Page 69 of Hard To Love

When she waltzed in looking like she had just stepped out of a beauty salon, I shifted positions on the stool and wished I had put more effort into my appearance this morning. Her long, jet-black hair was styled razor straight, resting perfectly along the middle of her back. Her white, see-through blouse was busting at the seams showing way too much cleavage and her black pencil skirt was barely covering her thong. Her make-up was impeccable and I was consumed with the thought of wondering how much time she spent getting ready so she could just ‘stop by’.

She came to a sudden halt as soon as she saw me. A sense of satisfaction flooded my body when my eyes latched onto her stunned expression.

I’ll be damned. She really looked pissed.

“Oh, I’m sorry, Chase, I didn’t realize you had company.” She blanched a bit, and took a small step backwards.

She quickly schooled her features and threw me a tight smile while noticing my freshly fucked appearance.

“You remember my girlfriend, Emily, right?” He asked while never taking his eyes off of me. Bless his soul.

“Of course, I do. Nice to see you again.” We both nodded in a way that only a female would understand that said ‘bring it on, bitch!’.

I forced a smile, “Good morning, Megan. Please excuse my appearance. Chase and I weren't expecting company today. Can I get you anything?”

I walked over and possessively snaked my arms around his waist. If she wasn’t sure where my place was in his life, I was hoping she’d figure it out, real soon.

She handed Chase a thick, black binder filled with paperwork she had prepared from the office. “I remember you telling me that you were going to be busy this week, so I thought I would drop off the paperwork for the construction requisitions and purchase orders that are due to be completed. I apologize for not calling first.”

Her voice sounded sincere but it didn’t quite meet the cold hard stare she was shooting my way. My mind started to consider a number of different scenarios while trying to justify this visit. You could call it women's intuition or whatever you wanted to call it, but she was up to something, I just hadn’t figured out what it was yet.

“Apology accepted.” I quickly chimed in forcing her gaze off of Chase so it landed directly on me. If she was going to play a game, I was going to make sure I came out the winner.

He reached out and took the paperwork from her hands. “You really didn’t need to come all the way over here.”

Her confident features had suddenly turned into disappointment from his dismissive reply. She nervously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “Chase, it wasn’t a big deal. You’ve been busier than usual and I was in the neighborhood.”

If I ever had any doubts as to whether or not she wanted my man, they were just now confirmed. I wasn’t sure what was going on between her and Colin, but I would bet my life that she would come running the second Chase snapped his fingers. But I guess I really couldn’t blame her, could I? Truthfully, a small part of me felt for sorry for Megan. God knew what I went through when I thought I lost him. I could only imagine how she felt, looking at me in his underwear knowing that I now had what she once had. Her jealousy was almost understandable. I might have even been able to muster a little sympathy for her if she wasn’t glaring at me. If that’s how she wanted to play it, I was more than ready to defend my territory.

Chase pulled me tight against his side, while his hands rested along my shoulders, “That was very thoughtful, Megan, I’ll make sure I look them over as soon as I can. Thanks for stopping by.” He effectively let her know that her presence was no longer required. God, I loved him.

She looked up briefly into his eyes, and tried to hide the blow he just landed to her ego. “Sure. No problem. See you at the office.” Then she turned around and completely ignored me as the sound of her clicking heels followed her out the door.

Once the door closed behind her, I stood on my tippy toes and wrapped my arms around his neck.

He pulled his head back and drew his eyebrows together. “What’s gotten into you?”

I glanced at him playfully while my fingers twisted through the back of his hair. “You called me your girlfriend.” I smiled, “I liked the sound of that.”

He smiled at me, running the pads of his fingers gingerly across my cheeks. “I’m all yours, sweetheart.”

“You bet your ass you are.”

He leaned in so that our noses were touching and looked me straight in the eyes. “Is that how you’re going to play it?” He asked with his hands sliding down to cup my ass.

I cocked my head to the side, “Did you just say you wanted to play?”

A look of excitement flashed in his eyes. The next thing I knew, I was being picked up and thrown over his shoulder, the whole time squealing like a teenager. He playfully smacked my behind as my mouth flew open. “You did not just spank me, did you?”

His hands firmly pressed my body against his, and then he smacked me again. “I sure did! Didn’t anyone ever warn you about the dangers of playing with fire, sweetheart?”

He carried me into the bedroom and threw me down on the bed. Resting his arms on either side of my face, his lips kicked up into a grin. “You ready to have some fun, gorgeous?”God was I ever!

* * *

Iswungmy legs off the bed in search of my phone. The first thing that popped into my head was that Cassie was going to kill me for not calling.

As I walked through the apartment in search of my purse, Chase called out from the other room. “I put your phone in the charger for you. It was buzzing like crazy this morning.”

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