Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 90448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90448 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 452(@200wpm)___ 362(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
“Chase, are you coming out here or do I need to come in?” Dawn asked.
What the hell?
“She has a key to my apartment?” I glared at him.
He shook his head. “If she did, I didn’t know.”
“Why do you even have a freaking security system on my apartment if you’re sneaking in through the closet and she has a damn key for the front? You both take the concept of control freaks to the next level.” I slipped on my pants and stood up.
“I’m coming, Dawn,” he yelled back. “I’ll talk to you in your apartment.”
“Hurry up,” she said through the door.
He rubbed the temples on his forehead.
Dressed, I got up.
He grabbed my arm. “What do you mean this would’ve been a mistake anyway?”
“Chase, let me go.”
He tightened his grip.
“Let me go, please,” I said.
My guest room door opened.
“Are you decent?” Troy called out.
Oh goodness.
Mortified, I covered my face with my hands. “I forgot you were in there.”
Troy and Vivian stepped out with rumpled clothes. Vivian’s blonde hair was in disarray. Some of it twirled on top of her head. The rest stuck out on the sides.
Releasing my arm, Chase turned their way and glanced at them as they held hands. Horror creased over his face. “Are you two. . .dating?”
“Yes.” Vivian smirked. “If that’s okay with you, Mr. Stone. Jasmine, we’re going to go unless you want us to stay. Do you?”
“No. I’ll call you later.” I headed over to the door and opened it for them.
“You are . . . dating?” Chase continued to sit on my couch as if someone had scared the crap out of him.
“Yes. Why?” I asked.
He opened his mouth, but nothing came out.
“What’s up with him?” Troy asked.
“I don’t know. We’ll talk later.” I wanted to say at home, but I didn’t want to startle Chase. The sad truth was I didn’t think I could walk away from him if he stood right in front of me, so I planned on sneaking away while he argued with Dawn.
Speaking of Dawn.
She stepped into my apartment as Vivian and Troy walked out. “Is he still in here?”
I motioned behind me.
“You need me to stay?” Vivian asked one more time and scowled at Dawn.
“Nope. I’m fine.”
She combed her fingers through her hair and trailed behind Troy.
“You’re disrupting this house,” Dawn said.
I figured she was talking to Chase, but instead, she targeted me with her blue eyes.
“Dawn, I’ll talk to you in your apartment.” Chase got up and headed my way. “Jasmine and I have to talk now.”
“No. We don’t.” I shook my head.
“Trust me. I have to tell you something,” he said.
“Whatever you have to tell her can wait until after we talk.” Dawn jumped between us. “Right now, we need to discuss why you think you can just piss on all the rules we’ve established over five years.”
I eased away from them.
Chase’s eyes followed me. “We need to change the rules.”
“Excuse me?” Dawn said.
“Jasmine.” Chase rushed to me and whispered in my ear, “This conversation with Dawn won’t take too long. Go up to my apartment through the pathway and wait in my living room. I have to show you something.”
“What?” I asked.
“Just listen to me,” Chase muttered.
“What are you whispering about?” Dawn’s voice screeched. Her eyes watered. Her hand touched her chest. “Chase?”
Tears spilled from her eyes and streamed over her cheeks. Something bit at my own chest. In that moment, my aggravation for her vanished. Desperation was etched all over her face, from her trembling lips to her pleading eyes. She’d known him a lot longer than I had. If I were consumed by him in a few weeks then she’d been utterly devoured.
If I stay, this is my future. I’ll be standing in the living room of girl number eight or ten, full of desperation and grief, clinging to the rule system just so my heart wouldn’t continue to break over and over again.
Yesterday, I’d envied Dawn, but now my own heart broke for her, because she was stuck here, when I still had enough mental power to flee.
“Go talk to Dawn, please.” I backed away from him. “Now.”
He nodded his head. “Okay, but meet me there.”
“Sure.”
I doubt it. Hopefully, I’ll be in my car by the time you go to your apartment.
Dawn wiped her face and walked out.
He rubbed by me and whispered, “Remember. My living room, not my office. I’ll hurry back.”
“Okay.”
Chapter 30
Discoveries
I can’t recall why I figured going upstairs was a good idea. Maybe I believed the big answer for why I was so gullible resided up there.
Perhaps some symbol for Chase’s true intention was there—a shrine to me, a sign declaring he no longer wanted to live every man’s dream of having women attend to his needs because now, he had me, and I was all he’d ever want.
Even better, a heart-breaker elixir, not an actual tube full of potion but some item where I would be so overblown with disgust it would give me that extra push I needed to gather my senses.