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)
“They don’t deal with Troy or me?”
“You should ask him that question.” Chase rubbed his eyes again.
In that moment, I realized bags rested under his eyelids. His usual air of confidence didn’t radiate from him. He seemed weary and exhausted.
“What’s happened? You look stressed out.” I asked.
“I am stressed.”
“What happened?”
“My girlfriend fled from a foreign country and only left an email, which is the last thing I would check when I’m frantically screaming her name and racing around a hotel hung over and half naked.” He targeted me with angry green eyes. “And although there was a smiley face on this email, I did not appreciate its message, or the fact that when I returned to the States, my girlfriend was sitting in a police station, crying.”
I clutched the end of my shirt and twisted it. “So did you eventually find your girlfriend?”
“Not funny.”
“You read the email.” I shrugged. “I’m not your girlfriend anymore.”
“You promised we would discuss the problems.”
“Yes, but—”
He closed the distance between us. “What made you run from me?”
“I didn’t like the Lucy watching part.”
“It won’t happen again and she’ll never accompany us on our dates. The India trip was a special one.”
I backed up. “You tried to push me into letting her watch us.”
“For one stupid second that I now regret. And let’s not forget I was drunk, too.” He glared at me and pulled me back to him.
“You were angry. You jumped off the bed and turned on the TV like a spoiled brat,” I said as his arms wrapped around my waist.
“I was frustrated I couldn’t put my cock inside of you,” he whispered in my ear. “Especially when I’d just had your nipples in my mouth. I’ve been wanting to be inside you since the first time I saw you. Give me a tiny break.”
I blushed and looked away. “I’m not made for this situation.”
“Some can argue no one is, but I’ll do anything to make this work.” He guided my face to him. “I’m so sorry, Jasmine. Please believe me. I’ll do whatever you need and only treat you with the utmost respect.”
“I’m not sure.”
“Please.” He closed his eyes. His voice sounded lower than a whisper. “I don’t run after women or beg them to be with me. Yet here I am pleading with you.”
“What about the other three girls? You didn’t have to beg them?”
He opened his eyes. “They joined willingly. They saw the money, trips, and all the other things I could provide and joined the arrangement. What do you see?”
“The possibility of getting my heart broken,” I muttered. “Losing myself in your desires and forgetting my own needs and wants.”
“I won’t let any of those things happen.”
A sad laughed escaped my lips. “You can’t control everything.”
“The hell I can’t.”
“Chase, you can’t.”
“Give me one month with all your rules.” He squeezed my waist with his hands. “If at the end of the month you still say no, then I’ll leave you alone. You can transfer to any of my other companies or leave with severance pay.”
I sighed.
“Please.” He lowered himself down to his knees and put his hands together like he was praying. “Please.”
A woman running with her dog ogled the scene.
Another group of people leaving their cars pointed and mumbled to each other.
Chase’s guards approached us and stirred behind him, probably unsure of what to do next. He remained kneeling on the ground.
Wind rushed through his hair, leaving his usually perfect midnight waves in disarray.
His cologne floated my way and against all rationality I breathed him in and reveled in his smell.
“Get up, Chase.”
“Give me one month?”
I thought about how horrible I’d been feeling before Chase arrived at the police station and how he simply swooped in and saved the day.
He said he was drunk that night, but should I excuse him?
I twisted my lucky copper ring. Benny had bought it for me the day he picked me up from my house and decided I would move in with him and Vivian. I remember that moment like it had just happened. I was so nervous that living with Vivian and Benny would be a bad decision and a tiny bit suspicious of why Benny would want to take care of me in the first place.
But it all worked out in the end. All of my nervousness was for nothing. Could loving Chase have the same outcome? Will I laugh at myself a year later in his arrangement, thinking it was dumb to hesitate? Maybe.
“Okay,” I said. “One month.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll let me fix any problem?”
“Yes. Now get up.”
Chase jumped back to his feet. “We have to celebrate. Too much has happened. Let’s go off somewhere and just spend some time getting to know each other.”
I gazed at the police station. “What do you mean?”
“I have a great idea for a trip.” He moved toward the limo door and opened it for me. “When I learned your name three months ago I searched you on the Internet.”