Chapter Seven
I could feel the heat of the sun starting to scorch my back. I groaned and tried to rollover to my other side, but my hand was tucked somewhere. Bass was still holding it. Slightly opening my dreary eyes, I squinted at the bright surroundings. I shifted a bit and heard Bass grunt something as he started to wake up.
“Good morning sunshine.”
“Good morning…” I said in between yawns then stilled. Shit, what time was it?
“Oh my God, I have to get back!” I got up and hunted down my purse. When I got to it, I fished out my phone. Carter and Lindsey each called a few times and there were a few messages from both of them. Ignoring Carter’s messages, I scrolled to read Lindsey’s.
Lindsey Mason: Em, I have to get back to SB. Sorry, this was unexpected. Could you get a ride from the girls? Thanks, babe.
Oh, no way. Why did she have to leave so soon? Wasn’t this her bright idea to begin with? No, no, no, no, no!
I was not going to ride back home with the girls. I honestly didn’t feel like being interrogated by them. This totally sucked.
“Is everything all right, Em?” Bass sat up from the lounger and scrambled to his feet.
“I, um…” My voice trailed off as I watched in total fascination as he stretched. His black shirt lifted up, showing off his famous abs.
I licked my lips as I stared.
Why did he have to be so… hella sexy?
“Yes, Emma?” Bass caught me admiring him and now he was teasing the heck out of me.
Blushing and a tad mortified, I excused myself to the bathroom. Once inside the house, I realized I didn’t have a clue where the bathroom was. I quickly turned around to look for Bass and found that he was right behind me—with a massive smile on his face.“Where is the bathroom?” I reddened a little more as I asked the question.
“Come here.” He pulled me towards him and gave me a hug, enveloping me in his large, muscled body.
OH. MY. WORD!
My senses were on full alert as I inhaled the scent of him. Boy did he smell fantastic!
He pulled back a little and looked at me, our faces merely inches away. “You know you look even more beautiful when you blush like that?” Bass whispered.
The cat got my tongue. My mind went blank and all I could see was Bass and his amazing eyes, dilated and very much locked on me.
Compelling me…
Calling me…
I snaked my tongue out to wet my lips and his eyes zeroed in on them. He pulled my face a little closer and I closed my eyes, readying for his kiss, but his lips landed on my jaw and he nuzzled his nose all the way to my ear then he whispered, “You’re not ready for my kiss yet, my darling Emma. When I do kiss you, I will be the only one you can think of, the only one that can possess you and no one else. You, madam, are certainly not ready for that kind of possession.”
His words weighed heavily on me. Bass was right, though, I wasn’t ready and I appreciated him being noble about it because if he had chosen to kiss me, I wouldn’t have pulled away and I might’ve ended up regretting it later on. He was merely a stranger and yet, he respected me.
He was simply remarkable.
Bass kissed my forehead and squeezed me tightly. “Go freshen up while I make us some breakfast. Take two lefts and the bathroom is on the right. See you in a bit.” With another kiss on my head, he strolled towards his enormous stainless steel kitchen.
I just stood there and watched him walk away.
Oh My God! What was going on? My nerves were all over the place! I was confused as hell. This was like an odd dream or one of those movies where the plot was too good to be true and then out of nowhere an axe murderer joined in and killed the happily ever after.
Mentally shaking my head, I followed the directions he gave me and found the bathroom without difficulty.
“I look like a bedraggled cat,” I voiced out loud as I stared at my reflection.
I fished out my phone and called Amber. After two rings she picked up. “Girl, you are getting it on!” Amber announced happily.
I groaned. Did I expect anything else? They were going to tease the hell out of me until they get some juicy info. Shit. Here we go. “Listen, Linds left and went back to the dorms and I was hoping I could ride back with you guys.”
“Oh no, we left like an hour ago, doll. We’re like around Summerland, babe. Sorry, cupcake.” Amber did sound sorry.
Oh crap, what the hell was I supposed to do? I groaned. Uh, this is what I got for being so idiotic. Why didn’t I figure this out last night? Since when had I ever been so unprepared? The old me would’ve made sure I had a ride before I left the club last night. The new Emma was obviously too star-struck to think coherently
Ugh!
“You know, why don’t you ask the bad boy BC himself? I bet he has a hot ride!” Amber suggested with tons of innuendos in between her words.
Bad boy BC, was that his nickname?
“Emma! Was he good in the sack?” I could hear Trista in the background. I guess the entire car could hear me. Damn speaker phones!
“Good God! I didn’t sleep with him!” I countered back. This was still unchartered territory for me, dating and the like. I was still learning here, I wasn’t going to just start sleeping around.
“No f*cking way, why not? THIS is The Bass Cole, Emma! You’re such a bore whore!” Amber sounded aghast.
Thank you, I guess?
“Need I remind all of you that I just broke it off with Carter? Yeah—exactly! I am a bore whore, whatever.”
“Carter’s pissed as shit. You better watch out for the angry monster when you get back in town,” Cece added with derision.
Yeah, because you posted f*cking videos on Facebook! Who f*cking does that? Of course, she’s friends with like the entire campus. Of course, each person who saw it would mention it to Carter. Carter Mason was like their freaking school hero. They simply loved him.
“Gee, thanks for the heads-up. Anyway, I have to go and look for a ride elsewhere,” I muttered.
“Damn straight! And that ride better be Bass Cole’s warrior! You better tell me the deets and how he is between the sheets. Please, please, please!” Amber begged. She was obviously going bonkers.
“There’s no point in arguing with you, is there? See you later, girls!” I laughed and cut off the call before they threw any more innuendoes my way.
After I washed my face, rinsed my mouth out with some mouthwash I found and applied some lip gloss, I came out of the bathroom. How would I bring up my dire ride situation to Bass? What if he has other plans? Maybe I could call a taxi to take me or better yet, I could just rent a car somewhere.
As I entered the kitchen, Bass gave me a dazzling smile. “Come sit and talk to me while I cook. Which hotel are you and your friends staying at again? I’ll drive you there myself.”
I strode towards the kitchen island, sat on one of the stools and watched him master the kitchen. “That might be a problem. It seems that they all left already and I’m stuck alone in Los Angeles.”
“No problem. I can take you back to campus.” He shrugged and continued to chop mushrooms like a Michelin star chef. Impressive.
“Where did you learn how to cook?”
“I was a chef in one of my movies and I had to train with this five-star chef for three months before shooting.”
“Wow, three months? What movie was it?” I hadn’t seen any of his films except for that first vampire movie. Amber and Cece had told me there were two more and another one was in the works.
Bass smirked at my innocent question. “How many films of mine have you seen, Emma?” He cracked four eggs in a bowl, peppered them, added a dash of salt and rapidly scrambled them. His large hands were even nice…
“Knights of Cimmerian.”
“Did you like it?” he inquired as he drizzled olive oil into the heated pan.
“Sure, it was great!” I fibbed.
“What did you like about it?” he pressed on, again.
Shoot.
Your rock-hard abs and that sexy, crazy, erotically charged sex scene that had gotten me so aroused in the movie theater. I clearly remembered how his sculpted, firm ass looked as he made love to the woman in the movie.
“Everything… it was… great.” I bit my lip as I looked at him through my lashes.
He barked out a loud laugh.
And what a… f*cking stop it, Emma, I scolded myself as I lusted from afar.
“It’s either you didn’t like it or you weren’t paying attention. So which is which?” Busted! I suck at lying.
“I wasn’t paying attention. Sorry. When you asked, I didn’t know what to tell you to be honest.”
“Don’t worry, babe, I’m not offended.” He winked at me as he prepared our breakfast.
I made toast, coffee and cut up some fruit while he cooked.
We ate at the island counter and I noticed how his eyes looked even more spell-binding in the daylight.
It was past noon when we left his house and drove back to Santa Barbara. His bright blue Lamborghini Gallardo weaved through the traffic and I couldn’t help looking at his hands when he shifted gears. I loved men that could drive a stick.
He looked so f*cking edible in his aviator shades, wearing a simple white shirt and dark jeans. He looked like every bit of the heartthrob that he was. I was crushing hard on Bass.
As we got closer to school, my stomach nose-dived at the thought of seeing Carter again. Did he hook up with another woman last night? Quite possibly; it didn’t take him long to jump in bed with me after his conquest before me. It was what? Two days, three maybe? We had sex on our second date. We almost did it on the first date, but we were at a party with our friends and got too drunk to do anything.
Carter didn’t talk about his feelings at all. Instead, he expressed them through his actions, usually during sex. When we fought or he was angry, he would take me hard and fast. When he was happy, he teased me and tickled me and left me begging for him to take me. Yeah, I think I fell hard during his happy phases, sadly.
I still hadn’t read the rest of his messages, but I couldn’t fathom going over them right now. I bet he’s just angry that I was with Bass only a day after I dumped him.
What else would he be so angry about?
“Much unhappiness has come into the world because of bewilderment and things left unsaid.”
~Fyodor Dostoevsky