one of his band tees as I went and taking a quick shower to wash the feel of Shawn's touch from my skin before I went to him.
I left my clothes in his hamper, tugging on the tee and padding back across his room on bare feet before crawling into his bed with him.
I laid my head down on the pillow beside his, drinking in the sight of his face and the brief moments of peace it held in sleep. But that didn't last long as tension lined his features once more and a grunt of anguish escaped him, causing me to shuffle closer and take his hand in mine.
He gripped me tightly, drawing me even closer, his forehead pressing to mine as he drew in a long breath.
"Stay," he murmured and I nodded, my mouth brushing against the stubble on his jaw and my lips aching for a taste of something I knew I shouldn't have hungered for.
"I'll stay," I swore in a low whisper but he stilled, that soft noise enough to rouse him fully and his eyes opening as he found me there in his arms.
I met his gaze, my heart racing as I took in the damage to his right eye which had turned a much paler blue thanks to the slice of the knife that had cut into it, the pupil opaque and unmoving.
Chase seemed to realise what I was looking at, cursing as he closed his eyes again and tried to roll away from me, muttering about his eye patch cutting into his face if he slept with it on.
I caught his shoulder and tugged on it firmly, stopping him as he tried to roll further from me.
"Don't hide from me, Ace," I breathed, shifting towards him and gripping his arm tightly. "You know me. You were there when I got my first period. You were there when I stole my first car. You were there when I cried because I missed parents I'd never even known, and I cried because you hated the ones who you had. You know me. So look at me. And tell me I'm lying about this." I pushed my fingers into his hair, fully exposing his damaged eye to the light of the room and making sure I didn't hide a single piece of what I was feeling for him as I let the love I held in my heart for him and the relief I had over finding him alive mix with the pride I felt for how strong he was while working to recover from all that Shawn had done to him. I wanted him to see all of that in me and to know with complete certainty that I didn’t care about scars or any of that shit, because all I cared about was him.
I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to that damaged skin and his arm moved to my waist as he drew me closer with a soft sigh.
"This isn't something you should be ashamed of," I told him. "You should be proud of it. Not for some bullshit battle scars reason or any of that. But because you're Chase fucking Cohen. And you've never given a single fuck what anyone thinks of you, so why the hell would you start now? You're the scariest motherfucker in the room. Not because of your scars, but because you can beat any man bloody without breaking a sweat and everyone knows better than to fuck with you."
Chase groaned needily, his grip on me tightening until he was propelling me up and onto him so that I straddled his waist and his hands locked around my hips.
"You always could destroy me with that smart mouth of yours, little one," he growled, his hands travelling up my sides until he pushed his fingers into my hair while my forehead remained pressed to his and we hid inside the rainbow locks that surrounded us.
"That's our problem, isn't it?" I murmured. "We find it all too easy to destroy each other."
His cock was hard between my thighs and suddenly this tension between us didn't feel like a game anymore. With JJ here and a few drinks in my system it had all seemed so simple. He'd wanted this, I'd wanted it, we'd just been following the call of what our bodies needed, but this, me and Chase on our own was something different. Something that burned hotter, angrier, was gilded in lies and betrayal and so much heartache that