Claiming Chase: (A Second Chance Stepbrother Romance) (10 page)

For all her complaining about him, Cassie was clearly over the moon to see him. Maybe she was just relieved that he wasn’t off out somewhere, getting into more trouble.

“You’re awfully quiet tonight, Charity,” my dad said with a hint of gentle concern in his voice.

And once again I felt my face flushing with heat. Because he was right. It seemed like, whenever Chase was nearby, I just couldn’t speak. Well, I could, but I just babbled — the words falling out of my mouth before my brain had even realized what was being said. So it was better just to keep my mouth shut.

Besides, I was busy. Busy staring at Chase.

Seriously, I couldn’t get over those eyes.

I don’t think I’d ever seen
anyone
with eyes quite that color, let alone a boy already so handsome he made my heart practically stop.

I was fifteen years old, and I’d been starting to worry that there was something wrong with me. While other girls had been swooning over boys at school, I just hadn’t seen the appeal. I knew I wasn’t a lesbian or anything like that, but I knew that I was supposed to have all these
feelings
and they just weren’t there.

But then Chase walked in and —
bam
.

Even just sitting there across from him at the dinner table, I felt a longing deep within me. It was
physical
, and I’d never felt anything quite like it before.

“It’s just the heat, Dad,” I said eventually, explaining my silence. “It’s been unbearable today. I’ve hardly even been able to concentrate on my book. It woke me up really early, too, and I’m just exhausted. So actually, I think I might head up and get an early night.”

“I don’t blame you,” he laughed. “But you’d better get used to it. It’s supposed to get
even hotter
next week.”

I felt a wave of relief as I climbed the stairs, then shut my bedroom door behind me.

It may have been cooler in the evenings, but it felt like any room with Chase in it was still stiflingly, unbearably hot.

I threw myself down on the bed, my mind still so full of him, as I wondered just how I was supposed to make it through the next seven weeks, here with him in this house.

I guess there was one good thing to come out of this. If these intense waves of feeling that were flooding my body were
normal
, then guess I wasn’t such a freak after all.

I just wished there was some way of controlling these feelings — of them waiting until I was alone in my room. But instead, they were there at the dinner table too, forcing me to get out of there.

But finally alone in my room, I was free to give in to those intense waves of desire.

I threw myself down on the bed, my skin flashing with goose pimples as I closed my eyes and imagined him; my mind suddenly flooding with a whole kaleidoscope of images of him, some real, some imagined: the broadness of his back, the sheen of his skin – tanned brown and shining with sweat, the sculpted definition of his chest as he slowly unbuttoned his shirt, his face moving in close to mine as he kissed me.

And as I thought all this, I finally gave in to the urge to touch myself, imagining that it was
his
hands exploring my shivering body,
his
hands cupping my budding breasts, feeling my stiffening nipples,
his
fingers slowly unbuttoning my cutoffs then slipping beneath the waistband of my panties, his fingers tracing up and down the hot wetness that lay between my legs, sending electric shivers of pleasure through me.

I pushed my face deep into the pillow, moaning softly as I began to toy with myself, my mind flooded with him, my eyes closed, my fingers plunging between my legs.

Chase
, I thought as I came.
Chase, Chase, Chase ...

§

Like Dad warned, all the next week was unbearably hot, and it took all my strength to drag myself to the sun lounger on the porch. I tried to read, but mostly, I just lay there, staring into space.

I needed to avoid Chase.

Every time I saw him, I felt dumbstruck. My mouth glued itself shut, and now I suddenly knew the meaning of the phrase, ‘I went weak at the knees’.

But it wasn’t too hard to avoid him. If he was here at the house, he was in his room, sleeping or strumming on his guitar. But most of the time, he was out.

He’d only been here five minutes, but still he’d managed to quickly accumulate a gang of friends. I’d seen him hanging out with them down at the boardwalk, and soon they began to call at the house for him, too.

There were about six of them in total. They looked like a mix of older local boys, and girls around my own age, here on vacation with their families. But even so, the girls seemed older too. The way they hung onto the back of the motorbikes, smoking, laughing, drinking. They looked like they were having so much fun, but still. I knew that I would never be part of a group like that. That wasn’t my idea of a good time, anyway. I was much happier with a good book.

But even so, I couldn’t help but imagine myself on the back of Chase’s motorbike, my arms wrapped tightly around his muscular torso.

Unfortunately, there was already one girl who seemed to have claimed her place on the back of Chase’s bike.

She had waves of sun-kissed blonde hair, and flaunted her well developed chest in a bright pink bikini, while I hid my lack of curves beneath an oversized t-shirt. She seemed like a woman already, and made me feel doubly embarrassed about my painful, teenage crush.

So, the last thing I wanted was what happened the Saturday night my dad insisted on Chase taking me along with him to a beach party.

“Come on, Chase,” he said with a sigh. “You’re supposed to be here to get to know your new family. And how are you going to do that if you’re never here? I don’t expect you to stay in on a Saturday night, but you can certainly take Charity with you. I’m sure she’d like to get to know the other kids too, wouldn’t you honey?”

“Really Dad, I’m fine,” I mumbled, mortified.

But then Cassie joined in too, backing Dad up.

“Yes, Chase. I want you to get to know your new stepsister. And besides,” at this her eyes turned to me, “Charity could be a good influence on you, and I’d feel much better knowing that she had her eye on you this evening.”

“Sure, whatever,” Chase said quietly.

I could tell he wasn’t too excited about the prospect of an evening babysitting me, but at the same time, he was too cool to argue with them.

So, half an hour later, I found myself trailing behind him out of the door.

“So are we taking the bike?” I asked, the moment the door had shut behind us, trying to keep the excitement out of my voice as much as I was able.

“Don’t be stupid,” he shot back coldly. “I’m gonna get loaded tonight, and if your dad found out I’d driven you home drunk, he’d kill me. It’s not that far. We’re walking. Come on.”

And with that, he began to head off down the path, and I followed him in silence.

§

“This is Charity, her dad’s married my mom,” was all that Chase said by way of introduction, before handing me a beer and walking off, leaving me with a group of strangers who mumbled hello, before carrying on with their conversation and ignoring me.

I took a place at the edge of the bonfire, and sat there slowly sipping my beer, trying to make it last for as long as possible.

To be honest? I didn’t mind being ignored.

The beach was beautiful at this time of night, and I was enjoying finally being able to spend some time gazing out on the cool stillness of the water without the blazing sun bearing down on me.

“Having a good night?”

It was Chase’s voice, and I realized with a start that he’d taken a seat, right beside me.

“You startled me,” I said.

“I didn’t mean to,” he replied.

I remember, there was a moment of silence between us then, but for once it didn’t feel awkward, just comfortable.

“I can never work out what you’re thinking,” he said.

“What?” I asked, slightly stunned that he’d ever thought about me.

“You’re always so quiet. You’re either reading, or just thinking. What’s going on in that head of yours?”

I laughed, a little embarrassed but also flattered. I really thought he hadn’t noticed me at all.

“I think all sorts of things. I think about the books I’m reading. I think about the friends and family I’m missing out here. But mostly, I just think about the heat.”

At this, he looked straight at me, then smiled.

“I know exactly what you mean,” he said, quietly.

And as he stared at me with those sapphire eyes, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was another meaning to his reply, too.

That evening, we just sat there and talked for hours. We talked about my parents, the divorce, about his mom, her five husbands. We talked about everything. We talked for so long that the sun came up.

“Look, it’s morning,” I said.

And I wish I hadn’t, because all he said in reply was, “Come on, I’d better get you home,” and it felt like the spell was broken.

We walked home in silence.

§

After that night, it wasn’t like we were best friends or anything, but we settled into a kind of easy intimacy. Or at least it
would
have been easy, if I had just been able to ignore the pangs of lust that had now become an almost permanent companion.

While I was washing up one night after dinner, I overheard Dad asking Chase where he was going out tonight.

“Oh, I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t feel much like going out. I was thinking I might stay in, maybe ask Charity if she fancied watching a movie with me …”

At this, he looked me straight in the eye for a moment.

“Sure,” I nodded quietly, before quickly turning back to the sink, hiding my face from the room, in case anyone could see my blushes.

And with that, he headed down the stairs to the rec room.

A moment later, Dad joined me at the sink, laying a hand softly on my shoulder.

“It’s great that you guys are making friends,” he said. “I think you could be a really good influence on him. He seems like he’s calmed down in the last couple of weeks, and I’m sure that’s got something to do with you. Maybe you could get him reading a book next, eh?” he added with a laugh.

“Sure, Dad,” I mumbled, feeling kind of guilty.

He obviously thought I was doing this as a favor. But what if he knew the
real
truth — that my heart was pounding, mile a minute, at the thought of spending a whole evening alone with Chase ...

§

“So, what movie do you wanna watch?” I blurted out, my nervous voice filling the silence of the rec room.

Chase was sprawled out on the old beat up sofa, and I was browsing the shelves of DVDs on the other side of the room, still too nervous to join him.

“You choose,” he said lazily.

But I don’t think he realized just how much pressure that put on me. I mean, what if I put on something too childish, something that made him think I was a baby? But I didn’t want to choose something too girly or romantic either? Or worse — if I chose something that made him think I was trying too hard. It seemed like
whatever
I selected, I was doomed somehow.

“How about this?” I said finally, pulling a copy of
The Evil Dead
from the shelf.

I’d never seen it, but I’d heard it was supposed to be pretty cool … and scary. And I couldn’t help but imagine us curled up together on the sofa, like a real couple as we watched it.

“Cult classic,” he said when he saw the case in my hand. “Sure, why not?”

But I still couldn’t quite read him. Was it the right choice? Or was he just humoring me?

I put in the disc, pressed play, then took my seat next to him on the sofa, making sure to leave as much space between us as possible. And it dawned on me that this was the first time that we’d been totally
alone
together. I suddenly became so self conscious, I could hardly breathe in and out without worrying about what he thought.

Okay, it was the right decision. Just the right mix of funny, stupid and scary, and Chase actually seemed to be enjoying the movie too. When it finished, we didn’t move from the sofa, but remained there chatting in the dim light of the DVD menu screen.

And somehow, without either of us quite noticing it, the gap between us appeared to have shrunk.

Chase was gently making fun of me for my lack of movie knowledge.

“You’ve not seen the Evil Dead
two
, either? What have you been doing with your life!”

“I don’t know, reading books, I guess,” I replied. “Maybe you should try it some time,” I added, teasing him right back.