Page 91 of Hearts of Fairlake

Conflicted emotion flickered across his face, and I waited to see what he would say, not caring if he could see that I was enjoying myself. Chase was not a jealous man, but he was certainly possessive. To his credit, he tried not to behave like it and would fight tooth and nail against the 'accusation' of being possessive. Part of it was because he truly believed that treating someone like they belonged to you was about as red flag as you could get, but also because he knew I was capable of handling myself.

On the other hand, those feelings still existed in him even if he fought against them and kept any expressions of them tied down. So, I still managed to catch a glimpse of it here and there. I appreciated him trying to keep it under wraps out of respect for me, but I also liked it a little. There was something warm and cozy about him being so into me it could spark his temper whenever someone tried to 'steal' me from him. We both knew no one would ever manage that particular feat, but emotions rarely made sense or listened to reason, which was true for his irrational possessiveness and my affection for it.

Eventually, his eyes narrowed. “This smells like a trap. I don't like it."

I laughed, leaning forward to tilt my head back and kiss his chin. "You're always so worried about me trapping you. When was the last time I tried to trap you?"

"Literally this morning," he grumbled, leaning down to kiss me.

"This morning?" I repeated in confusion and then laughed, remembering that I'd spotted Bennett wandering around in his uniform and had asked Chase if Bennett had always had a dump truck for an ass or if it was a recent development. Chase had responded by choking on his coffee and spitting it all over the floor and then bitched me out forit as he'd cleaned up the mess. "That wasn't a trap. It was a genuine question. You're just paranoid."

"And if I'd said yes?"

"Then I would have said lucky Adam...though I guess it wouldn't matter if he'd had that ass the whole time or only recently, Adam still comes out the winner, doesn't he?"

"There's nothing about this conversation I like."

"That's okay, I'm having a great time."

"Of course you are. Because you like seeing me suffer and fucking with me."

I snorted. “Maybe just a little."

And we both knew he enjoyed it when I messed with him, even if he did grumble and bitch about it. He knew I didn't mean any of the stuff I taunted and teased him about, but I also thought, and not all that privately, that the teasing was good for him. Chase was a pretty serious person by nature and, yes, grumpy as well. That kind of personality trait could easily make someone take things, including life and themselves,tooseriously. It was good for him to have that part of him pricked and poked a few times to keep it at a reasonable level before he ended up becoming far too serious for his and everyone else's good.

“You sleep alright?"

He scowled. “What do you mean? I always sleep fine."

"You've just been...grumpy today," I said, unable to help my smile because I knew what he’d say next.

"I'm always grumpy, remember?"

"Grumpier than usual."

"I have not."

"You have. And you only get grumpier when you've slept badly, or something's bugging you."

If I didn't know any better, I'd say my comment made him nervous, as if knowing something was up with him was a problem, which was weird because, after how long we'dknown each other, he should know by now, I could read him and predict his next move.

"I'm fine," he said, sounding grumpy again.

"Yeah, consider me totally convinced," I said with a chuckle. "But fine, if you wanna act weird and not tell me what's up, be my guest. I'm sure I'll figure out what's wrong eventually."

"I'm sure," he said with a shake of his head. Before I could follow up to find out just what he was talking about, he turned and frowned. "What's with the yelling?"

I cocked my head and strained until...yeah, there certainly was some yelling in the distance. A woman, from the sound of it, we were too far away to figure out who. "Crap, we should probably go figure out what's going on."

Chase grunted. “Or, we let the cops handle it if it requires the cops."

"Chase."

"Yeah, yeah. I know."

He hated it when I was willing to interfere in something. Not because he hated helping people, he was a sucker in his own right when it came to that. It was mostly because he didn't want to risk me being hurt if something nasty was going down. Again, I chose not to take offense, considering he always acknowledged I could handle myself if need be. He didn't want the risk, but he knew full well that risk wouldn't stop me.

"C'mon," I said, pulling him with me. Of course, he was allowing me to. Chase was considerably larger than me, and if he didn't want to get pulled, he wouldn't have had to try hard.

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