“I wasn’t expecting to see you here tonight. I didn’t really have you down as a school dance kinda girl,” Chelsea says to Rae.
“Now whatever gave you that impression?”
I take in her dark makeup, black skater dress, fishnets, and combat boots.
“I have no idea,” she says, having similar thoughts.
“It was Sindy and Barbie,” she says with a roll of her eyes.
“Who?” My brows pinch at not having a clue who she’s talking about.
“Them.” She nods her chin over my shoulder and when I glance over, I find Amalie and Camila walking our way with my reluctant looking teammates trailing behind.
“So this is a torture-your-boyfriend kinda night, is it?”
“You’d think so looking at their faces, right?”
“Dunn, Chelsea,” Jake says when he gets to us.
“Hey. Um…” Chelsea says, tensing beside me. “Can we talk for a minute?”
Jake looks between the two of us. It’s as if he’s asking my permission, a part of me wants to laugh. How the hell did we get to this?
“I’ve just got a few things I need to say to him,” Chelsea whispers in my ear.
“I trust you,” I whisper back. “But please, make sure you tell him that I’m the best you’ve ever had.”
“Shane,” she squeals, slapping my chest playfully.
She drops a quick kiss to my cheek before leading Jake over to a quieter corner.
“What’s that all about?” Amalie asks me, watching my girl lead her guy away.
“I have no idea, but I doubt she’s about to jump him.”
We both watch as Chelsea says whatever it is she needs to say to him. Jake shakes his head, a soft smile playing on his lips.
She’s apologizing, that much is obvious, and I couldn’t be more fucking proud of her right now.
“So you two–or three–really going for it then?” Amalie asks, turning away to give him some privacy.
“Yeah, I think we are.”
“I would say that I think you need your head checked, but I’m not blind. You two are pretty perfect for each other. Even if I never in a million years would have put you together when I first arrived.”
“Can’t help who you fall for.”
“You don’t need to tell me that. I could have gone for the nice guy, but instead I ended up with—” She squeals as Jake wraps his hands around her waist and pulls her back into him. “That,” she says with a laugh.
“Why do I get the feeling you’re talking about me?”
“Because we are,” Amalie says. “I was just saying what an asshole you are.”
“Yeah, well, it’s a good thing you fucking love it.”
Averting my gaze as he pushes his tongue into her mouth, I look to Chelsea when she slips her arm around my waist and tucks herself into my side.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. I just needed to say my piece after…”
“I get it,” I say, dropping my lips to her temple.
“I need to talk to Mase too, but he’s otherwise occupied right now.”
I look over to find him grinding away with Camila to the beat of the music.
“Shall we join them?”
“I’d prefer to do it in private with less clothes on,” Chelsea murmurs, making my cock twitch with excitement.
“We’ve got plenty of time for that.”
Despite everything and the unknowns hanging between us, we have the most incredible, normal, night.
We dance, drink, chat, and laugh with friends. At some point, Zayn and a few others from the team joined us but after Zayn’s tagging announcement for the night, they mostly spent their time trying to win their chosen girls while the eight of us watched with delight as most of them got turned down time and time again.
Zayn eventually got bored trying to capture the nerd he’d been challenged to and ended up dancing with a thrilled looking Ruby while his sister and Poppy glanced at their antics with disgust on their faces.
“Shall we get out of here,” Chelsea eventually whispers in my ear when everyone around us is lost in their own conversations.
“Hmmm… that sounds like a perfect idea. Ready to see what else I’ve got planned?”
“So ready.”
We say our goodbyes to those around us before leaving the dance behind.
It’s not until we’re both back in my car that I think I take a breath.
“That was kinda crazy,” Chelsea says, her thoughts mirroring my own.
“Yeah, it was. It needed to happen though.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Everyone knows now.”
“Knows what?” she asks, nerves laced through her voice.
“That you’re it for me.” Reaching over, I take her hand and lift her knuckles to my lips. “Right, let’s go.”
With her hand resting on my thigh, I back out of the space and toward our weekend destination. I was going to book us a hotel, but Mom called in a few favors and she managed to find the perfect place for us to have the privacy we need to sort everything out once and for all.
“I’m hungry,” Chelsea complains when I’ve been driving for about an hour.
“What do you want?”
“Er… burger and milkshake.”
I chuckle at her. “Next diner we pass, we’ll stop.”
“Aren’t we nearly there? We’ve been driving for ages.”
“Hardly.”
“Maybe I’m just impatient.”
I glance over at her; her usually dark eyes are almost black. She sucks her bottom lip into her mouth, knowing that I’m watching, and it makes my cock swell. Dropping my eyes to her chest, I find her swollen breasts that are temptingly exposed by the dress.
“Eyes on the road, Shane,” she says with a laugh, pointing forward.
I do as I’m told, but only because I don’t want to kill us all before I tell her what I’ve been planning for days.
“There,” Chelsea shouts, pointing to an illuminated building up ahead, proving just how hungry she really is.
I signal to pull off the road and slow to a stop in the diner parking lot.
Chelsea is pushing the door open and climbing out before I’ve even had a chance to turn the engine off.
“I think we’re a little overdressed,” she murmurs to me as we walk inside the tired diner. I glance around at the two other customers in old ripped jeans and oil-stained shirts and I can’t help but agree.
Their eyes, along with the sole waitress’ follow us over to a booth in the window. I expect Chelsea to reach for the menu the second we’re seated, but she doesn’t. Instead, she just waits until the waitress comes over.
“Hey there, what can I get you both?”
“A cheeseburger, please. The biggest you’ve got. And a strawberry milkshake,” Chelsea says without taking a breath.
“Okay, and you, dear?”
“I’ll take the same. Thank you.”
She scurries off as I silently laugh at Chelsea.
“What?”
“It’s a good thing she didn’t hang around, you might have eaten her.”
“It’s not funny. Every now and then I just get so ravenous, it’s like I haven’t eaten anything ever and I suddenly need to consume everything in sight.”
“Tell me about it. Tell me everything,” I demand.
She opens her mouth and then closes it again. “I don’t know where to start,” she admits.
“When did you find out?”
Picking up one of the salt packets from the holder, she fiddles with it as she thinks back. “About three weeks after I left.
“I didn’t want to be there to start with and my entire focus was getting back. But after a while, I settled in and realized that actually, my parents were right to send me.
“I woke up one morning and the realization that I’d not had my period in a really long time just slammed into me out of nowhere.
“I’m not the kind of gir
l who tracked that sort of thing, but I didn’t need to try to work it out. I knew. I can’t explain how I felt different, I just did. It was weird.
“I got myself a test, and there it was. That positive result stared back at me.”
“Did you tell anyone?”
“Other than the doctor.” She shakes her head. “Nope.”
“Jesus, Chels.”
She shrugs like it’s not a big deal. “I knew in that moment that I’d keep it. I don’t even really remember panicking that much. It just felt right. It still does. Yeah, I was nervous as hell about having to tell people, you. But I knew I wanted it.” Her hand drops beneath the table, her palm pressing against her belly.
It’s a sight I didn’t expect to see, not for many years yet anyway but excitement begins to bubble up within me.
We might be young. People might think we’re crazy, but I already know that I want this with her.
Is it going to be easy? No. I’m not under any illusion that it’s going to be easy in any sense of the word, but that’s not enough to scare me off. Nothing worthwhile is easy. And if I had to embark on this challenge with anyone, then I can’t imagine it being with anyone but Chelsea.
“I should have told you. I wanted to tell you, but then that first night you were so…”
“Horrible?”
“Yeah, something like that. I deserved it though. What I did, it was… unforgivable. You had every right to treat me like that, worse if I’m honest.
“But then as things changed between us, it got harder. You were quickly becoming everything I’d ever wanted, and I knew that admitting the truth would potentially ruin everything we were building.
“I was scared. No, terrified, that you would hate me, that you would leave me, and then I’d be back to square one once again with no one.”
Reaching across the table, I take her hand in mine. “You should have told me. Hearing it from you would have been a hell of a lot better than what happened.”
She swallows nervously. “I know. I was going to tell you that night, remember I said we needed to talk? I knew I had to do it. I just never got the chance.”
“Who was it?”
“Shelly.”
“What? Why would she do that? Wasn’t kicking you out of the squad and pushing you down the stairs enough?”
She shrugs. “They let me back in without her permission. We all knew she’d be pissed.”
“How’d she find out?”
“The woman who did my ultrasound in the hospital was her mom. I can only assume it came from her.”
“Fucking hell.” I think back to her being in the hospital and a thought hits me. “That’s why you kicked me out of the hospital. You thought I was going to find out.”
Guilt washes over her features. “Things were… complicated between us back then.”
“Only because you made them that way. If you didn’t keep sending me—”
“I was scared, Shane,” she interrupts. “I was confused. I spent the whole time I was away thinking about you, about that night, about all the reasons you had to hate me but praying that by some miracle that you didn’t. Then I came back, and it seemed you did hate me. But then there were these little moments when you didn’t and…” she sighs. “I didn’t know which way was up. Everything was different. My life had totally changed in ways that no one knew about and although I had much more clarity about what I wanted since going away, I was drowning.”
“I never hated you, Chels. I tried to, trust me, I did. I was so angry that you let me take the fall for all of that. That you allowed what happened between us, instigated it even, when you knew the truth. But still, I couldn’t hate you.”
I look down at the table for a beat.
“I’ve wanted you for too long.” She gasps and I look up at her from under my lashes. “I watched you for years look at anyone but me. But suddenly you saw me, wanted me. I don’t even…” I shake my head unsure of how to vocalize what I’m trying to say to her but the waitress chooses that exact moment to bring our plates over.
“Thank you,” we both say as she hovers around asking if we need anything else.
Once she’s gone, I look at Chelsea, who has already started on her fries, and I smile.
“What?” she asks, shyly.
“You’re so much more than I ever imagined.”
“I will be after I’ve eaten all this. It’s the size of my head,” she says, nodding to the burger.
“That’s not what I meant and you know it. For someone who always wanted to be front and center, you’re not very good with compliments.”
“I didn’t get them very often,” she admits.
“Well, you’d better get used to it.”
Chelsea demolishes her dinner, I have no idea where she puts it, especially as I struggle to clear my own plate, but she claims to feel better for it as she sits back and places her hand on her belly.
“Should we go? We don’t have far to go.”
We both slide out from the booth and I’m almost at the door when I realize she’s not behind me.
“Chel—” My word is cut off when I find her staring at the desserts on show.
“Want a donut?” she asks like we haven’t just eaten our body weight in food.
“No, I really don’t,” I say with a laugh.
“I’ll get you one just in case you change your mind.”
I’m still chuckling at her as she takes the box the waitress passes over and we make our way back to the car.
Only twenty minutes later, we’re pulling up into a parking lot for an apartment building that overlooks the bay. The moon glitters in the dark sea. I can only imagine how stunning it might be in daylight.
“We’re staying here?”
“We are. Come on.” I jump out excitedly and grab both our bags from the trunk before joining her at her side of the car as she stares out at the sea beyond.
Silently we make our way inside the building.
“Wow, this is fancy,” she says, taking in the lavish surroundings.
The entrance is impressive with its huge artwork and solid oak desk for security to sit behind.
After giving the guy my name like Mom instructed. He gives me a card before gesturing toward the elevators and we make our way over.
I tap the card to the panel and the second the doors close behind us we begin to move.
Chelsea is silent but her excitement is palpable as the elevator keeps rising.
When we step out, our feet sink into the plushest carpet that I’ve ever stood on.
There is only one set of doors in this huge entrance hall.
“I guess this is us then.”
Tapping the card to the box beside the wall, the doors click and I push them open.
“Oh wow,” Chelsea gasps, coming to stand beside me as we take in the view of the entire bay through the wall of floor to ceiling windows. “That’s incredible.”
Dropping our bags, I pull her forward toward the doors.
The moon shines bright and the stars twinkle in the black sky above.
Pulling her in front of me, I wrap my arms around her middle and rest my chin on her shoulder.
Everything might be up in the air right now, but with her in my arms, everything also feels right.
37
Chelsea
My heart races as I stand in Shane’s arms, looking out over the tranquil night view before us.
I thought I’d be in my pool house alone tonight while everyone enjoyed winter formal. I never could have imagined any of this.
Him, the dress, this incredible penthouse apartment. All of it has been way beyond anything I could have ever wished for.
Spinning in his arms, I look up at him.
He stares back at me, his green eyes dark and full of emotion.
“Chelsea, I—”
Cupping his cheek in my hand, I shake my head. “I’m really sorry, Shane. But what I said the other night is true. I love you, and I want this with you, if you’ll
have me… have us.”
Dropping his forehead to mine, he continues to stare into my eyes.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
One minute I’m on my feet staring at him and the next my legs are around his waist and my back is pressed against the window behind me.
“Shit, that’s cold,” I gasp as the cold glass bites into my exposed skin.
He takes advantage of my parted lips and plunges his tongue past them and deep into my mouth.
I sag in his hold as I give myself over to him but his hold on me doesn’t falter.
He kisses me as if he’s making up for the past few days. As his tongue caresses mine, tears burn my eyes. I can feel everything he’s trying to tell me, and it’s totally overwhelming.
I don’t deserve this guy. I’m fully aware of that, and I intend on trying to prove to him every day that I’m worthy of him.
The fire that’s been burning in my belly all night begins to roar to the point that just being pinned here kissing him isn’t enough.
“Shane,” I mumble against his lips.
“I know, baby.”
He pulls his lips from mine but only gets as far as my jaw as he lowers my feet to the floor once more.
The length of his body presses me against the glass, and I feel every inch of him. He needs this just as badly as I do.
“Bedroom, now,” I moan as his hand comes up to squeeze my breast.
Without missing a beat, he takes my hand and tugs me from the glass.
I’m assuming that he’s not been here before, but that doesn’t stop him navigating us straight to the ginormous master bedroom, again with a view out over the bay.
“This is beautiful,” I say, taking in all the cream and gold hues around the room.
“You’re beautiful.”
When I turn, I find Shane’s eyes on me. Something tells me he’s barely even noticed the room.
A smile tugs at my lips as heat hits my cheeks.
“This dress is hot as fuck,” he says, taking a step toward me. He lifts his finger and runs it along the deep V, teasing me as it tickles over the swollen swell of my breasts. “But I think it might look even better on the floor.”
“I guess you’d better find out.”
Tucking his fingers under the shoulder straps, he pushes them until the entire top of the dress falls from my body.
FIERCE: A High School Enemies to Lovers Romance (Rosewood High Book 4) Page 30
