Game (Gentry Boys, #3)(57)
“Without me?” I whispered back.
“Can’t wait to show you what I’ve got planned for tonight.” He teasingly nipped my neck.
I let my hand wander up his thigh. “I don’t want to wait. Show me now.”
He stopped and stared at me. Sometimes Chase would pause and regard me so intently I would completely lose my train of thought. I giggled as he grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the chair, dragging me through the lecture hall and up the steps to the exit.
“Children, have I bored you already?” sneered the professor in his nasal accent. The microphone he wore ensured that everyone in the room heard. They all looked at us.
“Of course not, sir,” Chase waved. “You are as captivating as ever. Let the record show this small exodus is only due to biological matters whose urgency outweighs the examination of the human psyche.”
The professor looked less than amused by Chase’s obnoxious response so I pushed him out the door into the hallway.
“You’re nuts,” I laughed. “Why don’t you put that sizeable intellect to better use?”
“What the hell do you think I’m trying to do by trudging to these hallowed halls every day?” Chase pressed me against the wall and I leaned into him, enjoying the feel of his body.
“I don’t know what’s bigger,” I breathed. “Your brain or your cock.”
Chase pretended to consider the problem. “Depends on what kind of mood I’m in. And depends on your proximity.”
My arms went around his shoulders. “So what were you busy doing?”
“Ah that.” His blue eyes sparkled. “Remember when I told you to prepare for a night away?”
“Yeah. Are we going camping or something?”
“Camping,” he scoffed, taking my hand and pulling me out of the building. “I said it was going to be romantic. You think that’s the best I could come up with?”
I shrugged. “I like camping. My dad used to take us up to the Catskills or out to the Hamptons at least a few times every summer.”
“Well I’ve had enough of sleeping outdoors. Boys and I used to camp out constantly when we were kids.”
“Because you loved the desert so much?”
“Because we didn’t want to go home.”
There were very few things Chase was unwilling to joke about and laugh over. The dark history of his childhood was the biggest one. I still had trouble picturing the place he’d come from and the things he’d endured. I only knew that most of it was terrible.
Chase wanted to hear more about my youthful family vacations and he kept trying to prod details out of me as we walked leisurely, hand in hand. Sometimes I felt a little uncomfortable under his scrutiny. I wasn’t good at telling long stories or speaking at length about any subject. Words flowed a lot more easily from Chase than they did from me.
“Did your parents love each other?” he asked suddenly as we prepared to cross University Drive.
The question surprised me a little. “Yes,” I answered, wondering if he heard me over the roar of the traffic. Although after I said the word I wondered if it was really true.
Hannah and Nick Bransky would have appeared perfect to outsiders who saw the big house, three children and no shortage of material possessions. She adored him. Everyone seemed to adore him. Nick was handsome and charming. When he talked, people - men and women both – paid close attention. There were a thousand times I’d sat at the kitchen table, watching my mother blush with delight as his big hands surrounded her waist while he leaned in to kiss her cheek. But even before the roof caved in on the Bransky household there was more to their story. At least once every few months there would be an episode of late night shouting. I would lie in bed listening to my mother’s accusations, my father’s bold denials. Robbie, ever the vigilant oldest brother, would stick his head into my doorway and command, “Go to sleep, Steffie. It’s fine.” But even though things were always calm again by morning I knew it would happen again. I couldn’t remember a time when I hadn’t been aware of the fact that my father was a liar.
Chase walked me to the door of my apartment, then he kissed me goodbye. “I’ll be back in an hour to pick you up in style.”
“Really? Did you finally wash the Chevy?”
“No. But I did hang a pair of fuzzy dice over the rearview mirror. Wait, scratch that. My poor dice became casualties of King Creed when they smacked him in the forehead, enraging him to the point where he ripped them off and tossed them out the window.”
“What an *.”
“No shit.” Chase’s mouth turned down a little. I knew tensions were still running high between him and his brother and they couldn’t seem to find their way around it.
“Hey.” I slipped my arms around his waist and rested my cheek against his chest, listening to his heart. “I can’t wait for tonight.”
Chase ran his hands up and down my back. “So in love with you,” he whispered hoarsely and my heart seized up with so much emotion I couldn’t answer. I kissed him and mourned the retreat of his warm body when he pulled back.
“An hour,” he promised before turning around and walking away.
Since Chase wouldn’t give me any idea what kind of night to expect I didn’t know what to bring. I’d taken to keeping basic toiletries and a change of clothes in my backpack since we usually ended up at his place. I had discovered that I liked looking nice for Chase. It made me happy to make the effort and see the admiring look in his eyes as a result. When I’d cautiously admitted this to Truly the other day she laughed at me.