Being Chased

by Harper Bentley

  ****

  Julia awoke with a start. She'd been having a dream that she and Chase were arguing. Go figure. Looking at the clock, she saw it was almost six. She lay there for a bit listening. She thought she heard him in the living room but wasn't sure. Putting on her robe, she opened her door and saw that his was shut. Maybe he'd forgotten to leave his open or he was in the shower.

  She went to the kitchen to get a cup of coffee. But as she turned to go back to her bedroom, she gasped when she saw Chase out on the terrace, his back to her. He was naked to the waist, having on sleep pants that rested low on his hips. Whoa. She watched curiously as he did some kind of martial art stretching, the muscles in his back tightening and shifting with each move. God, he was built.

  After gaping at him for several minutes she hurried to her room in case he turned around, not wanting him to catch her ogling him. The plan’s to ignore him not drool over him, Julia! She got dressed then went to the kitchen to eat a toasted bagel with jam. Chase was nowhere to be seen. A few minutes later he walked in, freshly showered, his hair a wet, spectacular mess. He nodded a "good morning" at her. She smiled a little at him as she sat at the bar reading the newspaper.

  Chase’s lips twitched and he shook his head slightly. She was just beautiful and had no idea. She wore her hair in a French twist, her black suit too damn sexy. Her legs were crossed and the red stilettos she wore were hotter than hell.

  "There's cereal in the cabinet over there," she pointed for him, "and frozen waffles in the freezer. Bagels are by the toaster over there, or you can have toast. Chef's choice." She turned her back on him, once again reading the news.

  He opted for a bowl of Cheerio's then leaned against the counter behind her eating.

  "So, did you like what you saw this morning?" He watched her body stiffen as she realized what he’d said.

  Her head shot up from the paper, and she looked straight ahead, afraid to turn and look back at him. "What?"

  "I asked if you liked what you saw."

  Holy shit. How'd he know she'd watched him? "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "How 'bout we try this again, and you tell the truth this time?"

  She could feel his eyes boring into the back of her head and her breathing sped up. How could he have known? She sat quietly, her mind racing trying to find something to say.

  "So?"

  "So, what?" she whispered.

  "Did you like what you saw?"

  He was having a great time messing with her. He'd seen her out of the corner of his eye that morning watching him. And when she automatically tensed up when he first asked her the question, he couldn’t help but chuckle. She'd been caught and she knew it.

  She got up, walking over to the sink to rinse her coffee cup out, placing it on a towel to dry. When she turned to walk away, his hand shot out, grabbing her by the wrist, turning her back toward him. She looked down at his fingers then up into his gray eyes, halfway startled. There was tons of intensity there that she hadn't expected. Was he serious?

  "Well? Did you?"

  "D-did I what?" she stammered.

  "Did you like what you saw?" Their eyes were still locked. His were now dark, the color of a stormy sky, damn near smoldering into hers, which surprised her. He looked like he might kiss her again.

  "Yes," she said quietly. Argh. Damn her stupid mouth.

  He was actually surprised that she'd answered him. He'd just been teasing. He hadn’t meant for this to get serious, but his plans always seemed to backfire on him when it came to her. They stood looking at each other for a few seconds. Goddamn it, he wanted her. Jesus. Had to put an end to this now. He leaned into her smirking. "Are you trying to seduce me again, Miss Cooke?"

  "Let me go," she hissed, her eyes flashing with anger as she tried to pull her arm out of his grasp. She didn't need this shit again.

  He chuckled and let her arm go. He knew he was an ass, but damn it if she wasn't a cock tease, and not by any fault of her own. She was so owning him right now and all he could do was buckle up and hang on for dear life.

  Chapter 8

  The next day was the same—tension-filled with Chase wanting to kiss Julia every time he laid eyes on her. He kept waiting for things to get better, for this feeling to pass. Uh, not happening. And now that she seemed to be actively trying to ignore him, it just made things worse. He wanted her more than ever.

  He understood what was going on. He was insanely attracted to her, and now that he'd gotten a taste of her he wanted more. And because the male ego is as fragile as it is, he knew her ignoring him was setting all of this into warp-speed motion. And this was only half of what he was dealing with. The other part of him, the intelligent, levelheaded part, the sane part, knew he needed to let things alone. Stop with this idiotic desire, this craving he felt toward her and handle things in a strictly business-like manner. Hell, maybe she'd do something that totally turned him off and he'd finally get over her.

  That evening when he picked her up from work, she had to stop by the bank. He went in with her, standing near the entrance as she found a line. He was impressed with her. Here she was, the daughter of one of the most powerful men in the city waiting in line. Chase watched as people who worked there smiled and nodded in recognition at her, a couple of them even came up and spoke to her, and yet she was so gracious, not acting at all like she was above them, never using who she was to her advantage. His level of respect for her hit an all-time high. It seemed that everything she did just endeared her to him that much more.

  So much for her turning him off.

  ****

  That evening Chase helped Julia make tacos for dinner. If this kept up, he might actually be able to fix some decent meals back at his apartment.

  They cleaned up the kitchen afterward.

  "So, anything you want to do now?" he asked her.

  "What do you mean?" There was the suspicion again.

  "I just wanted to know if you wanted to watch a movie or something. Calm down."

  "Oh. Well, sure, I guess." She actually found herself a little excited. She usually spent all her evenings alone at home, so to have company, whether it was her damned bodyguard who was “hands-off” or not, was kind of cool. "What do you want to watch?"

  "I brought some with me knowing I'd probably be bored," he said sheepishly.

  She raised her eyebrow at him. Alrighty then. "So what do you have?"

  Chase rattled off a bunch of movie titles that all sounded like guy flicks. Julia imagined bombs going off, car chases, extreme sports, stuff she couldn't have cared less about. They finally settled on The Ring. She’d never seen it, and though she didn't really care for scary movies, she guessed it was better than the stupid action-packed ones. She also didn't want to come off as being chickenshit.

  She microwaved some popcorn, making a bowl for each of them, and coming into the living room, handed Chase his bowl where he sat on the couch making himself comfortable. She sat down in the big chair to the sofa's other side.

  "Ready?" he asked.

  "As ever."

  From the get-go, Julia was scared shitless, but she wasn't about to let Chase know this. But what the hell had she been thinking? She hadn't watched a scary movie since Lily had had a sleepover when they were twelve, and they'd stayed up watching The Exorcist, the release with creepy, demonized girl spider walking down the stairs, and Julia had just about lost it. She hadn't been able to sleep by herself for a month. Allen had had to have Peggy spend the night, sleeping in Julia's room, just so she didn't wake up screaming in the middle of the night as she’d done the night after the sleepover scaring the bajeebus out of Allen.

  Grow up, dummy. It's just a movie. It's not real. Not. Real. There's no such video out there. Your phone doesn't ring after you watch it. You don't die seven days later. And girls can't climb out of TVs.

  No matter how much she repeated this to herself, she was still scared to death.

  Chase had kept an eye on her, not letting her know
he was watching her, of course. But at different points of the movie, he noticed she’d moved closer to him and he had to purse his lips to keep from laughing. By the time the little boy in the movie had watched the video, and the mother freaked out, Julia was all but in his lap, clutching his arm, digging her nails into it probably drawing blood.

  "So," he started and Julia screamed at the top of her lungs… right in his ear. Jesus.

  She looked around, obviously not knowing how she'd gotten on the couch, much less how she was apparently attempting to be his Siamese twin.

  "Oh, God! I'm sorry," she said, blushing quickly. "I don't know how I ended up over here." She scooted away from him, placing a pillow between them.

  "Not a big deal," Chase chuckled. He'd loved the fact that she'd been sitting so near him. So probably a good thing that she moved away now.

  Before the movie ended, though, Julia was once again trying to fuse herself to him. She'd crept closer to him as she'd watched, her eyes wide, holding the pillow in front of her, playing peek-a-boo with the TV screen. She'd watch, then cover her eyes with the thing, lower it and watch, then cover. It was then that Chase discovered he had an infinite amount of restraint because he'd been dying to crack up the entire time.

  At the last scene, Julia started talking to the characters, which absolutely killed him.

  "No! You can't do that! Someone else will watch and then they'll die! But then the little boy won't die. But that's still wrong! What are you doing?" she screamed at the TV. "I cannot believe she did that. Cannot believe it!"

  He couldn't hold it in any longer. Chase burst out laughing, folding over at his waist, then sat up wiping away tears.

  "What?" Julia asked, scowling at him.

  "You." He snorted. "You're talking to a TV."

  "I can't help it! Can you believe she's going to make someone else watch that video?" She looked at him in disbelief, extending her arm toward the television.

  "Julia, it's a movie. It's not real." He snickered.

  She stood up now feeling like an idiot. She'd always done that with movies or TV shows, gotten caught up in them. Guess she'd developed a good imagination, not having had brothers or sisters around, having to always entertain herself. Now she felt like a dumbass.

  "Yeah, you're right. Whatever. I'm going to bed." She picked up their empty bowls, taking them to the kitchen then turned and headed to her bedroom, mortified that she'd gotten so carried away with the stupid flick.

  Chase chuckled as she left the room. He stayed up for a bit, watching SportsCenter, then checked the alarm, and went to bed. He stopped at Julia's door for a few seconds. She was asleep, thank God. He'd been afraid the movie might've bothered her, keeping her up.

  He went to his room, taking a shower then put on his sleep pants. Checking the Glock on the bedside table, he lay down and soon drifted off.

  The next thing he knew a bone chilling scream rang out. Grabbing the gun, he ran out of his room across the hall to Julia's room. She wasn't in there. Shit! He moved toward the living room, ready to shoot the intruder. He saw Julia standing in the middle of the living room looking horrified, fists curled against her chest. Looking around, ready to shoot anything that moved, he saw nothing.

  "What is it?" he hissed at her.

  "I… I… thought that girl… that Ring girl… I could've sworn I saw her crawling out of the TV."

  He just stared at her. Was she fucking kidding him? He brought the gun down to his side.

  "Are you okay?" he asked, his heart rate finally slowing down some.

  She started crying. "I'm sorry. I didn't know you had a gun. Oh, God, someone could've been hurt."

  "It's okay. You're fine," he shushed her, going to her and placing the gun on an end table then wrapping his arms around her.

  "I'm so stupid. I should've told you that scary movies make me act like an idiot." Her arms were still curled in front of her, as she cried against his bare chest.

  He kissed the top of her head. "I'm just glad you're okay. Shhh."

  She sniffed. "I'm really sorry." She looked up at him, feeling like a complete fool.

  He cupped her face, his thumbs wiping away her tears. The look of distress in her eyes, along with a trace of fear still there from what she thought she'd seen, cut into him. "It's okay."

  Wow. He gazed at her so understanding, and he was so warm against her, she couldn't help herself as she tiptoed up, kissing him softly, sweetly.

  He stiffened at the contact and didn't kiss her back, full well knowing this wasn't a good idea. But as her lips touched his again and then once more, her body pressed firmly against his, he felt his own body responding to her, and his lips reciprocated as he leaned down and tentatively kissed her back, his hands on her hips as hers laced around his neck.

  It was then he realized she was wearing the same kind of thing she'd worn the other morning, a tiny top with thin straps and short shorts, leaving barely anything between them. A low moan escaped him as he pulled her closer, wrapping his arms around her, the kiss deepening.

  His lips moved to her neck, but then he buried his face in her hair, groaning as he tried convincing himself to stop, tried to gain control of his actions. His hands dropped, resting on her hips again, but Julia didn't want him to stop, and she ran her hands over his strong shoulders, his biceps. She let out a sigh of relief as she felt his lips pressing against her neck once again, moving down to her collarbone and a sound of desire emanated from deep in her throat.

  Chase's hands moved up her body, resting under her breasts, his thumbs moving over her nipples that were taut under her thin top. As his thumbs caressed her hard peaks, she closed her eyes, biting her lip and moaning with pleasure.

  The way she responded to him broke him. He couldn’t have stopped then if the place were on fire.

  His right hand came up, yanking the strap of her top down her arm, his mouth moving over her shoulder then to where the fabric had fallen away, kissing the swell of her breast, his head dipping lower as he took her nipple in his mouth. Julia groaned and dug her fingernails into his biceps, wanting him, needing him so badly, her body shuddering against him.

  Through her haze, she recognized a sound but couldn't quite place it. It was at the door, the buttons on the lock making their little beeping sound. When her body tensed, Chase pulled back quickly, looking down at her.

  "Peggy," she whispered. The housekeeper was there. Julia scrambled to right her top, and Chase took his hands off her as Peggy came inside the apartment.

  "Oh! Good morning," she said after flipping on a light seeing them standing there, while she disarmed the alarm. "You startled me!"

  "I'm sorry Peggy. I, uh, had a bad dream and was telling Chase about it. Um, Chase, this is Peggy, our wonderful housekeeper, cook, all-everything woman," Julia said, chuckling breathily. "Peggy, this is Chase, my, uh, bodyguard."

  Peggy came over and shook Chase's hand. "It's very nice meeting you, Chase." She smiled at him.

  "Nice meeting you too, Peggy," he said, embarrassed to be standing there with no shirt on, crossing his arms over his chest.

  "No need to worry, son." She patted his arm. "I've got three boys of my own, all grown and married now, but, I'll tell you, our house was like the neighborhood nudist colony there for a bit." She laughed. "I guess you guys feel the need to show off those awesome muscles, huh?"

  Chase chuckled, his daily dose of humiliation now delivered. "I've, uh, got to get ready. I'll see you in a bit." He glanced at Julia, a troubled look on his face as he picked up his gun then headed toward the guestroom.

  Julia put her head in her hands. Holy shit. How in the world had that just happened? Well, duh. Hot as hell guy left alone in an apartment with her, the same guy she'd fantasized about while using Johnny, and, yeah, this was bound to happen. So much for ignoring him.

  "You okay?" Peggy asked.

  "Yeah. I'm good. Just kinda shaken. We watched a stupid scary movie last night and it got to me. I had a bad dream then thought I saw som
ething here in the living room. Good times." Julia shuddered out a breath.

  Peggy looked at her, shaking her head. "Julia! You know better than to watch those things. Don't you remember my having to stay with you when you were younger?"

  "Yeah, I know. It was really dumb of me." Julia shook her head too, apologized then went to her bedroom to get ready for work.

  This had been her fault. She knew that. She'd been the one to cross the line with Chase this time, but things could go back to normal, she was sure of it. After dressing, she took a deep breath, and steeling her resolve, left her room, going to the kitchen to eat breakfast.

  Across the hall, Chase sat on the edge of the bed holding his head in his hands. What the fuck had just happened? Jesus. Hell, he might as well follow the "Brock Rule" and sleep with her so he could move the hell on. But damn it, seemed the more he got of her, the more he wanted.

  He pushed the palms of his hands into his eyes to think for a second. Okay. Nothing was impossible. He could salvage things, move back into professional mode. And wasn't that going to be just as easy as pie?

  ****

  Julia was sitting at the bar eating her toasted bagel and reading the paper when Chase came into the kitchen.

  "Hey," she mumbled, her mouth full. Oh, now, that was ladylike.

  "Hey," he said back, fixing himself a bowl of Frosted Flakes, leaning against the counter as he ate.

  Good. This was doable. Things seemed kind of okay. They ate in silence, listening to Peggy moving around in other rooms.

  "Ready?" Julia sneaked a look at him as she rinsed her coffee cup. Oh, thank God, he was grinning at her.

  "Yep." He felt the tension leave the room immediately and knew they were good.

  "Bye, Peggy! Have a great day!" Julia hollered out as they left.

  "You too, dear! Bye, Chase!" Peggy answered from Allen's office where she was dusting.