Banging Reaper (Pounding Hearts 1)

Thankfully I don’t own much. I have two bags of clothes and everything out of my bathroom. Even though he’s injured, Chase insists on taking one of my bags as we walk back to his car. I give him the lightest one, for the sake of his ego.

Chase is so quiet on the drive back to his place, so quiet I think he’s fallen asleep. Just as I’m pulling up to his garage, he suddenly reaches out and grabs my thigh. I nearly jump out of my skin and hit the gas a little too hard.

“Shit,” I squeal and he chuckles.

“Fuck, I missed you so much,” he growls and squeezes me.

I squirm and wish I could press my knees together. Just him touching my thigh is making me hot.

“Down, big boy,” I smirk at him and pull into his garage. “The doc ordered you to take it easy.”

“Okay,” he grins and his hand travels up my thigh as I park the car. “I’ll let you do all the work.”

Shaking my head at Chase, I tell him, “I can’t believe after everything that’s happened tonight, you’re even thinking about it.”

Chase grabs my hand before I can jump out of the car and brings it up to his lips. His lips brush softly across my knuckles and I shiver, all the little nerves in my hand going off like tiny little explosions.

The way he looks at me, the way he melts me with his eyes makes me nervous. He’s been hurt, he needs to rest. I shouldn’t encourage him, yet it’s been so long how can I resist him?

“I’m pretty sure even if I was dying I’d be thinking about you, Avery.”

I suck in a sharp breath and yank my hand back. Before he can do anything else, I push open my door and jump out of the car. If I don’t put some space between us, I’m totally going to hurt the guy by jumping his bones.

Chase chuckles as he follows a moment later with Sebastian in his arms. Grabbing up my bags, I let Chase lead, following him into his house. After walking over the threshold, I close the door to the garage behind me and drop my bags to the floor, just letting everything sink in.

“Home sweet home,” Chase says. Grunting in pain, he bends down and gently drops Sebastian to the floor then straightens.

Sebastian meows and immediately slinks his way into the kitchen.

Home, I think but still, even though I want this it feels so surreal. Am I dreaming? I give my arm a little pinch. No, this is real. This is really happening.

Chase must see the hesitation in my eyes. Before I can do or say something stupid, he reaches out and snatches up my hand. “I’ve made some changes.” He pulls on my hand, leading me to the living room. “Come, tell me what you think of them.”

“You bought a plant,” I say in confusion as I look around the living room and the only change I can see that he made is that there is now a potted green plant on his table.

“Yeah,” Chase grins. “Do you like it?”

“Sure,” I tell him, not entirely understanding what he’s getting at. “It’s great. Really spruces the place up a bit.”

“I thought you might like it,” Chase says, his voice dropping an entire octave as he pulls me closer. “I thought about you when I bought it. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. I thought about you the entire time you were gone.”

The closer Chase pulls me to him, the more I have to tip my head back to look up at him.

“I want to make the house more comfortable for you. But if you don’t like it, we can sell it.”

“Sell the plant?” I ask. Who would want to buy a used plant?

“No,” Chase smirks down at me. “Sell the house.”

“Oh,” I say softly as the gravity of what he is telling me sinks in.

He couldn’t stop thinking about me. He’s willing to sell his house for me. And what do I tell him? The first thing that pops out of my mouth is, “I didn’t think about you.”

Chase stiffens. Damnit, I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I quickly rush to say, “I didn’t want to think about you. I tried really hard not to do it.”

And, I just dug myself deeper. Way to go, Ave.

“What I mean is,” I stammer and drop my eyes, feeling like a complete ass. “That every time I thought about you it hurt because I missed you. Because I needed you. And it hurt so bad I just couldn’t take it. So I tried really hard not to do it. But even after all the trying, I just couldn’t help it.”