Kissing and groping, we stumble across the hall toward my door until my back hits the wall. He tugs my hair, pulling my head back to expose my neck, then he kisses the spot above my collarbone that makes my toes curl. Carnal desire consumes me. Kissing and roving hands over our multitude of evening wear isn’t enough. I need to feel him against me. Moving my hands to his chest, I find the center of his tuxedo shirt and pull, making buttons fly everywhere as I expose his chest and run my fingers across his smooth pecs. He gasps ever so slightly, and his body trembles at my touch. Knowing just a touch from me can make him quiver in anticipation ignites me. I can’t wait. I need him. Now.
I hitch my leg over his hip. Feeling his hard length against me, I thrust my hips, desperate for friction. Chase runs his hand down the thigh hooked over his hip. When he reaches the edge of my panties, my whole body tightens with excitement. Goose bumps spread across my skin. My kisses become frenzied and furious as I grind against him, encouraging him to touch me.
But Chase is all about the build-up. Slowing our kiss, he strokes his tongue against mine as he runs his finger along the seam of my thong. So close, yet so far away. His other hand roams up my body then cups my breast, playfully rubbing his thumb over my nipple. Even through my dress, his touch sends a jolt of pleasure through me. His movements are slow but strong. Deliberate. He’s taking control.
“Inside,” he says, breaking our kiss. “If we don’t get inside right now, I’m going to fuck you against the wall, and I think we’ve already given your neighbors enough to talk about at the building mahjong game.”
Releasing my leg, he steps away, and I disentangle myself. Chase picks my clutch up off the floor then hands it to me. As I sift through my clutch for my keys, he stands behind me and kisses my exposed shoulder, his hand sliding up the back of my thigh. Jesus Christ, this thing is barely big enough to hold lipstick. Why the hell can’t I find the damn keys? Blinded by lust, I can’t see a thing. I may physically be in the hallway, but my mind is already in my condo, bent over the sofa.
“Find those keys yet?” he asks as he slips his finger underneath my thong. “Better hurry up. I’m not sure how much longer I can wait.” He nuzzles the crook of my neck. “I can smell your arousal from here. Are you wet for me, Ari?”
My lips part, and my head falls back as he glides his fingers through my wetness.
“Ah,” he says. “It seems that you are.”
I gasp when he slides his finger inside me. Pushing my hips back, I rock against his hand. Getting lost in the pleasure, I forget all about the search for my keys. My arm goes limp, and my purse falls to the floor. I hear my keys spill onto the marble floor.
“Found your keys,” he says, pulling his hand away as he bends down to retrieve them.
As he unlocks the door, I reel from his withdrawal. If it were possible for my body to scream in protest, it would be. I’m wound so tight, I might snap if I don’t get him inside me.
Once the door is open, the security system wails. I rush to turn off the alarm, then I turn around to face Chase. I try to think of something to say, something sexy or playfully taunting, but when I see the lust burning in his eyes, no words are needed. The desire between us is so strong it’s palpable, like an electric current buzzing through the room. I feel as though every cell in my body is humming in expectation of his touch.
After pulling off his tuxedo jacket, he takes off his cufflinks then sets both on the table in the entranceway. With his shirt gaping open, he stalks toward me. His expression is wild, almost feral. It seems I’m not the only one pushed to the brink of sanity by all this foreplay. His eyes travel over me as though he’s determining what exactly he wants to do with me. My heart races as he closes the gap between us and kisses me.
My hands go straight to his belt and quickly unfasten his pants. He breaks our kiss to step out of his pants and pull off his shirt. I reach between us until I feel his hard cock, then I run my fingers up and down his shaft. Chase’s eyes roll back as I rub my thumb on his engorged head. The look of euphoria on his face charges me, and I stroke faster. His head tips back for a moment as he revels in the sensation.
Snaking his arms around my back, he unzips the rest of my zipper then pulls my dress over my head. After he tosses my dress on the floor, he kisses me. Cupping my ass, he lifts me then guides my legs to wrap around him. After pushing my back against the wall, he crouches and pushes into me. It’s been weeks since we’ve been together, so he has to move slowly at first, but my body quickly adjusts to his size.
He looks into my eyes as he pistons in and out of me. The intensity of his gaze is almost powerful as the pleasure I feel when he hits the right spot inside me. Without saying a word, I can sense everything he’s feeling: love, lust, passion, desire, trust. I’ve never felt so adored, so cherished, so wanted. After weeks of feeling fragmented and lost, my profound connection to him makes me feel whole.
The rubbing of my spine against the textured plaster stings, but the pain is worth the pleasure. From this position, his pubic bone grinds against my clit, creating delicious friction. When I tighten my thighs around his hips, the sensations are heightened. I feel my orgasm building as he thrusts faster and faster.
I scream in ecstasy as the wave of pleasure hits. Chase follows moments after. I release my legs from around his waist and try to stand on my own, but my legs are Jell-O, and I lose my balance.
“Careful there,” he says as he catches me. “You were warned. I promised you I’d fuck you until you couldn’t walk straight.”
Chuckling, I lean my head against his glistening chest. “You certainly kept your promises.”
Chase scoops me up and carries me to the bedroom, then he gently places me on the bed. He pads to the bathroom. When he returns, he gently cleans me with a towel then tosses it in the hamper. After sliding in next to me, he pulls the blankets over us, wraps his arms around me, and pulls me close.
Nuzzling his face into the crook of my neck, he whispers, “I’m so happy you’re home.”
Basking in the warmth of his love, I lean into his embrace. “Me too. Africa served its purpose, but it’s good to be home.” I place my hands over his. “This is the only place in the world I want to be.”
“Tell me about the Super Bowl. Leave nothing out. I want totally play-by-play recount.”
He kisses the top of my head. “It was great. But it wasn’t the same without you there. Tell me about Africa.”
I run my fingers along the contours of his stomach as I tell him about Africa—everything from building the school to the flood. “The whole experience changed me. It reminded me how lucky I am. I had the best father in the world for twenty-six years. He was my mentor, my best friend, my mother, and my father all rolled up into one. He guided me though so much, and even though I’ll miss him, I’m strong enough to live my life without him. I looked at those kids who will never know their parents. They’re entirely on their own. No one to look out for them or teach them. But they all had smiles. I started feeling pathetic for feeling so sorry for myself.”
He twirls my hair. “You’re not pathetic. You’re grieving.”
I lift my head and look at him. “Well, not anymore. The mourning period is over, and I’m going to start celebrating the amazing life I have. I have so many wonderful things in my life that I’ve been taking for granted.” I place a kiss on his chest. “Some people in my life I don’t want to take for granted again. My whole life has been about tennis. All I’ve thought about is my career. The times when we were together and we’d sneak away were the only times I could just be me. It was the only thing I ever had anything that was just mine.”
He threads his fingers through mine then brings our hands to his lips. “Ours.”
I smile. “Ours. But it was this tiny sliver of my life, and because I continually put my career first, it destroyed us. I don’t want to make that mistake again. I think I’m going to put all things career on hold and focus on what’s important.”
“And wha
t’s that?”
“I don’t know. I just want to slow down a little.”
He puts his finger under my chin. “Oh, I know that smirk. You know exactly what you want. Tell me.”
Chuckling, I look away. “Some thoughts are better left unsaid.”
“Not good enough, Aldrich. I want to know what’s going on in that head of yours.”
“You’ll think I’m crazy. Like run-for-the-hills crazy.”
“Arianna…” He runs his hand down my arm then down my thigh. When he reaches my knee, he hooks his finger behind my knee and starts tickling.
Oh, that bastard! Laughing so hard my abs hurt, I squirm and kick, trying to get out of his grasp, but he has me too tight. “Stop! This is torture!”
“Tell me, and I’ll stop!”
“I can’t,” I shriek between the laughter.
“I can do this all night, Aldrich. You know what you have to do to make it stop.” He’s relentless. Using his legs to pin me down, he gets a hand behind each of my knees.
I’m laughing so hard I can barely breathe. “All right, all right, I’ll tell you. Just stop. Please. Stop.”
He pulls his hands away then wiggles his fingers in my face. “You have ten seconds to spill it, or these go back to work.”
Catching my breath, I think about how I want to say this.
“Ten. Nine. Eight.”
Trying to put some distance between us, I scoot across the bed. Not only am I out of range of his fingers, but hopefully I’m far enough away that I can avoid the look in his eyes when I tell him.
“Seven. Six. Five.” He scoots toward me, closing the gap.
“I want to start a family,” I blurt.
The smile falls from his face, and my heart breaks.
“I’m sorry, what did you say?” There’s no mistaking the tension in his voice.
My shoulders slump as a lump forms in my throat. “Being with those kids affected me. Tucking them in, kissing boo-boos. The whole experience made me realize that I’m ready for a family of my own. Bedtime stories, peanut butter and jelly handprints on the walls, carpool, toys all over the house, PTA, all of that. I’m ready. I want to stop building for my future and start living my future.”
With a glazed-over expression, he sits back on his heels. His eyes are fixed on the sheets. “So when do you plan on taking this step?”
The tension in his face and his cold, disconnected tone tell me he’s not ready to hear this. I should have lied, made up something else. I feel like a jackass for spoiling this wonderful moment. We’ve been back together for two seconds, and I blurt out that I want a baby.
My chin falls to my chest in defeat as I realize how massively I’ve just screwed up everything. “I’m not sure exactly. It’s just something I thought about on the plane. I figured when the time was right, we’d talk about it.”
“Well, it’s your choice. I’m sure when you figure out the right time, you’ll move forward.”
Jesus Christ, this is awkward. I fiddle with the edge of the bedspread. “I kind of thought you might want a say in it too.”
“I wasn’t sure this was something you wanted me to be a part of.”
“I know you’re well aware of how this process is done.” I point at the disheveled bed. “Case in point.”
His eyes widen. “You mean you want me to be the father?”
I throw my hands in the air and let them fall to the bed with a thunk. “Well, yeah? What did you think I meant?”
“I don’t know… you’re so independent I thought maybe you were planning on doing this on your own.”
My jaw drops. “On my own?”
“Yeah, apparently women are doing this all the time now. I took Charlie to one of her appointments at the fertility place when Spencer was in São Paulo dealing with some crisis. I couldn’t get reception on my phone, and there wasn’t one non-chick magazine in the place, so I ended up staring at the wall. There were all these posters talking about egg freezing and sperm donation and artificial insemination. Basically, men aren’t needed anymore. So when you said you wanted to start a family, not that you wanted us to start a family, I just figured you wanted to do it on your own. We’ve only just gotten back together!”
I leap across the bed and throw my hands around his neck and kiss him. “Silly boy. After everything we’ve been through, do you really have any doubts that we’re meant to be? You’re it for me. Yes, we’ve only just gotten back together. That’s why bringing this up now was really premature.” I punch his shoulder. “You forced it out of me.”
Laughing, he rubs his shoulder. “That’s true. I did.”
I point back and forth between us. “I know this is what I want. That we’re what I want. I want a whole minivan full of kids, and I want them with you. Maybe not today, but soon.”
He smiles. “That’s what I want too. But we’ll need a passenger van. I told you, I want twelve.”
I roll my eyes. “Twelve is not happening.”
He grabs my hand and brings it to his lips. “We can discuss it. Either way, you’ve just made me so happy.”
“Good, because I’m putting all things business on hold. I’m going to stay in town, spend more time with Charlie. Give us time to work on us. No more travel unless it’s for fun.”
Looking skeptical, he furrows his brow. “You’re putting all things business on hold? You? You’ve been working since you were thirteen. I don’t just see you stopping. You don’t know how to stop!”
“Exactly. I’ve been working since I was thirteen! Commentating tennis just isn’t doing it for me. The spots on the Tennis Network and ESPN just don’t excite me. I feel like I’m hanging on to a dead career. Yes, there are business opportunities I’d like to explore someday, just not today. I could push for more, but when I think about it, I don’t want to. Not right now. I want focus on us. There will always be work opportunities down the line, but we’ll never have a second chance at this moment, and it’s too precious to me to let it slip away.”
Pulling me into his arms, he waggles his eyebrows. “Want to practice?”
Chapter Fifteen
Arianna
Three glorious days spent in bed, only getting up to answer the door when the food delivery man arrived. It’s been heaven. We’ve talked until dawn every morning. Sometimes about heavy issues like death and the meaning of life and if we should raise our children with a specific religion. Other times we’d talk for hours about mundane subjects like which city has the best barbeque and when we’re going to take a trip to see who’s right. We watch a replay of the Super Bowl. He fills me in on all the things that weren’t picked up on the broadcast, and I criticize his throwing and his failure to read the blitz. He hits me in the head with a pillow when I go on too long, but deep down, he knows I’m right.
On Monday morning at about ten, someone bangs on my door.
“I hope you’re dressed because I’m coming in,” Charlie shouts from the front door.
Chase throws on a pair of boxers while I grab my robe from the closet.
“What are you doing here, Charlie? You have heard of a phone, haven’t you?” I say.
She walks into the bedroom with one hand over her eyes and the other one out to feel if she’s going to hit anything. “Neither of you have yours on. Chase’s lawyer called me looking for you.”
“You can take your hand down now. Everyone’s dressed,” he says.
She trips and falls onto the bed then laughs. The laughter abruptly stops. She jumps up and looks at me with disgust. Pointing at the bed, she spits words like they’re poison on her tongue. “Those sheets smell like sex.” She points at me. “Sex you had with my brother. I just landed face first in it. I think it was the wet spot too.” She gags. “That is so revolting. The least you could have done is make the bed!” She throws her hands in the air then storms out of the room.
“You wanted us to get together,” I call after her.
She flips me off as she walks down the hall. “Yeah, but I di
dn’t want to shove my nose in it! I think I’m going to be scarred for life now.”
Chase shrugs as he buckles his belt. “She’s the one who came into the bedroom. She could have just waited for us in the living room. And really, I’ve walked in on her and Spencer more times than I can count. It’s about time she has to suffer a little.”
Once we both have clothes on, we walk into the living room.
Charlie’s lying on the sofa with a frozen eye mask over her eyes. “You two have given me a migraine, and it’s not even noon.”
“Sorry about that,” I say. “What brings you by this early anyway?”
She sits up, takes the mask off, then sets it on the coffee table. “Your lawyer called me this morning, Chase. Jenna’s lawyers have agreed to a meeting today at one. Carmen’s been trying to get ahold of you for days, but your phone’s been off.”
I squeeze his hand. “That’s great. Hopefully this is the first step to severing ties.”
Charlie hands him her phone. “Call her. She wants to talk to you first.”
Chase calls his lawyer, and Charlie lies back down with the mask on her face. I walk to the kitchen to get her a glass of water.
“These damn hormones are making me miserable,” Charlie says. “I’m cranky, I cry at the drop of a hat, and I go from zero to psycho-bitch in a matter of seconds. Poor Spencer takes the brunt of all of it, but he’s Spencer. He’s perfect and takes it all with a smile.” I hand her the glass of water, and she takes a sip. “The more perfect he is, the more I want to stab him. Which makes me feel horrible, but really, can’t he just flip out every now and again so I’m not the only crazy one?”
Chase hands Charlie back her phone. “The meeting is all set. Carmen thinks we should be able to wrap it all up today.” He turns to me. “Will you come with me? I think if Jenna sees us together, she’ll really understand there’s no hope for reconciliation.”
Love To Hate You Page 14
