Page 20 of Chase's Kind of Trouble
I stare at the open door for a long time. Hours maybe. Lost in my head. Afraid to trust what my heart wants.
Until an alarm starts wailing and an electronic voice announces, “Intruder! An intruder has breached the perimeter. Move to the safe room now.”
TWELVE
Chase
I’ve never seen the color of red I’m seeing now. This isn’t blood red. It’s nuclear-meltdown-red. Flame-thrower-red. Someone’s gonna wish they never even breathed in direction of my property red.
Tice whistles, “man, you need to do some breath work.”
I’d tell him off, but he got wind of a planned assault on my property, and showed up just on time for the fun.
He leans in closer to the monitor in my security control room, a laughed growl echoing from his chest. “Those are some ballsy motherfucker’s right there. You go take your girl to the safe room, I’ll deal?—”
I hold up a hand, he knows the sign so he clams up.
“They’re mine. I’ll get her settled. Then you and me are gonna have some fun.”
He chuckles, slowly shaking his head. “You’re not leaving her alone. No way, no fucking how.”
“Didn’t say I was. Two of my most trusted men just came through my tunnel. They’ll be protecting Celeste when I get towork on dealing with those pieces of shit. So sit tight. I’ll be back in two minutes. In the mean time, have some fun with the water cannons, herd them toward the creek, that spot near the big oak trees.”
“Land-ho, motherfuckers! Get ready to drink up.” He shouts as I take off.
I’m double timing to the bedroom, my veins full of lava, when the alarm system sets off an ear-slitting alarm and announces the intruder.
“Fuck!”
I forgot to cut the audible and verbal warning off. Picking up speed, I kill the alarm’s digital voice with my watch, but it’s too late. There’s no way Celeste slept through that kind of warning.
And the last thing I want is for Celeste to be scared again tonight, but I’m too late.
She slams into my chest and bounces off. There’s a baseball bat fisted in her hands—my baseball bat. I’m momentarily blinded by the fact that she looks like a hot, tousled warrior queen.
“There’s an intruder,” she wheezes, swinging the bat around, nearly clipping me. “I was afraid something happened to you.”
I clutch my chest and grin. I’m pretty sure my heart just grew twice it’s previous size. “Honey… you were coming to help me?”
“Yeah,” she nods rapidly. “I mean. I am not sure what I could do, but I couldn’t just lie there and let something bad happen to you?—”
I kiss her so hard she stumbles back until she bumps into the wall. “Fuck, Celeste. You don’t know what that does to me.”
She kisses me back, the bat falling to the floor with a clang as her hands go to my hair.
The lust that roars through me is as dangerous as gasoline and fireworks. I’m already pumped on adrenaline. Mixing my need for Celeste with it is downright reckless.
Not that I’ve ever been averse to risk. In fact, I’m that son of a bitch that goes in head first.
“Legs around me.”
Taking what I need, I grab a hand full of curves and lift my girl up until she knows exactly what to do—wrap those long, sweet thighs around my waist.
When I press her against the wall, her color is bright, her lungs are working, and her mouth is damp and bruised from my kiss.
We stare at each other, something wild spinning out between us. Until I can’t take the pressure inside of me any more. “Fuck, I love you, gorgeous.”
Surprise brightens her blue eyes as her lashes flutter. “Do you believe in love at first sight?”
