CHASE (The Heartbreak Club Book 1)

by Elle Harte

  I could barely believe my ears. “You’re saying…you had fun?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you don’t mind…continuing with this?”

  “Do you have to make it so clinical?”

  “Blayne,” I said. “I think I might faint with happiness.”

  She laughed. “Okay look,” she said, and a flush crept over her cheeks. “This is not something I’m used to, but I can’t say that I didn’t enjoy it. I like trying new things.”

  I leaned in and kissed her. “Well then,” I said. “How about we go on a bit of a vacation?”

  “What kind of vacation?”

  “I have another property,” I said. “A house. It’s in the Hamptons but no one knows about it, no one except for my immediate family. We could take a week off, see how it goes.”

  “Chase,” she said. “Don’t you think it’s a bit too soon for that?”

  I sat on the bed, facing her. “Blayne,” I said. “I haven’t wanted anyone the way I want you. I’ve never really dated, so to speak, ever since that last break up all those years ago. I know when I see something special and you’re special. If you’ll let me show you how much better this can get, I’m sure you’ll find yourself craving me like a junkie craves drugs.”

  “A bit full of ourselves, aren’t we?”

  “Why the hell shouldn’t I be?”

  She was still smiling so that had to be a good thing. “Let me get back to you on that.”

  “Take your time,” I said and stood. “Now. Where would you like to go for breakfast?”

  Blayne

  “I take it the date went well,” Chloe said from the couch the minute I entered the apartment. She was in her PJs and watching The Notebook again, with a huge bowl of popcorn on her lap. There was a filled wine glass on the end table.

  I took off my coat and went to sit next to her on the couch. “How can you tell?” I asked, dipping into her popcorn.

  “The fact that it’s almost six in the evening on Sunday,” she said. “When you left on Friday.”

  I could barely believe it myself. “The weekend became longer than we expected.”

  “So, you two hit it off, huh?”

  “Chloe,” I said. “He’s sweet! And caring! And so, so good in bed!”

  Chloe laughed. “So, you lost your post-Chase virginity with Chase.”

  That made me laugh too.

  Everything we did over the weekend kept playing itself repeatedly in my head. I didn’t want to jinx it but everything was perfect. I couldn’t help but feel a little afraid. Usually when things were this perfect there was something truly awful lurking around the corner. But I didn’t care. Right now, it felt like the best thing in the world, and I was okay with feeling that way. I couldn’t be afraid that every man would be Nick, because that simply wasn’t true. I think it was testimony enough that despite detesting men in general, Chloe didn’t seem to mind my seeing Chase. She must have liked him if she approved of him. I was going to take that as a good sign.

  I had been thinking about the week-long invite, the ‘vacation’ as Chase called it. It didn’t seem like such a bad idea anymore, though when he had told me I had freaked out a bit. Now I knew it might be be a good thing. It might help bring me out of the shell that I’ve been trying to shut myself in ever since the breakup with Nick. I couldn’t let Nick run my life anymore. He had already done enough damage; he wasn’t going to dictate who I went out with or who I decided to have a relationship with. I refused to give an ex that sort of power.

  Maybe this time, for once, it would all work out.

  Chase

  The door to my office opened and Blayne stepped in. We hadn’t told anyone about our thing, she wanted to wait and I wanted her to feel comfortable and not be forced. We had been going out a whole month and keeping that secret wasn’t always easy but we were managing it so far.

  “Hey,” she said, coming over to my table to sit across from me. “Not done yet?”

  “No,” I said. “I need a few more hours.”

  “Chase,” Blayne said. “It’s eight in the evening. Everyone else is already gone, it’s Friday.”

  I felt like someone broke the trance I was in. I checked the time on my wrist watch and she was right. It was past eight. “So, everyone’s gone?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why are you still here?”

  “I thought I’d ask you what you’re doing tonight,” Blayne said. “But I can see that you plan to cheat on me with work.”

  I lifted the pen and got up, walked over to her side. I trailed the non-ink side of the pen over her bare shoulder. “Well,” I said. “Maybe if everyone’s already gone we can fuck here?”

  She looked embarrassed at the suggestion but her chest started to heave. I knew she was getting excited while she was getting uncomfortable. “I should go,” she said and tried to get past me but I caught on to her hand. “I think you should stay,” I whispered in her ear.

  She looked like she was swayed for a moment before she pushed me away. “No.”

  I grinned. “Are you saying that for your benefit or mine?”

  She blushed. “You need to quit that,” she said, unable to stop a smile from forming. “Chloe’s been bugging me for weeks now to go with her. If you’re busy then I’ll hang out with her and her friends for one night. We can do something tomorrow if you’re free.”

  “I’m free,” I said and leaned against the desk, watched her movements. This was what I was going to be missing tonight. But if I didn’t get the work done today, I’d be distracted all weekend and I couldn’t have that. It was better to get over with it now.

  “Okay then,” she said, hiding a smirk. “I’ll be off.”

  “I’ll call you,” I said.

  When she was at the door, she turned. “Have a good night,” she said with that lovely smile of hers and I was about ready to leave everything behind.

  “You too, Blayne.”

  She was gone and I was already missing her.

  My phone started vibrating on the desk.

  I picked it up. “Hello?”

  “Chase?” I could hear Sydney crying on the other end.

  I dropped work and my attention was toward her. Sydney wasn’t the crying type. Most of the time her headstrong attitude made people forget that she had a bad history. “Sydney? Is everything okay?”

  “I need to see you.”

  “I’m kind of stuck with something.”

  “Chase, it’s my father.”

  I knew I couldn’t ignore that. “Give me half an hour,” I said. “I’ll be right over.”

  Blayne

  Romance is likely; strike up a conversation.

  Things had been perfect. Okay so life was never that perfect and there was always something happening in the background, but things had happened that had the power to make the bad stuff look like it was nothing.

  Being with Chase was like that. It made me forget that the crappy stuff around my life was there. It made me not worry about the bad things that were supposed to bother me, and it made them less frightening, less depressing. Somehow, because I was with him, everything was better because he made it better. There hadn’t been a single day that I regretted being with him or regretted making that decision. I even started writing again, which was a bigger deal than the fact that I was finally starting to let my walls down, at least around Chase.

  “Blayne,” I heard Chloe’s voice as I come out of the bathroom.

  “Yes?” I went over to the dressing table to blow dry my hair. “What weird place are we going this time?”

  She looked taken aback. I could see her reflection in the mirror and I was enjoying it. “Do you have psychic powers?”

  “Living with you all this time might have done it. Now, please. Tell me.”

  “Anna and Jeremy are coming to pick us up.”

  “So?”

  “So, you need to get ready,” she said, and I noticed she was wearing the skankiest top in the history of female c
lothing but it looked amazing on her.

  “I don’t know Chloe,” I said. “You’re going to hook up and they’re already hooked up, and I don’t feel like being by myself tonight.”

  “Come on, that only happened a couple of times!” Chloe argued. “In my defense those men were gorgeous.”

  “I think it would be better if you guys went without me.”

  “You’re coming,” she said with finality in her voice. “I won’t take no for an answer. You’ve been hanging out with Mr. Smarty Pants all month! I will seriously bug the living crap out of you if you don’t go. You won’t be able to go back to your precious research, which is what you were planning on doing anyway, I know that much.”

  “Real mature, Chloe.”

  “Who cares!” she almost cried. “Please, we’re getting late just do it!”

  “Fine,” I said. “Just leave me alone and I’ll get dressed, alright?”

  Chloe happily walked out of the room. I picked out a dress and a pair of earrings from Chloe’s collection, then choose a pair of high heels that I knew I would never be comfortable in, but I wanted to wear them. When Jeremy and Anna came in after about ten minutes, I could tell Anna was high.

  “Chloe she’s not okay to drive,” I said when the couple wasn’t looking. “One of them better be sober enough to drive. It’s not going to be me.”

  “Don’t worry,” Chloe said. “Jeremy is fine. I promise. Now let’s go!”

  So, Jeremy drove us to the venue and he wasn’t high or drunk. In fact, I had never seen him that sober. When he stopped the car, we were at a building where there was no sign of an entrance. He got out and Anna did too and I was walking behind with Chloe.

  The neon sign on the entrance said DRENCHED in bold, daring purple.

  “This doesn’t look like a place we should be entering Chloe,” I said when we were frisked by a bruiser in front of a massive gate. “Are you sure about this?”

  “This one is a bit more private than the others,” Chloe said. “Just trust me.”

  When someone said trust, me it was a sign you shouldn’t trust them. But since it was Chloe I went along with it. I could hear the music and the laughter before we’d even entered the main building. The closer I got to the place the more I saw the strangest couples in the strangest costumes, passing us by. There was a theme to the costumes but I don’t think I was dressed for it. I was about to ask someone what was going on, when I found myself in the middle of something that looked like an audience. In the middle of the room, was a stage, where there were two performers, a couple, male and female, and the male and female were dressed skimpily and dancing in cages.

  “Oh my God,” I blurted when I saw what was happening on the floor. “Chloe!”

  But Chloe looked as surprised as me. I was certain Jeremy and Anna forgot to tell us where they were taking us and she was a bit annoyed too.

  “What the bloody fuck?!” That was the sound of her jaw dropping.

  The girl on the stage floor she now had her back to the audience and she was in lingerie made with leather and the male proceeded to tie her to a giant ‘X.’ I told myself I couldn’t possibly watch what was going to happen next without getting scarred for life. I mean, I get that some people get off on this stuff, and that’s fine, it’s…not my thing.

  I felt Jeremy’s hand grabbing hold of mine as he led me away from all this, and I was quick enough to drag Chloe’s hand so she came along too. Anna was giggling and obviously having a lot of fun at our expense. “You haven’t seen the best part,” she said and that worried me.

  “Great,” I managed. I gave Chloe a glare but now she was also laughing. “Am I the only one who takes this stuff seriously?”

  I didn’t stop walking until I was outside that arena.

  And that was when it dawned on me: We were in a sex club.

  That was what these people did. This place was here, so people can come here and do that.

  “Is it me or is this whole thing incredibly hot?” Chloe said.

  “Of course, it’s hot,” Anna said.

  From somewhere Jeremy entered the picture. “Are you going to stand there?” he said to Anna. “Or are we going to get started?”

  “Get started?” I said, confused.

  Jeremy pulled Anna close to himself and kissed her cheek. “We come here sometimes,” he said and pointed to a hallway. “Those over there, are the private rooms. Members can book them and do whatever they want.”

  “But we’re not members,” Chloe said.

  “I got a free pass,” Jeremy said, grinning. “For all four of us.”

  “Let’s go,” Anna said, in a low whisper and they went off toward the room and disappeared into the hallway.

  Just like that they were gone.

  “What are we supposed to do now?” I asked Chloe.

  “I don’t know,” Chloe said. “Let’s explore.”

  “Explore what?” I was about to ask her when I saw a couple walking toward us. But then I realized they weren’t walking toward me, they were going toward the private rooms. I couldn’t see their faces, the lighting was too dim, but the guy was in a suit—the same suit I had seen someone else wearing not more than an hour ago.

  “Chase?” I said, a little too loudly.

  He turned toward me and I could see his face more clearly now, but the girl was wearing a blonde wig and her face was not visible because of the dim lighting. “Blayne?” he said and even the tiny bit of doubts were suddenly confirmed. I was filled with rage and the only thing I could think of doing was to storm out. When Chloe called after me I told her I needed to be alone and kept walking until I was breathing fresh air.

  “Blayne wait!” I heard him calling out and he grabbed my arm, pulled me toward him.

  “Let go of me!”

  “It’s not what it looks like,” Chase said. “She’s a friend.”

  “Yeah,” I said. “That’s why you’re in here with her after telling me you were busy with work! You lied to me, Chase!”

  “I didn’t…Blayne I never lied to you. After you left, she called and I’ve never told you about her so I didn’t see the point in telling you where I was going. I thought I was going to be done and I would go back to work.”

  “You’re lying.”

  “Blayne she’s a friend.”

  “That’s why you were taking her to the private rooms?”

  “Her name is Sydney. She works here. We used to go out but that was years ago. We’re friends now. And not very close at that. She needed my help with something, so I had to come. I couldn’t talk in front of the people she works with so we were going to the empty rooms. To talk, Blayne.”

  “I don’t buy it.”

  “I would never lie to you.”

  “I don’t buy it!”

  The look on his face changed. “Blayne,” he said. “Why don’t you do us both a favor and say what’s really bothering you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You don’t hate that I was with some other girl,” he said. “You hate that you found me in a sex club!”

  “Pardon me for being normal!”

  This time he looked hurt. “Normal?” he said. “Right. Cause I must be completely fucked up if I’m into this stuff.”

  “Chase—”

  He let go of my arm. “You know what, Blayne? I’m glad you found out. At least now I don’t have to pretend that sex between us is fine!”

  “Wait…you’re saying the sex is bad?”

  “I’m saying it could be better.”

  “Well I’m sorry if I don’t appreciate the same kind of perverted…twisted form of intimacy that you seem to enjoy!”

  “Perverted, huh?” his blue eyes were on fire. “Well tell you what. Why don’t you go back to your boring life and your boring normal shit, while people who still have a sex drive can actually enjoy themselves in bed!”

  “Hey, I’m plenty good in bed!”

  “You’re like one of those mind-numbingly boring housewive
s who refuse to give their husbands a blow job and then complain when they go to prostitutes!”

  “You really think this is going to work? This whole reverse psychology thing?”

  “No,” he said. “I know it won’t. So please. Do us all a favor and go back to your rule-book, missionary-position sex!”

  “Come on Chase what I saw back there…that wasn’t right!”

  “Neither were blow jobs in the eighteenth century, but guess what? People change Blayne! People learn new things. You still think your body is like holy thing that you need to keep in lock and key. Well you know what; it’s not that big of a deal. You know we’re right for each other. You know how I feel about you. I read the books you read, Blayne. Every damn hero in those novels is this sensitive superhero, psychic guy who comes to you quietly at night and fills your room with flowers. But I send Stanton to your motel to make sure you’re okay, and that’s stalking? What do you really want Blayne? Why is it okay for a fantasy character to do something but when a normal guy does the same, it’s wrong?”

  “Don’t do that,” I said, mad.

  “Do what?”

  “This,” I said. “Making up an excuse for fucking some woman like Nick used to do. Like somehow it’s my fault!”

  “I wasn’t sleeping with her!” he snapped, his voice breaking just a little.

  “That’s what Nick kept telling me all this time.”

  “Well, I’m not Nick!!!”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  For the first time, I calmed down a bit. “I have to go,” I said, because I didn’t think I could make any good decisions right then.

  Chase looked disappointed. “Fine,” he said. “Go back to your stupid life and your boring rule-book. This isn’t something you’re capable of anyway. I’m sure that’s the reason Nick ventured out too.”

  He did not just say that.

  I looked up at him and this time, I meant business. “You have no idea what I’m capable of,” I said and there were some crazy ideas going through my mind. I hated that he thought he could say these things and get away with it. I couldn’t believe he was trying to make up a lame excuse for being with another woman, like Nick used to do. Well, Nick deserved to be treated a lot worse for what he did, but I never got around to doing it. But as far as Chase was concerned, I could still do something to make sure he regretted this. I ran a hand through my hair, to make sure they were okay and headed in the direction of the club.