Chasing Aubrey (16 page)
Authors: Sennah Tate
I drank my morning coffee while Elise poured over the newspaper, her laptop and a stack of real estate listings. We’d been living together for a few months with Skye still crashing on the couch and things were starting to get a little cramped in my bachelor pad.
Skye sat at the other end of the table, doodling something in her notebook. It was the weekend so she didn’t have to worry about school. She just hung out with us most of the time.
It still surprised me how quickly Elise and Skye became friends. Within days of meeting each other they were inseparable. Skye’s fashion sense had even benefited from Elise’s influence. Her hair was dyed a much more natural chestnut color with streaks of purple, most of her piercings had been removed and even her clothes seemed more grown up and appropriate. Everything appeared to have worked out for the best.
Elise circled one listing before crossing out another. She flipped through pages, typed frantically on the keyboard and repeated the whole process another three times. She’d been looking for weeks without much luck. In her words, everything was ‘too big’ or ‘too expensive’. I tried to tell her a million times over that I didn’t care about either of those things if she was happy.
She finally put her head down on the table and groaned.
“This is impossible,” she whined. “Who knew it was so difficult to find a decent place to live around here?”
I tried to suppress my laugh and pet the back of her head reassuringly.
“Well, sweetheart, would you like to go blow off some steam?”
“Ugh, gag me. It’s bad enough that you guys never stop doing it. Could you not talk about it right after breakfast?” Skye interjected making a face at us.
Elise laughed and picked her head up to look at me.
“Sure, a drive sounds nice.”
‘Blowing off steam’ was kind of our coded way of saying we were going to take the Jag out and open her up. I knew Elise was still heart-broken over losing her Mustang and driving didn’t hold the same excitement for her that it once had.
She still maintained a presence in the community; my victory in her name only heightened her fame. She kept turning down races though and I didn’t know if it was fear or merely a lack of her own vehicle. I hated to see her so conflicted over something that once brought her so much joy and I only hoped that I would be able to remedy that for her.
We left the apartment, leaving Skye behind as she made a few more snarky comments about our sex life. At least she always made both of us smile.
I handed her the keys to the Jag and she looked at them like she didn’t know what to do with them.
“Oh, Tanner… I don’t know,” she protested.
“It’s fine, Elise. You need this more than I do.”
She took the keys with trembling hands. I gave her a big kiss before we got into the car.
At first, she was stiff, but soon she fell into the familiar routine. We weren’t pushing the limits; hell, we weren’t even speeding. It was just a nice leisurely drive to shake off some stress.
“Why don’t you turn over here?” I pointed towards a neighborhood that we’d never explored. We often took roundabout ways home simply to find more parts of the city that we hadn’t discovered.
She followed my instructions, turn after turn without question. She gave me a few confused glances, but never questioned me.
“Pull in here,” I told her as she neared a bright little cottage with a ‘For Sale - Sold’ sign in the yard.
Now she looked at me like I was a crazy person.
“Tanner… you didn’t…”
I grinned and handed her a key.
“Go check it out, beautiful.”
She was positively giddy as she hopped out of the car and hurried to the front door. She fumbled with the key, trying to get it in the knob, but it wouldn’t fit.
She turned those tilted eyes toward me waiting for an explanation.
“Oh, did I give you the wrong key?” I asked innocently as I pulled the correct key out of my pocket and opened the door for her.
The home was spacious, but not ostentatious. There was plenty of space for the three of us… and maybe even one more. It wasn’t flashy or showy at all. It still cost more than Elise would probably be comfortable with, but she didn’t need to worry about that. I had it more than covered.
“Is it really all ours?” She asked excitedly as she darted in and out of the different rooms.
“All ours, babe.”
She came back to me and wrapped her arms around me, planting a big kiss on my lips.
“Thank you,” she whispered before resuming the kiss.
I ran my hands up and down her spine, holding her close as the kiss intensified.
I finally broke the kiss before we ended up naked in our new living room.
“Wait, there’s one more thing…”
Her eyes widened.
“There’s more?”
“Hmm… let’s see if I can remember where I put it…” I muttered, wandering through the house, opening doors, cabinets and drawers. I could tell by her expression that she was exasperated with me. She had her hands on her hips and her mouth pursed in a look that clearly said she wasn’t buying my bull shit.
“Tanner…” she grumbled as I wandered to the garage door and opened it.
“Oh, there it is! I knew I put it somewhere.”
She poked her head through the door and I thought she was going to have a heart-attack by the look on her face.
“Is that… really… you didn’t! I can’t believe you… is that for me?” she stammered, looking over the brand new ruby red Jaguar parked in our garage.
“Let’s see if that key I gave you works on this, shall we?”
She nodded without a word, her eyes filling with tears as she embraced me with another kiss.
“You’re the most amazing man in the whole world,” she gushed.
I couldn’t help but grin.
“I’m not, but you make me want to be.”
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She’s a southern belle with an unwavering loyalty to her family. She resigned herself long ago to a life of familial obligation which meant that a marriage based on anything other than money or political influence was simply out of the question. It doesn’t surprise her at all when her parents announce her engagement. What does surprise her is the man they chose for her. He has a shady past and a bad reputation and Mari wants nothing at all to do with him. That is until they’re married and in such close confines. She can’t get him out of her mind, but the only way she can get an annulment is if their marriage is never consummated.
For years his friends and advisors have been telling him to pick a wife – any wife. Being a bachelor only hurt his reputation and having a woman in his life would only improve his public image. Even though he’s completely against the idea, he can’t deny that the demure girl from Georgia intrigues him. Just as he’s beginning to be interested in her, she tells him she wants an annulment. Well, there’s only one way that can happen and he’s going to pull out every weapon in his arsenal to break her will and get her into his bed.
All of my life I hungered for only one thing: revenge. I wanted to make my father pay for the terrible things he’d done to me and my mother that left her dead and me homeless as a child. That was my life’s only mission. Until I met Marcie. She saved my life in more ways than one and replaced my desire for vengeance with desires of another kind entirely.
My life was never all that great, but it was mine. Things were okay; I had a decent job, a boyfriend and a place to call home. That all changed one day when I lost my job, found out my boyfriend was cheating on me and wound up looking for a place to sleep on the cold city streets. When I heard someone in trouble, I sprang to action without thinking of the consequences. A few hours later I woke up in a hospital room with a grateful stranger at my bedside and a doctor telling me I was pregnant.
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