anger to notice.
“Errr!” I screamed, whipping around to face him. “You are the most frustrating guy in the universe Chase Winters. You can’t control who looks at me for God’s sake. It’s not your business.”
Suddenly he was in my face, eyes gleaming like fiery meteorites. I gulped and raised my chin. He was not going to intimidate me.
A brow rose. “That’s where you are wrong. It is my business. You. Are. My business.”
I wanted to punt kick him in the nuts, and then stomp my foot down on his, except I couldn’t see his foot. There was no space between us. “Just because I share your mark doesn’t mean you control my life.” Things were getting heated. Things were spinning wildly out of control.
He burned me with his eyes and said the most barbaric words that sent my world out of orbit. “You. Are. Mine.”
We stood there toe-to-toe breathing heavily. I searched his eyes, unable to believe what had just come out of that gorgeous mouth. My entire body tingled. Oh, so not a good sign. “I’m not a piece of property,” I said, taking a step back.
He angled his head, tugging on the sleeve of my cardigan. “Where do you think you’re going?”
I smacked at his hand. “We’re done.” I wasn’t sure if I meant that figuratively or literally.
His hand wrapped around my wrist, pulling me against his chest, eyes snapping with a ring of topaz. “We’re just getting started,” he countered, in a dark and sexy voice. The hand at my wrist slid under my sleeve. Sparks hummed as he touched my skin. There was nothing in the world I could compare it to.
I didn’t want to be affected by this. Not by what he could make me feel. My body was screaming yes. It was like what happened in class today. He was always finding ways to touch me. “Why do you keep doing this to me?” I asked, flustered and flushed.
“Because I like to.”
That wasn’t really an answer. I drew in a deep breath, his scent infusing my senses, making me lightheaded. God, I like it too. “Chase,” I whispered his name. It was my final attempt to stop this before it got out-of-hand, or maybe it was just the opposite. A plea for what I knew was to come.
Whatever it was, Chase took advantage. I tipped my head back, watching him with dark blue eyes. His breath stroked warmly against my lips, and I felt his lips curl right before he pressed them to mine. Both my hands were pressed against his chest. They fisted the front of his cotton t-shirt as I tried to catch my breath. I meant to push him away, but I only pulled him closer.
My brain had shut down.
Chase kissed like it would be his last, long and breathless. There was an overload of emotions mixing around inside me. As easy as it would be to blame this link between us for these berserk emotions, I knew it was a lie. Usually, I’m pretty good at lying to myself, really lying in general. But this time, I knew that these intense feelings had been there before the night I died.
Oh sweet mother Mary and Joseph. Lips like his should be forbidden.
He left me moonstuck.
My back hit something solid. Unperturbed, he lifted me, and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he hoisted me on the counter with a disturbing ease. My new position gave me a vantage point I was thoroughly enjoying, making me just a smidge taller than him. I sunk my hands into his dark hair keeping those sinful lips locked to mine. His fingers dug into my upper thighs.
Wa-wowzers.
The electricity between us charged the air throughout the kitchen. His hands slid up my thighs, past my hips, and under my shirt. Simultaneously mine trailed down his spine and into the back pockets of his jeans. Lips smooth, his kisses were deep, scorching me to the very depth of my soul. Our tongues tangled in a dance as old as time. We were so caught up in each other that we didn’t hear the squeaking of hinges until it was too late.
The front door creaked open followed by a girlish giggle that broke through our passionate cloud. Pulling our lips apart, I looked toward the door. Lo and behold, there was my mom entangled around Devin like a trollop. Forget the fact that I was in a similar position. This was my mom.
“Mom?”
“Angel?”
We both said in stunned unison.
Chapter 10
Mom’s back hit the front door, and she rubbed the tension from her neck. Devin frowned. Chase grinned. And I jumped off the counter, utterly mortified.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
My mom ran her fingers down her caramel colored hair, trying to smooth away the tousled look courtesy of Devin. “I should probably be asking you the same thing, but it’s pretty obvious what you were doing. On my kitchen counter nonetheless.”
My cheeks turned a shade darker than beets. I was just glad I still had my shirt on. Ugh. The embarrassment. “I thought you were working today.” Truthfully, I never knew when she worked anymore. It seemed like she was gone more than she was home. And if she did have the day off, she went out with Devin.
“As you can see, I’m not.” Her lips formed a thin line.
Could this possibly get anymore awkward? And Chase was so not helping. I was two-seconds away from kicking him in the shin, anything to wipe that smirk off his mouth.
“Chloe, why don’t I take Chase next door so you and Angel can talk,” Devin volunteered, his hazel eyes looking displeased at his nephew.
“Good idea.” She turned to Devin. “I’ll call you later?”
Devin nodded his sandy hair out of his eyes. Mom and I both watched as Devin and Chase sauntered out the door.
God, he had a superb butt.
Mom cleared her throat.
Slowly, I tore my gaze from the closed door and met my mom’s soft eyes. She moved from the door to the couch, and I reluctantly followed. “I’m thinking we need to have a few rules about boys in the house while I’m at work.”
I sunk into the worn cushions. “What if we use the sock rule? If you are going to bring Devin to get your freak on, you put a sock on the front door. That way I’ll know not to disturb you.”
She sighed. “That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, but now that you mention it–” she said as if the thought had merit.
“Mom, gross,” I interrupted before this suddenly became a house rule. “I was kidding. The last thing I want to think about every time I see a sock is you and Devin naked.”
“I see your point, but the reality is I am gone most evenings, and now that you and Chase are more…involved, I don’t want you to end up pregnant. You are too young to get tied down.”
I pulled my knees up against my chest, hugging them. “Mom, it’s not like that.”
Her brow waggled. “Really? ‘Cuz what I just saw looked pretty intense.
”
There was no denying that. I could have said the same about her and Devin, but I knew she would play the adult card. Forget that I was turning eighteen soon. I fumbled with my hands, trying to find the words to explain what was between Chase and me. Not an easy task, especially since I myself didn’t have a clue. “It’s complicated.”
“You don’t have to tell me how complicated relationships can be. I just want you to be careful, not just with intimacy but with your heart as well. Seeing the two of you together makes me realize how serious things are. At the same time, I know that you are safe with Chase. He would never let anything harm you, but I don’t want him breaking your heart either.”
“That makes two of us,” I mumbled.
She casually brushed aside a piece of hair from my face, and then a huge grin bloomed on her face, followed by an escaped giggle. “That. Was. Hysterical.”
I just stared at her like she’d lost her mind.
“Oh my goodness, the look on your face when I opened the door – priceless,” she said, still laughing.
My own laugh joined hers. It really had been comical after the fact. I might have had a loser for a father, but my mom made up for it in tenfold. She was the best. I don’t know what I would have done without her.
~*~*~*~
The next morning, I hopped into my little white Fusion and drove myself to school. It was weird driving alone, not having to fight over stations with Chase and Lexi, not having to listen to Chase ridicule Lexi’s outfit choice for being overly sexy and inappropriate for school. It was peaceful.
I hated it.
Chase had plans afterschool like most afternoons lately. Slivers of curiosity and suspicion were starting to weave in my belly. Where was he going all the time? What was so important? It’s not like he had a job…This whole sneaking off thing was getting tiresome.
And yes, I was being nosey.
Call it female intuition, but I knew something fishy was going on. And I was going to figure it out.
Lexi, of course was no help. If it didn’t directly involve her somehow, she wasn’t the least bit concerned. She just shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’s Chase. Everything he does is a mystery.”
Ugh.
Why was I the only one who was worried?
Then there was the voice in my head. Because you are closer to him than anyone has ever been.
Sometimes the voice in my head could be such a nuisance.
The final bell rang on what turned out to be a very long school day. I went to my locker first to drop off my books and fished out my car keys. Stepping through the double front doors of the school, I watched stupefied from the sidewalk as a flashy silver car zoomed by.
It was impossible to mistake whose it was. I knew that car as well as I knew mine.
What I hadn’t been prepared for was the person seated comfortably in the passenger seat. Too cozy for my liking. The flaming red hair was distinctive.
Sierra.
The color drained from my face in disbelief and hurt. His eyes clashed with my own as I stood on the sidelines looking an idiot. And for a split-second, I swear I saw a spark of regret and maybe even pleading. But in that moment, I didn’t care. The lancing pain turned rapidly into searing rage.
Then I caught Sierra’s smirk as she noticed me. The gleam of satisfaction in her eyes made me want to go nuclear.
How dare he make me look like a fool? Make me think he cared.
I did the only sane thing a girl in my position would do. I flipped him off.
She was the last person in the universe I expected him to be sneaking off with. She was his so-called plans. For the first time since he saved me, I thought our bond truly, utterly, sucked ass.
It was a curse.
If he was fooling around with Sierra then this whole being linked crapola was a shamble. It didn’t mean jack, and this thing I thought we had going between us was bogus, nothing more than my overactive sick imagination and Chase’s cruel manipulation.
Damn half-demons.
He really was a heartless asshole.
In my head, I called him every colorful swear I could come up with. A sailor would have been proud.
How could I have possibly thought that a guy like Chase would be so infatuated with me? Would care about me? Would love me? Especially knowing he could have any girl he wanted. He could have Sierra. Why would he want to tie himself down to me for the rest of his life? It didn’t make sense that fateful night, and it made even less sense now.
What an utter fool I’d been. Just the other day he had his tongue blissfully down my throat. Then he turned around and snuck off with Sierra. And what pissed me off the most was that he made me look like a sucker. So here I was surrounded by dust, staring after the tail end of his car, flipping him the bird. My eyes welled with tears I refused to shed.
Or more like, I didn’t want to shed on the likes of Chase Winters. He didn’t deserve an ounce of my hurt, but the heart wasn’t easy to dupe. And right now, mine was shattering into a gazillion tiny, jagged pieces.
I wiped the sleeve of my blue cardigan over my eyes, erasing a few tears that had escaped. Through the smudge of my blurring vision, I saw the flashing of his red brake lights. My heart skipped, only to fracture again with an overwhelming new surge of agony when his silvery car turned onto the main road, full speed ahead.
The lying snake was going to pay.
As soon as I was able to pick my crushed heart off the concrete and piece it back together. Not only had Chase pummeled my heart, it was also the realization that I had cared. I had more than cared. I had started to fall in love with him. And that was as much a punch to the gut as seeing him go off with slutty Sierra was.
Suddenly, I couldn’t breathe.
Pressure squeezed in my chest and everything around me went silent. My feet felt super glued to the sidewalk. I couldn’t move. It wasn’t until a girl in a lower class accidently bumped into me that I stumbled back into the present. Running a shaky hand through my hair, I walked to my car like a mummy wrapped in anguish.
The ride back to my house seemed to take hours. I was numb. All I wanted to do was crawl into bed, pull down the blinds, and wallow in self-pity. But the longer he was gone, the stronger the pounding of anxiety knocked in my chest.
My bed was the only thing on my mind when I walked through the front door. I hit the silver comforter like a sobbing hot mess. The tears couldn’t be repressed any longer, and I needed to let go of all the hurt building inside me. It was like a flood of raw emotion.
Alone, I shut myself off from the world. I shut myself off from him. Ignored the phone calls. Dismissed the text messages. But as long as he was gone, my body wouldn’t give into the sleep I desperately wanted. Sleep – the one chance to flee from the ache.
I watched the clock above my door, as the little hand clicked and clicked in slow motion around in a circle. The room darkened with nightfall, while I lay curled into a ball, wishing this connection between us was severed. Then on a sharp intake of air, I opened my eyes and the anxiousness was gone. Every muscle in my body relaxed, losing the tension that seemed to have increased with each passing minute.
Shitbrick was home.
What I wanted to do was get up, stomp across his yard, karate chop the door, and give him the lashing of the decade. However my worn body had other plans, lashes fluttered close as I pulled the covers to my chin and promptly fell in a deep slumber.
Tomorrow would be another matter entirely.
~*~*~*~
I was up at the crack of dawn, something that was completely unheard of, but the little sleep I’d gotten had been sound. It might have been completely naïve of me, but I had almost hoped that when I awoke, this gut-retching hurt would be gone.
It wasn’t.
Bracing myself on the bathroom sink, I groaned in horror at the sight that stared back at me. I looked like I’d been ravished by a zombie. And these puffy, red, and swollen eyes weren’t going to miraculous vanish.
&
nbsp; I cursed him a thousand different ways standing there in the middle of the bathroom mirror before I decided that I wasn’t going to let him see my pain. If it killed me, I was going to look fabulous. Nothing a shower, two frozen spoons, and some heavy makeup couldn’t fix.
Or so I prayed.
After a long, steaming hot shower, I plodded to my closet. Tearing open the doors, I started to rummage through my clothes like a woman on a mission. Then I realized my wardrobe sucked some serious ass. That was all it took for a wave of heartache to bombard me again. I slid down the wall and put my head on my knees. Wet hair fell over my shoulders.
I needed to be stronger than this. It wasn’t like we had a commitment to each other, but tell that to my bleeding heart. Why was what we had between us, so complex? I deserved better. I deserved respect and honesty. I picked myself off the floor with renewed determination.
I was one of the first to arrive at school, leaving before Chase had a chance to catch me. It would be impossible to not run into him, but snubbing was another matter entirely. And that was just what I had done. However, chem class was unavoidable and the few others we now had together thanks to his demon persuasion.
At the first whisper of his breath against my neck I nearly hit the class ceiling. “The silent treatment. Really Angel? I thought you were more creative than that.”
“Shocking. I always thought you were a douchebag. Now I know you are.” So much for biting my tongue.
“Angel Eyes it’s not what it seems.”
“Don’t. Call. Me. That.” I gritted my teeth.
“Meet me at my house, after school. I’ll prove it.” The end of his pencil outlined a pattern on the back of my shirt.
As if. Even as the thought fluttered in my head, I couldn’t suppress the shudder that tore through me. Damn him. Leaning forward on my desk, I tried to stay out of his reach.
He chuckled under his breath.
I wanted to jam that pencil down his throat. He wouldn’t be chuckling then.