could think of in that moment that made any type of sense.
Before he could even attempt the words, Andie lunged forward, shoving him with such force that he went stumbling back into his living room. Chase struggled to steady himself, and as soon as he regained his balance, she drove forward again, her palms making contact with his chest hard enough to send him reeling back into the wall.
“You don’t just do that!” she yelled, her voice hoarse with emotion. “You don’t just show up in someone’s life and screw it up like that! I was fine before you!”
Chase pushed himself off the wall, completely stunned, and she took a step back, shaking with rage.
“You think you can do whatever you want at the expense of other people? That you don’t have to care about anyone but yourself? Chase only lives for Chase, right?” she shouted, gesturing at him angrily. “You think that just because you’ve been hurt, you don’t have to consider other people’s feelings anymore? That you get to flip me upside down on a whim and then just walk away?”
He stood immobilized beneath her glare, his heart pounding in his chest. He deserved this. He deserved every second of this and more. He would stand there and take whatever she needed to dish out, giving her the only kind of reparation he could.
She roughly swiped the hair out of her eyes, her chest heaving.
“I didn’t imagine it, Chase,” she said, her voice softening and trembling in a way that caused a sharp pain in his chest. “So what was it? Did you just want to fuck me?”
Except that.
He would take anything she had to give, except that.
He could stand there and let her tear him down, let her call him out for everything he was and wasn’t, but he would not tolerate her demeaning herself. He would not stand by and let her diminish what he felt for her, or let her believe, even for a second, that this was just about sex.
That he would think so little of her.
“Andie, don’t.”
“No, tell me,” she said, shifting her weight as she folded her arms, putting on an air of mock intrigue. “I know I didn’t imagine it. Whatever this was between us. So what was it? Did you just want to screw me and send me back to him? Let him handle the actual relationship while you had your fun? Did it suddenly get too serious for you?”
He swallowed, his chest stinging with a familiar pain, and he realized the last time words had cut him this way, they had come from his father’s mouth.
“Stop it, Andie,” he said, his voice low.
“Well then tell me what this is about!” she shouted, throwing her hands up in frustration. “I deserve an explanation, goddamn it!”
Chase could feel heat pooling in every surface of his body, feel his hands shaking. He had no idea what was coming, and he was afraid to move, afraid to open his mouth for fear of what might come out.
So he stood there, his eyes on her, and said nothing.
Andie stared at him, waiting for an answer, but after nearly a minute of silence, Chase watched as the bravado slowly left her body; the anger melted from her expression, and suddenly she just looked defeated.
He looked on in horror as her eyes welled with tears, and when she spoke, her voice was trembling. “You’re a coward,” she said before she turned and headed toward the door.
He had let her leave once. He would not make the same mistake again.
In three long strides, he crossed the room and grabbed her arm, turning her quickly as he pulled her back toward him. She stared up at him, her eyes wide with alarm, and before he could even think about what he was doing, he brought his mouth to hers.
He felt her arms come up, and for a split second, he thought she might hit him. But instead they slid around his neck, her fingers snaking into his hair as she pulled his mouth against hers, and in that second he stopped thinking altogether.
His hands came to the small of her back, pressing her body against his as he continued to kiss her, causing her torso to bow with the force of it. When he felt the arc of her body, the way she was yielding to him, he began to pull back, but her hands in his hair curled into fists as she pulled him back toward her,