by Cher Carson
Breakaway
Book One in the Hotshots Trilogy
Cher Carson
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, including photocopying, graphic, electronic, mechanical, taping, recording, sharing, or by any information retrieval system without the express written permission of the author and / or publisher. Exceptions include brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Persons, places and other entities represented in this book are deemed to be fictitious. They are not intended to represent actual places or entities currently or previously in existence or any person living or dead. This work is the product of the author’s imagination.
Any and all inquiries to the author of this book should be directed to: [email protected]
Copyright © 2011 Cher Carson
Dedication
To my husband,
the man who made me believe in happily ever after.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
About the Author
Coming Soon
Chapter One
Chase Hudson had waited eleven long months to see his wife. He’d rehearsed his speech and was prepared to get down on his knees and beg her to take him back in front of a ballroom filled with people if that’s what it took to prove to her that he was a changed man. He’d expected her resistance and could predict her arguments; what he hadn’t anticipated was seeing another man’s shaft wedged between her legs.
“I’m gonna kill him,” Chase muttered, storming the dance floor.
One of his brother’s ushers grabbed him by the arm. “Chase, hold up a minute, man. This is your kid brother’s wedding, remember?”
Chase glared at his life-long friend. “You really wanna get in my way right now, Jake?”
Chase’s reputation as a tough guy in professional hockey circles was legendary. Anyone stupid enough to cross him usually lost a few teeth.
Jake held up his hands. “Look, I get why you’re pissed. If my ex was rubbin’ up on some dude right in front of me, I’d be pissed too.”
Chase clenched his jaw hard enough to crack one of his pricey porcelain veneers. “Taylor is not my ex. She’s still my wife.”
“Okay, but it’s been almost a year since she kicked you out. She won’t take your calls or answer your emails; she refuses to answer the door. Hell, she threatened to take out a restraining order against you, man. Shouldn’t that tell you something?”
Chase continued to glare at the man grabbing his wife’s ass. “Yeah, it tells me I was the stupidest son of a bitch alive for not knocking her up when I had the chance.”
Jake rubbed his shaved head as his eyes travelled over Taylor. “Shit, that’s the reason she left you? Because you wouldn’t get her pregnant?”
“I didn’t think we were ready for a kid,” Chase mumbled.
“You mean you weren’t ready for a kid. Taylor’s been ready forever.”
Chase knew his friend was right. Whenever one of the team wives had a baby, Taylor would gush over the screaming, crying infant, telling him she couldn’t wait until they had one of their own. He thought she was just bored, so he suggested she get a hobby instead of fixating on getting pregnant. She suggested he find a new place to live.
Now here he stood, at his brother and Taylor’s sister’s wedding, watching some other guy shove his tongue down his wife’s throat. Like hell. He stalked across the dance floor while curious onlookers parted to watch the spectacle. He grabbed the guy by the shoulder. “Take your hands off my wife before I knock all your teeth out.”
The man, a few inches shorter and a few pounds lighter than Chase, turned around, bracing for a fight. “Who the hell do you think you are?”
“Her husband.”
Taylor stepped between the two men, flattening her palm against Chase’s chest. He felt his heart race at the innocent touch. It had been too damn long since he’d felt her hands anywhere on his body.
“Don’t do this, Chase,” she said, her big blue eyes pleading with him. “Please, not here. You’ll ruin the wedding.”
He continued to glare at the man standing behind her. “I see some guy with his tongue down your throat and you expect me to stand by and do nothing?”
The other man folded his arms across his chest and snickered. “Maybe if you’d been man enough to keep her happy, she wouldn’t have had to look elsewhere.”
Chase reached over Taylor, intent on finishing what he’d promised to start.
The bride and groom rushed the dance floor.
“Chase, man, you can’t do this here,” his brother, John, said. “Please.”
John’s bride grabbed his free arm. “Chase, I know you’re upset, but this is not the time or place to have it out with my sister or her new boyfriend.”
“Her new boyfriend?” Chase felt sick to his stomach. He’d taken body checks to the gut that hurt less than finding out that his wife had moved on to a new lover while he hadn’t even been able to touch another woman. He turned on his wife. “How could you?” He grabbed her left hand and held up the three-carat diamond he’d placed there when he proposed eight years ago. “You’re wearing my ring while you’re spreading your legs for another guy?”
Taylor grabbed his forearm and dug her nails in with enough force to break the skin, had it not been for the barrier of cloth protecting him. “Shut your filthy mouth. You’re making a scene.”
He looked around at the guests gathered on the dance floor to watch their hometown hero pummel another opponent. No, his brother had waited too long for this day. He wouldn’t ruin it like he’d ruined his own marriage. He pushed through the crowd on his way to the exit, intent on putting as much distance between himself and Taylor’s new boyfriend as humanly possible. He heard the click of heels on the wood floor behind him, but he kept walking.
“Chase, wait,” Taylor called.
He couldn’t even stand to look at her right now. He’d see her gorgeous face and imagine the look of ecstasy that would contort her features later when her boyfriend rammed into her relentlessly, fixed on giving her the kind of pleasure he used to.
She finally caught up to him in the parking lot and grabbed his arm. “Damn it, Chase, wait.”
He took a deep breath before turning to face her. Every word he’d planned to say came flooding back. He didn’t care that she was sleeping with another guy, that she’d replaced him before they were even legally divorced. She was still wearing his ring, and that had to count for something. He walked around to the passenger’s side of his Hummer. “Get in, Taylor. We need to talk.”
She looked back at the entrance to the banquet hall, where her date lingered by the door. “I really shouldn’t,” she said, hesitantly.
He pounded his fist on the hood of the truck, making her jump back. “Ten years, I gave you ten fucking years of my life, and you can’t give me ten goddamn minutes?”
She pushed him out of the way and reached for the door. “Fine, ten minutes and not a minute more.”
He walked around the rear of the vehicle and settled in before starting the engine.
She reached over to grab his hand. “I didn’t agree to go anywhere with you. I thought we were gonna stay here and talk.”
He turned toward her, seeing a glimpse of the innocent twenty-one year old girl she’d been when they first met. He and his teammates went to a bar for a few beers after a game one night, and she’d been there. While all the other women were slipping them phone numbers and f
lashing cleavage, she and her girlfriends were tucked in a back corner, talking, laughing, totally oblivious to the hockey players who had descended upon the bar.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he whispered. His eyes travelled the length of her tight black dress. “You don’t know how much I’ve missed you, baby.” He heard his voice crack and he knew he was going to lose it. “I can’t do this anymore, Taylor,” he said, dropping his head on the steering wheel. “I don’t want to live without you.”
She twisted the ring around her finger. “You think this is what I wanted, Chase?”
He gripped the steering wheel, aching to fill his hands with her soft curves. “Please,” he pleaded. “Just give me another chance.”
She shook her head, staring out the window. “It’s too late for that. It’s over.”
He slammed the palm of his hand against the steering wheel. “Why? Is it because of that fuckin’ loser?”
“James is not a loser,” she said, crossing her arms.
Knowing that at any moment she could get out of the car and call an end to their time together, he put the truck in drive and eased out of the parking space.
She grabbed the door handle, looking apprehensive. “Where are you taking me?”
He shot a sidelong glance at her. “Really? Has it come to that, Taylor? You’re afraid of me now? Don’t you know I’d die before I hurt you?”
She considered his words before fastening her seatbelt. “You can’t blame me for being concerned. You’ve been acting like a lunatic this past year.”
“Because I wanted to prove to you how much I love you. I wanted you to know that I’d do anything to save our marriage.” He put his own seatbelt on before easing his big truck into the city traffic.
“Where are we going?” she asked again.
“I’ve got a penthouse downtown. I thought we could go there.”
She smirked. “Must be quite the bachelor pad, huh?”
He stopped at a red light and turned toward her. “Are you asking me if I entertain women there?”
She shrugged. “Do you?”
“I’m a married man, Taylor. I don’t mess around with other women.”
She slipped her ring off and set it in the cup holder between them. “You’re not married anymore. You haven’t been for a long time.”
He picked up the ring and fisted in his hand. “Don’t do that. Don’t take this ring off.”
“Why not?”
He needed to make her understand that she was tearing him apart. “Because as long as you’re wearing this ring, you’re still my wife.”
She shook her head, looking sad. “No, I’m not. It’s been a long time since I felt like your wife.”
He reached across to grab her hand, but she pulled back, refusing to let him touch her. “Let me make it up to you, sweetheart. Anything you want. You want a baby, we’ll have a baby.”
A tear slid down her cheek and she swiped at it with the back her hand. “You still don’t get it, do you?”
He hated to see her cry, would do anything to avoid her tears. “I guess I don’t. Help me to understand. Please, just tell me what I need to do to fix this.” He turned into the parking lot of his luxury condominium building and swiped his key-card across the access point to the underground parking garage.
“You can’t fix this, it’s too late.”
He looked at her, refusing to believe her words, but he saw a vacant look in her eyes that hadn’t been there before, as though she had resigned herself to their fate.
He parked and shifted toward her until they were facing each other. “Don’t do this, Taylor. We were so good together. It can’t be over, we can’t let it be over.” He held out the ring to her. “Put this back on, baby. Please.”
She shook her head. “No, I can’t. I promised James I would take it off. I think it’s time I did.”
He was barely able to control his urge to put a fist through the windshield. “How did you meet him?”
“He was a client. He hired me to re-decorate his law office.”
He had to ask the question, even though he was terrified of what her answer might be. “Is it serious?”
She looked down at her clasped hands, refusing to look at him. Finally, she looked up and sighed. “He asked me to marry him, Chase.”
He had to get out of the car, or he was going to throw up all over his expensive leather interior. He heard her door slam behind him.
“Where are you going?” she demanded. “You can’t just leave me here.”
He used his key card to enter the building, barely waiting for her to enter before allowing the door to close on her heels. He punched the elevator button furiously, unable to see the arrows clearly.
She touched his arm, but he recoiled. “I never meant to hurt you,” she whispered.
He turned on her. “You never meant to hurt me? You make out with some guy on the dance floor, then you tell me our marriage is over. You take my ring off, and in the next breath tell me you’re marrying him.” He backed her into the wall, slamming his hands down on either side of her head. “I fuckin’ love you, Taylor. You’re my wife. How the hell do you expect me to feel?”
She licked her lips as her eyes drifted to his lips. “I thought you’d have moved on by now.”
He dropped his head, trying to think of her as another man’s fiancée instead of his wife. He couldn’t. In his mind, she would always be his. “I haven’t had another woman in my bed since you threw me out.”
She laughed. “You honestly expect me to believe that? When you were on a four day road trip, you’d jump me the second you walked through the door. Now you’re telling me you haven’t been with a woman in almost a year?”
He looked her in the eye. He had never lied to her and wasn’t going to start now just to save face. “I swear to you, I haven’t been with anyone else.”
She looked down, refusing to meet his eyes. “Neither have I,” she whispered.
He felt the impact of her words. “What did you say?”
She wrapped her arms around his waist and drew him closer. “I couldn’t. I tried, but I couldn’t go through with it.”
He buried his face in her long, chestnut waves. “Thank God. You have no idea what it did to me, thinking of that bastard in our bed with you.”
She threaded her fingers through his hair, pulling his head up until he was forced to meet her eyes. “I could never do that. That house, that bed, has too many memories for us. I could never be with another man there.”
He gripped her waist, pinning her body between his and the wall at her back. “I want to hear you tell me that you couldn’t be with another guy because you still love me.” He greedily inhaled her expensive perfume as he ground his hard cock into her. “Say it; tell me you still love me.”
She rolled her head back as he licked and sucked her neck.
He knew the sweet spot, that hollow at the base of her collarbone. He swirled his tongue around the sensitive flesh as she whimpered and clung to him.
The elevator door had already opened and closed. He hit the button again and waited only a few seconds before easing her back into the elevator. Once inside, he hoisted her up on the railing that wrapped around the centre of the enclosed space and hiked her long dress up so he could step between her legs. He slid his tongue inside her mouth and gripped her face between his hands. He thrust his tongue in and out, swiping her tongue with his own before plunging inside to steal her breath again.
“Oh God,” she panted, pushing against his chest. “We can’t do this here.” Her head rolled back as she opened one eye. “There are cameras in here.”
He cupped her tits through her dress, desperate to wrap his mouth around her nipples. “Let ‘em watch,” he whispered, licking and biting her neck. “The security guard can jack off watching you come for me.”
She grabbed his shoulders. “Chase, no.”
She was right. No other man had ever seen her naked and no other man ever would. “Okay, let’s tak
e this upstairs.” He hit the button to take them to his penthouse apartment. He grinned when she slipped off the railing and straightened her dress. He loved that he was the only one who got to see her naughty side.
The elevator dinged and two teenage boys stepped on. They barely glanced at them as one scanned the tunes on his iPod and the other sent a text. When the boy on his phone looked up, he said, “Oh shit, you’re Chase Hudson, aren’t you? My buddy said you lived in his building, but we didn’t believe him. Oh man, you were amazing the other night. I mean, the way you kicked the shit out of Ellis...”
Chase glanced at Taylor. She had always hated the fact that pulverizing guys was part of his job description. “Yeah, well, you win some, you lose some.”
“Not you, Chase. You win ‘em all, man,” the kid said.
The elevator came to a stop and the doors slid open, allowing Taylor to step off.
Chase raised his hand. “Have a good night, guys.”
“Yeah, you too. Good luck at the game on...”
Chase didn’t hear the rest as the doors slid closed. “Sorry about that, sweetheart.”
She shrugged. “It’s what you do. It’s who you are. I guess I allow myself to forget that sometimes.”
He couldn’t give her time to regret what had almost happened in the elevator. He had tonight to prove to her that they still belonged together, and he’d be damned if he let her walk away with a doubt in her mind.
Chapter Two
Taylor knew this was a mistake. Being alone in an empty apartment with her soon to be ex-husband was inviting disaster, but she knew he was right. After ten years together, he deserved to hear from her, not her divorce lawyer, that it was over.
He slipped his key into the door and turned the handle.
She stepped inside as he flipped a light switch to reveal a sparsely decorated apartment with a panoramic view of the city. “Wow, the view is beautiful. You could do a lot with this place.”
He shrugged, slipping out of his tuxedo jacket. “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to stay here long. It’s not my home; it’s just a place to hang out when I’m in town.” He undid his tie, allowing it to hang around his neck as he started to unbutton his shirt.
