Chasing Beautiful (Chasing Series #1) (2 page)

Did I hear that right?
He’s been here since four in the morning?   

“WHAAAAAT!?!”  

Oh, hell
. He was really pushing it. People break-up and get hurt all the time. There was no need to go to such lengths on my account.

“I was concerned about you. I was worried and wanted to see
for myself that you were okay. You’re one of my closest friends, Sienna. Sometimes, even more than Toby—and I didn’t want some bloody, idiotic wanker treating you badly—like
you’re worth nothing
! You weren’t picking up your bloody phone so I rushed over, like the good friend that I am, checking if you’d drunk yourself to a stupor or what of it.”

“I was sleeping! So obviously, it was on silent!” I snapped at him.

He has a v
ery active imagination. How will he run his granddad’s empire if he’s extremely paranoid? The whole company will crumble under his thumb in a week! The thought made me smile. That would be a sight to see. But knowing how he is, he’ll excel and surpass everyone’s expectations like he always does.

His frown deepened.

I scowled.

Not
able to stand this feeling of being at odds with him, I grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the couch.

Our living room
is painted in eggshell yellow and consists of two huge couches, HD television, a coffee table and other knick-knacks to make it warm and inviting. The contrast of dark wooden floor and a huge baby blue area rug gives it a homey, cozy feel. It’s spacious and airy at the same time, never stifling.

I love
d this flat. I felt like I belonged here.

We sat next to each other
on one of the dark mustard colored couches, shoulders touching. Our thighs touched. I glanced down and studied the outline of his well-toned muscular thighs, my eyes full of admiration.  Uncomfortable, I looked at my very skimpy, cotton, soft-pink baby doll dress and felt a little flustered.

How the heck did I manage to forget that I’m wearing almost next to nothing?
I tried to cover my thighs by pulling it down more, but there was little fabric to pull.

Get over it
, I told myself. Blake won’t be interested, might as well strip naked and test it. He’d probably beg you to get dressed before you embarrassed us more. I smirked at the thought.

I tend to push his button
s a lot, much to his dismay.

“Look, Blake, I apologize for my rude behavior. I’m sure if something happened to you—I would do the exact same thing—I was just t
aken aback—thank you for caring. It means a lot to me. I suppose I should’ve seen it coming with Kyle. We didn’t see each other for nine months and we grew apart tremendously. The signs were there—but I ignored it. Somehow, deep down, I might’ve guessed that it was bound to happen. Kyle was a big part of my past. It’s sad that things had to end this way. We could’ve parted on nicer terms. But it happened and I just have to accept that.”

That seemed to
lighten his mood—just a
tad
bit.

I took his right hand with my left
and squeezed it tightly. Holding it, he took his other hand and touched my chin, making me look straight into his eyes, our faces only a few inches apart. I felt my stomach drop and I was mesmerized.

I’ve ne
ver been this close to Blake. WOW! He easily takes my breath away. He’s so beautiful! Be still, my heart.

“Are you sure you’
re okay? Tell me—honestly? I want to beat his bloody ass to a pulp for hurting you! I warned you about that trip.”
Obviously still angry and frustrated, I see.

I clear
ed my throat and reached out to hug him.

Blake’s such a good
friend, maybe even a best friend. He cares for me. There only a few that do and I’ll treasure them forever. I suddenly felt like I had a lump in my throat.

“I’m a bit
better now, Blake—don’t fuss about me! Sure, it was awful—you know—but the whole ordeal made me look at the bigger picture and I realized that—I can’t hold on to the past…even if it is something I hold dear to my heart—I have to let it go and move on,” I whispered to him as my head nestled on his broad shoulder. I moved a little closer to his neck, wanting to rest my head and fall back to sleep again. He smelled delicious with a hint of lemon aftershave and something masculine.

He smelled divine
; I sighed loudly. How ironic is this? He came here to console me and here I am thinking naughty thoughts about him?

I hate it when I get this weird feeling
with Blake; it happens once in awhile to be honest. It makes me act awkward afterwards. I’m a woman, even if he’s my friend; it doesn’t make me immune to his charms or his striking looks.
Or his mouth-watering smell
. GAH!

I released him from my hug and sat back to enjoy my coffee. 

Clearly my reaction to his smell bothered me. “Let’s get you out. Let’s do something fun, after we have breakfast at The Wolseley?” Blake looked like he was trying to conjure a plan.

“Like what?”
I thoughtfully asked him, knowing well enough that he didn’t quite know what the heck it was. He loves throwing ideas out and acting on it, spontaneous man that he is.

“Whatever you fancy
,” he said it with purpose as he sat back, splaying both arms on the back of the couch, legs both on the table. Looking like a Greek god, lazing about with sheer contentment.

His strong, thick
, powerful legs showcased before my lustful eyes.

Is there anything that this man is made of that isn’t sinful
? Everything about him screamed of sin and sex. And I was hot and bothered.
Am I always this hyper-aware of Blake?
Is it always like this
? Quite possibly. It was too much—my sleepy state couldn’t process the heavy confusion and the coffee seemed to be working weakly.

Hell.

“Knightly, it was your idea. If you ask me, I’d rather sit at home and just sleep some more. Oh! How about we just watch movies here all day on the couch?” I smiled sweetly at him.
Give in, please? I don’t want to shower and get dressed
, I thought lazily.

“That would not be a good idea
, poppet.  Get up you little skive and get dressed! I’ll have it figured out before we leave, alright?” Blake ordered, giving me his signature killer smile, sexy dimples showing.

I love it when he calls me poppet with his cute British accent.
Truth be told, I have a hard time saying no to him when he dishes out
this
type of smile and he well bloody knows it.

I groaned.

I got up and threw a hap-sack pillow at his head. “This better be worth my time, Knightly.” I gave him my ‘I’m-not-so-amused’ face and started to leave when he surprisingly pulled me down next to him on the couch.

“
Do you trust me?” Indeed, I did.

I nodded
and went to my room to get changed.

Why was he being so intense about the whole Kyle thing? It
was so uncanny. I wasn’t sure if I liked him being that way towards me.

Showered and ready to go, I gave myself a once over
in the full-length mirror that hung on my bathroom door. I wore a powder blue, cotton dress that fitted tightly around my torso and flared nicely at the bottom, sitting two inches above my knees.

I matched
the dress with mustard-colored wedge espadrilles. I hastily placed my naturally wavy, dark hair in a loose bun, evoking simplicity while still achieving a sexy look.

I applied tinted moisturizer, pink
gloss and just enough mascara to bring out my bright green eyes with a burst of gold popping out of them. It was one of my best features. Even if I felt like death inside, I needed to look at least presentable. It was part of my coping mechanism I learned when I was ten years old. Always look put together.

My
golden-brown skin can be credited to my Brazilian/Caucasian mixed heritage. Spritzing my signature Coco Mademoiselle, I grabbed my tan Botkier tote and headed towards where Blake was patiently waiting for me.

I found him in the kitchen on the phone. He turned around
and gave me a swift examination before ending the call. “Ready?” politely asking me, still rooted to his spot.

“Yep
.”

“
To breakfast,
milady
,” holding out his arm to link with mine.

I smiled stupidly at him as we walked out the door and straight to the elevator.

“Figured anything out yet?” I questioned, r
eferring to ‘his plan of action.’

“Sorted as promised—but it’s a surprise…” looking impish and smug, I nudged him.

Ding.

We got out of the elevator and headed towards the main entrance. “You have got to be joking! Why does it have to be a surprise? I
hate
surprises!” I exclaimed. I
do
hate surprises because surprises are horrible,
every
single time.

So,
I was a tad skeptical about this one.

“You
did agree to trust me… remember poppet?” gazing at me with a playful smile as the sunshine accentuated his beautifully sculpted features, making him look annoyingly sexy as we hit the sidewalk.

A few women
who passed by stared openly at him. A harried woman stopped, halting in her tracks, awed and just ogled—previous destination long forgotten—as she was rooted on the cement sidewalk.

Yeah, yeah he’s hot
.
So, What?
I wanted to snap that woman out of her trance.

Don’t get me wrong
; I adore Blake. I think he’s smart, articulate, funny, crazy talented and has a heart of gold (reserved for those he trusts). But it can be exhausting to be his friend. Lucy has the same problem. We are the only women that Blake is friends with. So, we get hounded for trivial information.
Anything
, to help them out they say. “Right, if Blake really wanted a woman, he’d pursue her relentlessly, not the other way around,” spoken out of Lucy’s very lips.

I go to a Fashion School
(majoring in Fashion Marketing), and of course, the women there asked me about him after he picked me up once from school. He was parked on the curb and leaning deliciously on his sexy car—that alone drove questions from six—
Six!
-adult, grown women who had their panties twisted. The girlfriends I brought from school to party with us, a few times, brought hysterics. Like “OMG, have you SEEN that ASS?” or “HOLY FUCK! He’s GORGEOUS!” or “Shit, Sienna, can you hook me up?” There’s more, but I don’t want to elaborate any longer; it’s taxing on my precious sanity. Blake of course, never hooks-up with any of them because they aren’t lingerie model material.   

Glancing at him, I shrugged.

“Yeah, right.” I said, thinking that this surprise better not suck or I was going back to my bed to wallow, sleep and wallow some more.

Jet lag
, thoughts of Kyle… what else?

Kyle… did he know I left home?
Home is Los Angeles for me and where Kyle is. My best friend, my protector….my first love, my first everything—before he totally broke my heart almost a month ago when I got
that
call.

Kyle and I practically grew up together. He lived
a few houses down from me. We were each other’s strength ever since we were seven years of age and we never grew apart—until I left for school in London. After a few months, he started being distant and reluctantly talked to me over the phone and when he did, he was nonchalant. I explained his attitude with viable reasons such as he missed me or he couldn’t stand having me so far away from him and all. So, I ignored it.

Wanting to bridge the wedge between us
, I decided to surprise him. I had a two-week window in between semesters so I could easily visit him. But before I booked the ticket, he called me.

I was the one surprised.  

That call shattered everything that I believed Kyle and I had; that we were invincible. He told me that he met someone else and he had been seeing her for a month. He justified his actions by stating that it was too difficult without me there and he was lonely.

Lonely?!

Two
years of being together and best friends since the age of seven, thrown out the window because he was
lonely
?! What a cruel joke.

Of
course, Luce, Chad and Blake consoled me and all three begged me to forgo my trip to Los Angeles. They argued that he wasn’t worth it and I might just end up regretting the decision. But I held my ground and still managed to book that blasted airline ticket.

I
wasn’t a coward and I needed to see it for myself.

To hear him say it, I
needed
him to say it.