Her shy smile looks out of place on her, but I’ll take it. “Puppy.”
“Fuck, I love you!” I assail her with more kisses, grabbing her face and holding it to mine so she can’t get away again. “And this new hair? Fuck, you’re fucking gorgeous.”
“Chase?” she squeaks out between kisses.
“Mm?”
“Can we, uhm, go somewhere less open?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah! Come on, my trailer’s over here.” I wave over at Megan as she stares at us. “All good, this one’s legit! Sorry!”
“Not your trailer, Chase. I can’t stay long, and too many people watch this place.”
“What do you mean, you can’t stay?”
“Let’s go somewhere safe first, somewhere we can talk, okay?” I nod and pat my pocket, but it’s empty. I left my phone and keys in the trailer. She holds out her own keys. “I’ll drive.”
CHAPTER37
APT.
ROSÉ , BRUNO MARS
Seeinghim again sets fires in me that had been nothing but ash and embers for months, and as badly as I want to stay with him, I can’t. I’m too close now, too close to having her right where I want her. Lawson, too. I’ve always said people shouldn’t piss off a woman in STEAM, but nobody listens. Now, they’re going to pay for it. All of them, one by one.
“I have so many questions, so many things I want to know! Uhm, safe place. How about my apartment?” Chase says excitedly as he climbs into the car. My guy just became a ten-year-old with a golden ticket to a candy factory. And I’m the candy factory. Kinky.
“Buckle up and keep Pongo in the back. I can’t have him licking on me while I’m driving, Puppy.” He stares at me with that goofy grin I’ve missed so damn much.
“Sure, yeah. Uhm, do you need the address?”
“Chase, I’ve left you packages and you don’t think I have the address?”
“Shit, I forgot. I’m just so damn happy to see you. My brain is malfunctioning. Wait! Lawson! He called me. He knows who the stalker is.”
“Technically you do, too. If Mills and I are right?—”
“Mills? I fucking knew it! I should fire that guy. It’s the convention girl, right? The one who broke onto the set right before I met you. The fuckingdayI met you.”
“That’s our guess. And baby, I’m good, but I’m notkeeping myself undercover for six monthsgood. Mills had a plan. He passed me a note just before I left for the airport. I have an aunt that goes to Mexico every single year like clockwork, so I crashed at her house for the night until Mills could find me somewhere safer. He’s helped keep me safe. Don’t fire him.”
“Oh, I’m fucking firing his ass as soon as I have my phone again.”
“Puppy, he and I have been working together to connect all the dots. I’m finally getting to put my computer programming skills to use like I should have done years ago. He’s been…amazing.”
He doesn’t say anything and when I finally get a red light; I find him looking out the window with his jaw clenched. I reach for his hand, but he pulls it away, shaking his head. Instead of arguing this out in the car, I get to his apartment, keeping my head down as Chase has the guard let us in. He’s out of the car before I’ve even put it in park, storming over to the elevator.
“At least he’s not making a public scene, eh, Pongo?”
When I played this moment out in my head, he ripped my clothes off in the elevator and carried me to his apartment. I pictured a scene in a dramatic period romance with wind whipping my hair and dress around. I’m not even wearing a dress. His shirt also needs to be unbuttoned and not covered in dirt and ash from the set, but I could have worked with that, too. Instead, he’s punching buttons and turning away from me with his arms crossed. Chase Cooper, always the drama queen.
I haven’t been to his apartment, at least not this one. I’ve snuck into a few places he has stayed and left little gifts for him, put on his t-shirts, or smelled his pillow—it’s creepy, but I couldn’t help it. I missed him. It’s a spacious apartment with giant windows and a sleeping loft upstairs. The minimalist decor scattered around doesn’t fit Chase at all, but I could live here.
I bet this place looks magical when the snow falls. “Does it snow in Vancouver?”
“Why did you come back?” he yells as he spins around to face me.
“I…thought you’d want me to?”
