Chasing the Dream: Dream Series, Book 3

by Isabelle Peterson

  “You s..s..still want to be with me?” My tears were racing down my cheeks and I knew my nose was a runny mess.

  “I do,” Charlie whispered, and stared right into my eyes. I could see it all there, written as plain as day all over his face. My heart burst with joy, even though my head was still grappling with all the decisions to be made and the incredibly rough road that lay ahead of me.

  He didn’t hate me. He still cared. He still wanted to be with me.

  “We’ll go back tomorrow. I’m sure you want to talk to your mom. We can talk to her—together, if you want.” His eyes implored my face seeking agreement.

  Again, words failed me. I just nodded. His face burst into the biggest smile I’d ever seen. He used the back of his sleeve and wiped his face, then offered me his other sleeve. I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of us using his sleeves for our tears and runny noses, but if that wasn’t love, I didn’t know what was. The gesture almost had me crying harder. Instead, we chose to laugh.

  Shannon came in with a tray piled with toast, a banana, a bowl of berries, and orange juice. “Things okay here?” Charlie looked at me cautiously. Tears again threatening, I just smiled quietly and nodded. Shannon beamed and left me and Charlie with my ‘breakfast.’

  I sent my mom a quick text letting her know that I wouldn’t be coming back to New York today, but I’d be home on Friday, and I’d call her then. I had to admit, I was a little grateful for the extra day to avoid talking to my mom. I only hoped I would have a clearer mind by then.

  As I ate, Charlie told me more about his adoption. It was an open adoption and he visited with his birth parents regularly. Today, Carrie and Dillon were actually married, for eleven years now, and had three kids, all under the age of ten, which meant that Charlie was a big brother. It was certainly a new way to look at him. Carrie was now a teacher, teaching second grade, and Dillon owned a car repair shop. Guess that’s where Charlie got his knack for fixing cars.

  I was amazed that Charlie took everything about his adoption so well. He didn’t seem at all bitter about being put up for adoption. He said that at first, he was pissed. He’d learned that ‘Aunt Carrie’ and ‘Uncle Dillon’ were actually his biological parents when he was thirteen, and refused to visit them for two years. But when he was fifteen, and realized that Carrie was only fifteen when she’d gotten pregnant, it hit home, and slowly he started to forgive Carrie and Dillon.

  “C’mon. Let’s get some fresh air,” he whispered, as I finished. He stood, and pulled me to my feet. I went without resistance. We stood face-to-face, the energy bouncing between us like an open current in an electrical line. Charlie took my face in his hands and leaned in, and kissed me softly.

  “Let me love you, Phoebe,” he whispered. “I love you so much. I’m sorry I was an ass last night.”

  I could hardly believe the past twenty-four hours. And if I was still sleeping and this was a dream, I didn’t want to wake up. He knew my secrets. And I knew his. He was still here. Chasing me. I understood what it meant to be overcome with emotion.

  “I love you, too, Charlie,” I replied. And I meant it. Not just the passion or tenderness of the moment, but on that level where you understood someone just as much as they understood you.

  Upon hearing me use the name Charlie, his eyes hooded and a wicked smile tilted his lips. He leaned down to brush those glorious, full, soft lips against mine. He moaned slightly when my tongue darted out to lick at his lips. Our lips parted and our tongues coupled and danced, a new hunger between us. An understanding. One I felt from head to toe.

  He grabbed my hand and we raced out of the front door, not even stopping to slip on shoes. Barefoot, we ran out to the fields. We walked among the sunflowers that were just starting to take off. Charlie filled me in on the type of varieties his mother grew: Mammoth, which were sold to a local snack company for sunflower seeds; and for cutting and selling she grew Sunbeams and Teddy Bears. He was saying that the fields would soon be tall enough to hide us completely. I could only imagine how much fun that would be.

  I talked about the things I wanted to do with my career in the broadcasting world and the traveling I wanted to do. Charlie talked about what he’d like to do with his career, like directing and producing. We talked about family, even his biological family, and his very funny brother and two sisters, one prissy and the other a ‘jock.’ I talked about my brothers and where they were and what they were up to.

  When Charlie asked about the baby’s father, I told him. I told him everything. How naïve I was. How I thought he really cared for me. But he was really just using me as a plaything. For what reason I had no idea. But apparently in bed I wasn’t enough because he had been cheating on me the entire time we were together.

  Charlie stopped walking and turned to me. “What say what?”

  “I swear! Once I dumped him, people came out of the woodworks and told me that Danny had never been faithful and they were happy he got caught. I was so pissed that people who knew me, hung out with me, didn’t tell me what a fucking asshat he was! I felt so stupid.”

  “Not you, Sweets. For starters, you are incredible in bed. Just sayin’. But, I do owe him,” Charlie said. “If he hadn’t broken you heart, you wouldn’t have come to New York, and we wouldn’t have met. It’s kinda like Darius Rucker’s song, This. Do you know who Darius Rucker is?

  “I love him! My dad loved him as Hootie from Hootie and the Blowfish, but I love Darius Rucker!”

  Conversation was never easier with Charlie before now. Everything was more natural feeling this time around. Like there were no walls.

  CHAPTER 33

  We made it back to the lake around two, after having ambled through the fields just talking, and holding hands, and stopping frequently to kiss. It was a beautiful afternoon even if clouds had rolled in, and it was my last chunk of freedom before the proverbial shit hit the fan after I told my mother about the baby. But I was already feeling a little better about it, the whole adoption thing. I didn’t love the idea of being pregnant and getting the looks from everyone who didn’t matter, but to make another couple super happy—that seemed to make it better.

  We washed our feet in the lake and sat chatting about any and everything. I opened up about my parents and their new divorce. He had a good laugh over the story of my walking in on my mom getting ‘serviced’ by Jack on his desk in his office.

  “There is something about making love in a place where you could get caught, though,” Charlie said leaning into me and claiming my lips.

  “We’ve already done it in public, though. Right here,” I replied, trying to catch my breath.

  “Oh here? The other night?” he asked, then tutted me. “That doesn’t count. It was the middle of the night. No chance of being caught then.” He licked and nipped at my lower lip until I gave him the access he sought. Winning that battle, Charlie pushed me back onto the pier.

  “You can’t be serious,” I questioned, pushing him back with every bit of strength I had.

  He answered with kisses to my chin, then jaw and leading down to the sensitive skin at my neck and shoulder, while peeling my shirt up and exposing my pink bra.

  “If I wasn’t serious before, I am now,” he breathed.

  Then, without much warning, there was a low rolling thunder, the skies opened up and it started raining. And not just raining, but pouring. When had the clouds grown so dark? Before I knew it, I was already soaked, and Charlie was tugging me up to my feet. With no effort, he lifted me into his strong arms, and marched us up to the gazebo for shelter. I stared at his beautiful face as the large, warm drops splashed on his angled features. He really was breathtaking.

  As soon as we stepped in, Charlie’s mouth crashed on my mine, consuming all the oxygen left in my lungs. But in Charlie’s arms, who needed to breathe?

  He slowly dropped my legs, but kept me pulled tightly into him, our wet bodies sticking to each other.

  “Nothing like a surprise, summer Georgia rain,”
he breathed, brushing a chunk of hair that was stuck across my face.

  He sunk his hands into my hair, and kissed me, tilting my head gently to deepen the kiss. The soft, bristly scruff on his jaw was firing off fantasies of feeling those softish hairs everywhere on my body. My arms wrapped around his back and my hands ran up his rippling muscles that were magnified under the wet fabric. I dragged my nails down his back over his shirt. As I reached his waist, and fished my hands under the ‘sticky’ cotton, he pressed his hips into mine, letting me know just how affected he was, and I was more than a little aware of the non-rain moisture between my legs building and readying for him.

  Charlie stepped back, gasping for air. He pulled his t-shirt off and tossed it aside. The water on his body from the rain highlighted his broad, muscular shoulders and pecs. I watched a bead of water drop from Charlie’s chin and run down that impressive chest. I felt Charlie watch me as I watched that very lucky droplet of water bump down his ripped six-pack, and on to the mouthwatering V, pointing to the ultimate prize tucked in his jeans that hung low on his waist. I took note of the boxers peeking out above the waistband. Purple. Interesting.

  My eyes having devoured his body, swept back up and I took in the face that I’d seen for so many years, pinned on my walls, on the big screen, and small screen. But the face that looked back, wasn’t the paparazzi face in those pullouts, movies or TV shows. It was more. Caring and tenderness and hunger… and love. And we were just us. No sick mother, or divorces, or babies, or adoptions…just us. The world and problems melted away.

  With a little more than the devil glinting in his incredible eyes, he lifted my arms up over my head. He dragged his hands back down my arms, following down my sides, and even though I screamed in my head for him to stop at my breasts and give them the attention they were begging for, he did not. When he reached my hips, he gripped the hem of my shirt and worked it up over my head, and tossed it aside.

  My nipples, which were already taut and trying to poke their way through the pink lace of my bra, grew deliciously and painfully hard through the damp lace. Charlie leaned forward and placed a sweet kiss on the spot where my neck met my shoulder. He opened his mouth and raked his teeth on that sensitive skin as his fingers curled on my hips and pulled mine to his. Denim-to-denim, his hot ridge of excitement, ratcheted up my growing need.

  He bent down and took my breast into his mouth, bra and all. His tongue swirling around my nipple through the lace was excruciatingly delicious. I dropped my head back, absorbing the sensation of his mouth on my breast and his wet hands sliding over my practically dry back.

  His attentions made me wickedly hungry, and I couldn’t decide if I wanted the fierce and frenzied passion that we’d shared in the hotel room and trailer, or the slow and intense coupling on the pier. It didn’t matter. I would take Charlie any way I could have him. And I would give myself to him in any way he wanted me. Oh, but hell, I was getting impatient.

  I ran my hands over his chest and down his abs and back up. I marveled at the smooth skin, and chiseled muscles. My hands finished their exploration at his jaw. My insides clenched recalling how that stubble felt between my legs.

  Feeling bold, and shielded from any prying eyes here in the gazebo, I slid my hands to his shoulders and pushed him down to his knees.

  He shot a sly smile at me, his violet-blue eyes glinting as a bolt of lightening shot from the sky. “Great minds think alike,” he growled. Eagerly, he unhooked the button then pulled down the zipper on my jeans. As he gripped the waistband and started to ease my jeans down over my backside, the thunder that follows lightening rolled through us. Yeah, I thought. That’s about right. He eyed the matching lace panties, and dug his nose into the delicate fabric. He inhaled deeply and moaned. “God, you smell like…like…like nothing on earth.”

  My hands rested on his shoulders, as he slipped the jeans further and lifted my leg out of one of the pant legs. Sliding the fabric of the panties aside, he licked slowly at my sex.

  “You’re so wet, and honey, this ain’t rain,” he whispered, confirming what I already knew. He licked again and groaned, or maybe that was me? “And so scrumptious,” citing something I did not know. I continued to use his shoulders for support as he licked and circled my clit with his pointy tongue. He rubbed his scruff on my inner thighs. How did he know? Probably because every time he did so, I moaned uncontrollably.

  He slid in a finger, then two and quickly worked me near orgasm. I was part annoyed and part glad that he stopped. If he hadn’t stopped, surely my legs would have given out.

  He slid up my front kissing and rubbing all the way. He took my hand, while I stepped out of my jeans, and he pulled us to the bench at the back of the gazebo. “Back left pocket,” he said. I reached in and found a foil square. I shot him a grin and laughed a little at him. “A guy can hope,” he shrugged.

  “But, you can’t get me pregnant now,” I said.

  His face grew concerned, and he took my hands. “Just until I can get tested, okay? Believe me, I want nothing more than to have this be just the two of us, but I’m not willing to risk that. I’ll get tested as soon as possible.”

  I leaned in and kissed him, to let him know how wonderfully sweet I thought he was.

  “Now, eager one, help me with my jeans,” he said, smirking against my lips.

  Yeah, I was eager.

  I couldn’t work fast enough, frantically undoing the six buttons of his button fly jeans. I shoved his jeans and purple boxers down over his hips and was rewarded when his cock sprang free, seemingly jumping for joy. He brushed off the cushion on the bench and sat, then snatched the condom pack from my hand, ripped it open, and I watched as he rolled it on himself. I marveled while watching his fingers stroke that strong flesh. Quickly, he pulled me forward and I crawled up on his lap, facing him with my knees on either side of his hips. He scooted forward on the bench and held his dick in place while I took control and slid down, all the way down, over his silken shaft.

  With Charlie’s huge, throbbing cock pulsing inside of me, in broad ‘daylight,’ the wickedness of being outside for any possible passersby to see, with the rain beating on the gazebo, and an occasional breeze blowing in some rain, his eyes looking deeply into mine…I almost came right there. We laced our fingers together and I started to grind. He let me fall back slightly, and he slid deeper still. He started to rock his hips into me and it didn’t take long before we were both writhing and sweating. Coming completely undone when there was another bright flash of lightening, I started slamming down on Charlie’s cock, faster and harder, and as the thunder cracked and boomed all around us, I came hard, shuddering around him, which triggered his climax.

  I continued to rock on his lap gently as we both came back to terra firma. Charlie pulled me onto his chest, and I felt his heart pound through his chest onto my cheek.

  “I love you, Phoebe Fairchild,” Charlie said, sounding all the more incredible through his chest. I sat up and looked at Charlie and smiled.

  “And I love you, Charlie Smith.”

  Shannon went all out for dinner that night. Charlie’s favorite spread: glazed ham, potatoes au gratin, and green beans. It was a pleasant dinner, and it seemed that Shannon’s appetite was fully restored, something I hadn’t noticed, until Brock pointed it out. She seemed the happiest I’ve seen her the entire four days I’d been here. Brock talked excitedly about the crops, and that due to the weather, they’d be able to harvest earlier than later.

  After dinner, Shannon and I cleaned up while Charlie and Brock went to watch the Braves game in the living room. She and I chatted about her prognosis and how treatment was going. The odds did seem to be in her favor, and she promised that she was going to heed the doctor’s words about taking things easier, and listening to the nutritionist more.

  “Things seem good?” she asked me, a glint in her eye, as she leaned back to glance at Charlie and Brock who were now shouting at the TV.

  “I think things will be just fine,�
� I said, nodding, knowing exactly what she was talking about. I still wasn’t sure how my mom would take the news. I’d been giving it thought though and my mother hadn’t ever given me any reason to believe she’d disown me or anything over something like this. It was going to be a long several months, but having Charlie to support me, I felt like it would all work out. “Charlie is pretty amazing. You should be proud of him.”

  “Oh, I am. He’s the greatest gift.” Shannon took me into her arms, and I easily hugged her back. “Anything you need, we’re all here for you. It’s not going to be easy, but it won’t be forever.”

  I marveled at this woman’s unwavering strength. Here she was battling cancer, fighting for her life, yet she was concerned for me, someone not even in her family. Someone who was pregnant on accident, when she’d done everything to have a baby of her own. A woman who raised another couple’s child, and was as proud of him as if he came from her own DNA.

  I stifled a yawn. “Thank you. Really.”

  “You head on up, get some sleep. Sounds like you have an early flight tomorrow.”

  “Yeah,” I agreed. “Ten in the morning, which means we need to leave here around seven-thirty.”

  “Sleep well, darling.”

  “You, too.”

  I headed into the living room and Charlie’s eyes were on me as soon as I stepped into the room. His smile warmed my heart. Hard to believe that Chase Smythe was this guy, this laid back, upstanding guy. So different than the cocky guy in the back of the limo and on set, and the party animal the tabloids and Twitter had been portraying him as.

  “You come to watch the game? They’re on fire,” Charlie asked, scooting to make more room on the couch.

  I gave him a kiss, and shook my head. “I’m gonna head to bed. Tired and we have an early morning.”