Wild Chase (23 page)

“Honestly?” I say timidly. He nods.

“It was awful. I don’t know how people drink it. And I can’t get the taste out of my mouth.”

He looks at me for a minute before his face cracks. A huge smile appears and he lets out a deep, roaring laugh. I let out a sigh and smile back at him.

“I can’t stand the stuff either!” he says through a laugh and grabs his glass of water and raises it to me. I giggle as I raise my glass up.

“Here’s to not drinking any more of that crap and to getting that damn taste out of our mouths!” We clink or water glasses and continue to laugh as we push the wine glasses as far away from us as possible.

The dinner goes without a hitch. He and I talk like old friends. Laughing, eating, and just getting to know one another.
This is the easy part
, I think to myself as I stuff another fried ravioli into my mouth.

“So, tell me about your family,” I say quietly.

He clears his throat and pauses as if he’s not sure what to say.

“It’s just me and my mom, so I don’t know if that classifies as the whole family thing,” he shrugs and takes another bite of his ziti.

My teeth sink painfully into my lip, I hadn’t really thought about how I’d answer that question either. I guess family is a complicated subject. Hoping I hadn’t upset him, I try to cut the tension.

“I don’t really have much of a family anymore, so I don’t have a family story to tell, either.”

He looks up at me with his bright sapphire eyes and his gaze softens.

“It’s always just been me and my mom. She got pregnant in high school, and my sperm donor dumped her. Her parents were so ashamed that they sent her off as soon as they found out. She did everything on her own, struggling when she shouldn’t have. That woman worked her ass off for us,” he says, his eyes drifting off as if he’s remembering something from long ago. I smile, I like the way he talks about his mother—it’s sweet.

“She sounds like a remarkable woman,” I say, placing my napkin on the table and leaning back.

He snaps out of his daze and looks up at me with a grin.

“She is. You know, she’s responsible for my passion for all things music. Taught me how to play the piano when I was six years old.”

Raising my eyebrows, I can’t hide my smirk. “You can play the piano?”

His mouth turns up to one side in such a sultry way that I feel my cheeks heating as he nods.

“Oh, yeah! I’ll play something for you later, if you want.”

I lick my lips and tilt my head to the side, “I’ll definitely take you up on that.”

We stare at each other for a moment, and I swear the air in the room starts to boil. I break the gaze and take a long drink of my ice water hoping it will cool me off.

“Well then, what are we waiting for? I believe I have a concerto to perform,” he says, his voice gruff as he rises to his feet and takes my hand. I gulp as I stand on my wobbly heels; nope, that ice water didn’t help one single bit.

Jesse holds my hand the whole way back to his hotel. He tells me they have a piano in their suite. I almost melt into the seat at the mention of going back to his place. When we arrive, he places his hand at the small of my back and guides me into their suite, flicking on the light as we step in.

I look around at the enormous hotel room before me. I’ve never seen anything so extravagant in my life. I have seen motels, as in crappy—OMG what is that stain?—kind of rooms. This was like watching an episode of Cribs. Everything in here is new, perfectly polished, and organized.

“Come on in, Gorgeous,” he says with a laugh, taking my hand and dragging me across the room to the giant piano sitting just beyond the sitting area. Of course, it’s sitting beside floor to ceiling windows overlooking a beautiful scenic night sky. I sigh as I set my purse on the floor and lean against the cool glass overlooking the twinkling lights.

Behind me, I hear shuffling and then a few bars of something familiar start to play. I turn around to see Jesse taking a seat on the piano bench. He pauses and takes off his coat, slinging it to the floor with a wink as he stretches his arms and fingers out. When he begins to play again, the haunting sound that fills the air steals my breath away. I want to say something, but I’m in awe as his fingers begin to fly over the keys. He plays for a moment or two before he misses a key and starts to laugh. He looks up at me, wiggling his fingers, obviously embarrassed by his error.

“Sorry, I guess I’m a little rusty!”

I must have given him a wild look because he starts to laugh hard.

“Are you kidding me? That was incredible! What song was that?” I ask, still lost in amazement.

He smacks the bare spot on the bench beside him and I slide in next his talented self without a second thought.

“Beethoven. I think it’s called “Moonlight” or something. My mom would kick my ass, but I don’t remember exactly.”

I laugh and press a couple keys. They clang out completely off key. He reaches over and effortlessly glides an arm around my waist, pulling me into his lap.

I let him.

“Here, I’ll give you a lesson,” he breathes, his warm breath tickling my neck. Chills spread all over my body as his hand ever so gently skims down the length of my arm. Jesse takes my hands in his and starts to direct me on which keys to press. My head is such a mess that any actual music lesson being taught now is null and void because I can’t stop focusing on the way it feels to be in someone’s arms, to be touched— to feel desired. I miss a few keys, purely by accident, but with a gentle chuckle, he persists until I’m able to play a few bars for him.

“There you go; look, you’ve almost got it,” he says barely above a whisper.

My hands start to tremble underneath his. I nervously press the few keys he’s shown me.

“Like that?” I whisper back, my voice cracking.

Instead of answering me, I feel the low hum of his voice against the curve of my neck, and then it feels as if the floor may fall out from beneath me as his lips suddenly press against my bare skin.

I don’t mean to, but I let out a small whimper and totally forget about the damned piano as I find myself leaning back. One of his hands comes up and gently tilts my head to the side. His breath caresses my ear as he whispers, “So beautiful,” but the moment I feel his mouth on me again, I can barely form a coherent thought. His other hand is holding onto my waist as his delicate kisses move down my shoulder, and then slowly back up. Jesse teases me by slowly flicking his tongue just beneath my ear and down my neck. He pauses there, and starts to nibble at my sensitive flesh, causing me to let loose another embarrassing whimper. He switches hands and starts to do the same thing to the other side of my neck, and now I am completely pressed against him, digging my fingers into the piano in front of me with every graze of his teeth.

And out of nowhere, the door bursts open with an almost shirtless Adam in tow, and he’s not alone. There’s a woman wrapped around his body, and the sounds of their kissing soon fill the whole room. Is he carrying a briefcase? It’s enough to snap me completely out of Jesse’s spell, and I shuffle off his lap almost immediately.

Jesse stands to his feet too, clearly irritated, and roughly, and loudly I might add, coughs.

Adam spins around to face us, the woman in his arms turning to face us, too. Dropping the briefcase to the floor, Adam gently sets his pretty brunette companion on her feet and she immediately straightens out her pencil skirt and blouse, and then in a matter of seconds she whips her shoulder length, dark locks up into an elegant twist, almost like she could do it in her sleep. I reach up, feel my messy bun, and catch a twinge of hair jealousy.

“Oh, hey, man. Didn’t know you’d be here tonight. Hey Mel. This is, uh, Christina,” Adam says casually, buttoning up his shirt about half way and nodding to the young woman beside him.

Jesse just smiles, waves, and nods. Not sure of what to say, either, I wave, grab my purse, and stand there awkwardly beside him. No one knows quite what to say until Christina turns to Adam. I don’t think she realizes that we can hear her; in such an open room, let’s just say, sound travels.

“Look, Adam, is it? I have about seven hours before I have to be back in the office for a conference call and if you fully intend on making me forget my own name, you have A LOT of work to do.”

Jesse raises his eyebrows and we watch as Adam just gets wide-eyed and points to a room. Christina turns around, picks up her briefcase, and quickly says goodnight. As she heads off, her ridiculously high high-heels click loudly on the marble floors. Adam watches her walk off and whistles as she closes the door behind her, then looks over at us and just shrugs with a huge grin on his face before taking off in almost a sprint.

I look over at Jesse and blush as his baby blues find mine.

“I had a great time tonight. Thank you,” I say, trying to sound sweet and sexy as we walk to the door, but instead it just comes out all squeaky as I start thinking about what we would be doing right now if Adam hadn’t walked in.

Grabbing my hand he kisses the back of it and smiles, “Me, too and you’re welcome. Want to do it again?”

I watch as he gets this wicked look in his eyes and I can’t help but blush.

“Yeah, I would.”

Jesse licks his lips slowly and leans in to me.

“I can’t wait,” he murmurs, kissing me on that spot just beside my lips.

When I finally fall into bed that night, I toss and turn with visions of blue eyes and tongue rings. I manage not to think about my blonde friend all night. It’s kind of a miracle.

Maybe Vic is right. Maybe butterflies are overrated.

I strum my fingers across the cords of my guitar, aimlessly playing a faint melody. With my chin resting on my shoulder and hair still a mess from sleep, everything seems simple again. The sun streaming in through my window slowly crosses over the nape of my neck, warming my skin. My eyes snap open, suddenly very aware of what was just there last night. Lips. Jesse’s lips. I get one of those full body shivers, and set my guitar to the side of my bed and get up. Well, at least things were simple for a few seconds.

I walk out into the kitchen to make myself a cup of coffee and as I open a cupboard to grab a mug, Vic sluggishly enters and plops down at the bar, rubbing her eyes and face repeatedly.

“Good morning, sunshine!” I say more cheerful than necessary as I press the brew button on our fancy coffee machine.

“What are you so cheery about? You came home alone last night,” she mumbles as she raises her arms up and stretches.

One point for Vic.

I purse my lips, and turn to her with a hot cup of coffee, and wave it around close to her sleepy face.

“It’s not nice to pester the nice lady with coffee, now is it?”

Her eyes go wide as she reaches out for the mug like a toddler, “Oh, gimme! Gimme, gimme!”

I laugh and hand it over, not wanting to hear her wrath if I choose to withhold her morning caffeine buzz.

“So how did it go last night? I mean, obviously you’re waking up alone so it didn’t end that well,” she quips, taking a big sip of her coffee.

I stick my tongue out at her and then I bite at the corner of my lip as a small grin appears.

“It… it was nice. I had a really great time with him.”

She sighs, “What did I tell you about nice, Chase—old people and kids, and he is neither of those. Out with it.”

I roll my eyes, and lean onto the counter beside her, propping my head on my hands.

“Fine, it was… lovely.”

“What the hell does that mean? God, talking to you about men is like talking to my grandma about her dating life.”

I laugh, “Your Mamaw probably has more experience than I do.”

She raises her eyebrows and then frowns, “Oh Lord, probably. Gross. All right, so you had a lovely time. Did you kiss him?”

I feel my cheeks heat and I look down.

“I didn’t kiss him per se, but his lips were plenty busy.”

Her head perks up instantly, “Ok, now this is getting interesting! Do tell!”

Smiling, I start to say something sarcastic but I’m interrupted by a knock at the door. I look at the clock and frown. It’s only a little after nine in the morning, who could possibly be here?

I don’t have much longer to wonder because Vic hops off her stool, and after tightening her robe and fluffing her hair, she opens the door. Her face instantly turns into a clown’s face. With nothing but a giant smile, she cocks her head in my direction. I raise an eyebrow as a dark head of hair comes around the door.

My eyes widen and my jaw falls open slightly as I watch Jesse waltz into the apartment carrying a tray of expensive looking coffee drinks and a box of donuts. His eyes fixate on me and his charming smile makes me feel tingly in places that make me want to blush all over.

“Well, good morning, Gorgeous. I was hoping you were awake,” he says cheerfully, setting down all the goodies and then leaning across the counter and kissing me on the cheek. His hair tickles my cheek as he pulls back and I lick my lips as I turn my head to him and smile.

“Good morning… what are you doing here?” I ask with a nervous chuckle.