Ten Brides for Ten Hot Guys

by Donna Fasano

  She stared at him. “Why?”

  “To make sure you’re safe. If I figured out that you came here, so can the killer.”

  Her heart thumped. He was right. And beyond herself, she had the girls to worry about too, and Aunt Hilda now. So even though she already owed Chase more than she could ever repay, which made her uncomfortable, she didn’t try to talk him out of his decision. “Thank you.”

  He held her gaze for a moment and nodded. “I’m going to clean up the front garden. I don’t want to go back upstairs to work and wake up the girls.”

  He didn’t have kids, hadn’t been around kids a lot, as far as she knew, yet he considered Mia and Daisy in everything before acting. Her heart softened. “I’ll come and help when I’m done here.”

  The rest of the day went like that, the two of them working together, mostly in companionable silence, like a well-oiled team. When the girls woke, they watched the kiddie shows on PBS in the living room with Aunt Hilda while Luanne and Chase finished up upstairs.

  By that night, the bedrooms and the bathroom up there were purged of all piles and old dust. The upstairs looked light and spacious again. The house gleamed.

  Chase took them back to Chuck E. Cheese for dinner, spent most of his time playing with the girls. Even Hilda played a few games. She was laughing, downright energized, looking ten years younger than when Luanne had arrived in town with the twins.

  Luanne watched them fool around with a smile on her face. She felt happier too, lighter, safer. Being surrounded by two supportive adults was wonderful, the first time in a long time that every decision didn’t fall on her shoulders alone, the first time she had somebody to share the work with.

  She liked that. A lot. And she liked having fun as a big family. She liked the way Chase would forget his gaze on her, a sexy half smile on his face as if he was remembering last night’s kiss rather fondly. The evening was perfect in every way.

  When they were at the car outside in the parking lot a while later and Daisy remembered that she’d left one of her prizes on her chair, Chase had Mia on his neck, so Luanne ran back to retrieve the plush rabbit.

  She hurried into the squat building, passing a man standing by the bushes next to the entrance with his back to her, smoking a cigarette. She walked inside, found the bunny, and hurried back out.

  But the man was suddenly right there, next to her, grabbing her arm. Brown hair, brown eyes. Panic slammed into her as the guy flipped her around. Gregory? She didn’t catch enough of a glimpse of him to tell. Cold fear raced through her, freezing her immobile.

  She expected… What? A knife in the ribs?

  Then adrenaline rushed her, and she finally had the presence of mind to jab back hard with her elbow, but didn’t have time for anything else because the next she knew, Chase was at her back, sending the guy flying. After one thorough, dark look to make sure she was all right, Chase stepped over to the jerk and hauled him up, then secured him by twisting his right arm behind his back, moving quickly and smoothly. The whole time, he used his body to shield most of what was going on from the girls.

  He shoved the guy to the light by the door so Luanne could take a good look. “You know him?”

  Scrawny twenty-year-old, eyes wide, the wild look of a heroin junkie. He was in rough shape, she realized now that she could see him better—clothes unkempt, hair like a feather duster.

  She shook her head. Definitely not Gregory.

  “Why did you attack her?” Chase demanded as the kid whimpered.

  “I didn’t attack her, man.” The kid shrank, neck pulled in, shoulders hunched as if he expected a beating. “I just wanted the purse,” he whined. “I’m hungry.”

  For drugs, most likely, Luanne thought, even as the manager burst through the door behind them, a blur of black suit and bald head.

  He directed his red-faced anger at the attacker. “I told you to get out of here, Joey. I called your mother. She’s on her way.”

  The young guy looked like he might start crying.

  The manager turned to Luanne and Chase. “Did he bother you? I’m so sorry.” He handed them coupons for free meals from his suit pocket, worry marring his face, probably the fear of a lawsuit. “You go on and have a good evening. I’ll take care of this.” He clearly didn’t want trouble. Police cruisers lining the walkway to his front door for the next couple of hours would probably have been bad for business.

  From the way he talked, it sounded like Joey was an ongoing problem around the place. Chase hesitated only a second before he released the kid.

  “The police can’t really charge him. They can, but he’ll never get convicted,” he told Luanne on their way back to the car, taking her hand, squeezing it for a second, then releasing it.

  Amazing how good such a small gesture of comfort could feel. “He didn’t get my purse. I don’t want to press charges.” She filled her lungs. “He just scared me for a second.”

  She didn’t want to make a big scene and have the girls worry. Most of all, she didn’t want to spend the rest of her evening in the parking lot, talking to the police. It’d been a five-second scare. She was over it.

  Aunt Hilda was standing by the car, looking between Chase and Luanne, smiling. The girls stared at him as if he was Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy all rolled into one, the most impressive mythical creature of all.

  “You beated up the bad man.” Mia’s voice dripped with awe.

  “I didn’t. I just made him move back a little. Fighting is not good,” Chase told her as Daisy hugged his leg first, then Luanne’s.

  “Did he say he was sorry?” Mia wanted to know.

  “He did.”

  Mia nodded. Then Daisy nodded too. Chase opened the car door for them, and they climbed into their car seats. Luanne snapped them in.

  “No popcorn for him,” Mia said, the last word on the bad-man subject, then she asked Aunt Hilda what her favorite game had been at the restaurant.

  They were all laughing in the car on the way home at Mia’s dramatic retelling of how she won a pile of prizes, the happiness palpable in the car. And Luanne thought, Chase did this.

  The girls were completely in love with him. All the way, nothing held back. So was Aunt Hilda. And, Luanne realized, a little stunned, she was more than halfway there.

  Too fast. God, she was in no position for romance. She was out on bail, charged with murder.

  That melted the smile right off her face, just as Aunt Hilda said, “I wish you all would stay forever.”

  She sat in the back with the twins, because, of course, they wanted to sit with Grandma. They greeted her suggestion with a chorus of “Yay!”

  Luanne filled her lungs, wishing life was that easy. “We’re really going to miss you,” she told her aunt. “We’ll come back to visit as much as possible.”

  She spent the evening looking at old family photos with her aunt and the kids, Hilda telling stories about various relatives Luanne had never heard of before. With every story, the family bonds tightened. The girls ate it up. They loved being part of something big.

  Chase was up in his room, on the phone with Harper, running through ideas, strategizing, talking over the case to make sure they didn’t miss anything.

  Because she was thoroughly confused about her feelings about him, she made sure they didn’t meet up in the hallway that night. She didn’t need another knee-buckling kiss to cloud her head.

  And then she lay in bed, thinking about kissing him.

  And then her knees went weak from thinking about kissing him. She flopped over and groaned into her pillow.

  She couldn’t sleep. Of course, every time she tossed and turned, her bed creaked. Since she’d heard Chase’s bed creak earlier, she was pretty sure he could hear hers. She tried to stay still. She didn’t want him to know that he was giving her sleepless nights.

  But five minutes later, she was flopping onto her back again, seeking a comfortable position that might lull her into sleep.

  Her doo
r opened, slowly. Chase stepped inside, the moonlight outlining his impressive body. Her mouth went dry at the sight.

  He strode to her without hurry and effortlessly scooped her up into his arms, walked out of the bedroom with her. “You were going to wake up the girls,” he whispered when they were in the hallway.

  He took her straight to his bed, laid her down, then walked around and got in next to her, turning so they would face each other.

  Could her heart beat any harder? She could barely eke out a simple “Good night.”

  But he had other plans, it seemed, because he reached out, his strong hand cupping her cheek. “We’re not going to sleep,” he said mildly, in his own easygoing way.

  She felt lightheaded.

  And then he shifted closer, nuzzled her nose with his, and kissed her.

  Last night’s kiss had been a sudden rush of passion. This time, he was all slow and measured. He dragged out every nibble, every touch of the lips. Definitely the old Chase. Here we go again. He kept playing with her, minute after endless minute. And slowly, her bones turned to liquid.

  She wanted to have sex with him, even if her memories of the last time they’d tried that, the summer after high school, were less than stellar. She’d been a virgin, embarrassed, uncomfortable, one of the few girls among her friends who hadn’t done it yet. She’d snuck out of her bedroom to meet Chase in the middle of the night more from peer pressure than anything else.

  He’d been incredibly tender, agonizingly slow, in the back of his old Chevy out by the reservoir, when all she wanted was to have it over with. The experience had been nothing like in books and movies.

  She could live without sex, she’d decided, and focused on studying instead of dating when she was in college. She had two years of that before she came home to take care of the twins.

  She’d had one on-and-off relationship since, with her ex-neighbor, Luke, who was a drug rep for a major pharmaceutical company, on the road most of the time. When he was home now and then, he’d come over. They’d chat, watch TV, maybe have sex. Just as uncomfortable as it’d been with Chase, but at least with Luke it was over much quicker. Honestly, she barely noticed.

  But Luke had moved last year, and she’d had nobody since.

  Luanne forgot all about Luke when Chase reached for the bottom of her nightgown and slowly tugged it up, pulled it over her head, and tossed it to the end of the bed. His gaze raked her body, and he licked his lips, as if ready to eat her up.

  She was filled with need, but at the same time, so nervous she was ready to jump out of her skin. She might have inadvertently spread a rumor about him not being good in bed, but the truth was, she was pretty sure the problem was her. For her, sex had just never been all that great. Other women seemed to enjoy the act. Jen loved it when Billy threw her on the bed and had his way with her.

  Luanne swallowed. She didn’t want to disappoint Chase.

  “Okay,” she said, breathless. “But just be quick about it. Please.”

  He looked up from her breasts to her face. “Stamina is usually considered a good thing in a man.”

  She tried to catch her breath. “It’s…uncomfortable. I’m not good at this,” she confessed. “I don’t like to drag things out.”

  His eyebrows slid up a fraction, his voice deepening to a silky smoothness. “Is that so?” And then ever so slowly, ever so carefully, he licked a lazy circle around her nipple.

  A small moan escaped her throat, taking her by surprise and embarrassing her.

  His lips twitched. Then he licked the nipple itself.

  She moaned again, startled by the pleasure.

  Then he took her nipple into his mouth, sucked hard suddenly, and she felt moisture gather between her legs. When he moved to the other nipple while rubbing the first between his thumb and index finger, she reached down to run her hands over his back and wide shoulders, over his hot, smooth skin, wanting to touch him as much as wanting to hold him in place.

  He looked up. “For someone who’s not good at this, you’re amazingly responsive.”

  He must have approved, because she could feel his erection pressing against her thigh. But he didn’t pick up the pace to get to what men really wanted. Oh no. He took at least half an hour just to play with her breasts. Who did that?

  Chase tantalized her nipples into throbbing, begging buds of pleasure, then finally-finally!—moved down her body, his warm lips trailing kisses, nibbles, nips, setting her on fire. She moaned, she arched, she very nearly begged. First for him to get to the point already, then to stop, stop, stop when his mouth reached the edge of her sensible cotton panties.

  “Chase?”

  He didn’t respond. He simply peeled off her underwear and went to work on her with his questing lips instead of going for his own pleasure. Every touch, every lick took her further and further away from sanity. She dug her fingers into his hair.

  Every time she was on the edge, he’d back up, trail kisses down her inner thigh, then up again. Then lick her. Then back away again when she moved. Freaking for-e-ver.

  Her brain fogged from all the heat, but she was still able to put two and two together. He was punishing her for that stupid rumor. He was going to have his revenge, torturing her to death. But it was such sweet torture, she couldn’t protest.

  Then he drew back and blew on her throbbing clitoris, bending back to it the next second and sucking it into his hot mouth sharply, scraping his teeth against the engorged nub.

  He brought her to a shattering orgasm, then, before she could recover, he eased a finger inside her, then another, and built the tension back up all over again, pushed her over the edge again, leaving her spent and limp, dazed, dazzled, confused, and utterly conquered.

  What just happened here?

  Twice! When she hadn’t even had one orgasm before. Ever.

  Slow was good, apparently. Slow was brilliant. A smile stretched her lips.

  “You?” she asked, languid and beyond content.

  “No protection.” His voice was tight. He sounded like he was doing breathing exercises. He came up and lay next to her, an arm over his eyes. “I’ll go shopping tomorrow.”

  She liked sex with Chase. She gloried in the thought that he wanted to do this again. “I could—”

  But he said, “This is more than enough.” And tucked her against him.

  Within minutes, she slept like a brick. Better. Like an entire pile of bricks. Like a brick factory, in fact.

  His ringing phone woke her in the morning. While he took the call, she pulled on her nightgown and went to check on the twins.

  They were still sleeping soundly. She dressed in silence, then left the door open to a crack when she went downstairs to make coffee.

  Chase joined her in a few minutes. He grabbed her by the waist, pulled her to him, and kissed her silly.

  “We’re going back,” he said as he drew away with a happy glint in his eyes.

  “We are?” she asked, dazed and breathless.

  “The lab was able to lift three usable fingerprints off the hundred-dollar bill Gregory paid with at Finnegan’s. One belongs to a Gregory Jorde. We have him. Almost,” he corrected. “Harper’s staking out his place right now. The guy isn’t home, but we know where he’ll be at 1:00 p.m. today. He gives a computer class at the West Chester library on Wednesdays. I want to be there at the takedown, and I don’t want to leave you here, in case we somehow miss him. In case the reason he’s not home is that he’s figured out where you are and he’s on his way here. Any number of complications can come up. Until he’s behind bars, I want to make sure that you’re safe.”

  And she’d need to be in Broslin to positively identify Gregory as the man who’d bought her that second drink in any case, she thought and nodded. “When do we have to leave?”

  “The sooner the better.”

  Aunt Hilda was shuffling forward from her bedroom. “Good morning.”

  Chase filled her in while Luanne went upstairs to wake the girls.
/>   Chapter 10

  After a teary good-bye with Aunt Hilda, and promises to visit again as soon as possible, Luanne drove home with the twins, Chase right behind her in his own car the entire trip. He followed her straight to her house, went in first to make sure it was safe, then helped her move her bags and the girls in.

  He took Luanne’s hands and made her look at him. “I want you to stay at my place. If we don’t catch Gregory today, I’m going to ask the captain to put me on around-the-clock protection detail,” he said. “If that happens, I want you guys to move in with me. Bigger house, better security system, meaning that I actually have one. I’d like to take you there right now, after you pick up clean clothes. I want you to stay until the takedown is over. And if we don’t catch Gregory today, I want you to stay with me until we do.”

  He glanced at the threadbare, narrow couch. The house had only two bedrooms. At his place, at least he could sleep in his own bed. And he wouldn’t have to fight her about buying groceries. He had a full fridge and full kitchen cabinets, while hers were mostly empty.

  She didn’t look excited about his plan. She watched him, completely still as she considered his words, the twins running for the TV, ready for their cartoons after the long drive.

  He stepped forward. Brushed his lips against Luanne’s. “I’ll call my mom to come over while I’m in West Chester. She’ll love the girls. She knows where everything is. And I don’t want you to be alone. Just in case. Not that I think anyone would look for you at my place.”

  “It seems weird,” she said at long last. “Not that I don’t trust you,” she added quickly. “But what would people think?”

  “They’d think I’m trying to protect you.” He raised a challenging eyebrow. “Or I could take you into protective custody.”

  She put her hands on her hips, staring him down. “I’m not moving to the police station with the twins.”

  “Then move in with me. For good. Or just until the danger is over. I’ll take what I can get.”