Page 44 of My First Mistake
I slam the door closed quickly, but it’s too late. The hallway already looks like a snowman’s memorial service. With a groan, I shake the white powder from my sheepskin boots and go to thewindow. I groan louder. There must be four feet of snowfall out there. I can barely see Angelina’s yellow roof.
“Were you planning on sneaking off without saying goodbye, Firefly?” His voice makes my heart stutter, like someone just took a defib to my chest.
I spin around to see him leaning against the door jamb, his sweats hung low on his hips and revealing far too much of that incredibly toned body to be good for my mental reasoning.
I shrug. “You’re just mad you didn’t get to do it first.”
His eyes rake over me, like a subtle caress on my skin. “I was never planning on walking out without saying goodbye. For the record.”
The way he’s looking at me has heat blooming between my thighs, and that does nothing to ease my temper. Why is the universe doing this to me? I had this all worked out. I was supposed to be up and out of here before he even woke up. I was supposed to make it at least appear like last night was as casual for me as it was for him, and now it’s all shot to hell, and I simply look like a pathetic little girl who couldn’t even get this one thing right. That’s not exactly his fault, but it’s my anger that fuels my response to him. “No. Sneaking off to fuck someone else while I’m sleeping is more like your style, huh, Chase?”
The change in him is instant. The lazy grin that seems to be permanently on his face around me vanishes to be replaced with a dark scowl. This is dangerous Chase. The one who Jasper met last night. Don’t fuck with me or I’ll put you in the ground, Chase. He pushes off the doorframe and stalks across the room, like a sleek panther headed for its prey. “Watch your mouth, Addie.”
I’m so shocked I actually gasp out loud like a moron. Watch my what now? “Who the hell do you think?—”
I don’t finish that sentence. Can’t actually, because Chase’s strong fingers are cupping my jaw and holding my mouth open.“You don’t get to speak to me like that, Firefly. You don’t get to pretend you don’t have feelings for me after what we did.”
I wrench my jaw from his grip. “Are you serious right now? That was just sex, Chase. Two people can have sex without there being feelings involved, and you should know that,” I snap.
He leans closer, invading every inch of my personal space and setting all of my nerve endings on edge. “People don’t do what we did last night without feeling something for each other.”
My body wants to lean into him, reminded of how well we fit together, but I fight it and keep my chin tipped up while I glare into his ice-blue eyes. “Well, that would require you having some kind of feelings for me now, wouldn’t it, and we both know that’s not true.”
He growls, like a possessive dog who just got back his favorite chew toy and doesn’t want to let it go, and then the maniac hoists me over his shoulder and walks back to the bedroom.
“Chase! Put me the hell down.”
That demand only earns me a sharp crack on my ass.
“Chase!”
He tosses me onto the bed then kicks the door closed behind us. “Let’s get one thing straight, Addie, I have feelings for you, okay. So many fucking feelings that they’re driving me to distraction. I don’t know which way is up or which is way is down.” He reaches for my right foot and yanks off my boot before tossing it over his shoulder.
Okay, of course he has feelings. He’s not a robot. But that doesn’t change anything. “What do you think you’re doing?” I attempt to inject some authority into my tone, but it’s a feeble protest and predictably he ignores it and pulls off my left boot.
“The snow is four feet thick, Addie, and it’s still coming down. I checked the weather. It’s not melting for days. You and I aren’t going anywhere, baby.”
“So what? You think I’m just going to fall back into bed with you because I have nothing better to do?”
He arches an eyebrow. Cocky son-of-a-chipmunk! “No.” He drops to his knees and then slowly starts peeling off my socks. Then he presses a kiss on the inside of my ankle that sends a lightning bolt of pleasure right to my core. “But I am going to teach you some manners, princess.”
What in tarnation! “Manners?”
He rolls off my other sock. “That’s what I said.” Then he winks at me and my heart stops and starts again. I don’t know what’s happening here. This seems playful and intense, and too much but not enough. Chase Hunter is undressing me, and not like last night when I decided to have a fuck-it moment and throw all sense out of the window. This is Chase admitting he has feelings for me, and we both know I have far too many for him, not all of them positive. This means something and I don’t know if my poor, bruised heart can take it when this inevitably ends. I could handle it when it was on my terms, but now it feels like he’s very much back in control. Ordinarily, it’s exactly what I like in a guy. Someone who’ll take charge and give me exactly what I’m craving, something which has been sadly lacking in my recent relationships. But with Chase…he has everything I’ve ever wanted. Everything I need, but he also has my heart and I’m not sure I can give him any more of myself and walk away unscathed.
“Chase?” My voice breaks and my lip wobbles.
It stops him in his tracks and he rocks back on his haunches. “Do you want to leave, Firefly? I will shovel all of that snow away with a spoon if that’s what you really want.”
My heart is hammering so hard in my chest I’m sure I’m going to have some kind of cardiac event. “That would take forever.”
“I’ll give you forever too if that’s what you want.”
No! He can’t say things like that. He can’t make me promises that he can’t keep. He can’t keep making me fall in love with him. “You’re not playing fair.”
“Addie,” he says my name like a prayer, so reverently it’s enough to pull me out of my spiral. My eyes find his gaze and he’s staring at me, with a mixture of concern and hunger. “I know that I really fucked up, Firefly, but I’m not that guy anymore. I would never fucking hurt you. Never.”
“I want to trust you, Chase.”
