Ride (14 page)

“Don’t tell them I’m a stripper. Please.”

She looked ready to lose it at any second. “Okay. If that’s what you want, I won’t. I’ll tell them you work at one of the clubs serving customers.” That wasn’t really a lie.

She nodded but still looked near tears. He pulled her closer and hugged her tight.

“Stripping wasn’t exactly my life’s ambition when I was growing up.” Her words were muffled against his chest.

Chase ran his hand up and down her arm, hoping to comfort her. “What was? What did you want to be when you grew up?”

“When I was little? A ballerina. But when I knew better, I was going to school to be a CPA…a certified public accountant.”

He rolled his eyes. “I know what a CPA is.”

“Sorry.” She sniffled and he felt bad immediately.

“It’s okay. So why didn’t you? Become a CPA, I mean? Besides the fact that to me, stripping sounds a hell of a lot more fun than sitting behind a desk crunching numbers all day, every day.”

She lifted her head and looked at him in shock. “You really think that? That stripping is a better job than being an accountant?”

“Sure. I mean it looks fun. The music. All the people. The costumes.” He shrugged. “You have your days free. The money is probably pretty good. All the girls look like they enjoy the dancing.”

“And it doesn’t make you think less of me?”

“Because you’re an exotic dancer? Hell no. Why would I?”

He watched her react to that before she grabbed his face and kissed him hard.

When she finally released him, he asked, “Wow, not that I’m complaining, but what was that for?”

“For being so sw—”

“If you call me sweet, I’m afraid I’m going to have to do something nasty to you. Nasty in a good way, of course.” He grinned, but his eyes dropped down her body as if considering what he’d like to do.

“What’s wrong with being sweet?”

“I don’t want you to think of me as sweet. I want to be, I don’t know, dangerous.”

He traced a path down her throat with his tongue, hoping to prove that if he was willing to seduce her in broad daylight in an abandoned parking lot he was not sweet.

“You ride bulls. That’s dangerous.” Her voice sounded dreamy, as if she was having trouble maintaining her train of thought. He moved to nibble on her ear.

“Mmm hmm. It is. You better make love to me now just in case I don’t make it through next season.” His hands wrapped around her hips and he lifted her easily into his lap. Even with them both clothed, he knew he could drive her crazy by rocking her against the bulge in his pants, like he’d done at the club.

She began to breathe harder, and he had a feeling it wouldn’t take too much to persuade her to be naughty right here.

“Can I ask you a question?” Chase didn’t know why he was still thinking instead of just feeling, but he let curiosity get the best of him.

“You want to ask me something now?” She laughed but continued to press her core against the now throbbing bulge straining against the zipper of his jeans.

He grinned. “It’s sex related.”

“Oh, well then it’s okay.”

“What’s the naughtiest thing you’ve ever done?” She didn’t immediately answer his question. He felt her stiffen in his lap, so he back pedaled. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to.”

She had stopped grinding against him and he regretted asking her anything at all.

“No, it’s okay. Probably what I did with you in the back room at the club.”

He frowned thinking what she’d done to him the night before was much naughtier than that. “A hand job is the naughtiest thing? I find that very hard to believe.”

“It’s not what I did that made it bad, but because I didn’t know you, and I, you know, took your money.” She looked miserable and he didn’t feel much better.

He turned serious. “That tip I gave you was for the entire night. For my birthday show on stage, and the dance in the back. I didn’t give that to you because of what we did. I had kind of assumed that happened because you were attracted to me.”

Her eyes got misty. “It did. I was attracted to you. I am. There’s no way I would have done that if I hadn’t been attracted to you, Chase.”

He considered her reaction to this conversation. “Was that why you said no to the date? Because you thought I was trying to pay you for sex?”

“Yeah.” Leesa swallowed hard.

“I told you that night it was a tip.”

“Which in my world is kind of code for you do something for me and I’ll give you cash.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”

She shrugged tearfully, acting like it didn’t matter though he knew it did. “It’s okay. Why did you ask me that? About the naughtiest thing?”

“Because I was hoping having sex in my truck right here, right now, wasn’t out of the realm of possibilities.” Especially now that he knew what their sleeping arrangements were going to be once they reached his parents’ house.

He coaxed her hips forward again and she laughed.

“I’m in jeans.”

“Mmm. If you were going to stay my wife, I’d buy you a different dress for every day of the week. That way when I decided I couldn’t live another moment without making love to you, I could just pull over and set you in my lap.” He frowned. “Does that sound sick and perverted?”

She shook her head. “No. It sounds sweet.”

When she leaned in and kissed him, he decided he didn’t mind being called sweet as long as it was followed by a deep soul-filled kiss.

Leesa pulled back. “Drive this thing farther around the back of the building and I’ll consider it.”

His eyes flew open. She was serious, and he was seriously hard. He set her firmly but gently back into the passenger seat and threw the truck into reverse. “No problem.”

Chapter Twelve

“Mama. Daddy. This is Leesa Santiago.”

Chase’s father took a step forward, his hand extended. His mother stood a step back, wringing her hands. Her mouth pursed tightly, she was definitely sizing Leesa up and deciding exactly how large a disaster it was that her son was married to her.

“Ma’am. Sir.” Leesa shook her father-in-law’s hand, nodded once to her mother-in-law, and took a step back into her imaginary safety zone. Chase’s hand settled on the small of her back and she felt instantly better. His show of support didn’t go unnoticed judging by how both parent’s eyes zoomed in directly on the action.

“I think we should sit down and discuss this.” Chase’s father spun for the front door of the house.

“Before dinner?” His mother turned toward her husband.

“Yes, Martha. Before dinner.” He sent his wife a stern look that Leesa could never ever imagine crossing Chase’s face, and she had to wonder how he could have been birthed from this couple. With his constant grin and sunny disposition, they couldn’t be more different.

“Uh oh.” Leesa whispered barely loud enough for Chase to hear.

He took her hand and squeezed it. “Don’t worry. It’ll be fine.”

She nodded, not believing him one bit. Somehow facing his parents was nearly as frightening as seeing Bruno and the hit men in the casino had been. Chase pulled her toward the door that his parents had just disappeared through.

“I didn’t know you knew my last name.” It was a ridiculous thing to say, but his knowing her full name intrigued her.

“It was on the marriage certificate,” he answered her softly while holding open the door for her to walk through.

“Oh yeah.” She had a feeling that little piece of paper was about to get both of them a lecture.

He held her more tightly and she was glad for it as they entered the kitchen and saw both parents already seated at the far side of the table, facing them, like a board of inquisitors.

Chase released his hold to pull the chair out. She missed his touch immediately as she sat, and he took the seat next to her. Thankfully, once he was settled, he reached out again, placing their joined hands on the table, and covering them both with his left hand so his wedding band was front and center.

Two sets of eyes dropped to stare at what Leesa had no doubt Chase had done on purpose.

“So, Miss Santiago. Or should I call you Mrs. Reese?” Chase’s father focused his attention on Leesa.

“Um, Leesa will be fine.”

“Would you like to tell us how you met our son and ended up married to him?” Mr. Reese’s gaze settled pointedly on the gold rings on their joined hands once again.

Leesa opened her mouth but found Chase’s mother had jumped in. “It’s just too soon. How long have you known each other? This is the first time we’ve met her, Chase.”

“Mama. We’re not arguing with you. We know we need to undo this. I just need Uncle Gary to help us with the legal stuff.”

“Then why did you do it in the first place, Chase?” His father’s tone clearly showed his disappointment with his son.

“I don’t know how it happened, Daddy.” He faced his father with the truth.

“You just woke up to find yourselves married?”

“Yes.”

His father quickly recovered from the shock of that revelation as a look of realization crossed his face. “Were you drinking?”

Chase nodded solemnly. “Yes, sir. I was.”

He’d left her part in it out. She didn’t volunteer the information that she’d drugged herself with over-the-counter pain medication/sleeping pills. At this point, what would it have helped?

“Gary’s away in the next county for a big trial. He won’t be back until next week. I’ll call him and tell him about the…situation.” His father’s face said everything else his words didn’t.

“Thank you.” Chase drew in a deep breath and turned to Leesa. He forced a smile. “I guess we’re married for another week. That okay with you?”

She nodded. Actually, she wasn’t looking forward to leaving him when the time came.

“These things don’t get fixed overnight, Chase. Maybe you can file for divorce next week, but it could take at least thirty days, if not months to be finalized. I’m not sure about the laws, but marriage isn’t like turning on and off a light switch. It’s serious. It’s a legally binding contract that shouldn’t be entered into lightly.”

“Of course. You’re right. I wasn’t thinking the timing of the legalities through.” Chase glanced at her. “Is that going to be all right?”

She squeezed his hand this time. “It’s okay. However long it takes is fine.”

“What about your job?” He kept his voice low, as if speaking only to her.

“I’m done with that job. I was going to look for something else.”

“Really?” He looked like he wanted to talk more, but instead he glanced to his parents. This was a conversation for when they were alone. He knew she didn’t want his parents to know what she did for a living. “Um, we’ve been on the road all day. If it’s all right, I’d like to get Leesa settled in her room in case she wants to clean up before dinner.”

He got a nod from his father and thankfully, they were dismissed.

Chase carried his duffle bag filled with his clothes—or more accurately his dirty laundry—into his brother’s bedroom and let it drop heavily to the floor.

His older brother, Cody, glanced up from where he lay on the bed. He pulled an ear bud from one ear and gave the bag a pointed look. “Um, hello. Welcome back.”

“Yeah. Thanks.” Chase could hear Cody’s music coming through the tiny earpiece. The pounding bass sounded like one of the heavy metal bands his brother liked to listen to.

Cody shoved a piece of notebook paper into the book open in his lap and flipped the cover of the thick textbook closed. “First off, what’s wrong? And second, um, why are you and your bag in my room? Besides just saying hello to me, I mean.”

Chase let out snort. “I’m sleeping in here with you for a while.”

Pointedly looking at the one and only bed in the room, which was a double but barely big enough to contain Cody’s six-foot-plus frame, Cody raised a brow. “Okay. What’s wrong with your room?”

Chase kicked at the carpet with the toe of his boot. His older brother was not going to let him get away with coming home from Vegas married. If he thought telling Garret and the guys was going to be bad, telling Cody would be far worse. “Um, somebody’s staying in there for a little bit. Don’t worry. I’m not sharing your bed. Mama was supposed to bring in the cot.”

She’d probably been too upset and forgotten.

Procrastinating telling wasn’t going to do any good. Cody would meet Leesa at dinner, and best to get the explanations out of the way now and in private rather than at the dinner table with his parents who had already raked them both over the coals.

“Who’s staying here for awhile?” Cody wasn’t stupid. Hell, he was the brain in the family. While Chase had decided to make a living out of hanging on the back of a bull to the eight second buzzer, Cody was in veterinary school, dedicating himself to learning how to keep animals healthy. Their joint skills, Chase’s experience with their temperament and Cody’s expertise with the medical aspect, would go a long way to taking their father’s farm from a two-bit steer ranch, to a bucking bull stock breeder to be reckoned with. That way, when the time came that Chase couldn’t ride anymore, his future was secured in doing work he loved.

Hopefully that time was a long way away. Hell, it would be ten, fifteen years before he retired. God willing.

“Chase?”

He hadn’t answered his brother’s question, but he had to. “It’s my wife. She’s staying in my room.”

Cody’s brow rose slightly. “Your wife?” He laughed and swung his feet to the floor as he sat on the edge of the mattress. “Well then, I guess that brings up a whole new line of questioning now doesn’t it.”

Line of questioning. “I thought you’re studying to be a vet, not a lawyer.”

“Ha, joke all you want, but I’m thinking you bringing home a wife that Mama and Daddy never met and never even heard of isn’t going over too well. I guess I can just wait for the yelling and find out then.”

Chase let out a huff of air. “We already got our dressing down the minute we walked through the door.”

“Okay. So then it should be easier telling me, since you broke the ice and practiced on them.”

Chase drew in a deep steadying breath and dragged the chair out from beneath the desk. He straddled it backward and began the story. He and Cody were close. Always had been. It wasn’t until Chase started spending more time away from home, and Cody was too busy studying to come out on the road with him much, that they had started to drift a bit.