STOLEN

Chapter 36

*Author's note*

Holy toothpicks - 20k reads?! INSANITY! Thank you guys so much! You have no idea how humbling this is for me!

I hope you'll enjoy this little chapter and look forward to the next one! Oh, and happy Valentine's Day everyone! How are you spending yours?
See you Friday!

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Chelsea's POV:

It no longer surprised me when I woke up gasping, my chest heaving up and down at an unbelievably rapid pace. Looking everywhere around me in fear, I hardly even noticed that I was in a familiar place. It was as though all my eyes wanted to see, was the inside of that motel room. All my body wanted to feel, was Lorenzo's hands.

"Chelsea," Jason's strong hand got a tight grasp on both of my shoulders, holding my still, shaking me back to reality until I was no longer freaking out. He looked down at me in confusion. Why is he even up?

"Are you alright?" Concern was in his voice, but mostly his voice remained calm, as it always did. I felt a small layer of sweat forming around my hairline. Generally my body temperature was a little high right now. Eventually my nightmare stopped flashing before my eyes, and all I saw before me was Jason, sitting on the side of the bed, still with my shoulders held firmly in his masculine hands. "What happened?" He asked eyeing me up and down in an attempt at figuring out what had happened.

"Why are you up?" I asked, ignoring Jason's question. I wasn't feeling too much like going into details about my horrid nightmare. Jason shook his head lightly as he told me that he hasn't been able to sleep much either .

I had noticed before that Jason would lay awake at night. Sometimes he'd be standing by the window, smoking a cigarette and looking out, admiring the forest landscape outside. At times I had wondered whether I should get up with him, ask him what caused his sleeplessness, but I had never been able to build up the courage to do so as Jason was very secretive, and would probably ignore my effort.

"How are you this morning?" Considering last night's events, not to mention my little nightmare, I probably should be feeling a lot worse. But the truth is Jason seemed to be making all that go away.

"I'm okay, really." I said laying back down as Jason released his grip from my shoulders. I plopped down in the bed and pulled the duvet slightly over me while I admired Jason who now sat with an arm on either side of me. "Are you sure?" He spoke calmly and readjusted himself a little on the bed.

I nodded as a response, being too taken aback by his beauty to speak. There was something soothing over the way he looked at me, something protective about the way he cared for me and took care of me. In all honesty, I found myself being surprised that Jason came to my rescue last night. I didn't even know how he had found out where I was, but I was thankful for what he had done

My mind, as if out of no where, drifted off to a distant memory some time ago. A memory in which I sat on the couch downstairs with Andrew. Jason and Tyler were gone. Andrew's words replayed in the distance of my mind, echoing slightly in my ears while I looked into Jason's dark, yes calming eyes.

"You can't care about Jason, because..." He sighed a little before continuing. "I'm saying this as a friend Chelse-"

"Just say it goddammit." I whispered, begging him to break me.