Seagrove Secrets Read online

  “Mmm hmm,” she mumbled, forking a bite. “I can’t believe this is our last episode.”

  “I think I’m in denial,” he said.

  She held back a grin as she chewed her salad.

  “What are you smiling about?” he asked.

  She covered her mouth. “Nothing. I was just wondering something.”

  “What?”

  She nodded at the television. “Those are three very different ladies Bill’s married to.”

  “Mmm hmm,” he said, eyebrow up.

  “Which one would you pick?”

  “I just get one?” She gave him a look, and he grinned. God she loved it when he grinned. “All right, let me think.”

  He looked like he was really mulling it over hard. She hummed the theme from Jeopardy.

  “Okay, okay. Nicki.”

  “Are you serious?” she asked, really thinking he was going to choose Jennifer Goodwin’s character.

  “I like how she’s a little shady. Keeps it interesting.”

  Shayla cut her eyes at him like she thought he was crazy, but Nicki had been her favorite from the start.

  “What about you?” he asked.

  “I only have one to pick from.”

  “I’ll let you pick between Bill, the Bruce Dern character, and Roman.”

  She dropped her hand like she was exhausted since two of the three were old enough to be her grandfather.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” he said, trying not to laugh.

  “I pick Roman,” she said, deadpan.

  He looked back at her in challenge, and she thought for a second he might kiss her, but he knew better, surely.

  He shrugged. “He’s pretty damn hot.”

  She grinned. “All right, let’s start it.”

  Chase’s phone rang. “Hang on.” He pulled it out of his pocket, and she steadied his to-go container.

  “It’s Felicity. I’m sure this about airport pickup. She keeps forgetting to send me the flight info. Hey,” he said, answering without Shayla leaving. Neither Scott nor Felicity had ever called while they were eating. She would feel weird getting up now.

  “I thought you said yours was a morning flight? No, it’s fine, I’ll figure it out.”

  “I’ll pick her up,” Shayla said, her heartbeat getting a little faster.

  He looked over at her like he was confused.

  “I take it you’re unavailable,” she said.

  He covered the receiver. “I thought she had a morning flight. I’ve got to go with Blake and Bo to pick up our tuxes at three. Her flight’s in at three-thirty.” He went back to the phone. “No, it’s Shayla. Hang on.” He looked at her. “Are you sure?”

  “Of course,” she said, like it was no big deal. “I’ll be in PCB anyway for work.”

  “Are you picking up Scott?” he asked. It was weird hearing him say Scott’s name. She wasn’t sure she’d even said it to him. But he’d probably seen it on her phone.

  “He’s coming in at noon, but he’s renting a car.”

  He went back to the phone. “What?” He appeared for a second like he’d seen a ghost. “No, it’s…” He looked over at Shayla and then handed her the phone. “She wants to talk to you.”

  Shayla blinked. She was planning on talking to Felicity tomorrow, of course, but she’d have time to prepare. She wasn’t ready right that second, mouth full of salad.

  She chewed and swallowed hard. “Hey.”

  “I can totally cab it back to Chase’s,” Felicity said like they were old friends.

  “No, that would cost you a fortune,” Shayla said. “I’ll pick you up. I’ll be in PC…Panama City anyway.”

  “Are you absolutely sure? Because if you’ve got shit going on and don’t have time for this, I totally get it.”

  “It’s perfect timing, actually. I’ll need to be heading home about that time anyway to get ready for the rehearsal.”

  “Okay then. I’m totally amped for this weekend, by the way.”

  Shayla wasn’t prepared for Felicity to be so familiar…and nice. “Me, too,” she said.

  “Hey, so is Chase right there still?” Felicity asked.

  “Um, yeah.”

  “Can you make him go away a sec?”

  Shayla looked at Chase, who was staring at her with great interest. She moved her salad and stood up off the bed, heading outside.

  She closed the door behind her. “Okay.”

  “So, I’ve been double-checking with Chase and Maya, and they both assure me that you are just renting from Chase and you’re not with one another, but now that I’ve got you on the phone, I’d love to get that same assurance directly from you before I haul my ass to his house and make a complete idiot of myself. Trust me, it would not be the first time.”

  Shayla sat quiet, not sure how to answer.

  “Oh, shit. You’re with him, aren’t you?”

  “No,” she said quickly. “No.” She swallowed hard. “We are not together. Absolutely not. We’re just friends.”

  “Seriously?” Felicity asked.

  “Oh, completely. So seriously,” she said. Apparently that’s what Chase had been assuring Felicity of. No need for Shayla to disagree at this point. Her chest started to heat up.

  “Okay,” Felicity said, sounding unsure.

  Shayla realized she sounded jaded. “I’ve actually got a date coming in from Nashville. A guy I used to work with.”

  “Is that the guy Scott that Chase was just talking about? The other airport pickup?”

  “Yes, but he’s renting a car. He gets in at noon.”

  “Perfect. He’s staying with you?” Felicity asked.

  “No, he’s at a hotel in PCB.”

  “Well, that’s weird. I mean, not weird. Just, Chase has a couple of guest rooms, right? If you’re not ready to sleep with this guy can’t he crash in one of those or on the couch?”

  “I…” Shayla searched for words. “He’s fine at the hotel.”

  “That’s bullshit. Did Chase not offer for him to stay there?”

  Shayla tried to remember if he had, but she was pretty positive he had not.

  “Put Chase back on,” Felicity said.

  Shayla walked back inside and met Chase’s searching gaze. She handed him the phone, pretty sure what was getting ready to happen but completely unsure how to handle it.

  Chase took the phone and put it to his ear. He looked up at Shayla as Felicity talked and Shayla shook her head, waving her hands in front of her chest. “I didn’t do this,” she mouthed.

  “No, it’s fine, of course,” Chase said, and Shayla wasn’t sure if he was talking to her, Felicity, or both of them. “No, there’s not. That’s not what…it’s fine.”

  Shayla knew she should leave him alone to hash this out with Felicity, but she felt weird to step out and just stand outside.

  “Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Me, too. Bye,” he said.

  Me, too. What was that in response to? Shayla had to figure out how to get through this weekend without trying to analyze everything.

  Chase ran his hand through his hair and met Shayla’s gaze. He looked off to the side, shaking his head. “I’m sorry I didn’t ask if Scott wanted to stay here earlier. I should have.”

  “He’s fine at the hotel.”

  “No, that’s ridiculous. I don’t know where my head’s been. Please ask him to stay here.”

  “He’s already got the room. It’s probably too late to cancel, anyway.”

  “I’ll pay it then. Will you call him?”

  Shayla looked off, trying to decide what she wanted this weekend. She didn’t even know. Would having Scott here when Felicity was here make things better or worse? Would Scott expect her to stay at the hotel with him? He wouldn’t expect something like that, but he might ask.

  “Are you sure?” she asked, sounding completely unsure herself.

  “Please call him,” he said, proffering her phone.

  She took it and called Scott. He picked up on the second ring. “
Hey, where are you staying this weekend?” she asked.

  “Some hotel in Panama City I got a deal on. Hang on.” He came back to the phone and told her the name. She winced. Why didn’t she think to ask him this before and make sure he was staying somewhere decent?

  “That place is a dump, Scott. Will you stay here?”

  “Really?”

  “In Chase’s house. He’s got room.” She lifted her eyebrows at Chase and he nodded confirmation.

  “Is that okay with him?”

  “Yeah, he’s cool with it.” Chase held out his hand and Shayla inwardly winced. “He wants to talk to you.”

  “Oh, well…”

  Shayla handed Chase the phone.

  “Hi, this is Chase O’Neil. How are you? Good. Stay here with us. Absolutely. My apologies for not asking sooner. It’s been a crazy couple of weeks with the wedding planning and all.” He shook his head, his face coloring. “Great. I look forward to meeting you. Here’s Shayla.”

  She hung up with Scott, and then met Chase’s gaze. “What just happened?”

  Chase set his salad on the nightstand. “I don’t know.” He sat with his back against the bedframe, running both hands through his hair.

  They needed to talk about what was happening between them…the fact that they both had people coming in town who either wanted to date them or had dated them. Felicity had slept with Chase for chrissakes, and here she was getting ready to stay in his house…in his bed?

  A surge of heat flew through her body at the idea, as she tried to inwardly calm herself. She walked over to the bed, sat down on it, pulled the covers over her legs, and then picked up the remote. “Should we start the finale?”

  Chase looked over at her for a long moment before turning back to the television. “Yep.”

  With the rolling of the closing credits came the fruition of the dread Chase had been feeling the past hour. There was no more binging to be done. He’d stupidly not called the cable company out, so it wasn’t like they had anything else to watch. He couldn’t fake sleep. He could turn to her and try to talk about what the hell it was they were doing and how they were going to handle the arrival of Felicity and Scott tomorrow, but she clearly didn’t want to do that.

  It was so fucked up that they couldn’t just be together. He knew she was going through shit with Brian, recovering from him hitting her. Hitting—that’s all he knew, all she’d confirmed, and she had only done that after he’d forced the issue. He had no idea of how bad the abuse was. What had he done to her? Chase had lain in this bed with Shayla every night since she’d revealed that bit of information to him, wondering what she’d gone through with that asshole. Where had he hit her? In the face? Had he pushed her against a wall? Punched her? His gut wrenched at the idea, and his face started burning again. He wondered when he’d be able to let it go in his brain, and if he was having this much trouble after just two weeks, what had she been going through these past months? Years?

  The unanswered questions left him perpetually helpless. But would knowing the answers, the details, empower him somehow?

  Chase had told Shayla that he was going to get Felicity a rental for the weekend, and she’d told him in no uncertain terms not to. She’d become almost obsessed with making sure Bo wasn’t worried about anything these past couple of weeks leading up to his wedding. She’d said that if Felicity didn’t stay there, he’d think something was up between her and Chase and that would stress him out.

  Chase knew Bo would get over it if the two of them became an item. Chase would just have to show him he could do the relationship thing. That was the easy part. But Chase highly suspected that Shayla was using Bo as an excuse for not jumping into something with him. She wasn’t ready, and he could definitely understand that, given what she’d been through. If he could just get a hold of that son of a bitch—

  Shayla’s movement woke him up from his thoughts and he looked over at her. She stared at him, her expression impassive. He wasn’t sure if she was wanting to know what he thought of the finale, if she wanted to know why he was still lying in her bed when the show was clearly over, or if she was ready to finally talk about what the fuck they were doing. They’d been spending every night together, occasionally waking up spooning, eating dinner like a married couple. Flirting, smiling…he had no idea what this was called, not that he was any kind of relationship expert.

  She pulled the covers off of both of them and slid over, climbing on top of him, her legs straddling either side of him. He blinked, catching his breath that he’d temporarily lost, his heartbeat skyrocketing to the moon at the idea of this woman he was damn near batty over on top of him.

  He opened his mouth to say something, what, he had no fucking idea, but she covered it with her own, her sweet lips on his making his insides turn wobbly. He reached up the soft skin of her back, and she sat up off of him, grabbing his arms and shoving them to the pillow on either side of him.

  He wanted to touch her like crazy, but she had his wrists pressed against the pillow, clearly wanting control. She moved down his body, lifting his shirt up and trailing kisses on his chest and his stomach, her hands moving up his sides and over his chest, fuck.

  She slid her fingers underneath the waistband of his shorts and boxers and pulled them down, his cock springing up like a jack-in-the-box. Standing at the edge of the bed, she peeled her leggings off of her, but her T-shirt was too damn long, and he couldn’t see anything but the tops of her thighs which he wanted to eat like a fucking ice cream cone, but she was on a mission, and he knew better than to try to take control right then.

  She climbed back on top of his body, bare except for his shirt, which he wanted off along with hers, but she was running this show. She reached over and opened the drawer to her nightstand and pulled out a box of condoms. She ripped one open and slid it onto him, then before he knew it, she eased herself onto him, her brow furrowing. Instinctively, he reached for her hips, but she took his hands in hers and pressed them back down onto the pillow.

  “Shayla,” he said out of desperation to touch her.

  But she covered his mouth with her kiss as she moved up and down on him. She lifted up again, sitting on him, holding his hands in midair and pressing against them with hers. Her eyes closed, she found a rhythm and moved on him, her tight warmth unleashing those familiar sensations inside of him, but this time, it was Shayla. He’d never wanted a woman as much as he’d wanted her this past month she’d been in his life, and it wasn’t just about her looks. It was everything she was, everything he wanted to be when he was with her.

  He wanted her close to him. Wanted their fucking shirts off. He wanted to feel her near him, her nipples brushing his chest as they worked together to bring each other to the brink. But she didn’t want that, clearly.

  It didn’t escape him that this was how he screwed women he didn’t care about, with distance between them. He wanted to pull her down to him or turn her over on her back and do this right…the way he’d dreamed of making love to her the first time, but she didn’t want that, and she felt so good on him, her body moving in a way he couldn’t resist if he tried.

  By the expression on her face, she looked like she might be getting ready to lose herself, so he waited her out, though it was hard, especially after not having had sex in months. She slammed his hands down to the pillow and let out a breathy noise that almost made him come all by itself. He took it as a cue to let go himself, and she collapsed around him, letting go of his hands. Her body relaxed on his, her arms damp and warm. What he wouldn’t give to feel her chest against his in this state.

  She slid off of him and lay on her back for a moment, her eyes closed as she caught her breath. He wanted to say something to her, but he had no idea what. Something sweet and touching was out of the question. He’d just been fucked by her. There hadn’t been anything sweet about it.

  She sat up, swinging her legs to the side of the bed, not moving to stand. Finally, she walked to the bathroom, tossed him a hand towel,
and then closed the door behind her.

  He took care of the condom and then waited for her to come out. But in a minute, the shower came on. He sat on the end of the bed, wondering what to do. Should he leave? He didn’t want to. He wanted to sit her down on that bed and find out what the fuck was going on, but he wasn’t going to be a forceful prick like the one she’d just gotten away from.

  He walked over to the bathroom door and knocked. “Shayla? Are you okay?”

  She opened the door, her face flushed. “I’m fine. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?” She barely looked at him, and then closed the door in his face.

  He stood there dumbfounded, fucked, and wondering what the hell this weekend was going to be like.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Shayla sat in her office, diligently working on her computer like nothing else mattered. Reporting was due today. Of course, reporting was due every Friday, and Bo would certainly not be looking at any reporting today, but she wanted it done. Needed it done.

  “No, man, don’t worry about it,” Bo said from his office across the hall. He chuckled. “I hear you. Listen, if I had an opportunity like that I’d blow off your wedding in a heartbeat. Don’t think I wouldn’t.”

  He was so damn happy and carefree, just like he needed to be today.

  “Shayla.” Maya’s soft voice at her door got her attention.

  “Hey, Maya.” She stood and went to hug her. She wouldn’t have done that normally, but it felt like she should for some reason and, besides that, she was full of frenetic energy today. After what she’d done last night, her nerves were on edge, and she was starting to feel herself unraveling. “How’s it all going?” she asked.

  Maya couldn’t contain her smile. “So good. I can’t believe it’s here. Tomorrow. I’m going to be married.” She covered her mouth, her eyes going watery.

  “Don’t start now. There’s going to be lots of this tomorrow, I imagine.”

  Maya nodded, still covering her mouth. She pulled her hand away. “So everything’s okay with you?” The look on Maya’s face begged Shayla to confirm.

  “Absolutely. It’s great.”

  “Oh, good. So, Felicity said you were picking her up from the airport. Are you sure you don’t mind doing that?”