Bad Company (Seven Deadly Sins #1) ✅ Completed

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Lust Tastes a lot like Cherry Coke

"Eliza?” Chase whispered. His voice was hoarse and I was pretty sure it was courtesy of all the abuse he’d taken downstairs. He may have bested Brady, but the football player had gotten a few good hits before Dante came and practically threw him through a wall, knocking him out (for the second time).

He looked around the room now, “Where are we?”

“In my room,” I lied, not wanting to send him into another Dante induced rage. I stepped in a little closer so he had to look back at me. Dante said he wouldn't let Chase see him but I still wasn't taking any chances.

He raised his arms, but the chains didn’t let him bring them up very far.

“Eliza, why am I chained to the wall?” he asked sounding more than a little worried. Funny how he was worried about my slightly crazy behavior – that was kind of ironically hilarious.

“Because you hurt me,” I answered honestly.

“I hurt you?” he repeated, confused.

"You hit me a few times. You fought with Brady too. Don't you remember?" I asked gently.

Now Chase looked horrified, "No. That's not...I mean, I dreamed I'd gotten into a fight with Brady about Kara or something, but that's it. That didn't really happen. Right, Eliza?"

I couldn't say anything for a minute. He looked so vulnerable and scared. I couldn't imagine what he was going through. He must've thought he was going crazy or something. It was pretty clear he didn’t remember much at the moment. I considered that a good thing.

I nodded and gave him a tired smile. “Chase, it's not really you doing all these things. It’s something inside of you, something that doesn’t belong there and should’ve never been given to you.” 

He looked confused and unsure about what I was saying. I couldn’t blame him. I took a deep breath and leaned in a bit further, so I could see the perfect green of his eyes. They still reminded me of four leaf clovers or sweet summer grass.

“Chase, I’d like to kiss you now. Is that alright?” I asked carefully.

He eyed me warily. I wondered if he thought I was trying to trick him.

"Now? Like this?" he asked.

I nodded. “I swear Chase, just a kiss. Afterwards, I’ll let you out. Ok?”

“A kiss, nothing more? Nothing you know…freaky?”

I almost laughed at the irony again, “No, Chase. I swear. Do I look like the kind of girl that gets all freaky on random weeknights?”

He eyed me warily once more before answering, “No, but then again I wouldn’t have guessed you had a pair of ancient handcuffs hanging around your room either.”

I didn’t correct him about the room or whose chains these actually belonged to. Better he didn’t think of Dante at all if I wanted him to kiss me without going into Hulk mode. Finally he sighed a little, almost as if unable to believe he was going to say yes to whatever crazy request I was making.

"Okay,” he said, not totaling getting everything but going along because he didn’t have much of a choice. Being chained to the wall tended to limit a person’s options.

I closed the final distance between us, resting my hands against his chest. I felt him tense at the contact but at least he didn’t feel as hot as he had before. I leaned in close and slowly brought my lips to his.

He closed his eyes against the feel of my mouth against his own. I watched him for another second before I closed my own eyes and touched my tongue to his lips, urging him to open.

He did.

Our kiss started off simple enough, but after a minute we both felt it deepen into something so much more. His body strained against the restraints as he tried to get closer. I felt that delicious heat moving through me again. It built and built between us until I felt it reach inside me and set me aflame. It felt like something both hot and liquid, running from Chase into the deepest part of me. I could almost taste it this time, sweet and thrilling, and a little fizzy.

It tasted a lot like Cherry Coke.

My skin suddenly felt two sizes too small and I couldn’t get close enough to Chase. I pressed him up against the wall, covering his entire body with mine but it wasn’t enough. I wanted to feel him all over my skin, over every part of me so I didn’t know where he began and I ended. I wanted us to be one.

Chase moaned as the last of Lust left him and found its way home.

It was now all mine.  

I never felt Dante pull me back or put Chase back to sleep. All I felt was that wonderful heat filling every empty part of me. For the first time I felt everything. It didn’t matter that I wasn’t the most beautiful, sexiest, smartest, or talented girl around. It didn’t matter that my aunt had made a deal with a demon from Hell who expected Chase served up on a platter.

Nothing mattered because for the first time in my life I was complete.