Second Chances (33 page)

Being with Chase in his bed in his own house is like something straight out of a dream. When he told me that he had a surprise for me, I honestly had no idea what it could be, but a
house
and a
truck
and
a business
had not even been on my radar. As I wake slowly to the early morning light coming in through the beautiful windows, I can't help but think about how lucky I am. How many people get a second chance with the love that they thought they lost? Chase and I, we've come a long way and we're in a great place now. That's why I can't bring myself to move in with him just yet. We need to get settled a little first. That and my mom would probably freak out. I'm almost nineteen though, so it isn't as if she can stop me. 

I roll over with my arm out searching for him beside me, but the other side of the bed is empty. I sit up, wincing, my body still stiff and sore. I look around the room for a minute, and I realize that it's raining outside. The clouds are thick and ominous looking, and rain is sheeting down the windows. I'm just about to get up when I notice a piece of paper on Chase's pillow. I grab it and flip it over. 

Breakfast awaits whenever you're ready, beautiful

C

I smile as I drag my achy body to stand up and walk over to the windows.

I grab Chase's shirt from last night off the floor and slide it on along with my panties. The shirt comes down to my knees, but hey, it covers me up and it smells amazing, just like him. The droplets of rain make the surface of the lake look hazy and pock marked. I get a chance to see the dock out back in the half daylight and it's huge! The yard is large and well maintained. I find myself smiling as I think about the business he's planning to open and how Griff and I could help. This is all just beyond incredible.

“Good morning, beautiful,” he whispers beside my ear, causing me to jump in the air.

“Shit, Chase! I didn't know you were even there,” I gasp, trying to get my heart rate to come down. He chuckles and wraps his arms around my waist from behind and nuzzles his stubbled jaw against my neck.

“I came up to check on you and finding you standing here in my shirt is making it very difficult to want to go downstairs for breakfast,” he says in a low, gruff voice, the warmth of his breath sending chills skittering down my arms.

“I was just admiring your place,” I tell him, gazing out the window again and enjoying the feel of his strong, warm body behind me. 

“Pretty amazing, huh?”

“Yup, just like you,” I say as I spin around to face him. He's wearing only a pair of athletic shorts which are sitting dangerously low on his hips. I let my eyes graze over his abs and chest and stand on my toes to kiss along his neck. I feel the vibrations of his groan against my lips. We head downstairs and I discover that he's made eggs and bacon and has sliced up fresh fruit. Yet another surprise. Chase can cook. He must have learned when he lived alone in Cali.

When we finish, he just stacks the dishes in the sink and raises one eyebrow at me. “Test the shower out with me?”

I let my head fall back as I laugh, but then I take off, racing him up the stairs. He catches up with me easily, able to skip about three steps at a time and when he does, he grabs me around the waist and I spin around laughing. He narrows his eyes at me, and before I know what's happening, he has lifted me up and thrown me over one shoulder. His big hand holds onto my thighs as he marches me right into the bathroom before setting me down. I wince a bit when he does and my hand automatically goes across my stomach where the pain is. He sees this and pulls his shirt that I'm wearing open to find a large bruise along my lower abdomen.

“Aw shit, Hayles. I forgot about the bruises. I'm so sorry,” he apologizes touching his fingers to the purpled skin.

“It's okay!” I insist. “It's not a big deal.”

“It is a big deal. I need to be careful with you for awhile,” his lips lift into a half grin as he says it. I am not having any of that careful crap though. I narrow my eyes at him now and make a show of letting his shirt glide down my arms until it falls to the floor. I watch as his pupils grow along with the front of his shorts, and I fight back a grin. Next I bite my bottom lip because that always seems to get a response from him, and then reaching down to hook my thumbs in the sides of my panties. His chest is rising and falling more quickly. I bend down as I pull the lacey, satiny material all the way down and with the tip of my toe, I flick my panties up at his chest. His eyes seem impossibly wide and he actually catches them against his chest. “Fuuuuuuck,” he groans, and I can't fight the smile any longer. It's so surreal to have this kind of power over a gorgeous guy easily twice my size.

I turn away from him, knowing that he's still watching, and turn the water on in the shower. When I glance back over my shoulder, cocking my hip upward for his perusal, I can no longer see any of the icy blue of his eyes. It has been swallowed by the blackness of his pupils. He yanks his shorts and boxers down roughly and stalks toward me. I step inside just before he reaches me, but he quickly follows and presses me against the back wall. His hands are on either side of my head, caging me in, and his chest is heaving for breath. The water is warm against our already heated skin, and I watch as it beads up on his thick, dark lashes. 

“You don't play fair,” he mumbles, his lips just inches from mine. I tilt my head upward, letting my lips fall open, begging him to kiss me. 

“I don't want you to be careful with me,” I tell him when he doesn't move. “I'm not made of glass. I want you to be
you
.”

“I don't think you know what you're asking for,” he says, his hips thrust forward and restraining me against the wall. I gasp when I feel the ridge of his arousal thick and hot against my belly. I can feel my own need clawing low in my core. 

“Show me,” I challenge letting my hands travel down to his butt and pulling him even more firmly against me. I see his Adam's apple slide down the column of his throat right before he crushes his mouth to mine. His entire body is pressed against mine, pinning me firmly against the cool tile wall. His mouth moves along my jaw and down my neck as I fight to keep standing and breathing. I gasp as he reaches down and grabs my right leg behind my knee and roughly pulls it up around his hip. I'm about to lose my mind with desire and need just as one of his hands travels down and he slips a finger inside of me. My hips thrust out to meet him and I arch my back as much as I can between him and the tile wall. His mouth is all over me and eventually he has one of my nipples between his teeth. Hot water pours down all over us, slicking our skin making us glide easily against one another.

“Chase. . .” I gasp. “I need you. . .“ My voice dies off as he picks up my other leg, putting it around his hip also. Now I'm completely supported by his body.

“I know, baby, I need you too,” his voice is so low and thick that I can barely hear it over the rushing water. With me supported against the wall, my arms around his neck, his reaches down and brings his cock up to my sex, sliding it along the length of me. 

“Chase, please,” I beg, my neck angled back, my body begging him. 

“Please what, Hayles?” he pants as he rains kisses along my neck.

“Please fuck me,” I gasp and close my eyes as he finally begins to slide inside of me. I cry out, wanting more and, this time, he's quick to give it to me. He slides so deep inside of me that I lift right off of his hips and then he begins pounding my body against the shower wall. I can't get enough of him, my hands clawing at his back, pulling him closer. He's so powerful, and I'm lost in the heady sensation. My body thrashes and moves on its own as I climax around him, his name echoing from my lips throughout the bathroom. He slams into me twice more and then he's still as he hisses my name and lets go inside of me. I never want to leave this shower. 

Eventually he lowers me down so that I'm standing on my own two feet again, but my legs are shaking something fierce. We finally spend time washing each other thoroughly and then step out of the shower, tired all over again. Chase wraps one of his towels around me first. He's really thought of everything for his new place.

“It could be like this every day. . .someday,” he smiles at me as he tucks a towel around his own waist. My heart races at the thought, but I also know I'll never get a damn thing done!

I have to work for Griff's dad today, so I have Chase drop me off at home to grab some clothes. I'm currently wearing one of Chase's wakeboarding t-shirts and a pair of his boxers. At least my mom isn't home. I'm not sure she would miss the fact that I am wearing his clothes late in the morning. Thunder rumbles across the sky as I kiss him with a hand on the back of his neck in the cab of his truck. “I'm done at two,” I tell him, pulling back to look at his face. 

“I'll be back there to get you at 1:50 then,” he says with a huge boyish smile on his face as he leans in to kiss me again. The rain is coming down in buckets. My hair is still wet from that incredible shower we had but my clothes, or rather his clothes are still dry, so I climb out of his truck and run across my front lawn to the cover of the porch. I turn to watch as he backs out of the driveway. I push the door open and pad across the wooden floor of the living room. I'm just about to head up the stairs when I hear a sound in the kitchen. I stop where I am and listen. Mom's car hadn't been in the driveway. Maybe Griff or Brynn are here. “Griff? Brynn?” I call out waiting for either of them to answer. 

I suck in a huge gulp of air and feel the adrenaline instantaneously shoot throughout my body as he steps out from the kitchen and stares at me with narrowed eyes. “Parker. . .” I say, barely a whisper. It's one of the moments where you stand frozen in place when you should run instead because of the sheer shock of it.

“Hey there,
Hayle
e,” he practically spits my name as he slowly takes a few steps toward me. Why am I still standing here? “I'm real sorry about the other night.”

  I can't tell if he's serious or not. His presence and the fact that we're alone make me tremble with fear. But it's
Parker
. Maybe he is really here to apologize. He has taken a few more steps toward me and I have taken a small one back. He stops his approach when he sees that. His eyes flash with something. Sadness, maybe? “You need to go Parker,” I whispered, my hands shaking at my sides. 

He closes his eyes for a second as I say that and when he opens them again, he takes another step toward me. I step back again. I don't want him to get any closer. He can almost reach out and touch me now as it is. “Haylee,” he pleads with me, “Don't do this.” 

“No, Parker, you don't do this. You need to leave,” I make sure that my tone is stronger, firmer this time. My throat aches just looking at him.

“You're wearing his clothes, aren't you?” he asks taking another step as his eyes wander down my body. “You spent the night with him.” It isn't really a question, so I choose not to answer. The huge lump in my throat may have prevented that anyway. As I very slowly take another step back, he shakes his head from side to side and a grin that makes my stomach churn spreads across his face. “He just had to come back here and fuck everything up,” he mutters, his eyes glued to me as he takes another couple steps forward. As I take another backwards step, my back thumps against the wall beneath the stairs and my eyes fly wide at the realization that I have trapped myself between him and the wall. His smile grows wider as he closes the rest of the distance between us. His hands come down on either side of my body, pinning my arms against my sides, and I am panting for breath.

I try not to look at him, but he takes my chin roughly in one hand and pulls my face forward. “You belong with me,” he says harshly, and as I look at his eyes through tears in my own, I can see that his pupils are dilated and his iris' are bloodshot and raw looking. He's freaking high again!

  A sob escapes my lips as he leans down and silences me with his mouth on mine. I try to keep my mouth closed tightly, but I'm sobbing now and it opens on its own, desperate for more oxygen. Parker groans then, taking full advantage of the situation, and shoves his tongue into my mouth. I try to turn my face to the side, but he clasps a hand around my already sore and bruised neck causing me to yelp out in pain. I feel his leg shove in between mine and his other hand reaches up under the t-shirt I'm wearing and painfully squeezes one breast. I am hysterical now, everything is too similar to the other night, and my mind is trying to shut down.

“You belong to me, Haylee,” he rasps, his hips pinning me against the wall. I struggle, but get nowhere and I'm already growing tired. He releases my breast, and I fee his hand travel down across my stomach. “NO!” I sob, trying to shove him away, but it's useless. He has each of my appendages held down just enough somehow. His fingers slip beneath the loose elastic band of the boxers and his hand rubs against the lace of my panties. I grit my teeth as his hand on my throat digs in even further, beginning to restrict my air flow. I can't believe this is happening again! This is all my fault. I had chosen not to press charges and I should have; he would be in jail now. 

I close my eyes and try to block everything out, but I can still feel him, still hear him, still smell him all over me. 

“Get the fuck away from her!” I hear a voice roar, and Parker halts his assault, but still has me trappped. My eyes fly open, the pressure building behind them as his hand squeezes down on my throat. I hear a choking sound escape my mouth just before Parker is yanked back away from me. My legs give out and I collapse in a heap on the floor. It takes some effort as I cough to pick my head up, but I do. Just enough to see Chase and Parker throwing punches at each other. I feel myself cringing back from the sounds of bone against flesh and their grunts and groans as they struggle with each other. I'm sobbing now, not only for myself, but for Chase as well. I can't stand to watch him getting hurt and being unable to do anything about it. Parker catches Chase in the center of his stomach with a hard punch and Chase doubles over. Parker takes advantage of this moment of weakness and swings his fist wildly toward Chase's head.