Dr. Chase Hudson (The Surrogate Book 2) (24 page)

“Chase answer my question,” she said, not
answering.

“Answer mine,” I countered.

She sighed, shaking her head, knowing I wasn't going to
back off until she told me. “Not today,” she admitted in
a small voice.

“Why were you crying at all?” I asked,
fighting the urge to reach out and touch her face.

“You already had your question,” she said
with a slight chin raise.

“You're impossible,” I said, shaking my
head, wanting to smile. “Ava, it would be wrong to bill you for
those sessions.”

“How would it be wrong? You did what you were
supposed to do.”

“Yes and no.”

“How no?”

“Because I pushed the lines of professionalism.”
Hell, I fucking plowed over them.

“What because you like... went to my apartment or
fed me?”

“Yes, those things but...”

“But what?”

I felt a smile toy with my lips, but shook my head.
“Tell me why you were crying first.”

Her gaze went to her lap, her hair falling like a
curtain to block her from view. “Chase...” she said in a
pleading tone.

“Baby, tell me...” I said, my hand landing
on her thigh.

She took a slow breath. “Do you remember when I
was drunk and you came over and I started blabbering about Dr.
Bowler?”

“Something about something being fake. But maybe
not. But maybe yes. You were pretty wasted.”

She sucked in a breath and looked at my hand as it slid
to her knee. “Yeah.”

“What was Dr. Bowler right and wrong about?”

“I... went to see her about my sessions with
you.”

“That was a good idea.”

“Yeah, well. I went to see her because I was
having some issues...”

“With our sessions?” I asked, feeling like
she had stolen my air. She was having issues with me? And I didn't
even fucking see it? “Babe... why didn't you tell me?”

“Because I wasn't sure if what I was experiencing
was what I thought it was. Dr. Bowler, well, she confirmed it.”

“Confirmed what?” I asked, squeezing her
knee, feeling my guts twist hard.

“That I had transference.”

Jesus Christ.

“Transference,” I repeated, my voice an odd
croak. “You thought you were having transference?”

“Yeah,” she said, swallowing hard. “But,
um, it turns out I wasn't.”

“Baby, what are you trying to say here?”

“I didn't have transference,” she repeated.
“I... I was in love with you.”

No.

Fucking... no.

That wasn't possible.

Or... was it?

Could it have been mutual?

But one thing struck me...

“Was?” I asked, letting the word hang in
the air.

“Am,” she corrected and I felt like the
swirling black hole just suddenly still in my chest.

She was in love with me.

“You're in love with me?” I asked, needing
confirmation.

“Yes.”

“
Fuck
me,
” I said,
closing my eyes tight against the strange current of emotions working
their way through my system. “
Fuck
me...
”

“Chase...”

My eyes opened slowly to find her perfect face watching
me with pure, raw vulnerability. It was something I would never get
tired of seeing from her. Because she trusted me with that. She gave
me that freely. And I felt so fucking unworthy of it.

“I couldn't bill you, baby, because this wasn't
therapy.”

“What?” she asked, her brows drawing
together.

“I mean... we followed the schedule, but it
wasn't therapy.”

“What was it then?”

“It was... courting. It was genuine attraction
and mutual feelings and...”

“Mutual
feelings?” she asked with what sounded like a desperate sort of
hope in her voice and I realized I hadn't really
told
her yet.

“Baby...
fuck,” I said, running my hands down my face. “I knew the
second I saw you sitting on my couch that first day that this was
different. This wasn't a job. I wanted you. I wanted you more than I
have ever wanted anyone. And just how you were. Shy and modest and
anxiety ridden. I wanted that girl. And then when you started coming
out of your shell around me, letting down your guards, letting me
in... I wanted you even more. Every moment with you was like the
first time. It was
real,
Ava. It was real for
me. It wasn't work.”

“Chase... what are...” she started, needing
to hear it like I needed to hear it from her.

“I love you, Ava,” I said, reaching out to
hold her face. “I have never loved anyone. No one. I wasn't
even sure I knew what it was until I found you.”

Her eyes widened and watered slightly before she
whispered, “I love you too, Chase.”

My eyes closed as I inhaled. “I never thought I
was going to get to hear that. I thought...” I shook my head,
not wanting to think about what I had thought anymore. “There
was a time when I had hope that you felt the same way.”

“When?”

“Anytime I touched you. When you kissed me. When
you dressed up for me. When you said my chest was your spot. When you
called it the safest place in the world. But I didn't let myself
think, or hope, that it was true.”

“It was true,” she said, giving me a small,
sweet smile.

“When did you know?” I asked.

“Around the fourth session. I thought... I
thought it was a crush. And then I was sure it was transference. So I
spent all my time making sure I understood that you...”

“That I what?”

“Saw me as a patient.”

That
was the look. The look
she gave me anytime I said something that she
mistook
as professional.
That
was why she looked so
pained, yet determined to be cold.

Jesus.

“Never,” I said, shaking my head. “Not
once. Not for a moment.”

Then she was reaching for me, pulling me toward her as
her lips sought mine. And we both sank into it, into each other. We
kissed with all the frustration, all the misunderstanding, all the
time wasted. We kissed hard knowing we had all the time in the world
to do so.

My arms went tight around her, lifting her, and
bringing her toward the bed. We stood beside it, breaking free just
long enough to rip her shirt off of her. Her hands went between us,
frantically unbuttoning my shirt and slipping it and my jacket off my
shoulders. I sat back, getting free of my belt, pants, and boxer
briefs. She got onto the bed, lying against the pillows and my body
came down on hers as I tugged her pants and panties down her thighs,
legs. Until there was nothing between us anymore.

“I missed you,” I said, my words heavy with
the truth. “Every day. Every hour. You were all I could think
about.”

“You too,” she admitted.

“So beautiful,” I said, leaning down and
kissing the space between her breasts before shifting to the side and
taking her nipple into my mouth. I sucked the sensitive point and her
hips pressed up hard into me. I had to focus to keep myself from
burying deep inside her right then and there. I teased her other
nipple before moving to kiss a line down her stomach, hungry for a
taste of her. But her hands moved out and grabbed my head, pulling me
upward. “No?” I asked, brows furrowing.

“No,” she said, stroking a hand down my
face. “I need you inside me,” she said, her legs wrapping
around me. “Now.”

“Fuck me,” I groaned, laying over her, my
head pressing down to her forehead as I gained some control.

“Chase... now... please,” she begged,
sounding just as far gone as I was.

My hips shifted until my cock pressed against her heat.
“Fuck... so sweet,” I said as she groaned and arched
against me. “So wet for me.” And, fuck, she was.
Dripping.

“Always,” she said, her eyes heavy with
desire as I started to press inside her.

“God, I like hearing that,” I said, leaning
down and nipping her lower lip.

Her hands went around me, stroking up my back as I
buried deep. “Fuck,” I groaned, feeling her tight, wet
pussy grab my cock. “You feel so good. But, baby...”

“It's okay,” she said softly, her hand
moving up to stroke my hair out of my face.

“You're sure?” I asked, praying she was. I
wanted nothing between us anymore.

“About ninety-nine percent sure,” she said
with a small smile. “I want to really
feel you,
”
she said, leaning up and kissing my chin.

I felt my eyes close for a second as I rocked my hips
into her. “My baby is so fucking perfect,” I murmured, my
pace slow, gentle.

But not for long. Soon we were both too far gone, too
needy to do slow and sweet, and I was slamming into her hard and
fast, driving us both toward oblivion.

“Chase...” she gasped as she started to
tighten around me.

“Oh... come for me baby,” I growled as she
pulsated hard around me, taking what was left of my control with her
as I slammed hard and buried deep, groaning through my orgasm.
“Fuck.”

“I love you,” she murmured close to my ear
as my orgasm slammed through me.

“Fuck... I love you too,” I said, riding
the last waves.

My weight fell down on her for a second before my
strength came back and I rolled us onto our sides, still inside of
her.

My hand moved up to stroke her cheek. “I'm done
with this,” I said, partly to myself.

“With what?”

“This,” I said, waving a hand to the room
at large. “As of an hour ago. I don't ever want to touch anyone
else.” And I didn't. It was an easy decision. Nothing had ever
felt more right. “I don't think I've ever truly helped anyone
until you anyway.”

“Chase...”

“I'll keep my practice. But I'm done with
surrogacy. It's just you. It's always been you. I just didn't know it
until I met you.”

She paused a second as the words settled in. “I
think you should keep this room, though,” she mused, a smile at
her lips.

“Oh yeah?” I asked, smiling too. I was
thinking the same thing.

“Yeah. We might need somewhere to sneak off to
when I take a lunch break.”

“That insatiable, huh?” I asked, smiling
wider.

“Only for you.”

“Come here,” I said, rolling onto my back
and tapping my chest.

She flew at me and lay on her spot.

The safest place in the world.

The place I always wanted her to be.

Two Weeks

“They're going to think you kidnapped me or
something,” Ava said, untangling from my arms and moving toward
her clothes scattered all over my floor.

“They're too busy with their own thing to even
notice you're gone,” I said, propping myself up on my arm to
watch her ass as she walked away from me.

“For three days?” she countered, looking
over her shoulder. Seeing me watching her, she blushed crimson and
quickly yanked her panties up her legs.

“I liked the view better without the panties,
babe,” I said lazily.

“Too bad,” she said, an arm crossed over
her breasts as she turned toward me to reach for her shirt.

She was getting better about the shyness. Before and
directly after sex, I could whip out a camera if I wanted to and she
wouldn't even flinch. But it was still new.
We
were new. Her
being naked around a man at all was new. She would get there someday.
And I wasn't going to push it.

“Shay texted me three times last night,”
she said, moving back toward the bed and sitting by my feet as she
slipped into her shoes.

“We were occupied,” I smiled, my mind
flashing back to stumbling through the front door, me naked from the
waist up because she had been at work with my buttons in the
elevator. I took her from behind against the kitchen counter, yanking
her pants and panties down to her knees and slamming inside her.
Rough. Feral.

“Tell me who your pussy belongs to,” I
growled into her ear as I yanked her back by her hair.

“You,” she said on a moan as my free hand
moved down her belly and pressed against her clit. I knew the second
I was inside her that it wasn't going to be an all night session. I
was too on edge. She was too fucking tight.

“God damn right,” I said, thrusting faster
as my fingers pressed hard circles around her clit until she came,
crying out my name loud enough to wake the neighbors.

Then I yanked her pants and panties up and led her to
the bedroom where I stripped her, cleaned her up, then got on my
knees and ate her until her legs wobbled so hard that they gave out
beneath her.