Up for the Chase (7 page)

Chapter Thirteen

Chase

I realized a long time ago that you don’t leave someone you love, it doesn’t matter how afraid you are of what they are going to say or how much that they will hurt you. I had already made that mistake with her once, I ran because I was too afraid with how important she became to me so fast, and ever since. I have been searching for Ariana for two years; I’m not giving up now.

My phone buzzes as I look down to the screen and see that
its Will.

“Come on, buddy. Give me some good news.”
I say into the receiver.

“
Man, I don’t know how you figured out that she was using her mother’s name, but I found an Aria Irsby.”

“Did you get a number?”
I ask, hopeful.

“No, but I got an address and your right she is in Savannah.” I jotted down the
address as he rattled it off to me and smiled before thanking him and hanging up the phone, now all I had to figure out was how I would get her to talk to me, I just needed her to hear me out, and then whoever else was in her life well he would just have to deal with it. I stop by the florist and pick up a dozen flowers; I browse the counter picking up the sunflowers that I knew would be her favorite.

“Stop the car,” she screeched
so loud that I thought that I had just run over someone.

“Jesus, what is it?” I asked scared out of my mind.

“Look at all the sunflowers.” She smiled at me, “They are my favorite.”

“Alright,” I said veering off of the road. We picked several flowers and I managed to sneak a few dozen to the car without her knowing. I helped her pick some out as we and then we walked back up to the front paying for the handful of the ones that she had picked out.

As we walked back to the car and got in she shrieked when she looked into the back seat seeing the three dozed that I had bought for her.

“Chase,” she smiled at me but, “How did you do this?” I shrugged it wasn’t important anyways. When we got to a hotel that night I made sure to bring every one of them in and place them in water. Everywhere
I looked there was a yellow sunflower looking at me.

I paid at the counter and walked the three blocks to the house address that sat in my hand.
I couldn’t help but laugh when I realized that I was on the same street as I talking to her last night that we were literally standing in front of her house. I rang the doorbell calmly waiting for her to come to the door, but the inside of the house was dark and empty. l knocked a few times just to make sure. I wasn’t sure what to do so I turned around and sat down on the stairs.

I have been sitting for almost an hour when I hear a woman shout and I stand as I watch Ariana round the corner to come towards me.

Ariana

We are walking home as Avery skips off towards the house; I hate it when she does this.

“Avery, stop wait for me.” I shout to her as we round the corner and I almost drop the takeout food that I carry in my hands. He manages to take my breath away, standing in a dress shirt with a vest on over top and a pair of dark jeans in front of me, with sunflowers in his hands.

We are passing through El Paso as the sunsets and we decide to get a hotel room. We have been on the road for over a month, staying a week in some places, sometimes more. I was having the time of my life, and the only person I had to thank was Chase for showing me something that no one else would have dared to, he showed me how to live carelessly and he showed me how to be the person that I always had wanted to be.

There’s a beautiful aspect to El Paso. It has the sort of eerie ominous for me. Maybe it’s the mountains overshadowing over the city. When we pull up to the hotel Chase smiles over to me,

“I think this is the nicest place we have stayed at.” I joke with him.

“'That’s because I called ahead and booked it,” he smiles to me again. We walk inside
, checking into the hotel, and walking up to the room. When I open the door I am stuck by the room, it’s gorgeous. The bathroom has a jetted rub and it reminds me a lot of the room in Orlando.

“Come on let’s go get something to eat.” He whispers into my ear. I follow him out as we walk downstairs to the restaurant that is in the hotel.

We walk up to the room laughing; it seems as though I am always laughing with Chase. He leans over me to press the key into the hole and pushes the door open. I walk over to the sliding glass door as I look out onto the mountains.

“I never thought I would like it here, but I guess that I was wrong.” He manages to laugh as he takes off his shoes. “Do you want to go swimming?” I ask him
remembering that I had indeed picked up a suit after we went swimming in the bay. He smiles nodding over to me and walks into the bathroom I can only guess to change.

Moments later we walk out
to the pool and I jump in automatically. It is starting to darken outside when I feel the splash of water at my side and when I look over I feel Chase’s hands on my legs and they raise slightly higher. We still haven’t slept together even after begin on the road and in and out of hotel rooms for the last month, but we had kissed excessively and managed to cross certain lines. His hands slide up my body as he swims upward and his head, still underwater, nuzzles in between my breasts and even in the cold water I can feel my body starting to warm up. When his head comes out of the water he smiles his crooked smile at me and I melt instantly, luckily we are the only ones out here right now. I laugh as I slide my arms around his neck and he lays kisses along my shoulder and up my neck. I'm sure if people looked out of their rooms that they could see us, but in this moment I didn’t care.

When his lips finally reach mine I don’t want to pull back and I don’t want to stop.
I barely even feel the rain pouring onto us. His mouth engulfs mine as the pool water and the rain slide down our faces. I hear the gate slam shut to the pool area and then a young male voice say, “Y’all can’t do that out here.”

Chase nods his head as I lower mine so the attendant can’t see the embarrassment that has spread on my face.

Chase leans down and says, “I’m going to need you to walk in front of me,” and I can’t help but laugh out loud. We wait for the guy to leave and we get out of the pool wrapping up with a towel and making a beeline for the room. I hear Chase tapping his foot as we waiting in the elevator to let us in. The second the doors close around us I feel Chase’s body against mine and I can feel his erection pressing into my lower back, just thinking about how turned one he is, is causing me to grow hotter. He slides his hand between me and my towel and then skims his hand on my thigh as he makes his way up. He slips his hand underneath my swimsuit with one, swift, motion and almost not to waste any time he slips a finger into me. I moan as my head falls backwards onto his shoulder and he rubs my clit with the pad of his thumb. His motions start moving faster and my knees begin to shake as I hear the ding for our floor. He quickly slips his hand out and wraps his arms back around me as we make our way down the hall, but I’m more focused on keep my legs from collapsing around me as we casually walked down the hall and he again leaned across me as he slides the key card into the slot and I couldn’t help myself, not wanting the moment to die I lean into him and I let my lips linger on his neck and my body heightens when I hear a moan escape his lips. His face moves over to me as he forcefully presses his lips to mine and pulls me inside of the room. As the door clicks shut I feel my back pressed against it, and his mouth devours mine again.

I let the towel drop from around me as he does the same thing.
He slides his hands down my body gripping me by my ass, picking me up, and carrying me to the bed. I feel my back lay against the cool covers as his body comes over top of mine and I feel him reach around me and untying my bikini top. I gasp as I feel the warmth of his mouth on my nipples. I feel him lower himself over me as he trails kisses along my body making sure to kiss the now pink line that sits on my stomach. As he slides down my body he reaches over and pulls at the bathing suit bottoms and slides them down my legs. He smiles at me as I sit up and slides his shorts down and he lowers his head to my face as he positions himself between my legs. l feel my body expand around him as he presses into me.

I lay on the bed panting as he leans over and kisses me on the cheek and for the first time in three years I think that I can actually feel my heart start again. I fall asleep with Chase’s muscled arm across my body and the nightmares stay away for another night.

I watch Chase smile fade as he looks to me and then down to Avery as she stops and turns around looking at me,

“Mommy, there’s a man at our house.”
She states the obvious.

“I see that baby.” I see the hatred in Chase’s eyes as he hears our exchange. “Avery, why don’t you go inside and turn on the TV.” I tell her walking past Chase and unlocking the door,
and handing her our take out. “Here sweetheart, will you take this.” When I turn around it seems that Chase is still in shock when he finally looks to me and I’m not sure the emotions that succumbs his face.

“Chase, look.-,” I w
anted to say that l didn’t want him to find out this way, but he cuts me off by throwing the flowers on the stairs and storming off. “Chase, wait.”

“No, Ariana. What do you want me to wait for?” he pauses for a second and when I don’t answer he continues to start again. “What I get it
, you have a family now, and you don’t have time for anyone else.” He pauses slightly and it’s almost as if the light bulb comes off in his head. “Wait, a minute,” He pauses wanting to ask how old she was.

“She’s five, her birthday is April 1
st
,” I pause looking at the ground, fumbling with my fingers.

“Fuck,” he shouts looking back to me and shaking his head, “And you never even told me.”

“What the fuck did you want me to do?” I shout at him, “You left without a note, or a fucking phone number.” I say stepping closer to him, “I woke up and you were gone with no way to get a hold of you, I tried after I found out, for a year. You made it pretty obvious that you didn’t want to be found.” I'm yelling now.

“I can’t be here,” he says and turns around and walks away from me, again.

“You’re a coward.” I shout after me as he walks away from me, yet again.

“Yeah, well you fucking are too. You should have told me yesterday.” I have no more words because I know that he is right. I should have told him yesterday. So, I watch his back round the corner and walk out of my life, again. Only this time
he found out the truth.

I remind myself that I need to go back inside, to my child. As I walk up the steps I wipe the tears away from my cheeks as we go inside.

“Mommy, who was that?” she asks.

“That was an old friend.” I tell her looking out the window with her.

“He made you sad?” she asked leaning up and wiping a tear away from my face.

“Yes, baby, but it’s alright. Mommy will be fine. Here let’s watch some cartoons.” I tell her switching on the TV, but I don’t pay attention to them I just think back t
o Chase. I think back to that 4
th
of July.

We had decided we were going to drive out of the way to Vegas for the 4
th
; it was now the 1
st
, as we pulled up to the Bellagio and walk inside. It’s so busy that night when we decide to go out they don’t even question my fake ID, as we enter the clubs. We dance and I feel Chase’s body grind against mine, and I can’t help but let a moan out of my mouth, we take shot after shot and before I know it we are back in the hotel room, with the full length window looking out over to the water and he has me pressed up against it pushing in and out of me. I moan louder than probably was possible as he let his teeth nibble on the side of my neck.

“CHASE,” I screamed out as I exploded around him, and he grinned to me taking me into the bathroom. I knew that he wasn’t finished and I could only guess that he was giving himself time to cool down.

“You weren’t done yet,” I say to him as he sets me down on the counter and begins to stroke me as I throw my head back and moan. The ecstasy I feel as he is still inside of me and his finger fumbling with me almost sends me over the edge. I guess he can feel the excitement that fills my body because he starts in again. I can’t even think straight as he rocks into me again. I feel myself building up again as he rocks into me one last time and I can feel both of us exploding at the same time. He smiles down to me as he walks over and turns the shower on,

“Come on, get in with me,” he smiles and as I try to climb down off of the counter I feel my wobbly legs and laughing I say,

“We should probably stick to a bath,” I see the pride in himself course over his face and he smiles again turning off the shower and then running a bath.

I let myself fall into the water as he slides in behind me and I lean my body against his as he takes his hand and lightly rubs my shoulders.