HeartBeat

Chapter 28

Chapter 28

Ava

My body tightens, and a rush of blood and adrenaline explodes in my system. I'm ready for anything to come at me, but before I could move, and assess the situation. I'm tucked away against a broad chest and spun around.

My eyes are wide, with surprise as I take in what's happening. Chase is using his body to shield me.

My hands twitch to shove him away. I was not a weakling. I didn't need protection or saving. Yet that warmth he usually brings, blast through my body. So much so that, my eyes squint at the feelings growing within me.

Chase jostles me, his own eyes widened as he turns his head towards the direction of the noise. I can feel his heart thumping and can almost scent his fear.

"Sorry! Sorry! I forgot I had a podcast playing, and the volume was turned to eleven on these fucking speakers."

Jayden comes jogging out, as the screeching woman's voice lowers. It's then that I catch the view of the speakers, almost hidden in the corner of a patio.

Chase breathing slows, and his body loosens. I stare at him with a frown.

He looks down at me, worry and fear in his eyes. He tightens his grip on me, not painful, but as if to reassure I was still there. His look was familiar, and I feel that bursting warmth grow.

"I'm okay." I whisper. Pain explodes across his features, bending his lips and contorting his usual smile, that he attempts even now.

I raise my hands and grip his sides. "I'm safe."

He stops trying to smile, instead biting his lower lip, and nodding his head.

I search his eyes, finding that he's slowly beginning to find his calm again. It has been a very long time that someone has worried like this about me. This looks in his eyes, the lines on his face. It all reminded me of a distant memory. There was a time when all of my siblings gave this look. There was I time when I did, when she did.

Worry for each other. Fear. A protectiveness and possessiveness, of one of our own. A time before we thought that if you needed protection, it meant you were weak. Times had changed, to the after, where we were looked upon each other with nonchalance. Seen as strong and dependable among each other, enough to commit acts of brutal violence against each other. Our form of games, of playing.

There was no longer a need to protect each other, not like we did in the beginning. We knew what we were all capable of. We knew each other's strengths, and had learned to never show our weaknesses, if there were even any. Yet in brief moments, I had seen in eyes so like my own, a flash of this very look. The fold of wrinkled worry, before it was hidden by the coldness that we had all grown into.

I swallow, trying to steady myself. I haven't seen a look as Chase's so raw and free with emotion in years, years that I can barely remember, and only get a glimmer of in dreams, or brief waking moments of torment.

"That scared me, Jay!" I hear from Nila, and a smacking sound. Chase loosens his hold on me, and slowly releases me, his head already turned in the direction of both, Nila and Jayden. I instead look at him, and gaze at the strangeness that is Chase Montgomery. For him to shield his body with mine...

I feel something squish within me. Something grows soft, as I continued to gaze at him steadily. I can see a slight hint of coloring along his neck and cheeks, as he completely lets me go. I let him, even though I don't want to. Too lost in this feeling he brings from within me.