Enjoying the Chase (10 page)
As I strutted into her kitchen without
waiting for her, I heard her chuckling
behind me.
“Make yourself at home, why don
’
t you?” she teased, as I started up her coffee machine.
“I will
.”
As I turned, I saw her standing just behind
me. I grinned as I set my hands on her hips and lifted her onto the counter. A
sexy little squeak of surprise left her lips as a blush coloured her cheeks. While
she busied herself pulling on the bottom of her dress, trying to cover up her
legs where it had risen up, I grabbed two mugs from the cupboard that I
’
d seen her get them from last time.
We took the coffees into the lounge and
when she sat herself on the sofa next to me, instead of one of the two other
free chairs, I decided to take that as a good sign. Now, if I could get her to
agree to come out with me again, then maybe I would have a real chance with
her. I
’
d just have to be patient
for a few dates until she was ready to give it up. I could be patient; well, I
was pretty sure I could anyway; I
’
d
never actually tried.
We talked easily about movies that we
’
d seen recently or things that she wanted to
see. She was gushing about some crappy sounding romantic comedy that she wanted
to see. It sounded like a total chick flick to me – my worst nightmare.
After I
’
d drained my cup, I figured it was about time for me to leave and
let her go to bed. We both had work the following day. “I
’
d better go and let you get your beauty sleep. Not that you need any
more of it, of course.”
She stood and followed me towards the door.
“Okay, well thanks for dinner. You should have let me pay this time though,
seeing as you paid last time.” She smiled at me gratefully.
Okay, one last go, Nate. Last try. Give
it your best shot.
Nerves built inside me again. I gulped,
willing my voice not to betray me. “Why don
’
t we go and see that chick flick? Like a date this time, a real
date. We could get some food after?” I offered hopefully.
Come on, Rosie;
please say yes. Just say yes, come on. Screw your man, he
’
ll never even know if you don
’
t tell him, please!
When she didn
’
t reject
me immediately, hope bubbled up in my stomach. “We could go tomorrow night if
you want
...
”
Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she
shook her head. “I
’
m sorry, Nate,
weekdays just aren
’
t good for me.”
Wait
… that wasn
’
t a no!
She couldn
’
t do weekdays – did that mean she could do the
weekend?
“What about the weekend then?”
She pursed her lips and her eyebrows
knitted together. I stood there, willing her to agree. Just when I thought the
silence was going to kill me, she spoke and put me out of my misery.
“Okay, yeah. I
’
m free on Friday or Saturday,” she mumbled, nodding but looking like
she wasn
’
t sure she should have
agreed.
Biting back my victory growl, I grinned,
fighting the sudden urge to rip my shirt off and spin it above my head in
celebration. “How about Friday
and
Saturday?” I pressed.
She laughed incredulously. “How do you know
you
’
ll want to see me both nights?
Maybe the date will be boring and then you
’
d regret asking me out again.”
I stepped closer to her and her cocky smile
fell from her face.
“It won
’
t be boring, I can tell,” I replied honestly. For some reason, I
knew she wouldn
’
t bore me. It wasn
’
t just the way she looked, it was
her.
“Alright, I
’
ll agree to both nights, but I
’
d like to impose a get-out clause. If Friday sucks then either one
of us can cancel Saturday, deal?” she suggested, stepping back slightly because
I was encroaching
on
her personal space.
It had taken longer than I
’
d hoped, but I
’
d finally got her to agree to go on a date with me. “Deal. So, can I
get your number?” I pulled my cell phone from my pocket and passed it to her.
She
punched in her number before holding it
back to me.
“I
’
ll see you Friday then.” She bit her lip as she opened the front
door, waiting for me to leave.
I gulped, needing to push my luck a little
further. “Before I go, I wondered if you
’
d be interested in making a little bet with me.” I raised a
challenging eyebrow.
She rolled her eyes, laughing. “I
’
m not betting on how the date is going to end,
if that
’
s what this is going to be
about.”
“No, actually, I was going to bet you
twenty bucks that I could kiss you without using my lips.”
Her nose crinkled up as she frowned. “That
’s impossible. You can’
t kiss someone without
using your lips,” she countered. I waited, letting her think about it while
silently praying she hadn
’
t seen
this trick before. “Alright, yeah, I
’
ll take that bet,” she suddenly agreed, smiling confidently.
As I took another step towards her, she
instantly stepped back and bumped into the wall behind her. I smiled at her
deer-trapped-in-the-headlights look. The vulnerability of her and her cute
little bewildered expression made my lungs constrict. Unable to keep the smile
off my face, I bent my head slowly towards hers. Her breathing sped, but her
eyes never left mine. As my lips touched hers, I tried not to moan at the soft
feel of them. My whole body was itching to grab hold of her, kiss the life out
of her and hear her moan my name. In that moment, I knew I shouldn
’
t have kissed her, because now I didn
’
t want to leave.
I forced myself to pull back after a couple
of seconds. “
I lost,
” I
whispered to her obviously shocked face.
She burst out laughing. “Damn it, how did I
fall for that?”
“Because deep down you wanted to kiss me
too.”
A
wicked
grin crossed her face. “If I
’
d wanted to kiss you I would have done this…”
Her hand fisted the front of my shirt as
she pulled me closer to her, going up onto tiptoes at the same time. Her lips
crushed against mine. I grunted, shocked by her boldness. When she didn
’
t pull back I moaned in the back of my throat
and wrapped my arms around her, crushing her body against mine. Her arms
slipped around my neck as I pressed her against the wall. I couldn
’
t seem to get close enough.
I wanted desperately to deepen the kiss,
but I didn
’
t want to take it too
far and have her nervous on Friday, thinking I wanted sex. When the kiss broke,
I pressed my forehead to hers. I couldn
’
t help but smile when she took a couple of seconds to open her eyes.
A smile twitched at the corners of her mouth, almost as if she was replaying
the kiss in her mind, savouring it.
“I
’
d better go,” I whispered, rubbing my nose against hers lightly
making her arms tighten around my neck slightly before she let go and stepped
back smiling sheepishly.
“Okay, see you Friday.” She smiled, biting
her lip. I turned for the door but then stopped when I remembered I hadn
’
t paid up for the bet. Fishing my wallet from
my pocket, I dug out a twenty and held it out to her. She burst out laughing.
“Again you manage to make me feel like a hooker. Great job.”
I laughed too. If she was selling those
damn kisses I
’
d have myself
bankrupt by now – I was fast becoming addicted to them, yet I
’
d only had two.
“A bet
’
s a bet.” I shrugged, holding it out to her again.
She took it from my hand and stepped closer
to me, wrapping her arm around me and pushing it into my back pocket, patting
my ass gently after. “You keep it. That one was on the house, a free sample,”
she teased, as she put her hand on my chest and pushed gently, guiding me out
of the door.
“The trouble with free samples is that they
always leave you wanting more.”
“You should go before you ruin everything.
You sound like you
’
re fast turning
this conversation into something crude and suggestive. I can still change my
mind about Friday, you know.” She coughed dramatically. “Wow, it sounds like I
’
m getting sick
… maybe I
won
’
t be able to make it after
all.” She coughed again looking at me warningly.
I held my hands up innocently. “I
’
m going. Go take some cough syrup and don
’
t you dare cancel on me, muffin.”
She giggled as she closed the door in my
face, leaving me standing there like a moron. I laughed and turned for the
stairs, unable to restrain my huge grin. I jumped the last four steps like a
little kid. As I stepped out of the building, I pulled out my cell phone and
opened up my messages, deciding to send her one.
‘Let me know if you don’t get rid of that cough before Friday. I
have a doctors outfit I could bring round ;P’
My phone beeped with her reply just as I
slid into the driver
’
s seat.
‘My cough seemed to clear up as soon as I shut the door. Maybe I’m
allergic to the slutty lines? :S’
I laughed and shook my head, hitting reply
immediately. Friday seemed like a long way away now; I was highly excited about
it.
‘I’ll find a cure don’t worry, muffin. I’ll sext you tomorrow x’
All through the next few days I
couldn’t stop myself from texting her. Thankfully though, she obviously didn’t
think I was coming on too strong because she replied to every single one, plus
she hadn’t cancelled for Friday. Throughout the week, my mind would wander to
her as soon as I had free time. I’d be sitting watching TV and something that
she’d said or text me would spring to the front of my mind and I’d just sit
there laughing.
I
’
d had such a busy week, working twelve hour shifts, that by the time
I got home all I wanted to do was eat, sleep and text Rosie.
On Thursday night I called her just to make
sure we were still set for our date. It was the first time I
’
d actually spoken to her since Monday and the
sound of her voice made a goofy smile slip onto my face. We
’
d ended up talking on the phone for over an
hour. Usually talking to girls bored me, but with Rosie I just seemed to enjoy
her company and her personality.
When I finally disconnected the call, I
frowned at it and decided not to text or speak to her again until our date the
following day. I was fast turning into some whipped guy that hung on her every
word. Turning onto my side, I shoved my cell phone into my bedside drawer and
slammed it shut, knowing that I needed to limit the damage she was doing to me.
I was getting a little obsessed with her; I could feel it building inside me.
But no sooner than the drawer closed, I
heard a beep signalling a new message. Excitement built in my chest as my hand
shot towards the drawer, yanking it open again, eagerly whipping out my phone
because I thought it would be her again. But as I opened the message, I saw it
was from one of my friends instead of her. I didn
’
t realise how disappointed I would feel. I sighed, sending a quick
reply before dropping my phone back onto the bed and shaking my head at myself.
“Stop, Nate. She
’
s just a hot girl. You want her body and nothing more. Get over it
already because you
’
re acting like
a pussy right now.”
As the words left my mouth, I knew they
were wrong. I
didn
’
t
just want her body, because that wasn
’
t the reason I wanted to call her again even though I
’
d hung up less than three minutes ago. I
’
d never had a real girlfriend before, not a
proper one that I had feelings for. I started to wonder what it would actually
feel like to have one girl that you cared about above everything else; one girl
that you wanted to go home to every night, and talk to instead of going out
with your friends. Maybe it would feel a little like what I was feeling now –
sort of contented and happy.
I frowned, wondering again, like I had
wondered probably a hundred times since I
’
d met her, why did she have to have a boyfriend? She was the one
girl that I had even the slightest of feelings for, yet she had to already be
with someone. But, like I
’
d also
wondered and contemplated probably a hundred times since I
’
d met her, did she
really
have a boyfriend? She
’
d agreed to come out with me, and she
’
d certainly flirted with me several times by
text and on the phone just now. If she did have a boyfriend who
’
d moved from Barstow to be with her, wouldn
’
t he have been sat next to her while she was
just talking to me for over an hour? Wouldn
’
t he have noticed her sending a ridiculous amount of texts and ask
her who she was messaging?
I
’
d come to the conclusion that she
’
d made up her boyfriend in the hopes that I
’
d leave her alone. But that left the question over DJ. Ashton had
asked where he was, so I knew he was a real person that she hadn
’
t made up. So maybe he
was
her
boyfriend, and I
’
d just fooled myself
into thinking that she was single because that
’
s what I wanted to believe. I couldn
’
t see any reason for her to lie about it; she
’
d said she had a man, so she probably did. I was so jealous of him
and what he had that I could practically taste it.
I groaned, needing to stop thinking about
it, and rolled over in the bed, pulling the pillow on top of my head. It was no
use though; I drifted to sleep with her on my mind as usual.
The following day passed so slowly it
was ridiculous, every minute seemed like it was an hour because I was so eager
for eight o’clock to come. Not wanting to make a bad impression, I made sure to
get to her apartment five minutes early.
Luckily, someone came out of her building
just as I arrived, so I caught the door and made my way up to her apartment on
the second floor. As I stopped outside, I realised that my hands were starting
to sweat again. I hated the fact that she made me nervous; I wasn
’
t a nervous person usually. As I raised one
hand to knock, I hesitated. I hadn
’
t seen her for four days, what if I
’
d built her up in my head and she wasn
’
t going to be as attractive as I remembered? In my head, I saw
someone beautiful, mouth-watering, with big brown eyes and a flawless face. I
wondered now if maybe she
’
d open
the door and I
’
d be disappointed.
Maybe I
’
d made fantasy Rosie just
that little bit too good…
Actually, I hope I have. I hope she
looks terrible tonight so I can stop this moronic obsession with her!
Maybe if that happened then I would be able to go back to normal
and stop imagining how good it could possibly be with her. I knocked and held
my breath.
When she opened the door, I didn
’
t know whether to laugh or cry. She looked
stunning, just like I
’
d been
picturing her in my dreams and thoughts all week long. She
’
d dressed down a little tonight instead of the hot little black
number I
’
d seen her in last week,
but, if I was honest, she looked just as good, if not better.
She was wearing light blue skinny jeans,
with knee high black leather boots and a loose grey knit sweater that hung off
the shoulders teasingly and showed a red strap underneath. She looked
incredible and when she smiled her sexy little smile at me I felt all of my
nerves disappear, to be replaced with excitement and, of course, a lot of lust.
“Hi. You
’
re early,” she chirped, leaning against the doorframe. I noticed
with some annoyance that her eyes never left mine; she didn
’
t check me out even once.
“Yeah, we get cheaper tickets for the movie
if we go to an earlier showing,” I joked, shrugging as I stepped into her
apartment without waiting to be invited.
“Well then I
’
d better hurry and grab a jacket so we don
’
t have to overpay for our seats for the
chick
flick
.” She accentuated the last two words and I
couldn
’
t help but laugh. I
’
d admitted to her last night on the phone that
I hated these type of movies. She
’
d
called me ‘
sweet
’
again because I wanted to go with her even though I would be bored.
As she started to walk away, I grabbed her
hand and stepped closer to her. Her breathing faltered as I
came a
little too close for comfort
. Her sweet perfume wafted around
me, and I wanted nothing more than to lean in and press my face against her
neck. Her eyes widened in bewilderment, showing her vulnerable, nervous side as
I stepped even closer, so close that our chests were almost touching.
“You look incredible,” I murmured, tracing
my hand up her arm. A subtle shade of pink crept over her cheeks, and I smiled,
proud of myself for making her blush. She looked even more beautiful when she
blushed, and all I wanted to do was throw her on the sofa and have my
wicked
way with her. She didn
’
t step back, so I took that as a good sign and
decided to push it a little further. “So, I was thinking. I don
’
t want us all nervous and scared about how the
night
’
s going to end. I
’
m thinking we should just get the kiss out of
the way now before we go, then we can both relax a little.”
She
paused
. I groaned
internally, thinking she was going to push me away, but she didn
’
t. Instead, she raised one eyebrow playfully
and my dick instantly woke up and started to take notice.
“Really? You
’
re scared about kissing me?”
I nodded, playing along. “Terrified.”
Her gaze flitted to my lips for a split
second. The anticipation of it was killing me. “
Well I don
’
t want you all scared of me, I
’
m not going to hurt you or anything. So if you
need to get it out of the way now, then feel free.”
A stupid grin stretched across my face as I
lost all of my cool composure that I usually had around girls. I slipped my arm
around her waist so that she couldn
’
t pull away. Her hand traced up my chest and looped around my neck,
but her eyes never left mine. She looked like she wasn
’
t breathing; she was definitely nervous too, and that thought gave
me comfort.
As my lips touched hers
for the third time, a little shiver of excitement ran through my
body. Her lips fitted mine perfectly, and all I could think about was getting
closer to her. Just as I was desperate to deepen the kiss, I pulled back. My
lips were still so close to hers that I could feel her breath blow across them.
She didn
’
t open her eyes as her
finger drew a pattern on the back of my neck. I swallowed the ludicrous amount
of lust that had built inside me from just one kiss and smiled. She looked
lost. Her eyes were still closed, and her lips were pulled into a wistful
smile.
Oh yeah, I
’
m definitely thawing her out!
“We should get going before you try to take
advantage of me,” I joked, letting my arm loosen around her waist.
Her eyes
snapped
open, her pupils shrinking instantly because of the light. She seemed a little
bewildered. “Yeah, that
’
s probably
a good idea,” she chuckled, stepping back and dropping her eyes to the floor.
“I
’
ll go get that jacket.”
I nodded and reached into my inside pocket,
pulling out the gift I
’
d bought
for her in my lunch hour today. It was the book that we were talking about on
the phone last night.
“I didn
’
t want to get you flowers again because I thought that was a little
cheesy, so I got you this instead. You said last night that you wanted to read
it,” I held it out to her and shrugged casually.
Her eyes dropped to the copy of
Eat,
Pray, Love
that I was holding out to her. I hadn
’
t read it personally, but we
’
d started talking about the movie of it, and then she
’
d admitted that it was something that she was
desperate to read. Her silence was stretching on and on as she looked at the
book. I didn
’
t know what to think
– maybe she didn
’
t like it?
“If you don
’
t want to read it you don
’
t have to, I just thought… you know… er…” I stuttered nervously.
Damn
it, Nate, stop stuttering. Grow some balls!
She tore her gaze from the book and finally
looked up at me. “This is really, really thoughtful. I love it, thank you.” Her
eyes were so soft and appreciative that it made my heart speed up.
“Yeah, no worries,” I mumbled.
And now I
’
m mumbling too. I
’
m doing so well with this date so far!
Rosie took the book, brushing her fingers
across the front cover, looking at me in awe as if I
’
d just bought her something remarkable instead of just a book. I
smiled weakly, shifting on my feet, trying to think of something to say that
wouldn
’
t make me sound like a
raving lunatic. When she looked at me like that I started longing for things,
things I
’
d never really thought
about before – things like the word girlfriend, and exclusive, and mine.