Chase Me (Broke and Beautiful, #1)

by Tessa Bailey

So here she was, one day later, preparing to sing in front of a perfect stranger for a cut of sixty bucks. Sixty bucks might not sound like much, but when your roommate has just booted you onto your ass for failure to come through on rent—again—leaving you no place to live, and your checking account is gasping for oxygen, pink bunnies do what pink bunnies must.

But they weren’t the kind of abs honed from hours in the gym. No, they were natural, I-do-sit-ups-when-I-damn-well-feel-like-it abs. Approachable abs. The kind you could either lick or snuggle up against, depending on your mood.

It didn’t escape her that even though she wore a thick pink bunny suit, he was looking at her like she wore a string bikini. Louis McNally the Second was an interesting character, she’d give him that.

“Look, she caught me at a bad time. One minute I’m sleeping under my coffee table with a coaster stuck to my forehead, the next I’m talking to a life-sized rabbit.”

Even as he spoke the words, he knew nothing would help until he saw her out of the bunny costume. He’d put everything he’d had into that kiss, and she’d walked. It was fucking with his head. Making him jumpy. Where was she now?

He’d been so stunned by his own reaction that he’d let her take off without a word. A rarity for him. He always, always had something to say. He was a goddamn lawyer. A framed piece of paper on his office wall said so.

Dammit, if for no other reason, he wanted to track the girl down just to correct her misconception of him. All right, maybe he wanted to kiss her again, too. A lot.

Unfortunately, he only had eyes for the digital clock on his computer screen. Six minutes past ten in the morning. If he could’ve placed a bet on rabbit girl being the type to run late, he would have made it without hesitation. She seemed like the type to make a man suffer before gracing him with her presence.

Yeah, he was that desperate to see rabbit girl again. Desperate enough to risk having his eyeballs clawed out before he ate the peanut butter and banana sandwich he’d brought for lunch. But the weekend had done nothing to dull the memory of her from his mind. If anything, it had grown stronger.

For one brief, shining moment, his gaze was locked with hers. The girl he’d been dreaming about. The girl who had exiled him to the land of disturbing Internet porn. For just an instant, he saw hurt cloud her features.

I don’t even know your name, and honestly, it pisses me off. It pisses me the hell off because you kiss like a fucking dream and I can’t think of anything else.”

“You can walk out of here hating me if you want, but I need to know your name so I can track you down the normal way next time. Stalking you on social media.”

He reached into his pocket and took out the peanut butter and banana sandwich, placing it in her lap. As when he’d made his speech to keep her from leaving, she looked taken aback by the kind gesture. It made him want to bury her in an avalanche of sandwiches.

He blew a breath toward the ceiling, silently calling himself every name in the book. She threw him so far off his game that he wasn’t even on the playing field anymore.

When her fingertips made contact with the sensitive underside of his arm, there was no way of preventing The Reckoning any longer. His pants felt so tight all of a sudden that he had to work to keep his breathing even. She knew it, too.

Her pupils expanded just slightly, letting him know she’d liked that. Liked being ordered around, even if he suspected she’d rather eat nails than admit it. He filed that away for future use.

He waited until he heard the front door of the office close before going back to work. No one laughed. Especially him, thanks to his new position as Mayor of Bonerville.

A warm flutter in her throat had her pressing a hand to the spot, pausing on the sidewalk. Oh boy, there was so much trouble headed her way. Too bad she wanted to cannonball right into the center of it.

This had to be every dude’s version of hell. Not that he didn’t like a decent bachelor party as much as the next guy. Beer, bullshit . . . the occasional boobs.

Saturday could not get here fast enough. He wanted to see her face, talk to her. Figure her the hell out. Even if her lack of enthusiasm in regards to going out with him was less than satisfying. It didn’t hurt his pride at all. Really, it didn’t.

Then she saw him. And froze. It was the worst moment of his life. Hands down. Even losing his tooth in front of three hundred high school seniors didn’t compare. Her face fell, arms dropping to her sides. Pain slashed across her features and straight into his chest.

He tried not to be obvious about inhaling her scent. What if this was the last chance he got? The pit in his stomach yawned wide.

She swept a hand down her body, clad in only a see-through bra and cheerleader skirt. A sight that he felt slightly ashamed to be storing in his spank bank.

Still, she’d felt true to herself performing it. As if deep down, she was meant to be a gangster instead of a struggling actress. It made her feel untouchable. A feeling she desperately needed right now.

Toward the end, she made the mistake of looking at Louis. Shirtless and gorgeous, the pride radiating from him almost caused her to fumble the lines, but she pushed through, finishing with a flourish of her hand.

Crazy how people she knew well couldn’t get an honest reaction out of here, while this guy who’d put her through the ringer did it with so little effort.

Oh, she liked that. Liked hearing that hot thread of desperation in his voice. Desperation for her. Willpower, thou hath no place here.

“The first time you ride me, I’m going to grip your ass just like this. I’m going to move you where I want you. How fast. How slow. It’ll all be up to me and this grip.”

He wanted to look at her face. Wanted to make her laugh. And for chrisssakes, he wanted to take her home.

Her mix of confidence and insecurities, as well hidden as she could get them. The way she’d looked up at him, green eyes shining, and said, Think about me. Ah, it all made sense now. She’d cursed him.

A long pause that had him feeling restless. Had he caught her in the middle of something? It was a Friday night. Did she have a date? Oh, man. He really didn’t like thinking about her out with another guy.

See, this is what happened when five feet five inches of beautiful, complicated girl crowded everything else out of your mind. You risked being crept up on by hairy, foreign men.

Unfortunately, turning down free food was sacrilege in her personal religion. Free food was to be cherished and treated with respect. Every morsel savored.

Okay, so she’d pretended to be fascinated by the creature habits of her new Chelsea neighbors, but her mind had actually been on the Lower East Side with a certain physically blessed lawyer.

Even in the midst of her nerves at being the center of attention—being herself, not a character she was pretending to be—she felt a sense of gratefulness. There hadn’t been many times in the past when she’d sensed people had been truly interested in what she had to say. In her.

It was bigger than his own apartment. To be fair, it needed to accommodate at least three crazy girls, while his only needed to fit one sexually frustrated lawyer.

He wanted to back her into the bedroom visible behind her and lock them both inside it. Fuck the date he had planned. Why couldn’t he be the only one who looked at her? Was that so much to ask?

In this lighting, his dark eyes were even more shadowed, the scruff on his face more pronounced. Throw in the panty-melting way he perused her and she felt the sudden need to dump ice water over her head.

It didn’t feel right deflecting his questions anymore. Not when she knew so much more about him, his family. Not when she kind of wanted him to know something about her. What would it hurt?

Being with her felt right, like this was where he should have been all along but he’d been epically late. Yeah, that scared the shit out of him. He’d never been committed to another person. Hell, he didn’t know how.

Louis stepped closer until she was forced to tilt her head back. Awareness shone in her eyes, and he absorbed it like a drug. It meant he wasn’t imagining this draw between them.

Roxy’s knees threatened to give out. This wasn’t the first time she’d experienced this aggressive side of Louis. Hot damn, she liked it. Liked being the person making his teeth clench, making his usual cool-guy façade desert him.

In a matter of minutes, Roxy and Louis were bathed in darkness, mostly alone on the street. Tucked away from the sidewalk as they were, the way he held her from behind went from comforting and sweet to something else entirely.

“I’ve got you.” He leaned back a little, taking her with him. “You just tell me what you like and I’ll make sure you get it. That’s how this is going to work.”

Good Lord, he’d accomplished in two minutes what usually took her ten minutes, a bottle of wine, and a Jason Statham movie. It threw her a little, exactly how good he was at this.

“Listen, you can’t exactly blame the girl for taking off when your sisters showed up. I’ve met them. They’re not exactly the ideal welcoming committee.” “Are you sure?” Louis hiccupped. “Lena set her T-shirt on fire with a Bic. That has to count for a ‘welcome to the family’ in some culture, right?”

Something pulled in his chest. Dammit, he should call her. Maybe she’d answer on the third ring and call him by his full name. Hey, Louis McNally the Second.

She didn’t need his stupid, Prince Charming, perfect-date-planning ass. Only she wanted to hear his voice. Kind of craved the sound of it.

“I want to know that you’re not going to disappear every time we have a bad moment or my sisters show up looking like something out of a haunted house. I need you to stick. The fuck. Around.”

“You’ve been keeping me awake at night since we met, and until now, I honestly didn’t know if you felt anything for me. So, yeah. If you’re mad at me for not calling? Good.”