Chase the Storm (19 page)

Chapter 10

 

T
HINGS
changed for us inMadison, and those changes followed us home. Almost daily, Chase told me stories about Owen or their time together, often chuckling lightly at a memory tickling his mind. He didn’t tell me the stories to compare me to Owen, but rather to let me into his life. And he did, a little more with each one. He described their simple life, always smiling as he spoke. Sometimes the stories were sad, like when he remembered the time just after Owen had died and the black hole his absence had created in Chase’s life. During those times, I would sit near him, my hand on his, and when he was done, I’d kiss him and thank him for tellingme.

At night, after we ate dinner, we usually sat outside on the porch talking. I teased himabout getting a dog, and he almost always shook his head.

“I don’t need one,”he repeated.
“Everyfarmneeds a dog,”I argued.
“Why?”
“Um,”I stammered, thinkingofa reason, “to herd sheep and stuff.” “Sheep? I don’t have sheep.”
“Fine, thensimplyto keep youcompany.”
“That’s what I have youfor,”he quipped witha wink, and I laughed.

Sometimes I would read
A Catcher in the Rye
to him. He would listen thoughtfully to every word before taking me to his bed. We made love nightly, often finding ourselves entangled in each other more than once.

Our work on the farm seemed to only increase with each day. I never thought adding one more horse to the barn would make much difference, but it took longer to feed them and clean stalls. Then there were the hours Chase spent working with Holden. The huge horse rivaled Admiral in size, but his temperament was much more excitable. He seemed willingto learnthough, and he made dailyprogress under Chase’s firmhands and voice. I watched Chase lunge Holdeninthe ring, the line in one hand as he moved in a small circle, his eyes never leaving the horse. Witha commandingvoice, he put the baythroughhis paces, always giving him a good rubdown after. After only a few weeks, Holden was accustomed to patientlystandingincrossties while beinggroomed.

My riding lessons also continued. I was never too tired to mount Lakota and follow Chase’s directions. I had finally officially graduated to loping, learningabout leads and balance. Chase took his time, teachingme everything he knew until I was as confident on the back of a horse as I was walking. The work in the fields was never-ending. While the wheat had been in for some time, there was still hay to cut and bale and deliver. Chase never bored ofthe repetition. Infact, he seemed to revelinit.

We’d been back almost a month when I woke up one morning, my eyes full of sleep and my cock full of arousal, and crawled on top of him, rubbing along him until he was plunging his hard, thick length into me. Collapsingout ofbreathonto the bed beside me, he melted into myside. I shuddered all over with an aftershock of the two orgasms, the feeling still reeling through me as I ran my fingers up his side and around a nipple, smiling at the way his nipple hardened into a pert bud. My eyes followed my fingers, watching his skin quiver as I ran themover his hard pecs and downhis arm, over his biceps and forearm.

“I have anidea,”I said coyly, mynails trailingthe muscles inhis arm. “What?”

“Let’s take care of the horses and then stay in bed all day,” I suggested half-jokingly.

“Okay,”he said, his warmbreathgrazingmycock.
I lifted myhead offthe pillow. “Really?”
“Well, we have to take care ofthe horses, but the rest canwait.” “Get moving, then,”I said, eagerlyshovinghimoffme.

Laughing, he sat up, running a hand through his thick hair. I might have been in a hurry, but I took a few seconds to watch himwalk across the room in the early morning light. There wasn’t any part of him I didn’t want.

“Elijah,”he said inthe warningtone he oftenused withme. “I’mgoing, I’mgoing.”
Not seeing the need to dirty clean clothes for just morning chores, I

dressed in my clothes fromthe day before, pulling on the stained shirt and dusty jeans. I was sitting on the bed tugging on my boots when Chase headed down the stairs to the barn. Jogging, I caught up to him, racing past himchildishlyto reachthe barnfirst.

Slidingthe doors open, I glanced over my shoulder at him. “Why am I always here before you?”I teased and grinned whenhe laughed. “Because you wear me out,”he offered with his lopsided smile, “and I’mold.”

 

“Your smile won’t work on me today,” I challenged uselessly. He knew it worked everytime.

 

“I’llgrain, youwater,”he said headingfor the feed room.

The dance we’d perfected by performing daily went smoothly, and the horses were efficiently feed and turned out, and then we mucked the stalls.

As soon as the last stallwas done, I was dragging Chase toward the house, making sure he kept his word. We began cooking breakfast, but when I knelt in front of him, undoing his jeans and taking his cock into my mouth, his concentration broke. When my tongue ran under his foreskin, the food was forgotten. He took me there in the kitchen on the island, our first of many times on various pieces of furniture around the house. The couch was next when we tried to watch a movie, his office desk when I followed himin there, the shower, and finally his bed. Exhausted, we slept soundly, his head onmychest, myhand inhis hair.

I felt fulland happy when my eyes closed, but there was a nagging in myheart I couldn’t shake no matter how manytimes I stroked his hair.
W
ITH
each day that passed, I fell more in love with Chase and his life on the farm, but the sinking feeling in my heart remained. In a little more than three weeks, I was due back at school, and while I shouldn’t have been, I was surprised when he approached the subject during one of our nightly talks onthe swing.

The way his fingers wove through my hair, twisting the longer pieces before releasing them, only to do it again, was soothing, and my eyes were closing despite my racing heart. He was stretched out on the swing withme nestled betweenhis legs and myhead onhis shoulder.

“What was college like?”he asked suddenly.

Myeyes didn’t open, but mybrows furrowed whenI replied. “What do youmean?”
“I never went. I only know what I’ve seen on television. Tell me about it,” he requested, placing a kiss on the bend of my neck. “I want to know.”
“I hated it.”I snorted. “Not muchto tell.”
I felt his eyes boring into me, and I opened mine. “Why did you hate it?”
“I told you,” I said with frustrated sigh. “I didn’t fit in anywhere, includingcollege.”
“How come?”
It wasn’t a topic I wanted to spend time talking with him about. I suggested a change oftopic. “Whydon’t youtellme a storyinstead?”
He shook his head. I wasn’t going to get out of it that easily. Not even the distraction of shifting my ass against his crotch was enough to deter him. “Tonight it’s your turn.”

Resigned, I began. “Harvard is big and impersonal. I’d always wanted a small college where I could get to know my professors and the students.”

“Thenwhywere youthere?”

“My parents. My dad went there, my momwent to Columbia. I got accepted to both, but Columbia was too close to home. I wanted to be farther away, so I chose Harvard,”I answered numbly.

“Did youhave a roommate?”

 

“Yeah, his name was Trent, a typicalfrat boy. He loved fuckinggirls, skippingclasses, and drinking.”

 

Chase snorted. “A realwinner.”

 

“He had his moments, but he was constantly trying to get me laid. That got old realfast.”

 

“Did he know youwere gay?”

 

“No. You’re the first person I’ve told,” I affirmed shyly, and he kissed mycheek.

“Tellme more. What did youstudy?”
“Business,”I answered sadly.
“Hmm, youdon’t seemlike the business type,”he challenged.

“Because I’m not. My dad is the vice president of a big company. He wants to groomme to work for him,”I said witha sigh.

 

“What do youwant to do?”

His question was simple, but my heart warmed with the words. No one had ever asked me what I wanted to do with my life. In nineteen years, I’d never heard those words from my parents, not even when all little boys wanted to be firefighters or policemen. I’d never been allowed to dreamof such professions. In only a few months, Chase already knew me better thanmyownparents.

“I don’t know, something with music,” I replied dreamily. “Maybe a teacher.”

“Elijah, I don’t know about your relationship with your parents, but take it from someone who did what their parents expected. You need to follow your own dream. You only get one life. You need to find the path to what makes youhappy.”

“You make it sound so easy,” I whined, and his body shook with a short laugh.

“Doingit is easy. It’s decidingto do it that’s difficult.”
“How’d youget so wise?”I teased.
“I’mold, remember?”His smile came throughinhis words.

There was a short silence, and I began to purr under his comforting touch. “Do youregret it?”

 

“Regret what?” he asked, his lips at my ear, his wet tongue copying the shelland encouraginga stifled moan.

 

“Doingwhat your parents expected?”

 

He stopped licking, and I felt his moist breath as he answered without hesitation. “No.”

 

Shifting, I turned inhis arms so I could see him. He loosened his hold onme, onlyto tightenit once I was comfortable again. “How come?”

A flare of sorrow flashed in his eyes before he could blink it away. Putting his head to mine, he answered thoughtfully, “Because they were my parents and I loved them. This was where I was supposed to be all along. I was never meant to be out there, but you… you are, Elijah. You’re meant for great things.”

My heart swelled at the respect, and, whether he admitted it or not, love, in his words. The rest of our time outside was spent in silence. His words resonated through me, but I refused to give themany weight. Even if I was meant to do something more than work a farm, I was made to love him, and that was exactlywhat I was goingto do.

Chase became a different person after that night. Over the next few days, things changed, not on the surfaceour chores, lessons, and workingwithHoldenremained the samebut I noticed a difference inthe tone of his voice and the lack of spontaneous touching. There were no more stories about Owen, and our days returned to strictly work with no breaks for fucking in the hayloft or tack room. What unsettled me more than his curt sentences was the violent storm that returned to his dark eyes. Gone was the clarity of the past month, replaced by an anguish that hovered around the edges, and I hated that I was the reason for its return. His worryabout me leavingwasn’t warranted, but everytime I tried to tell him, my words were cut short by him walking away or interrupting with orders to work.

“When do we plant the wheat crop?” I asked casually as I dumped the wheelbarrow ofmanure.

 

“I plant in September. You’ll be gone by then,” he answered, never lookingup fromthe exposed engine ofthe tractor.

“I’llbe here then,”I argued.
“I’mnot talkingabout this,”he snarled and walked off.

Still, he brought me to his roomevery night. It was the one place we exchanged affectionate murmurs as he moved in and around me. Any thoughts I’d had about talking to himabout staying dissipated the moment we kissed.

Lying in his bed, I glowered at the ceiling untilhe lifted his head from my bare chest and kissed me, bringing me out of my thoughts. A few passes of his lips later and he was pushing off me and spanking my thigh, the skinonskincrackinginthe noiseless room.

“Shower time.”He climbed offthe bed and headed to his bathroom. Neither of us usually showered in the morning; it didn’t make much

sense before workinginthe barnand fields for the day. I didn’t like rinsing away Chase’s scent after being by his side all night. Sometimes Chase took one, and when he did, he invited me in with him, but that morning there was no invitation. It had nothing to do with anything I’d done and everything to do with my returning to college. When I heard the shower running and there was stillno invitation to join him, I sighed and swung my legs over the edge of the bed. With a longing glance at the bathroom door, I walked to myroomand got dressed inthe dark.

I heard him moving around his room as I was pulling on my boots. Refusing to give in and go see him, I quickly brushed my teeth before jogging downstairs and out to the barn. Half the horses were fed by the time he walked in. I was about to open Tantor’s stall when Chase came up behind me. One arm went around my middle while the other held a mugofcoffee infront ofme.

“Hey,” he greeted quietly before kissing my cheek. He took the pail of grain from me and dumped it in Tantor’s bucket before moving to Calvin’s.

Sipping my coffee, I watched him work, and when his eyes slid to mine over his shoulder, I was unable to resist vowing under my breath, “I’mnot leavingyou.”

Most of the day, it was touch and go with his mood. One minute he was telling me what to do and the next, he was helping me with my chores. As quicklyas he appeared, he was gone again.

I was tossinghaydownfromthe loft while he worked onthe baler at the end of the barn. It’d broken down the day before, and he was trying to fix it enough to get through the season. If he couldn’t bale and sell his hay, he would lose part ofhis income.