him slowly twirl Deb around. She knew this was a mistake from the beginning, but even knowing that hadn’t stopped her from falling in love him. No matter how much this hurt, and god, did this hurt, she couldn’t regret it.
She also couldn’t stay.
After everything he’d gone through, Chase deserved to have his life back and she…
Wanted one more night with him.
“He loves you.”
“No,” she said with a sad smile, “he doesn’t.”
*-*-*-*
“Come on, come on, come on…” Chase bit out, rubbing the back of his neck as he watched the numbers light up as the elevator slowly made its way to his floor while he stood there struggling not to lose his fucking mind.
He should have taken her back to their room as soon as he realized that there was something wrong and there was definitely something fucking wrong. He’d never seen her like this before. She always had a teasing smile on her lips even on those days when she wanted to wring his fucking neck, but tonight…
She looked like her heart was breaking in two.
He didn’t know what her brother said to her, but when he found out, he was going to–
“About fucking time,” Chase said, sighing in relief when the elevator arrived at his floor.
The doors barely had a chance to open before he was shoving past them and heading down the hallway toward their room. A minute later, he was opening the door and rushing inside and–
Shit!
She wasn’t there.
For the past hour, he’d been forced to stand back and watch as her brothers swooped in before he got a chance to find out what was wrong and asked her to dance. He’d watched as her brothers argued with her, the sad smiles that she gave them, and the resigned looks on their faces as they’d stepped away from her only to note the looks of pity they’d sent in his direction before her next brother asked her to dance.
By the time that her father asked her to dance, Chase had been close to losing his fucking mind. He’d managed a dance with his sister and another dance with Deb before he’d given up pretending that he wasn’t waiting for a chance to get to her. The only thing that mattered to him was pulling Sloane into his arms to make sure that she was okay and he’d been on his way to do just that when his sister had rushed over to warn him that Amy was there.
Since he’d been well aware of the woman in question watching his every fucking move for the past hour, he’d returned his attention to the only woman that mattered to him only to realize that she was gone. After playing twenty-fucking-questions with her brothers, he’d gone looking for her and now…now, he was telling himself every line of bullshit that he could think of to explain the panic threatening to take over at the thought of never seeing her again.
Sloane was his best friend and he was worried about her. It was as simple as that, Chase told himself as he walked into the bedroom and swore when he found it empty. Ready to tear the fucking hotel apart, he turned around and headed back into the living room only to feel something that he couldn’t quite name deep inside him ease when he spotted Sloane standing on the balcony overlooking the large atrium. Needing a moment, Chase pulled off his jacket and tossed it on a chair before he dropped down on the small loveseat with a sigh.
What the hell was he doing?
He was playing a dangerous game here, Chase realized as he rubbed his hands roughly down his face even as he had to admit that he was tempted, more than a little fucking tempted, to want more than he should. For a moment, he wondered what it would be like if this never had to end and…
God, it would be so fucking easy to imagine a lifetime with Sloane. He could imagine spending the rest of his life with her, making love to her every night and waking up with her in his arms every morning. He could also imagine falling in love with her, having children with her, and growing old with her and just as easily, he could imagine how much it would hurt if something ever happened to her.
He would never survive it.
Feeling the panic that threatened to break him every time he thought about losing her begin to set in, Chase stood