“What the f**k is going on here?” he demands, and I can practically see the steam coming out of his ears. I jump up guiltily, even though I’m not.
“I’m giving him a massage?” I make it a question, even though it’s not.
“You are giving him a massage? Fuck. What the f**k! I’m literally gone a couple of hours and I come home to this?” He storms forward and glares at James. James looks at him with a bored expression, but doesn’t say anything.
The staring competition lasts, for what seems like minutes, until Chase barks, “Layla go wait in my room. Now!” The last part is yelled at me, and I don’t appreciate it one bit.
“I think you are overreacting.” I state calmly, causing James to hmmph in obvious agreement.
“Layla. Get.In.The.Fucking.Room!” His voice was laced with rage.
I bristle at being yelled at like that, for doing nothing wrong. I storm off and go into my room, locking the door behind me. I can hear James and Chase yelling at each other, then from the other room, I can hear Nikki giggling loudly. FML! I put on my iPod and crank the music up, allowing ‘Your winter’ by Sister Hazel to block everything out.
About thirty minutes and many songs later, I turn the iPod off, wondering what scene I was going to open the door to. I peep my head out the door, only to see Chase, standing there holding a power drill.
“What the hell are you doing with that?” I manage to gasp, my eyes wide as saucers.
He glances up at me and sighs. “Oh good, you’re out. Saves me from pulling off your door.” My eyebrows hit my hairline.
“You.. you..” I stutter, “You were going to take my door off?”
“Yes. I was banging on it for about ten minutes with no response.” He looks at me with his gentle blue eyes, and I melt.
“I’m pretty sure that’s not normal behavior.” I say to myself.
“Normal is boring. Now come here Layla.” He’s so bossy.
“Where’s James?” His eyes go cold and I regret my question instantly.
“Why, so you two can finish your “massage?” You haven’t even given me a massage before and he gets one?” Yes he even put his hands up to make sarcastic quotation marks. I can’t help but laugh.
“You think this is funny Layla? That you have me so worked up and jealous over my own baby brother?” I stop smiling instantly.
I grab his hand and pull him into my room. “Chase, yes your brothers are good looking,” that causes a scowl, “but they are just friends. And roommates. They have never once come onto me. And I’m a qualified beauty therapist, it was professional.” I kiss him to distract him, and it works. “Plus I’ve known you, what, less than a day? When would I have had time to give you one?”
“Point taken.” Chase says then kisses me again. He is more aggressive than usual, kissing me harder, handling me less gently than he normally does. I find myself loving it, loving that he has let himself go, love that he’s losing control. He lifts me up in his arms; my legs wrapped around his waist, and pushes me against the wall. His hands are on my ass, mine buried in his hair. I gently pull away and watch him fight for his control back.
“Fuck. I’m sorry Layla. I don’t want to push you before we are ready. And I’m f**king sorry for yelling at you before.” He sighs, before carrying me to the bed, and lies down with me still wrapped around him. He waits like that in silence, for a few moments before he speaks. “You drive me crazy, you know that? I don’t think I’ve ever been so crazy over a woman before, and I’m not sure how to handle it. So you are going to have to bear with me Layla.” He says as he rubs a hand over his face. “I don’t want this to go too fast, I want us to take our time, get to know each other. I want this to be more than sex.”
“Okay.” I say softly. I’m good with that. I have to be honest, I’ve only ever had one boyfriend before, we never slept together, but that didn’t stop him from trying every chance he could. In the end we broke up because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. Claiming if I wouldn’t put out, he could find it elsewhere. My cousin Ryder found out about it and “took care of it”, which I’m assuming means, kicked his ass.
Chase snuggled me closer into his side, kissed me on the forehead and said “Good. Come on let’s go and mingle.” He pulled me up off the bed, and walking hand in hand, we leave my room and head to the living area, where James is still sitting. He gives me a lopsided grin when he sees me, and Chase tightens his hand on mine and pulls me to sit in his lap. Why would Chase be so insecure about his own brother? There is definitely something I’m not getting here.
Nikki and Kade rejoin us, having no idea what drama they missed. Nikki looks sheepish, whilst Kade looks extremely satisfied. I waggle my eyebrows at Nikki and laugh while her face turns red, not a flattering color on her. Chase raises his eyebrows at the two, probably wondering how the hell that happened. I smile and bury my face into his chest.
Chapter Seven
A few hours later, I’m all dolled up and ready for dinner with Chase. Nikki went home after helping me pick out my outfit. I went with a red off the shoulder top and tight blue skinny jeans. Kade and James both went out, I have no idea where. Chase and I walk out to his car, and he opens the car door for me. Who knew chivalry wasn’t dead? Not me. As we sit in the car I ask him about his job.
“So, you’re a fancy architect?” He glances at me before answering.