Common Areas, page 13
He looked at me, his expression expectant. “Has he gotten abusive with you? Threatening?”
“I… uh…” I wasn’t prepared for the demand in his voice so I ended up just nodding.
“Are you in a safe place?” His expression didn’t change, nor did his tone. If anything he stepped closer as he waited for an answer. I didn’t know if I should feel touched or worried.
“I am,” I said carefully. “My roommate insisted that I take this measure.”
“Good, good.” Matt took a step back and eyed me. “If you need anything, like a day off to handle this, just say so.” He paused for a second then pulled out his cell phone. “We can probably call in a favor and get this expedited, so you don’t actually have to see a judge.”
My heart skipped a beat. “You can do that?”
“We can make some calls. Do you have any evidence?” He was busy typing at his phone, giving me only a glance as he seemed to type up what I assume was an email.
I don’t know where I would be if I didn’t. Or if I hadn’t managed to surround myself with people that seemed all too willing to help me I had no idea how I would handle this. I tried not to get choked up.
“I do. He sent me threatening texts this morning, implying that he was watching me.”
“I’ll make some calls now,” he went on to put his phone to his ear. “I came out here to tell you to go ahead home. Finish this up and I want to make a copy of it. I’ll do what I can handle the other side of it after you get it handed in.”
“Th-thank you.” I couldn’t think of anything else to say.
“If this guy becomes a greater issue, you let me know.” That command in his voice was hard to ignore. So I nodded shakily and went back to finishing the form.
It left me awkwardly grateful, and I carried that with me into Chase’s truck when he pulled up outside the building.
“My boss is going to call a judge and make it so I don’t have to wait for a court date.” I couldn’t help but hum with the knowledge that things were getting progressively easier.
“That’s good, the less time it takes to get that filed the less time it takes to slap him in the face with it.” He seemed too pleased by it. “Hopefully he’s just a jackass and not a dumbass. He’ll be smart enough to leave you the fuck alone and we can all move on.”
“I can only hope.” I kept a watchful eye out for Jeff’s car.
That night we ended up much like the last, only it was my turn to cook. I opted for spaghetti, mostly because it was easy and I was too tired to consider anything elaborate. The part the struck with me was that we all lingered around the kitchen island, talking about nothing in particular. It was like we were just enjoying each other’s company.
There wasn’t anything different from the interactions we had before, except Chase was there. He participated in the conversation, laughed, and looked so relaxed. Was this the way it was before I came into the house?
“Can we do this?” I finished up my plate and I placed it into the sink.
“Do what?” Patton asked curiously. He was seated on a stool digging into a second helping. “More spaghetti? I’m not protesting that.” He slurped up noodles, it was clue enough that he enjoyed my cooking.
“Dinner together.” I took my time to look at each of them. “I think I could grow used to this,” I couldn’t help but eye Chase as I spoke. “There’s something familial about it.” I felt color rising to my cheeks as I spoke without thinking. “Domestic I think would be the better word for it.”
“Baby,” Tyler came to the rescue as he deposited his plate into the sink, “I am all for this every night of the week. As long as I don’t have to do the dishes. Not it!” he hollered before booking it out of the kitchen.
“Not it!” Chase cried out just after, getting up to make an escape of his own.
Not to be left out, I followed suit, leaving Patton at the island with a mouth full of food.
“That’s not fair, I’m still eating!”
23
I couldn’t sleep. Energy still hummed through me. The rest of the house, however, was silent. So, I made sure to be as quiet as possible as I eased out of my bedroom. Tyler had put the idea in my head of slipping into one of their rooms at night. I knew he had said it in hopes of me coming upstairs but right now he wasn’t the one occupying my thoughts.
I carefully crossed the kitchen to the one person that had been so static in helping me. I couldn’t stop thinking about him, or the kiss he’d given me. While the memory of Patton and Tyler was seared into my mind, Chase was still an unknown.
Maybe I could change that.
I carefully eased his door open. It was dark and there was the soft snore that could only be from him. I hesitated to go further. It was rude to wake him up knowing he had to go to work in the morning. But…
I stepped in and closed the door behind me. I didn’t make much of a noise, but I still heard a stutter to the breathing. There was a yawn and a shift on the bed, then I figured that he sensed me as a lamp switched on.
His hair was a disheveled mess and sleep clung to his features as he squinted at me. He took a moment, then propped up on an elbow, just looking at me. I navigated the rest of the way to his bed, any pretense to be sexy forgotten as my nerves went wild. I sat on the edge of his bed and he finally seemed to wake up enough to realize I was there.
“Emily?” Grogginess clung to his voice. “Everything okay?”
I nodded, a lump in my throat kept me from talking. I leaned down, trying to stay brave, and pressed a careful kiss against his lips. It was chaste, at first, because I feared the rejection that might come from this. After everything that had gone on, Chase hadn’t verbally agreed to the arrangement that Tyler proposed. I was going on the assumption that he had after the ‘family’ meeting we had over dinner a night ago.
He was pliant at first, accepting the brush of my lips before his head tilted and a hand dug into my hair. He tugged me closer and his lips parted to taste me. My breath caught in my throat and I shifted closer on his bed leaning over him before boldness took over. A quick sweep of my hand down the length of him and I had a general idea of how he was lying in bed, so I climbed onto him. I straddled his waist and deepened the kiss, all so there was no mistaking what I wanted from him.
He groaned and his free hand came to rest on my hip, pressing them backward so I was astride his. Even with the blanket and sheet between us, I could feel him growing hard. I had to pull back for a breath, but he didn’t let me go far. His mouth found my jaw and the hand in my hair tightened like he thought I was going to pull away altogether.
Where Patton was attentive and careful, Chase was rough. He used his teeth and tongue to ignite a trail of fire from my jaw down to my neck, tugging my hair until I tilted my head back so he had better access to what he wanted. I wasn’t going to protest, all I could do was hold myself over him and hope it didn’t stop.
But of course, I was still dressed. I might have come in here with the intent of seducing him, but I wasn’t brave enough to shed my pajamas beforehand. When he came to the collar of the big t-shirt I slept in, he pulled back.
“This what you came in here for?” His hips rolled up into mine, making fire pool between my thighs.
I trembled. “I came in here,” I had to swallow so I could get words to come out, “because I want you.” I braved a look down at him, I saw lust looking back up at me. “And I get this feeling if I wait for you to come to me, it's gonna take a lot longer to happen than I want it to.”
The hand on my hip flexed then he rolled up against me again, forcing a noise from me. I couldn't read his face past the want that I saw.
“You come in here, you’re not leaving.” It sounded like a warning. “You’re gonna stay until morning because this is gonna happen until we both pass out.”
I didn’t know if he was trying to scare me off or what, but I was determined now. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Thank God.”
His other hand came to tangle in my hair and he brought me down for another kiss. He angled me the way he wanted me, taking what he wanted and leaving me burning.
I wanted to touch him, I wanted there to be so much less between us. He didn’t seem to care, he was too caught up in kissing me. It made me impatient to the point I pulled away only to be forced right back down for another kiss. It was a fight that I eventually won when I pulled back enough to tug my shirt up.
That’s when the fight ended. I was arched up, tugging my shirt over head and he sat up to help. He grasped a breast once it was free and his mouth found my neck. I didn’t stop undressing, I wiggled until I got my shorts off my ass and down my hips. All the shifting had me rubbing against him, making him moan as he kissed me. It was a rumble I felt, and I wanted to hear him make it again. I left my shorts and panties around my thighs and reached between us to cup him, he didn’t have anything on. Aside from my clothes, the only other thing in the way was the blanket; it was easy enough to grasp him.
Chase moaned again against my skin, clutching my breast just as firmly as I clutched his erection. His girth wasn’t quite like Patton’s, but he was thicker than Tyler. With each stroke I gave him I could only imagine just what it would feel like to have him in me. It was enough that I clenched. I would have to move off of him to get the rest of my clothes off, but as he toyed with one breast and teased his way down to the other he wrapped an arm around me. It effectively kept me in place. So, I kept my hand busy on his cock while I tried to shove my clothes the rest of the way off.
My movements must’ve been too much of a distraction because he dug his hand into my hair again. “Stop,” he growled against my skin. I halted the movements of my hand and released a disgruntled breath. “The fuck are you trying to do?”
“I want this.” I flexed my hand around him. “But I have clothes on.”
His lips pulled up a little. “Impatient?”
“A little,” I gritted out.
“I got something you want.” He pulled me close so he spoke against my lips. “You need to tell me what it is, and I might give it to you.”
Chase was that kind of guy? I was surprised he let me crawl on top of him. It didn’t deter me at all so I gave him what he wanted.
“I want this cock.” That boldness was back. I reveled in it, if only I could think of other things to murmur in his ear. “Fuck me,” I breathed, it was the only other thing came to mind.
He flopped backward and reached back toward his bedside table.
“Get the clothes off,” he ordered.
I was quick to wiggle the rest of my clothing off as he pulled a condom out. He eyed the package critically before ripping it open.
Between us, his cock stood at attention twitching in time with his heartbeat. I knelt between his spread thighs and I watched as he rolled the rubber over his erection with a practiced ease.
“When was the last time you did this?” I asked and looked up from where he readied himself for me.
“Been probably three months.” He didn’t sit up, instead he eyed me. “I’d ask you the same but I already know.” There was only a hint of venom in his voice.
The jealousy was still present. It wasn’t hard to sum up why it was there either, especially if the last person he had been with was his cheating ex.
I climbed astride his lap, shifting so that the heat of his testicles was against my vulva. I didn’t bother to stimulate him further, just arching my hips forward enough so he could feel the wetness that had gathered there. His eyes darkened in response and he reached to brush his hand against my hip.
“If it's going to bother you too much, I can go back to my bed,” I offered it gently. I wanted to give him the same out Tyler had given me. Despite the fact that I knew he wanted me. Sharing was his issue.
Chase sat up again, leaving little distance between us. “Compromise is something we all have to endure to get a piece of something we want. I either get to enjoy this while it lasts, or not get it at all.” He cupped my sex as he spoke. “You already wormed your way in here, you’re out of your damn mind if you think I’m gonna kick you out now.”
His hand dug into my hair again and he tugged me into another demanding kiss. It was a distraction for when he parted my lower lips and mapped out the wetness with his fingers. His Searching fingers brushed against the bundle of nerves at the top of my sex and I gasped against his mouth. It was a reaction that he mimicked until I was left rocking against his hand.
“So wet,” he breathed against me, a finger pressed into me and my breath caught. “Tell me again what you want me to do to you.”
“Fuck me,” I said readily because while the teasing of his fingers stoked the fire in me, they weren’t enough. “Please!” I rolled my hips forward. It would take little effort for him to be in me.
“No one else gets this…” He pinched my clitoris, tearing my through the euphoria so that I was focused on him. His eyes burned into me. “But the men who live here.” I arched upward, giving plenty of room for the maneuver that would bring him into me. “Promise you’ll only be ours.”
“Yes!” My breath hitched.
He let go of my hair and pulled me closer, there was a moment when he aimed before I was pulled down onto his length. It seemed to take an eternity for him to be fully seethed in me. I was filled to the point where I was at the brink. I found his shoulders, needing to hold on to something, as he began a rhythm. It was slow at first as if he was being kind enough to allow me to adjust to the length, then his pace began to quicken.
The angle we were both at, sitting up facing one another, made for shallow thrusts. It beckoned me to move with him, so I ground myself against him as he took what he could from me. The closeness gave him the advantage to kiss me, to lick his way down my neck and scrape his teeth against my collarbone.
Goosebumps broke out, I felt the brush of his subtle against my breasts and I shivered. I dug a hand into his hair, wanting to strengthen the connection we had. I gave it a tug, and he looked up for me to catch his lips with mine. It was a mingle of breathes, a tangle of arms, all that fed the building of pressure between my thighs.
It was clear when he got impatient, and Chase rolled us, changing the position and the angle. He didn’t pull away from kissing me, though, instead opting to stay close as he took advantage of the change. He began to thrust with a force that his kisses only acted as a means to smother the whine he was dragging out of me.
There wasn’t much I could do outside of hanging onto him; he drove into me to the point that the fire spread. I was the point of exploding, and I didn’t bother trying to hold myself together. He shifted one leg up further, managing to get deeper. It broke the last little threads that kept me together.
He stuttered above me, his hips losing the rhythm as he shuddered to a halt. Chase pressed his forehead against mine.
“I’ve wanted this… for so long and you had to come in here when I have work in the morning.”
I danced on the orgasmic high, barely able to keep my eyes open.
“I’ve got work in the morning, too,” I tried to argue, but I ended up sounding drunk to my own ears.
“So much I wanted to do,” he sounded grumpy as he rolled us onto his back, keeping an arm around me so that I was draped over him. “Gonna have to give me another day like this where I don’t have to work in the morning.”
I wasn’t going to argue against it.
24
Things were falling into place, waking up alone in Chase’s bed was pleasant enough for me to not wonder what it would be like to wake up in Tyler’s bed. Or Patton’s.
What would it be like to be with either of them on their own? To feel the deep stretch of fullness that bordered pain? But still felt so good. The teasing hands and mouth that made my toes curl.
How did I get so lucky?
The rest of the day went so smoothly, even turning in the paperwork to file for a restraining order didn’t knock me off of cloud nine. Matt’s willingness to give me as much aid as he could was just the icing on the cake. All that was left was to deliver the order to Jeff, and Chase was all too willing to be the messenger. Tyler was going along with him for safety’s sake.
That left me to go home by myself, but with two of them going to confront Jeff I didn’t see an issue. I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t even bother to look over a shoulder for his sedan since Tyler had sent me a report about finding him at home.
I never felt safer.
That train of thought stalled out when I got to the door to find it unlocked. It was too early for Patton to be home, he was working a twelve-hour shift. I opened the door and stepped into the foyer.
“Hello?” I hated how small I sounded in the echo of tile.
“Who the fuck?” An unfamiliar man stepped out of the living room, he wore a rumpled suit and had a lean medium build. His black hair was a mushed up mess, suggesting that he might have been asleep in there. “Who are you?” He asked me like he had some sort of right to.
