Body (21 page)

Bentley serves us a scrumptious brunch, including feta stuffed egg white omelets with plenty of spinach, tomatoes and honey-glazed bacon. He couples it with homemade hash browns that are cut into perfect squares. How he was able to cut a potato into a square I don’t know, but it is delicious. The cook added several different fruits and pastries and Chase opens up a bottle of champagne. We sip mimosas and gaze out over the city. It’s been lovely getting to know Carson and Chase in a casual setting. It’s one of the best mornings I’ve had in a long time.

Carson takes his leave shortly after breakfast and Chase and I spend the rest of the day getting to know each other better.

I’m not surprised to learn he’s involved in a dozen charities. He serves on several of their boards. The others he mostly gives monetary donations to. He also tells me about the different types of businesses he owns, from hotels, to tech related companies, to fashion stores, to night clubs and restaurants. His interests are fascinating and broad. He really does have his hand in a bit of everything.

“You know what’s funny?” I lean my head against his chest as we sit on a large garden lounge chair not quite designed to fit two but we make it work.

“Hmm?” He massages my shoulders and I lean my head back to give him further access to my aching muscles.

“You’re Phillip’s boss, too!” I laugh.

He stops massaging and hums. “Really?”

“Yup, he works for the architectural firm on the 20
^th
floor.” I giggle.

“Small world.” He continues the massage, digging into the overworked muscles. “So tell me more about you and Phillip.”

I know Chase is worried about my relationship with Phil, possibly even jealous. “We met in high school. I introduced him to his wife Angela. Stood up in their wedding as maid of honor. Oh, that feels good,” I groan as he finds a knot in my neck and works his magic fingers through it.

I sigh when the muscle releases and he smoothes his hands along the base of my neck. “Then they had Anabelle, and I was honored to be asked to be her Godmother.”

“You love that little girl a great deal.” It’s a statement not a question but I answer anyway.

“So much. And since her mom passed, I feel it’s more important than ever that I be there for her.”

He nods his head and snuggles into the crook of my neck from behind. “So you and Phillip were never in a relationship?”

I sigh. I really didn’t want to go into this. “I wouldn’t exactly say that,” I admit.

He stops massaging and his body tenses. The air around us is suddenly thick. Chase pulls me to lean fully against his chest. His arms cross around my front in a hugging manner.

“Tell me,” he whispers against my ear, sending chills of excitement dancing along my nerve endings.

“Phillip and I weren’t in a relationship in the conventional sense. We never dated. He never considered me his girlfriend. I never considered him my boyfriend. Nothing like that.” I exhale, feeling a bit annoyed that we’re even having this conversation.

“What is it, Baby? Just tell me what it was?” His hands slide up and down my biceps. I stiffen, destroying the relaxed place we were moments before. I’m not embarrassed by my relationship with Phillip but I know instinctively how Chase is going to take this bit of information.

I decide to spit it out and go for broke. “Phillip was my first, Chase.” I turn my head but he doesn’t look at me. “It was a long time ago. We were teenagers. I didn’t want my first time to be with someone who would take advantage of me.”

I grip his chin and force him to look at me. I need to see his eyes. He doesn’t say what he’s thinking but his eyes tell me what I need to know. They are cloudy and deep blue. Not good.

“He was your first?” he asks through clenched teeth.

I nod as his eyes calculate my features, jumping from one plane to the next. A deep emotion crosses his features and then with finality he says, “I’ll be your last.”

The look in his eyes is steadfast and haunting. This is the Chase I don’t want to cross. The one who says what he means and means what he says, almost frightening in his intensity.

I don’t know how to respond. His words floor me. The meaning behind them, his promise, is startling. “What’s happening between us?” I take a shuddering breath asking the question I’ve wanted to know since the moment I realized this thing between us wasn’t going to go away. If I was honest it was the moment I realized the hell we were going to go through when I found out he was the Chairman of the Board. My insides heat, anxiety swirls within my gut as I take a deep breath. The words spill from my lips so quickly I’m not able to hold them back. “What I’m feeling…it’s too fast.” I close my eyes.

He pulls me to his chest and holds me tightly. His gaze pierces mine. “For me, too.”

After an eternity of staring into one another’s minds, hearts and souls, he pulls at my sweater and I hold my arms above my head. His fingers slide the straps of my bra down, then he unhooks the back, letting it fall. My breathing quickens. I can tell he’s brooding about Phillip and me but this thing between us is too strong to ignore. It’s like a live wire sparking at both ends, burning us, scarring our souls with an imprint of the other.

Chase doesn’t speak. He unsnaps my jeans and gestures for me to stand. I do and he pulls my jeans and panties down at the same time leaving me bare before him. His eyes scour every inch of my naked form. His fingers trace the sides of my rounded breasts, down each rib, along my waistline before he grips my hips possessively and brings his face to my stomach. He places a hard kiss just under my naval before he pulls my body down to straddle his legs. I pull his t-shirt over his head leaving him tenting his pajama bottoms, the fabric restricting his manhood. He traces my curves with the tips of his fingers again in the lightest caress. He draws an infinity symbol over my chest and between my breasts. I lean my head back and close my eyes in pure ecstasy as he takes one hard peak into the warmth of his mouth. He sucks the tip and then clamps his perfect teeth against the swollen flesh. The jolt goes straight to my core and I push my breast against his mouth, wanting, needing more of him. My fingers dig into his shoulders as he places wicked lashes of his talented tongue against each breast with biting precision. He nips and licks until I’m panting and grinding against his cock. I’m coating his pants with the wetness between my thighs.

Finally, I can wait no longer. “Chase, please,” I beg.

He grins devilishly and bites my breast softly while pinching the other peak to perfection.

I grip his head. “Chase…”

“These are mine.” He licks and bites each tip again. I sigh in agreement. “Say they’re mine, Baby,” he urges with a hard suck and swirl of his tongue. I jerk my hips against his hardness trying to force him to touch me
there.

“Yours.” The word slips from my dry mouth as I focus hard on the building pressure his words of ownership send through my body. He has me twisting and rutting on top of him, barreling to the top of the roller coaster, waiting to be pushed off into a free fall.

He slides his hand down to my clit and presses his thumb in teasing circles. I cry out and shudder, wrapping my legs around his waist to thrust harder against his hand. He swirls slowly, just out of the realm of tipping me over into the release I’m dying for. He licks his lips and kisses my throat. “Look down Baby, see me touching you.”

I look down and see his finger spinning in lazy circles over my cherry red clit, engorged and aching for the pressure only he can provide. “This. This is mine,” he affirms.

I nod, gyrating against his hand, needing more.

“Say it, Gillian.” His tone is strong, forceful, demanding.

“Yours, Chase, yours.” I gasp and tip my head back to see the swirling blue and white sky above our castle in the clouds.

He removes his hand and I cry out until he pulls down his pajama bottoms freeing his thick cock. God, he’s enormous. Harder and longer than I remember. I lick my lips in anticipation. He lifts my hips and rubs his dick along my soaked folds. He grins when he becomes slick with my essence before he centers me perfectly and presses just the head in. Teasing me with the beauty of his cock, of the completeness of our bodies joined together.

“More, please…” I go straight to shameless begging. I would do anything to get his dick inside me at this moment.

His hands on my waist bring me down hard as his hips thrust up, tearing into me, splitting me in half with the most obscene pleasure imaginable.

“Chase!” I scream out into the Heavens. The enormity of this moment, of being taken so fully, his penetration piercing a part so deep within me it’s never been touched before. Chase is a steel rod inside, wedged to the point where I don’t know where he stops and I begin. I can’t move, stunned by the perfection of our coupling.

“This, Gillian….” He slides his cock out of me, dragging the wide crown along swollen tissue from last night, then slams it back so deep I cry out. Tears prick my eyes, the pleasure is so intense. “This. Is. Mine. Your pretty pussy is
mine
now.” His teeth clench, the muscles in his forearms, biceps and neck are bulging with every thrust as he powers into me.

“Yes!” I cry out as my orgasm rips through me. I think I lose consciousness. All I can feel is movement, pleasure touching every surface of my skin, my insides, until I hear Chase’s mighty roar as his release overtakes him. He grips my ass and holds me in place until his jerking comes to a blistering halt, his semen filling me so full some of it spills out between our bodies.

Limp. My body, my mind, my heart is limp and sated. Chase holds me close as we lay naked, his hands sliding up and down my back tracing endless infinity symbols. Is it a metaphor for us? Forever. Has he always known from the moment we met? I remember him drawing the symbol on my knee in the bar that first night.

It’s too much.

Him. Me. Us.

It’s all encompassing and far too much to consider after the mind-blowing sex we just had.

I lie there in the bliss. The sun on my skin is warm but so is his chest. I snuggle in, sexually sated and exhausted. What happened here was monumental. It’s not possible to wrap my mind around it. He essentially staked his claim, in no uncertain terms, and I gave myself to him in a moment of passion. Completely, unequivocally, agreed to being his.

My self-doubt creeps in to this blissful moment and I worry about what he’s going to think when he finds out I am like the women he committed to protect as Chairman of the Board of the Safe Haven Foundation. Safe Haven helped save me once upon a time, which means
he
saved me. I sigh and he kisses the top of my head.

“Let’s shower and get ready for this evening.”

“About that. Chase you spent an awful lot of money on those clothes and that dress.” I look away nervously. “I can’t let you spend that kind of money on me. It’s not right.”

“Baby, I am a very rich man. I will buy you whatever I want, whenever I want, and you will let it go.”

“I know you’re rich. I don’t care. I’m not and I can’t afford things like that!” I cross my arms over my breasts struggling to find some modicum of decency for a serious conversation.

He unhinges my arms, leans down and kisses the top of each globe tenderly. “Good thing you don’t have to. When you’re with me, I will buy you things. Lots of things. I will never buy you anything I cannot afford.” His gaze holds mine, it’s hard and unrelenting. “Now you will let it go.” This is not going as planned. “Do you not like the things Dana picked out for you? I told her what I thought you would appreciate and told her your sizes.” He looks concerned.

“Everything is beautiful. But I’m not used to this. I don’t want you thinking I’m after your money. That’s the farthest thing from the truth.” I bite my lip and look deep into his eyes, hoping he can see the sincerity there. He smiles a heart-melting smile that makes me want to hug him but I don’t. He needs to know I’m not the type of woman who uses men and I’m definitely not a gold-digger. “I wouldn’t care if you were poor, Chase.”  

He shakes his head and pulls me back on to his chest. “Gillian, I know that.” He hugs me, skin to naked skin. It is lovely. “I want to give you the world. I’m not used to being around a woman who doesn’t expect a damn thing. It’s refreshing.” He looks in my eyes and caresses the apple of my cheek with his thumb before moving my hair behind my ear. “Please, accept the things I bought for you and know that it pleases me to give you them. They are yours for no other reason.” He lifts my chin. “Okay?” I close my eyes and nod. “Not another word about this.” I nod again.

“Now, shower?” He waggles his eyebrows suggestively. The man hasn’t even slipped from my body and he’s already thinking about sex again.

“Yes, shower. Nope to sex. You’re going to have to wait until the evening is over!” I giggle and slip off his lap. The proof of our mating starts to trickle down my thighs. He watches in fascination, before using his shirt to wipe up the inside of my leg and over my sex.

“I love seeing me on you and knowing I’m still inside you.” He stands, grabs my nape and pulls me into a toe-curling kiss. “Makes me wildly happy, Baby,” he says with that cocky grin.

I shake my head and he leads me through the house, stark assed naked. I don’t even question whether or not the staff will see because I don’t think he’d be keen on sharing my naked body after he just spent the last hour claiming it.

Chapter 11

“The Houses for Humanity event tonight is being held in the historic Fairmont Hotel,” Chase informs Kat and me. His smile is huge and I’m not the only one who can’t stop looking at him. Kat is dreamily listening to every word. I can’t blame her. He’s that pretty.

Chase continues his history lesson. “The hotel was built in 1906 by a genius architect named Julia Morgan who, incidentally, also designed Hearst Castle. Unfortunately, right before its grand opening the city suffered a huge earthquake and the fires that followed took the lush hotel and destroyed it.”

Kat’s eyes widen and a hand goes to her mouth. “Oh no,” she says.