Wild Chase Read Free Page B

laughed loudly.
    “Yeah, um, well, nope. I’m legal. No boyfriend and your life is safe, for now.”
    He bit his bottom lip in that irresistible way again and laughed, “Good to know. Very good to know,” he murmured slowly and so articulately that I felt my body responding to the low, husky tone of his voice just as it had to his kiss. My cheeks felt hot all over again and I looked to the floor to try to hide it, brushing some hair behind my ear as I admired his boots.
    I felt his warm breath on my neck before I heard his voice beside my ear. The goose bumps ran wild all over my body as his words filled my heart.
    “You were incredible up there.”
    I lifted my head and leaned slightly to my side to look at him. “Really?” I asked, my voice coming out as a whisper was out of my control. I blamed the kiss for my brain cells not functioning properly. As he raised an eyebrow, he asked.
    “Are you kidding me? I felt like a complete douche when I realized that I had put my foot in my mouth when I made that comment about you making our ears bleed. I could not have been more wrong. How long have you been performing?”
    “Um, just tonight.”
    He looked confused, “What?”
    “Tonight was my first time on stage. As in, ever,” I said with a nervous laugh. God, why was I suddenly nervous?
    His confused look morphed into a genuine, shocked smile, “Seriously? Chase, you were incredible up there! Jesse would outright call bullshit on you though, because you don’t sound like a new performer at all. Your voice is insane!”
    I couldn’t deny the butterfly feeling I got when my name left his lips, but when I heard him talking about Jesse, it was as if someone had ripped the tiny wings right off, and the fluttering came to a crashing halt.
    Just outright ask him, my head urged as I pressured the question from the odd sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.
    “So, is Jesse your girlfriend?” I asked. The words were meant to come out firmly, to show him that I wasn’t about to have any more of his cheating lips on me, but instead they came out meekly.
    Disappointment was harder to hide than I anticipated.
    His brows creased as he let out a deep laugh, putting his hand over his stomach, “Oh, hell no! Jesse is a guy, and he most definitely is no one’s girlfriend. He’s the bassist in my band back home, and he wouldn’t believe for a second that you hadn’t been born on a stage. Plus, I don’t have a girlfriend.”
    Either from the relief of him not having a girlfriend, or the sweetness of his words, something made me want to kiss him again, and for a moment, it felt as if he were a magnet and I couldn’t resist the pull. I leaned back in, my eyes zeroing in on his lip ring, but before our lips met, he spoke so softly that the hair on my arms stood up.
    “Let’s get out of here.”
    My breath caught as my eyes flew up to his, “And go where?”
    Avery gave me that devastating smile of his, and answered, “Anywhere. Do you trust me?”
    I know that I should have wanted to reach out and slap him for assuming I would ever leave a bar with a strange man to do god only knows what, but instead I followed the butterflies. They were fluttering so hard inside of me that I thought I might actually have real ones in there.
    I bit my lip and nodded before I realized I was even doing it.
    Avery took my clammy hand into his and we started across the crowded bar when it suddenly hit me that I was supposed to be finding Victoria.
    “Oh! Hold on, I um, I can’t leave without my friend,” I stammered, scanning around for her quickly, trying not to lose my nerve and chicken out.
    He turned back to me and smiled, pointing across the bar back to the stage area. I followed the direction of his toned arm and found that my friend was wrapped up in some tall, blonde guy’s arms. I let out a breathy laugh. Figured as much!
    I felt him lean down against my neck, “And that boy attached to your friend would be my younger brother,