Chapter 5
Gunnar
Fuck me, I always knew Chelsea would taste sweet, but I never imagined just how fucking sweet.
She opened her mouth to me without hesitation and is allowing me to take control of this kiss in every way I want. When my tongue slides over hers, the moan that comes from deep inside her causes me to respond with a growl.
Her hands thread through my hair as she pushes her body as close to mine as she can.
It’s like she can’t get close enough. That’s something I understand.
I’m not sure I’ll ever get close enough to Chelsea Novak.
All I know right now is I want to make her mine tonight.
After that, we can figure out the details.
Letting her go isn’t something I’ll ever do again.
I deepen the kiss and grind myself against her, letting her feel just how fucking much I want her.
That revelation about her father threw me.
And pissed me the hell off. All these years, I’ve believed the worst about her, which was hard to do after believing she was the purest and best person I knew growing up.
It’s some fucked up shit that her father forced her to make a choice she didn’t want to make.
Now that I know the truth, I want all the moments with her I’ve missed. I want all the firsts we should have had together. I want a future with my arms wrapped tightly around her. We’ll never get some of those things, but here, tonight, we can finally have each other.
“Oh my God!” Chelsea pulls her lips from mine and stares at me with wide eyes. “No. We can’t do this!” She places her hands to my chest and tries to fight against me when I instinctively tighten my hold on her. “My father will decimate you, Mason. There’s no way he’ll allow me to be with you.”
Fury at Novak explodes through me, gripping every muscle, every nerve, every thought. “I won’t let you run from us again. Never fucking again. Your father can’t touch me now.”
The fear in Chelsea’s eyes doesn’t ease. “But he can. Can’t you see that? He’ll use his power any way he can to ensure he gets what he wants.”
“He doesn’t scare me, Chelsea. I’ve dealt with men far worse than him.”
She clutches my shirt. “Did they run the state? Did they have a whole network of political allies throughout the country? Did they know how and where to bury the bodies of the people who got in their way? Because that’s what you’d be up against with my father.”
I search her eyes, willing her to listen to me.
To trust in me. “Your father might have all those men at his back, but I have other men at mine. The kind your father would shudder at if they threatened him. You need to listen to me when I say I can hold my own. There’s no fucking way your father will even get close enough to take me down. ”
She turns silent, processing my words. I feel it the minute she lets hope flare. Her body melts into mine a little. Her hold on my shirt loosens. And the fear in her eyes eases. “I don’t know—”
I silence her remaining fear with a kiss. A kiss filled with all the urgency and wild need I’m feeling. I will do whatever it takes to make Chelsea understand that her denial over what’s happening between us isn’t something I’ll allow to happen.
She hesitates at first, but I deepen the kiss and push her to give me the same back.
I need that from her. When she doesn’t do that, I tear my mouth from hers and growl, “Can you feel what you do to me, Chelsea? I’m so fucking hard for you right now, but more than that, I feel like I’m coming out of my fucking skin for you.
I’ve wanted you for as long as I can remember, even when I was telling myself I hated you.
Our families are fucked up, but that doesn’t mean we have to be.
This is our chance to finally have what we want.
Don’t walk away from me again. Stay and fight for me because I promise you I will always fucking fight for you. ”
The silence is deafening for the few seconds it takes her to come to her senses, and then her lips are on mine, her body is hard against mine, and I know every beat of her heart is for me.
Chelsea Novak is mine.
Finally.
Thank you so much for reading Locked Up Hearts!