Thrill of the Chase (Dangerous Love) (5 page)

“Erin, I’m sorry, I thought you…”

Erin stopped him from finishing his thought. “You didn’t do anything wrong, Chase. It’s me, fucked-up little me.” She stared out the window, avoiding his gaze at all costs. Erin didn’t want him to see her cry. She pressed the intercom button. “Please take me back to the club. I’ll go home from there.” Erin released the button, and then with a barely together voice, she simply whispered, “I’m sorry.”

He reached over, taking her trembling hands into his. “Please don’t apologize. If I pushed you in any way, I…”

Erin pulled her hands away and he stopped talking. The limo came to a standstill, and she was happy to see that they were back at the club. The driver opened the door, and though it would have probably been in her best interest to leave without another word, Erin turned only enough for him to see her profile.

“Trust me when I tell you this, Chase. You did nothing wrong.” She stepped out of the car and entered the club in search of Josh and an ending to a horrific night.

E
rin awoke to the smell of coffee brewing and the sound of someone making way too much noise in the kitchen. She swung her legs around, feeling the cold hardwood floor beneath her bare feet, and stood up. She could barely detect a hangover, thanks to the two Advil she had taken before bed and the late-night munching at some grease truck. Erin still couldn’t believe she let Josh talk her into eating a gyro, which was prepared by a man named Rudolph Monk, at two o’clock in the morning.

Erin stepped out of her room to see Josh and her brother having coffee and watching SportsCenter. Erin looked over at the couch she had converted into a bed after they had stumbled in late last night. The sheets and comforter she had given him were neatly folded and lying on the arm of the couch. What time did Josh get up this morning? More importantly, what did he tell Paul about last night? Hopefully, they had been discussing sports and not the fact that she had gotten down and dirty with Chase Montclair on the dance floor and then disappeared for a half hour in the back of a limo. Josh didn’t ask for the details when she had reemerged and entered the bar looking disheveled, but he didn’t attempt to conceal his shit-eating grin.

The exact grin he was sporting right now. He looked smug and pleased with himself. But Paul was acting normal. Sipping his coffee and watching the highlights from last night’s Phillies game, Paul was behaving like his typical self and not a man who had learned his sister had gotten it on with someone in the middle of a club. Josh must have omitted her little tryst on the dance floor and the lost thirty minutes. Erin mouthed the words “Thank you,” and he winked at her. Yep, he was too good to her.

“Nice of you to join us, sunshine. We have a big day ahead of us.”

Erin groaned. Moving day. She was going to need a bagel and a lot of coffee. Immediately.

“It won’t take too long. Two hours…tops,” Josh said as he sipped his coffee. He appeared to savor the taste, and she grew envious. She needed her daily jolt of liquid bliss desperately, and she retreated to the kitchen.

“Oh no, you are not helping me move.” Erin poured herself a cup of coffee, grabbed an Asiago bagel and slapped on the cream cheese. “I’m not putting you to work,” she said.

“Too bad,” Josh said. She childishly stuck her tongue out at him.

“Kids, kids. Enough,” Paul playfully scolded them both as he set his coffee down on the counter.

They devoured their coffee and bagels and got to work. Erin was completely moved in within an hour and a half. Not that it was a huge feat; they only had to travel three floors down and she didn’t own a whole lot of stuff. But nevertheless, her new apartment was ready to be lived in, and Erin smiled at this first taste of true independence, postcollege.

She was sitting cross-legged on the floor of her bedroom and folding clothes to put into her empty chest of drawers when her thoughts were hijacked by Chase. With Paul and Josh long gone, she was alone and free to envision herself with Chase on the dance floor, her body melting into his, his hands fondling her ass as they kissed. Erin let her mind relive the scene in the limo, and she dropped the shirt she had attempted to fold for the third time. He had been gentle but clear about what he wanted. She could still feel his breath against her thighs, how his tongue slipped past his teeth and tasted her while she moaned for him. She threw the godforsaken shirt into the drawer and stood. She contemplated getting a shower for the sole purpose of releasing her pent-up frustration. But that would only be a temporary fix. She needed to stop thinking about him. She wasn’t ready to throw herself into a relationship, as she’d proved last night. She had been whisked back in time, to that hellish place, with six simple words.

She chose plan B, stress-induced eating. The safer choice. Her refrigerator bare; Erin grabbed her purse and decided to head to the market. But when she opened the front door, a delivery man stood there, his hand fisted and ready to knock. “Oh, sorry,” Erin said.

“No problem, miss. I have a package for you.” Erin looked down at the large paper bag in his hand and recognized the Whole Foods ogo. It had to be from Paul. He knew about her healthy obsession with their salad bar and, more recently, the new Mexican bar with the help-yourself pan of guac.

“Who is this from?” she asked, taking the bag from the man.

“I’m not privy to that information, but he or she did leave this card.” Erin thanked him and took the card. When she tried to tip him, he adamantly refused and left. Erin removed the card from the envelope and read the message…and almost dropped the bag on the floor.

Arrogant asshole. Why would he assume that she would just renege on her decision to quit and show up to work tomorrow morning, as if nothing had happened? And how the hell did he know she had moved into her new apartment today?

The smells coming from the bag temporarily distracted her, and she contemplated whether she should just throw its contents in the garbage. But her stomach won out, and unless he had someone spying on her from the balcony, he would never know that she had gorged herself with the food he’d had delivered.

Erin had just ingested her second enchilada when she heard her phone vibrate. She looked down at the text and winced.
“So proud of you. You were right. Time for us to look to the future. Enjoy your new digs!”

Staring down at her brother’s message, Erin decided then and there that there was no way she was going to mooch off her brother or tap into her parents’ wrongful-death-settlement money to pay for the apartment. She would have to continue working at Montclair Pharmaceuticals, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be job hunting in the meantime. She had survived things much worse than Chase Montclair.

She was a survivor and though it might cost her her sanity, she could do this. She could work with Chase Montclair. Or at least she’d find out in less than twelve hours.

I
t took a level of restraint he didn’t know existed to stay away from her. Chase looked across his desk and stared at the empty leather seat that Erin Whitley had vacated in a huff that had left him both intrigued and aroused. She was still here, in this office, in his head. He could still taste her, and his thoughts immediately went back to what had happened in the limo. The whole situation was unnerving. One moment, Erin Whitley appeared to be a confident woman who enjoyed a challenge and took risks. The next, she seemed fragile and ashamed. Of what, though? What had caused her sudden shift? What haunted her?

Chase stood, walked around his desk and sat in Erin’s chair. He looked across the desk and tried to picture what she had seen the night he had Lydia retrieve her. What was going through her mind as she sat there? He knew he had made her nervous. Her pink cheeks and jittery hands were normal signs of distress, common reactions he invoked in many people he summoned to his office. But there had been other emotions at play. There had been fear and anger, and they’d flip-flopped back and forth with what he’d hopefully detected correctly…desire and want.

Why the hell did it matter who Erin was and what was in her past? It just wasn’t possible to feel a connection with someone that quickly. And he couldn’t, wouldn’t, put himself in a situation that made him vulnerable and susceptible to inconvenient emotions. It had been a little over a year since Gabrielle had betrayed him in every conceivable way, which also marked the moment he decided never to trust another woman or his heart again.

Chase ran his hand through his hair, turned on the monitors in his office and waited. Would the confident, headstrong woman come in to work this morning or was she buried under the covers in her newly acquired apartment? Chase was leafing through her skinny personnel file when he spotted her on the screen. Erin had entered the main lobby and was heading for the elevator. She wore a black pinstripe knee-length skirt that highlighted her curvy figure and a gray button-down shirt with cropped sleeves. Black high heels and an upswept hairdo completed the ensemble. She climbed into the elevator along with a sea of other employees. He watched her until the doors closed and he lost sight of her. He quickly adjusted every monitor to show the lab. In less than a minute she hustled into the research department and went straight to her desk. Erin put her purse in the bottom drawer of the desk and retrieved her lab coat from its hook. She looked stunning and he couldn’t help but stare in awe.

And he was almost convinced that she was all business today, until she glanced at the camera for an extended moment and then went back to her desk. Her hands were trembling slightly as she turned on her computer. She appeared nervous…maybe even frightened. Did the camera spook her? Did the knowledge of being watched make her slender fingers shake, like they had when she’d tried desperately to snap her bodice closed in the back of the limo? Or was it him? The thought that he could be the one to cause her distress bothered him. Chase could have watched her all morning if he wasn’t booked solid until at least five o’clock. He switched off the monitors and reluctantly went to his first meeting of the day.

The first text came around midmorning. Erin didn’t know why she was surprised that he knew her personal cell phone number. Chase Montclair owned the building and had access to every employee file. But it still frustrated her, and it needed to end. It read:
“Nice to see you at work. Have dinner with me tonight?”

Erin wanted no part of this. At least that was what her brain was telling her. Erin’s body, however, defied her once more, and she felt that familiar warmth radiate through her as she looked down at her phone. Even after a minute or so, Erin still couldn’t come up with a witty response:
“You were right before. I don’t date, period.”

But the moment she pushed the
SEND
button, Erin knew she had unintentionally opened Pandora’s Box. He simply asked:
“Why?”

Erin had been wading in dangerous waters for the past several days and it appeared that she’d just dived in headfirst. She kept her response generic:
“Not worth sharing. Need to get back to work.”

Erin wanted to heave when she saw the next text:
“I don’t think that is the case. I will find out, Erin.”

Erin’s energy drained from her body and the only thing she could type in response was:
“Please don’t.”
The texts stopped after that, and though she was grateful for the reprieve, Erin knew that it was only a matter of time until Chase, a man with unlimited resources and power, would start digging and possibly unearth her heinous past.

E
rin breathed a sigh of relief. She had made it through the next day without incident. It had to be this way. She couldn’t risk Chase nosing around in her past, discovering her secret.

The phone at her desk startled her and she grabbed it immediately. “Ms. Whitley speaking.”

“Yes, Ms. Whitley, this is Lydia, Mr. Montclair’s personal secretary. Mr. Montclair is requesting your presence in his office.”

Erin gulped and started to sweat. “Um, sure. I am on my way.” Erin returned the phone to its receiver, sat back in her chair and glared into the camera mounted on the wall. She knew he was watching her right now. She could feel it. Exhilaration mixed with anger at being beckoned. Erin broke contact, reached for her notepad and pen and begrudgingly reported to the Master’s chambers.

Cocky, arrogant ass.

Lydia didn’t announce Erin this time, which she preferred. Announcing someone’s arrival seemed so pretentious. Lydia silently shut the door behind her when she left. Chase was sitting at his desk, looking regal but relaxed. Again, images of Chase between her thighs flooded her thoughts, and she felt her face grow hot.

“You must be hungry.” Chase’s grin was irresistible, and Erin fought like hell to not get lost in it. He stood up and walked over to a large conference table and gestured for her to join him. Two place settings were arranged at the far end of the table. Containers of Chinese food were stacked between them.

“No, I already had lunch. But thank you.” Erin looked down at the floor and adjusted her skirt.

“Don’t lie to me, Erin. I know you’ve barely stopped to breathe today.”

Erin glanced at his wall of monitors and raised her eyebrow. “Oh, because you’ve been spying on me.”

“Please sit. You refuse to go to dinner with me. The least you can do is agree to a working lunch here in my office. I promise to keep this meeting…professional.”

Erin felt a little more at ease, though the sexual tension buzzing in the air was suffocating her. She took a seat, trying to avoid his probing gaze. She detected his cologne, the same scent that, among other things, had driven her crazy on the dance floor. It was having the same effect on her now and she summoned all her strength to be professional.

“I wanted you to know that I have assigned you the Cabraxol presentation.” He reached for one of the large white containers and began to scoop out steaming brown rice onto a plate. Chase offered her the container, but she just sat there, staring at him.

“Why are you doing this?”

“Why did I give you the assignment or why am I pursuing you?” He had no difficulty just putting his intentions out there and abandoning his promise to keep things professional. His confidence was disturbing and extremely sexy. Erin hated herself in that moment, as she sat there desiring him, craving his touch and wanting a repeat of that kiss from the dance floor. She wasn’t ready. His words alone had triggered her, as if they had been spoken by the rapist himself. How would Chase react if he ever learned of her secret? Would he be disgusted? Pity her? Either response would devastate her.

“Nothing is going to happen between us again. I wasn’t myself the other night and I apologize if I gave you the wrong impression,” Erin said. She swallowed. Flustered and needing to do something, anything but be the recipient of his gaze, she grabbed a random container from the table and shoveled its contents onto her plate. His eyes were boring a hole into her forehead as she stared at Mongolian beef and broccoli.

“Why didn’t you go on to med school like you planned?” he asked.

“You found that in my personnel file?”

“No.” He speared a piece of beef with his fork and continued, “I learned that from your college professor, Dr. Farrell.”

She looked at him, not even trying to disguise the rage this pompous, obnoxious man evoked. Chase sat back in his chair, his expression calm, his body poised. In what universe did Chase Montclair think he had the right to track down her former professors?

“You what?” she seethed.

“I paid Dr. Farrell a visit last evening, introduced myself as your boss, and we got to talking.” He folded his hands across his lap, appearing relaxed, as if preparing for her impending wrath.

“Who the hell do you think you are? You think because you have more money than God, that because I work for you, you have every right to invade my privacy…my life!” This was an outrage she refused to take sitting down. Erin stood up, sending the chair clattering to the floor behind her. But she couldn’t be bothered with that now. His gaze did not waver, nor did his breathing. He sat there calmly, taking her and her tantrum in. She bit her lip and his eyes narrowed.

“Why does it upset you so, that I know that prior to coming to work here, you had every intention, every ability to be a great doctor?” His brow was raised and he truly appeared interested in solving this mystery.

“You just don’t get it, do you?” she asked. Erin shook her head and started for the door. She may not have heard him get up from his chair, but she definitely felt his hand on her elbow and his arousal as he pinned her against the wall. Her breath staggered with both shock and anticipation. Fear overtook her, but she wasn’t scared of him. She was afraid of being exposed, and of the revulsion he would surely feel when he learned of the secret she was keeping.

“I want to know who you are,” he whispered. His lips hovered over hers. She bit her lower lip, but found the courage to at least return his heavy gaze.

“It’s safer…easier…if you don’t.”

“What do you mean by ‘safer,’ Erin?” He drew even closer, his eyes never leaving hers. Many expletives came to mind as soon as he uttered the word “safer.” Of course he would focus on that. Her slip would only fuel his intrigue.

“Please let it go,” she whispered against his cheek.

“I can’t.” Although his voice was steady, his tone was dark and tempting. “I want to know the woman who can let go and take control, and the woman who hides away from the world.”

Erin couldn’t think straight. She had been watching his lips formulate the words, and she ached to feel his mouth, his tongue, explore hers. His hands were at her waist, his erection evident even through his trousers. She should break free of him, walk right out his door, and make her way to the unemployment line. But her desire to taste him one last time dominated her common sense and she foolishly leaned in. He met her halfway and Erin instantly went wet as their lips touched with an intensity that had them both groaning with need. His hands moved to frame her face as he made love to her mouth. He pressed his cock against her core and she knew she could come, just like this, standing and with no skin-to-skin contact. Erin whimpered as his thrusts came in strategic waves and she threw her head back, giving him the opportunity to explore her neck with his hot kiss. He obliged her immediately, and she felt quick and demanding little nips at her ear and then lower on her neck.

It felt incredible and every nerve in her body tingled. If she didn’t stop this now, Erin knew they would be screwing against the wall in a matter of seconds. Her arms felt like lead as she pressed her hands gently to his chest. His body grew taut and he stepped back. His ability to turn his desire down to a simmer made her feel safe. Chase would never push her further than she wanted to go. He gave Erin a glimmer of hope that not all men were animals.

But even that hope wasn’t enough to make her stay. There was too much at stake; she had to find the strength to walk away. Erin stepped away from him and whispered, “Good-bye, Chase.” Then she gathered all her willpower and left his office.

He didn’t stop her and she was thankful that he allowed her to leave gracefully. Erin didn’t know how truly grateful she was until she reached the elevator and felt her eyes begin to well. She felt ridiculous for crying. Crying over what, really? Being smart enough not to make out with her boss? Or was she crying because she had finally accepted the cold hard fact that she would never be able to let someone in?