Wild Chase (28 page)

“Just stop. Let me go,” I cry, unable to hide my tears any longer as he leans in even closer.

“You want to hear what I have to say?” he growls, his warm breath so close to my ear. I shake my head, although the butterflies rising from the dead are all screaming yes.

“I haven’t been able to get your face out of my head since the moment I realized it was you sitting in my lap that day. Acting like we’re strangers is fucking driving me insane. I don’t care how much time has passed, I swear every time I see you it’s like I’m right back on that rooftop again,” he whispers, his melodic voice raspy and broken. I blink, out of pure shock, for far too long before I turn my face from him. He slips a hand behind the back of my neck and grabs me up by my nape abruptly, bringing my face within an inch of his face.

“You won’t look at me because you see it too, I know you do.”

Every part of my body aches to lean into him, to wrap around his muscular frame and tell him he’s right.

Of course, I see it.

I never stopped seeing it.

My pride and my guilt for what I’m doing to Jesse are the only things that keep me steadily in place.

I shake my head no and he lets out a frustrated laugh.

“Now who’s denying?” he teases in a soft whisper.

The moment I open my mouth to reply with something snarky he pulls me forward and kisses me.

My world implodes with one touch of his soft lips. I tumble, heart first, into his dangerous embrace.

The feelings I thought I had locked away for the past four years come flooding back as soon as his lips crash into mine. I’ve never wanted anything as much as I’ve wanted Avery, and all of that longing starts to fuel our intense exchange, causing the kiss to turn desperate—reckless. A low, deep sounding groan comes from his throat and I gasp against his lips.

His tongue slips against mine, my body coming alive with every single touch he’s giving me.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I hear thunder, but it isn’t until Avery tears himself from me, panting, that I realize that it’s not a storm.

Someone’s banging on the door.

We step in opposite directions, looking everywhere but at the other as he opens the door to the cleaning crew.

I reach up to my swollen lips and the weight of everything falls back down on me. I look over at Avery with so much written across my face and unable to form a single thought.

Without another word, I grab my bag and make a run for it before everything in me has me running back into his arms.

He isn’t here. All morning in the studio with a stomach full of knots and still, no Avery. Falling asleep had been impossible; finding the will to come in and work with the guys today had been an internal battle. I left multiple casualties in my wake, pride most of all, the moment I decided to get in my car and drive to the studio. I’m not even sure what I’ll do if I see him. Part of me wants to slap him, while the other half of me wants to grab onto him and never let him go again.

He doesn’t love her.

I clench my eyes shut and lean my head against the edge of the soundboard. The rough, fiery touch of his kiss replaying repeatedly in my mind.

“Hey, you all right down there?” Jesse asks, nudging me gently with his elbow. I wince, my heart pinching slightly in my chest as I look up into his sweet blue eyes and smiling face.

I give him a half-hearted smile back, “Yeah, I’m fine. Just tired.”

He laughs, “Well, that’s what you get for sticking around here all night. You should have left with me,” he leans over and rubs a hand across my lower back, “although, you’d probably be even more tired if you’d done that.”

I roll my eyes and a genuine smile appears across my face. Jesse is too sweet for words. I look over his face, observing his square jaw and the way his dark hair falls over his olive skin, wanting to feel so much more than I do. I know I have feelings for Jesse, but one taste of Avery’s kiss and I know he’s done it again. Any chance I had at moving on lay in ruins at my feet last night when he took me in his arms and put his lips to mine.

“Well, that’s not our problem. It was planned, so let’s do it,” Adam’s deep voice rolls over me suddenly, snapping me out of my thoughts.

I turn to face the rest of the room as Kennedy and Adam stand up and walk over to Jesse and me.

“What’s going on?” I ask slowly as Adam takes a place behind my seat.

“We were planning on doing this as a group, but just so you know, the decision is unanimous,” Jesse says grinning, turning his seat to me, and leaning forward to take my hand in his.

A nervous laugh escapes me as I eye the rest of the guys and their ridiculous smiling faces.

‘What are you talking about?” I ask again, my stomach threatening to jump ship with all of my emotions running wild.

“We want you, Mel,” Adam states simply, but with a huge grin.

My eyes go wide and my jaw falls open. What did he just say?

Kennedy laughs, and then stoops to one knee beside Jesse’s chair, “What dipshit means is that we want you—to be a part of Vengeful Honor.”

Jerking my face back, I close my eyes and a loud laugh bursts free from my lungs.

“WHAT?” I cry out, almost sure that I, in fact, never actually got out of bed this morning.

Jesse squeezes my hands gently, bringing me back to the moment.

“We are dead serious right now. The guys and I had a contract drawn up and everything. Elizabeth, an associate with Blurr, is waiting in the other room with it whenever we are ready. Melanie, you’re brilliant. I know that you’ve been working your ass off for years just to get into the business. If you don’t mind putting up with our four asses for as many years as this ride lasts, than we want you to be a part of it. You can come up with all the excuses in the world, but not one of them will work. We won’t take no for an answer,” Jesse replies, his words colliding into every single piece of me.

Covering my mouth, I feel a tear hit the side of my palm.

This has to be a dream.

There is no way that this is happening.

“It’s true. You know how to write the hell out of a song, what sounds good, what works, and what doesn’t. Your voice is phenomenal. I’d rather have you as a part of our band than leave you behind and have you beat us out for album of the year,” Kennedy confesses with a wide grin.

Adam’s big hand falls onto my shoulder and shakes me gently, drawing my eyes up to his big, brown ones.

“It’s true. I’ll admit it. You’re the shit. And I totally expect you to cook. Like, all the time.”

I laugh loudly, tears running down my face and my heart ready to explode.

“Are you kidding? Are you freakin’ serious right now?” I question them again, finding Jesse’s bright eyes.

“Absolutely,” he smiles.

I lean forward, my whole body shaking as I laugh and cry in complete and utter disbelief.

My reaction only proves that despite not liking the limelight, this is everything I’ve ever dreamed of… Everything I’ve ever wanted.

Almost everything.

I look back up and around the room, my moment taken over by thoughts of stormy gray eyes and I swallow.

“What about Avery?” I ask with my voice unsteady.

Jesse rolls his eyes, “That guy is in his own world this week. Trust me. He’s on board with everything.”

The other guys nod their heads in agreement, but something still doesn’t feel right.

“Where is he?” I ask, wiping the tears from my face.

“Dude’s been in his room all morning with that damn guitar attached to his hip. I haven’t seen him that into writing since he got back from Texas,” Adam pipes up.

Jesse nods, “Yeah, the first trip though, not the second one.”

My mind takes a moment to wrap around the last three words to come out of Jesse’s mouth.

The second one.

He went back to Texas.

My chest tightens as I raise a hand to my stomach and grip a handful of my shirt. My mind fumbles as I am unable to process the new information, but something inside of me pushes until the words finally stumble from my lips.

“What happened to him?” I manage to say, hoping that the words make sense.

“He flew out to Texas about four plus years ago, came back and wrote almost our entire album. He turned around and flew back out there a couple years ago but when he came back, he wasn’t nearly as inspired,” Kennedy says with a shrug.

He went back
.

My mouth goes dry as my heart hammers away in my chest.
Don’t go there
, my head screams.

He went back
.

Before I realize it, I’m standing and looking down at the rest of the guys.

He went back
.

“So, what do you say? Yes or hell yes?” Jesse asks with a smirk, rising to his feet.

“Jesse, are you sure—” I begin, my pulse racing more with each passing second.

He puts a finger to my lips and cuts me off.

“I don’t care what reasons you’re about to come up with. I don’t care about what goes on between you and me. It has nothing to do with this, I swear. It’s purely professional. I’ve already swore to the guys that no matter what happens, it won’t change anything. I’m here to stay and I hope you are, too.”

I smile on the outside as my hand slid into his. Watching from inside my head, I see myself walk down the hall with Jesse, Kennedy, and Adam in slow motion.

I should be celebrating; I should be screaming from the rooftops. It’s my every dream come true, but I’m lost somewhere inside myself.

The blood is rushing through my veins and my heart is pounding wildly, but the only thing I can hear are the butterflies whispering.

He went back
.

I pace back and forth across the cold tile floor of my apartment and stare at the clock on the stove. He said he was on his way. I grab nervously at the fabric of my jeans resting at my thighs, and start to tap my leg anxiously. I have to know. I need to know, I repeat over and over until I hope that I believe it. When I texted him from the cell phone I barely use, he responded instantly, saying he would be right over. Glancing up at the time, I see that not even a minute has passed since the last time I checked. I let out a long sigh and make for the door. Rushing up the hall and down the stairs, I step outside, barefoot and jacketless, finding myself standing at the front of our building in the rain. Tilting my head back, I let the water wash over my face until the sound of his voice surrounds me.

“Hey, what’s wron—” he begins but I cut him off.

“You. You went back? You went back to Texas. Why didn’t you tell me?”

I feel my whole body as it begins to tremble; rain pours down over me, drenching me, but my only concern now is him.

“What? Who told—Chase you’re going to get sick, let’s get inside,” Avery says and takes my arm gently into his, leading me back inside. I’m quiet the whole way up in the elevator, and so is he.

The doors open and the lights flicker down the hall as a huge crack of thunder lets loose. I open up the apartment door and we make our way inside. He shucks his sopping wet coat onto the stool and I turn to face him.

“Why did you go back, Avery?” I ask again, shaking, but not from the rain or the cold.

Running a hand through his hair, watching as a few drops slowly slide down his face he briefly closes his eyes and he takes a deep breath.

I know he’s not going to lie to me, and that scares me even more.

“After we were signed by the label, it was like a dream come true. Finally, after all the hard work, all of the doubt, we finally made it. I should have been thinking about the album, the money, the parties, the fame, all of the stuff that we were about to be thrown into, but the only thing I kept coming back to was you. So, two years ago, I went back to Texas to try to find you. I pulled up in front of that house and it was like something out of the movies, until your parents told me you were gone and slammed the door in my face,” his smile falls and his eyes lock onto mine,” I—I needed to see you. I wanted to tell you that I couldn’t have done any of it if I’d never met you,” his voice is so soft that I almost don’t hear the last part.