Free Hurricane (The Charmed) by Dianne Nutting Page B

air.
    “Talk about pressure.” Lyla sat on the bed.
    Chase walked to the window and looked out. “I can’t say I haven’t thought about doing this with you. I just didn’t think the timeframe of…” Chase looked at his watch. “Twenty-five minutes would be over our heads.” Chase ran a hand through his hair and looked at Lyla sitting on the bed. She looked nervous but they would have to get over it if they had any intention of living. Chase walked over to Lyla and pulled her up off the bed. He bent down and kissed her. Gentle at first but as the time clicked by the tension worked its way out of each of their bodies. The kiss deepened while Chase moved his hands up her back and fisted it in her hair. They were both so wrapped up in the moment that they fell onto the bed, pulling clothes off. Chase moved his mouth to her neck while Lyla tore his shirt off. Their clothes lay in a heap on the floor and the bed.
    Once they got into it, neither was as scared as they thought they would be. Passion overtook the brain and in twenty four minutes, the marriage was consummated. The stress of the past twenty-four hours overtook them and they fell asleep wrapped up in each other’s arms.
    Chase woke first. Lyla was curled up in his arms. He looked down at her beautiful face. Her skin smooth, her long lashes fanned out on her cheeks. Chase smoothed out her long blonde hair away from her face. He would never get tired of those pouty red lips of hers. He was so in love with her. He might not have married in high school but he definitely would have married her. As he watched her sleep he realized the danger they were in and cursed it. Why did their life have to be this way? Why couldn’t they have been normal? Would he have noticed her if she hadn’t been cloaking? The answer was yes, of course, how could you not notice her? Now he had to figure out how to protect her. The easy part was being with her, the hard part, predicting what would happen in the weeks and months to come. Chase thought about his parents who had no idea their son just about died. That he just slept with a girl they never met and he was now married. College applications seemed pretty simple after that.
    Lyla’s eyes fluttered open. She looked up at Chase and blushed. Chase leaned down and kissed her long and deep. Lyla responded by wrapping her arms around him. This was definitely not the difficult part of the last twenty-four hours.
    Two hours later they were ordering food from room service. Chase couldn’t stop touching Lyla; it was as if the connection was too important. Even sitting with her eating Chinese food overlooking the water at two in the afternoon, he wanted her. The feeling was as natural as breathing. What was odd was how quickly it had happened.
    “What are you thinking about?” Lyla was balancing a noodle on a pair of chopsticks.
    “You.” Chase stopped eating to stare at her progress.
    Lyla set her chopsticks down and blushed over at Chase who clasped her hand in his. “I don’t know what’s going to happen once we get home. Whatever it is, it’s going to be hard.”
    Lyla looked down, a shadow going over her face. “I know.”
    “I want you to know how much I love you. Well, you can see right here.” He held his marked arm up and smiled. “But no matter what my parents say to you, no matter how evil some of my friends will talk and I’m specifically addressing a little redhead with a temper who doesn’t like change.”
    “You mean Harley?”
    “Yep, she’s going to be difficult in a bad way. None of that matters. They’ll all come around. We’ve been a circle for so long it’s good to shake it up.” He winked at Lyla and smiled. It was easy for her to smile back.
    “How can you be so accepting of all this? It boggles my brain. I’ve never had a boyfriend or friends for that matter. I’ve never been in one place longer than three months and I’m having little bursts of wigging-out. But you….you make it seem