"Fine," Chase fired back, locking eyes with me.
For a moment, the VIP booth sat silent. I glared back into Chase's brilliant blues, determined not to blink first.
"So!" Miranda finally piped up brightly. "Are either of you looking for a financial advisor to handle investing your salary?"
Chapter Seven
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As he sipped at his drink, Chase found himself contemplating a totally unexpected thought, one he'd never imagined that he would think.
Katy Tenner, he considered to himself, actually wasn't so bad.
He'd invited her over to the VIP booth mainly out of spiteful fun, as a chance to poke at her for her surely upcoming attempts to control him, to try and lock him in his hotel room whenever he wasn't at games or practice so that he couldn't have any fun. And indeed, he'd been having fun at first, referring to her as the fun police and cracking jokes about how she'd look better in a policeman's uniform.
But as the night went on, Chase found himself tiring of the jokes, and instead started listening.
And to his amazement, he realized several minutes later, he was actually enjoying the conversation!
After she'd downed her first vodka cranberry, the woman loosened up a bit, happily talking with him about how she hadn't known the slightest thing about football up until a couple months ago, when she heard about this opportunity to work for the Hawks. "And you won't believe how many nights I stayed up, lying on the couch and trying to stay awake as I watched recordings of old games."
"Really?" he asked, surprised in spite of himself. "You actually watched all of our old games?"
She nodded, waving her drink. If there'd been more than a few sips remaining in the glass, she would have spilled liquid everywhere. "Yeah. You guys might be shit shows when you go out drinking and partying, but you're also a hell of a good team."
"Thanks," he replied, still surprised. He waved to the waitress, who nodded and hurried off to fetch Katy another drink.
"Oh, I really shouldn't," she said, as she accepted the new drink and handed the waitress her old glass. "But maybe one more drink won't hurt."
"That's what I always tell myself," Chase joked, to general laughter from DeShaun and the others. "And each drink seems fine - they just all gang up on me later in the evening and convince me that it's a good idea to show the reporters how I've freshly shaved my balls!"
He saw Miranda perk up at those words, but decided not to focus on her for the moment. He could always circle back and hit on her later. Right now, he was having fun (fun? Was that really happening?) with Katy.
"So what did you think when you walked into our locker room this morning?" he asked, leaning in a little closer to hear her words.
"Oh god, I was terrified!" Katy answered with a laugh. "Let me just point this out - when you're my height, everyone else around you is already taller than you. Going in to meet a bunch of massive football players? It's terrifying!"
She jumped up from the couch, waving her hand at Chase. "Here, let me show you. Get up, and then get on your knees."
"Stealing my lines," Chase joked, but he did as requested, sinking onto his knees on the floor of the club next to the couch.
Katy eyeballed him for a moment, and then stepped up onto the couch next to him, giving herself a good foot and a half advantage in height over him. "See? Look up at me," she told him. "Isn't this terrifying, imagining that everyone else is always this much taller than you?"
Chase shuffled a little closer, looking up at her - although his view of her face was partially blocked by the swell of her breasts, sticking out from her chest. "I dunno," he shrugged. "Maybe it's my natural charisma, but I'm kind of liking the view from down here."
After a moment, Katy gasped as she caught onto his meaning, and Chase grinned up at her - and then the grin shifted to shock as she pulled an ice cube from her drink and dropped it neatly down the back of his shirt.
"Cold! Aah, that's really fucking cold!" he exclaimed, hopping up to his feet and hopping in an effort to dislodge the ice cube from where it had stopped, right at the small of his back.
"Serves you right," Katy told him, but she wore a smile on her face even as she denounced him. "But no, imagine walking into a room and everyone's that much taller than you, and staring at you and judging you! It's tough!"
"I suppose it might be," Chase admitted. "But I'll point out that, one time, I hooked up with half of the Brazilian beach volleyball team. Whole bunch of tall gals, and none of them seemed to have a problem with me. In fact," he added, dropping his voice into a conspiratorial whisper that carried easily across the booth, "they were quite happy with my height, if you know what I'm talking about."
"Trust me, Chase, even people who have never heard of football know what you're talking about, thanks to how often you flash all the paparazzi," Katy immediately fired back. "You could really stand to keep your underwear on every now and then."
"That's assuming that I'm wearing any," Chase told her, giving her a wink that, out of the corner of his eye, he saw made Miranda nearly spit out her most recent mouthful of alcohol.
Katy, however, remained unimpressed. "Look, I know that your flirting act works on all the other girls, Chase," she said, "but it's not going to work on me. I'm in charge of guarding your image, not rubbing down your dick, and I don't want to mess this job up. So flirt all you want, but I'm not falling for it."
She seemed serious. Chase thought for a second of pushing that boundary, but then decided against it. What would be the point? It wasn't like he was starving for pussy.
And besides, he suddenly thought to himself, he could actually use a friend.
Chase paused for a moment, frowning to himself. Where in the world had that thought come from? He had plenty of friends - he had DeShaun, he had...
Curious. He seemed to be drawing a blank. Maybe the alcohol was hitting him harder than he'd expected. But he certainly had lots of friends - how else could he be so popular and famous?
But none of those friends, he was willing to admit to himself, were female. He'd met a dyke at a strip club in Denver a couple months ago and had hit it off with her, but then it had turned out that she wanted to experiment with her sexuality by sleeping with him, so he cut that off.
After bedding her, of course. What was he if not generous?
"Okay, fine," he said, realizing that he had been silent for nearly a minute now, and conversation in the VIP booth had died down. "You let me have fun, and I'll ease off on the flirting. How's that sound?"
"Not too much fun," Katy warned, but her expression softened. "I'm the fun police, remember? Can't get too much out of control."
Chase laughed out loud at her callback to his earlier nickname for her. "You got it, officer."
He threw back the rest of his drink, setting his glass down on the table behind the wraparound couch with a thud. "So, how about dancing? Is that allowed under these newer, stricter anti-fun rules?"
"As long as you keep your pants on, I'm fine with it," Katy answered.
He stood up, but looked over at her before heading out onto the dance floor. "Hey, come with me," he said suddenly, holding out a hand to her.
Chase felt gratified to see a look of surprise flicker briefly across her face. "What? Why?"
"Why not?" he shrugged. "Because it's Thursday night-"
"-Monday-"
"-and we're out at this club to have fun! You looked like you were having fun out on the dance floor before I got the bouncer to bring you over here. Let's go get wild on the dance floor!"
He saw a skeptical look still dancing around on Katy's face, but he reached down and took her hand, pulling her to her feet. She had small, delicate little hands, he observed, just like the rest of her. Her personality, on the other hand, seemed anything but delicate. He thought wryly to himself that it seemed as if the Creator, in an effort to compensate for her lack of height, instead gave her a personality three sizes too large.
Chase led
Katy out onto the dance floor, using his broad shoulders to cut his way into the mass of people. "If I feel your hands trying to slip under my clothing," Katy warned him as they found a spot, but Chase held up his hands in mock surrender.
"No funny business! Just having fun! Come on, fun police, lighten up!" he insisted, putting on his widest and most innocent look.
At the sight of his wide eyes, Katy laughed out loud! "You're not fooling anyone," she told him, but she turned partly away from him, throwing up her own hands and slipping into movement in time with the thumping bass beat.
Chase did the same, unable to keep a smile off his face as the short little woman in front of him rapidly forgot about his presence, shaking her hips to the music. Katy might not be the most coordinated dancer, but she certainly made up for that lack of coordination with her enthusiasm! Her eyes partly closed, she rocked and shimmied back and forth, her mouth occasionally moving in time to the lyrics.
Once again, Chase caught himself thinking about her body underneath her jeans and blouse, wondering how it would feel. This time, however, he squashed those thoughts. Don't diddle the fun police, he ordered himself. If he'd learned anything from the lesbian in Colorado, it was that one of the quickest ways to ruin a friendship was to sleep together.
So instead, he just danced alongside her, using his size to keep the crowd from sweeping in and crushing them.
The song ended, and Katy looked up, her face flushed and her eyes bright with excitement. Her cheeks reddened a second later, as she caught sight of Chase's expression. "Oh god, I'm so- I, uh, I need some air," she called out, raising a hand to wave ineffectually at herself.
Without pause, Chase turned and pushed forward, cutting a path for her towards the back of the club, where the crowd was sparser and more spread out. Moving through the dim lights, mostly deep blue and purple accent lights back here, they found an empty corner.
Katy slumped back against the wall, catching her breath, but she was still smiling when she looked back up at Chase. "Okay, fine, that was fun," she admitted.
"Glad you thought so." Chase leaned against the wall beside her, squatting a little to put himself closer to her height. "And look - I even managed to keep my pants on for once!"
Katy rolled her eyes at him - but didn't lean away.
There was a feeling, Chase had learned, that came before a physical connection. Sometimes, he would just look at a woman, get a glimpse of her face, and know that the two of them would fuck before the night was over. Other times, it wasn't until he got up close to her, close enough to feel the magnetic attraction towards her lips. It was a strange sixth sense, but it felt almost unerring, never leading him in the wrong direction.
He knew how it went. He'd be talking to a girl, and then there'd be a lull in the conversation. Their eyes would lock on each other, her lips would part slightly, and he'd feel himself leaning in, drawn towards her.
Chase had learned to go with this feeling. When he felt himself pulled towards a girl, he didn't resist, but swept her up in his arms as their lips met. Once that first kiss happened, he knew that he had to immediately find an exit, or at least a quieter corner, because clothes would soon be coming off in a frenzy of sloppy make-outs and exploring, wandering hands.
Right now, crouching down to put himself at the same level as Katy as they leaned against the wall, Chase felt that magnetic attraction, tugging them together.
He looked at Katy's eyes. They stared back into his, dark but glistening in the dim lights. She glanced down towards his lips, her mouth parting slightly.
As if slowly pulled by invisible strings, they leaned in towards each other...
Chapter Eight
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Oh my god, what was I doing?
How did I end up about to kiss this man?
And why couldn't I seem to pull away?
I stared up at Chase, trying to force my suddenly sluggish thoughts to move. Respond, I screamed out in my head, but all I could do was lean in, feeling him doing the same, staring up at his blue eyes, gleaming even in the darkness.
We hadn't even been flirting! We'd been out on the dance floor, and after a few awkward moments, I managed to muster up the courage to cut loose and actually get into the rhythm of the music. I had turned partly away from Chase, but the few times that I glanced back at him, he seemed to be grooving along with me.
Normally, I didn't dance at all, except for when I was alone in the bathroom and singing into my shampoo bottle. I knew how to move to a beat, but I always felt like I looked ridiculous, butt going one direction and breasts doing their best to go in the other. I always wanted to dance like those backup dancers that I saw in Pitbull or Shakira videos, but I never managed to convince myself that my amateur moves looked anything but embarrassing.
Tonight, however, I'd really gotten into it! I don't know if it was the alcohol, the thrill of my new job, or knowing that most eyes were on Chase, not on me, but I really enjoyed shaking my booty to the thumping music!
And then, after a little while, when I needed some air, we'd stepped over here to this more secluded corner. I really hadn't been thinking about Chase as a romantic prospect at all, not any longer. It wasn't until I leaned back against the wall, looked right into his eyes, that I felt him pulling me in.
"I - we shouldn't," I managed, not pulling away.
Chase blinked back at me - and then, suddenly, he straightened back up to his full height, breaking the eye contact between us.
As soon as he looked away, I felt my limbs snap back under my own control, as if a spell over me had just broken. I sucked in a breath of relief, quickly taking a step back, putting a little distance between us.
"Um, that was..." I started, but my voice trailed off. What could I say about it?
"Don't worry about it," Chase replied. Did he look a little embarrassed, now? "I was having fun and I, uh, I couldn't push you back right away."
I could still feel little cobwebs of attraction clinging inside my head, urging me to throw myself at the man. Even looking a little embarrassed, I couldn't deny that he looked sexy as hell, his blonde hair slightly tousled, those blue eyes dancing even in the dim light. I could see the bulges of his forearms standing out, his biceps rolling with his every motion. For just a moment, as I blinked, I felt as though I could feel those arms sweeping me up into their embrace, pulling me up to waiting lips...
Wait a minute. I thought back to Chase's last words.
"Excuse me? You couldn't push me back right away?" I repeated. "You were the one who tried to kiss me!"
"No way!" he retorted. "I stepped over here so we could get some air, and next thing I know, you're leaning in to kiss me!" He smirked. "I know that I'm irresistible to just about every woman, but you're going to need to learn to control yourself-"
He didn't get the rest of this sentence out, because I socked him in the stomach with my fist.
It felt like hitting a brick wall. "Oh my god, fucking ow!" I grunted out, wheeling away and clutching my stricken hand to my chest.
Chase frowned. "Did you just hit me?" he asked incredulously. "Was that what you tried to do?"
"Shut up," I winced through gritted teeth. "Oh my god, are your abs made of rock?"
A moment later, Chase's hands reached out and gently but firmly pulled my wrist away from my chest, holding out my hand and rocking my fingers back and forth. "Any of this hurt?" he asked, watching me.
"Well, yeah, all of it," I said, but he ignored this.
"If it was broken, you'd be crying right now," he said, letting go of my fingers - but not my wrist. "Now listen - you admit that you wanted to kiss me, and I'll go back to my hotel now, instead of heading out to find an after party." He grinned at me, flashing those white teeth. "Best way to get me out of your hair for the evening."
I narrowed my eyes up at him. "I didn't want to kiss you."
God damn, he was fast. A second later, Chase slipped his hands from my wrist to down around my waist, pullin
g me in tightly against him. I could feel the warmth of his body soaking into me, the tightness of his muscles as they wrapped around me. Oh wow, I really could feel his muscles bulging.
"Yes, you did," he said again, gazing down into my face. His lips were only inches away.
Once again, I felt that magnetic pull of my lips up towards his. If I rose up on my tiptoes, I would just be barely able to reach... "I didn't."
"You want to now, though."
"That's different." I knew this was a weak defense, but my brain couldn't come up with anything else to say. Too much of it kept on straining for me to lean in a little more, to part my lips and meet his.
For a moment, Chase just looked down at me, regarding me. I sensed thoughts dancing and darting behind his eyes, but I had no idea what he might be considering. I opened my mouth to ask what he intended-
-and he leaned in, crossing that last inch or two of space between our mouths.
Oh my god.
For some reason, I'd expected his kiss to be as hard as the rest of his body, hard and powerful. But instead, Chase's kiss felt soft, gentle, inviting.
Before I knew what I was doing, I leaned into it, kissing him back!
The contact between us only lasted a second, maybe even less. Before I'd even fully come to mental terms with what I was doing, Chase released his grip around me, stepping back and breaking the kiss.
For a moment, once again standing without support, I just blinked as I tried to sort out my scattered little fragments of thoughts. "You- you just-" I stammered, unable to come to terms with what had just happened.
When I looked up at Chase, I thought that, for an instant, I saw surprise also painted across his face, as if he hadn't even expected to kiss me himself. The expression vanished a second later, however, replaced with the sly grin that I felt more accustomed to seeing on his face.
"Looks like I'm heading back to my hotel," he said, reaching up and tapping his forehead with one finger in a mockery of a salute. "See you later, Katy."
I stared after him, my mouth still hanging open, as he strolled back into the crowd, heading towards the exit from the club. It took a good minute before I could even think coherently, and I sagged back against the wall as I tried to get myself under control.
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