The Chase (Briar U, #1)

by Elle Kennedy

I frown at the sight. “Your loser boyfriend tried to grab another girl’s boob—how is that not what you’re mad about?”

Because only a dumbass would point at Brenna and say, “Look at what she’s wearing! She was asking for it!” Oh no he di’int.

I lunge forward again, but those big arms lock tighter around me. They belong to Hunter, I realize. But even if I’d been able to charge, I’m nowhere near as fast as Fitz. One second he’s seated, the next he’s got Douchebag Davey by the collar.

“She was asking for it?” Fitzy hisses. “Did those words really just come out of yo...

“Go for it.” Fitzy sounds amused by the threat, and there’s something so insanely sexy about that. “Saves Brenna a phone call to the cops. She can press charges against you at the same time.”

I cannot take my eyes off his face. His jaw is sharper than steel. His mouth is hard and dangerous. And his arms are… Oh sweet Lord, his muscles are coiled with tension, taut with rage, and his tattoos seem to ripple across his skin as he presses his sculpted arms flush to his sides.

I’ve never wanted to fuck anyone more.

“I was defending myself and my friend,” I snap. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t particularly enjoy repeatedly being called a slut.”

“I caused trouble! What about the maniac who dumped water all over Brenna? Or her sleazy, gropey boyfriend? I cannot believe you’re blaming me for anything that happened in there!”

You tell him!!

“If you throw me over your shoulder, I will scream my bloody lungs out,” I warn. “It’s not my fault you decided to punch someone tonight. Deal with the consequences of your own actions.”

“Stop playing with my damn mind.” The words are tortured, shaky. “One day you’re flirting with me, the next you’re cuddling with Hunter.”

“One day you’re calling us best friends, the next you’re standing in front of me looking like you want my dick in your mouth.”

My core clenches with an ache so powerful I almost keel over. Oh my God. That is a visual I do not need right now.

“Fitz.” Wariness curls around my throat. “What are you actually mad about right now?”

His jaw clenches tight. For a moment I don’t expect him to answer, but then he mumbles, “You could’ve gotten hurt in there.”

“Why couldn’t you say that from the start? Summer, I don’t like the idea of you getting hurt. There. Easy. Instead, you shout at me like a maniac and then act like there’s something wrong about me thinking you’re hot when you’re angry?”

Slowly, he lifts his head. I suck in a breath. He levels me with a hot, needy look that has me desperately squeezing my legs together. The throbbing is back, and it’s worse now. Nobody has ever looked at me this way.

“You think I’m hot when I’m angry?” “Yes, I do. You were sexy-shouting and it got me going. So sue me.” I glare at him. “Just because you’re ...

“Not attracted to you?” he interrupts incredulously, and the next thing I know he’s snatching my hand and placing it directly on his crotch. “Feel this? This is what...

He presses my palm tighter to his body, and a moan gets stuck in my throat. I’m mesmerized by the thick ridge beneath my hand. He’s impossibly big. I mean, I guess I expected it. He’s a big guy. Tall, muscular, huge shoulders. Big han...

I dated a tight end once with bear paws and size fourteen shoes and a teeny little ding dong. The kind of penis that makes you cry real tears bec...

“You think it’s fun walking around with this damn thing all day long? You so much as breathe in my direction, and you do this to me. You’re on my mind twenty-four-seven.”

“But…” I swallow. “You think I’m fluff.” “For fuck’s sake. Are we back to that? I only said that shit to Garrett because I was trying to convince myself not to get involved with you.”

I want a man with clear intentions. A man who makes an effort and is excited to spend time with me. A man who actually wants to want me.

But for the first time in my life, I think I actually found a friend with whom I’m comfortable providing all the dirty little details that other friends would pass judgment on. I have the utmost confidence that Brenna can be trusted and won’t try to make me feel bad about my actions in some catty, passive-aggressive way.

So, I don’t regret telling her everything. I do, however, regret telling her while we’re sitting in public. “You touched Fitzy’s dick?!” she shouts.

Her bottom lip sticks out. “So no bare dick?” “No bare dick.” “Pity. I bet his bare dick is phenomenal.”

“How was it?” “It was intense.” “I meant size, Summer. How was the dick? Big? Small? Long? Thick? Happy? Sad?”

I love that we’re on the same page about this. I feel like too many girls fail to remember one vital truth: we deserve someone who gives us one hundred percent. Half-assed effort isn’t effort. Half- assed love isn’t love. If a man isn’t all in, then we need to be all out.

“Girlfriend?” Brenna echoes, her tone dry. “From what I hear, you don’t know the meaning of that word.”

It’s a bit alarming, this strange fascination I have with the guy. I don’t want him for myself, but I’m wholly aware of the sex appeal he radiates. Maybe I’m feeding off Brenna’s energy? Despite her constant mocking of him, I’ve noticed that her gaze always lingers on him a bit longer than necessary.

Crap. Maybe agreeing to go out with Hunter was a mistake. Here I am preaching about deserving someone who gives me one hundred percent—well, doesn’t Hunter deserve the same?

I wanted Fitz from the moment I met him last year. I think those might actually be the first words I spoke to Dean’s girlfriend. I pointed at Fitz and said, “I want him.”

“Figures you’d fall in love. A goon always recognizes the goon in another,” Brenna says sweetly.

Jake and Brenna snort in unison, then frown at each other as if any sort of united reaction is unacceptable.

“No, he was always that big,” Weston argues. I twist in my seat again. “I played 7 Minutes in Heaven with him at a Greenwich party, and he fingered me in a closet. Trust me, he was not that big.”

Connelly starts to laugh. “You’re really something else, Di Laurentis. No filter whatsoever.” He tips his head. “Doesn’t embarrass you at all to admit that, huh?” “Nope.”

“Why should she be embarrassed?” Brenna challenges. “What, you don’t think girls ...

Jake’s mouth hitches in a wry grin. “Jensen, I think no matter what I say, you’d still argue th...

“You’re arguing right now.” “Because you’re annoying me.” “What a coincidence,” he mocks....

I stumble to my feet when I glimpse the blood. “Oh shit, that’s Fitz,” Brenna says. “What the hell happened?” I guess she hadn’t been watching, either.

The freshmen in the row ahead help us out. “He took a shot to the face,” one girl says. “What!” My heart jumps to my throat.

“Can you sneak me into the locker room? Or the medical room? Whatever you call it. I want to make sure he’s okay.” She nods, her eyes softening. “Sure. I’ve got you.”

The air is still hot and muggy from the steam, but now it’s also thick with tension. The sexual kind. The “holy shit, this guy is looking at me like he’s already inside me” kind.

He’s probably still hopped up on adrenaline. He’s dangerous. I don’t fear for my safety. But I fear for my sanity.

My pulse hammers in my throat. It’s all I hear, the relentless thump-thump of my heart. “What if I don’t?” I find myself asking, and we both hear the breathy note in each word.

He moves closer. Slowly. Deliberately. Until he’s completely backed me up against the tiled wall. “If you don’t go? Then I’ll probably kiss you,” he says bluntly.

He dips his head, and his next words rumble in my ear. Low and silky. “What do you think, Summer? You want me to kiss you?” It’s the sexiest question I’ve ever heard in my life, voiced by the sexiest guy I’ve ever met in my life.

Hot, uncontrollable lust. “Yes or no,” he whispers. I finally find my voice. “Yes.”

I’m gone for this girl. So gone.