A Debt Repaid (1) (12 page)

"Let go. Now. Before I hurt you."

Chase cut her a glance that was almost amused.

Asshole.
Aria glared at his profile as he turned back to the other woman, fighting the urge to kick him.

The hold on her arm tightened. His expression was even when he spoke to his date. "Catherine—"

"So you come here with me, but now you're all over
her
," Catherine growled. Her green eyes moved in Aria's direction, and the glare in them became even uglier. "Did he tell you he's my lover?"

Confirmation received. Fury expanded.

Aria saw pure red. This time, she really was done.

“Catherine,” Chase snapped.

Hilary appeared behind Catherine, her wide eyes taking in the scene around her. “What the hell is going on?”

Aria took full advantage of all the commotion. She used her body to push Chase away, and when his hold slackened just a bit, she yanked her arm out of his hand.

After that, it was all about the near-blind running while she fought to find the nearest exit.

Chase and Hilary called after her.

Aria ran faster, defying her high-heels. A red glow caught her attention. It was the exit sign.

A sign she could
barely make out, the lines of which were lost behind a wet blur.

Tears.

Motherfucking
tears
.

She slammed open the door, hitting it with every bit of rage she felt. The door rammed into the brick wall outside. An echo raced up and down the empty alleyway.

LORD, IT WAS FREEZING. Aria had left her jacket in coat check and was paying for it dearly.

She’d survive. There was no way she was going back in there.

But for all her bravado, the cold latched onto her arms and legs. She hugged herself and rushed toward the alley’s opening. She needed to catch a cab home, and she needed to do it quick.

A loud gust of wind came out of nowhere, sliding past her skin, going deep and violating her freaking bones.

‘Till the day she died, she would blame Chase. Every damn time the man appeared in her life, things went epically wrong. Well, lesson learned. She would find a way to get him gone, and keep him gone for good.

If she didn’t develop pneumonia first.

Aria stopped at the edge of the sidewalk, shivering so hard she feared people might think she was having a seizure. Someone just might call her an ambulance.

Just might have to, at the rate that she was going. It was late fall in Chicago, and every single cab that drove by had passengers already in them.
 The fifth occupied cab passed. Aria dropped her arm, conceding defeat. She was going to have to go back inside the restaurant, grab her coat, and find Hilary so she could drive Aria back home.

How her night should have ended to begin with. On a positive note, at least she wasn’t tipsy anymore.

“What the hell are you doing? It’s fucking freezing out here, Aria.”

You have got to be fucking kidding me.

She whirled around, right as something warm came around her shoulders.

It was Chase’s blazer. First he pulled the lapels together, closing them around her chest. Then he pulled, bringing the blazer closer.

With her still in it.

She
barely caught herself before stumbling right into his chest.

He stared right into her eyes, unashamed.

"You are the sickest asshole I know."

"Doubt that, considering who you're married to. But, yeah, I'm up there."

Aria's jaw unhinged. Thoughts racing, she tried to push that lunatic away from her.

Hands still wrapped around the lapels, he dragged her back toward the alleyway.

She stumbled. Chase caught her around the waist and pressed her against the wall. "Listen to me," he snapped, before she could shove her arms out of his blazer and knock him on both sides of his fucked up head. “I didn’t sleep with her.”

The relief she felt was more than frightening.

It was also short lived. She refused to entertain the thought for more than two seconds. There was no way it was true. “Liar.” Chase flinched at the word, and Aria couldn’t stop the satisfaction that went through her.

She was angry. At the world, at her soon-to-be ex-husband
at Chase. But most of all, at herself.

He thought he could just lie to her so
simply.Douglas had thought so, too, and he’d gotten away with it for God knows how long
.
If Chase thought, he was going to be the next man to play her for a fool, then he was mistaken. No man would ever play her for a fool again.

“I’m not lying.”

Aria locked her jaw. “I don’t believe you.” A blast of cold air hit them, and it made her realize that he was standing there in his dress shirt and vest. She hoped he was freezing. “There’s no way you haven’t slept with her.”

The slow inhale he took made it obvious that he was fight
ing for patience. “I never said I haven’t slept with her in the past.”

Wow. That was just like the vodka, straight up. She had to breathe through it for a few seconds just to keep her reaction under control.

“I don’t owe you this.” Chase lowered his head and got way too close to her. “Do you understand?”

No. She didn’t. Aria had no clue nor did she have to rationalize it. Chase was right there, all up in her face. The brick wall behind her left her with no place to go, which meant that he needed to step back. Now.

She opened her mouth to tell him where he could go—

There was
only one thing he could be talking about when he said he didn’t
owe
her anything.

Douglas.

Did this mean that Chase was still willing to leave him out of jail?

Aria wasn’t so sure she cared about Douglas ending up in jail anymore. And what did that say about her?

“Do you understand, Aria?” Fisting the lapels of his blazer, he pulled her to him.

She tilted her head back at the last second, finding the strength to avoid his lips.

But fuck, they looked even thicker in the low light of the alley. She remembered what they’d felt like. What his tongue had felt like.

“I didn’t sleep with her today, or yesterday, for that matter.”

"So you slept with her the day before yesterday."

Chase tensed. The corner of his lips twitched—the sight of those lips stretching out into a full blown smile sucked every bit of oxygen right out of her body.

And that was
before
her ears registered the sound of his laugh.

His
laugh.

Dear God, Chase was laughing.

It was over almost as soon as it started, but Aria knew she'd be replaying it for a while. Possibly forever.

Fuck.
Chase was beautiful angry. He was edible half-amused. He even worked the monotone better than any statue she'd ever seen.

Chase laughing pierced right through her chest like a fiery, metallic arrow. One that she had no clue how to dislodge.

He let out one last chuckle. “I can’t even remember the last time I laughed,” he mumbled under his breath, seeming confused.

She’d suspected it; hearing it confirmed wrecked her. Activated the part of her that felt
so
bad for the little boy he’d once been.

Great, just what she needed? Another weak spot when it came to him.

Chase stood at his full height and looked down at her, shaking his head. “I didn’t sleep with her the day before yesterday. The last time I slept with her was months ago. I know you probably need further clarification, but I can’t remember the exact date. Somewhere in April.”

Six months. She wasn’t foolish enough to believe he’d gone that long without any form of female contact, but at least he hadn’t been with that red-haired Barbie doll during that time.

Shit. She knew she was in part protective of Chase. Realizing—or admitting to herself, rather—that she was
possessive
over the man blind-sided her.

Aria sagged against the brick wall, suffocating in her helplessness. What the hell was happening to her?

Was she freaking falling in love with him or something?

The thought had been nothing more than a sarcastic joke—the stark, cold, evil panic that flooded her in its wake must have
been obvious.

Chase brought her off the wall and straigh
t into his arms, wrapping them around her. “Aria.” He pressed his cheek to her hair and she heard him inhale softly. “I’m not lying about this.”

“I believe you,” was all she could say, as her heart drummed so hard that she almost felt her veins expanding with each rush of blood. The heat coming off his big body engulfed her, and had it not been for the cold air hitting her legs, she might have forgotten they were outside.

He continued to hold her, and she let him, feeling him scent her hair one more time. She took a quiet inhale of her own, taking his scent into herself. She felt his hold loosen and his arms shift.

Those arms tightened all around her, pulling her all the way into him.

All the way.

Holy
Christ, the man was still hard.

So
hard.

Aria bit her lip, almost drawing blood.

“I thought I’d never see you again,” Chase whispered.

Well, that had been the plan. Hadn’t worked out for her, though, had it?

“That’s why I agreed to see her.”

Aria closed her eyes. He had to stop, she didn’t need him to continue. She was having a hard enough time fighting against the words left unsaid. Words that her brain picked up on regardless. He’d been planning on sleeping with his Barbie because Aria had put an end to them.

She had no right to be angry at him.  She knew this. Didn’t matter though. The thought of another woman, especially
that
woman, having the cock pressed up against her, made Aria mad with rage.

She felt one of his arms move again, then his hand flattened along her lower back.

His other arm remained wrapped around her.

As far as stand-ins for steel vices went, she had to admit it worked pretty well. Trapped between his arm and the hardness of his body—and God, could the man possible get any harder?—she was too overwhelmed. There was no considering breaking out of his hold anymore.

Truth was…she didn’t want to.

She never did.

Aria always forced herself to try due to the principle of the matter, but fighting it had become too exhausting.

He smelled so good, felt even better, and…and…

Chase nuzzled her cheek and pressed a kiss to her jaw.

Then he started
moving.
Soft and slow, enough to rock that large erection into her and make her feel every inch. Every ridge.

Harsh, panting breaths hit her ear right before he rasped, “It’s you I want, Aria. You fucking know that, damn you.”

This is all for you.
He didn’t need to say that part out loud. The way he was thrusting his cock into her lower abs said it loud enough.

“
Ch-Chase—”

He pulled away from her with an angry, frustrated hiss. “I keep forgetting that you’ve been drinking.”

Forget drumming. Her heart was on an all-out earthquake mode. Aria was surprised when she fell against the brick wall, and the entire building didn’t start shaking to the beat of her heart. Everything else seemed to be doing so.

It took everything in her to not tell him the truth. She wasn’t tipsy anymore and the horny female inside her wanted that fact known. After all, it was the
one thing standing in the way of Aria and Chase’s gorgeous, naked body.

His luscious, thick—

No. Stop.
She whimpered, torn between embarrassment and fierce need.

Sex had always been rare, missionary, and straight-up normal for her
.
She wouldn’t get that with Chase. She could tell. And it should have scared her, but it didn’t. Instead she craved it.

Wanted it so bad she couldn’t stand straight.

Chase stormed back toward her then stopped two feet away, holding out his hand.

Too far away.

Fuck, maybe she
was
still tipsy.

“I’m taking you home,” he said, waiting for her to take his hand. Chase didn’t trust himself to come nearer.

No blaming him. She understood how he felt. “I came here with Hilary.”

“I convinced her to leave without you. Told her I’d be taking you home.”

That little traitor. Had she not seen Chase and his Barbie?

Then again, Aria had too, and there she was.

“Aria, come. I hate the fact that you’re out here in this cold without your coat. Let’s go get it, and I’ll make sure you get home safe.”

She set her jaw and raised it
stubbornly. “I can take a cab home.”

“Aria…” He scowled at her and wiggled his fingers, not in the mood to hear her arguments.

Too bad. She had a good one for him. One that, in hindsight, she should have kept to herself. “I can’t be in your car alone with you right now. Don’t think I can behave.”
Shit. What the hell did I just say?

She had no clue why she had expected that to
deter
him.

Chase tensed as if someone had hit him, his eyes popping wide.