Liya
It's been a day since Luka found out about the shoot between me and Chase and nothing seems to get better as it's only getting more attention. I was sitting in the living room with a cup of coffee in my hand and so was Luka. We had planned a little movie night before Chase rudely interrupted us.
"They're so fast on publishing your face," he commented walking in with the New York Times latest magazine.
He throws it on the coffee table where Luka and Jenavive's latest shoot in New Jersey appears half sided against mine and Chase's. Luka looks towards her with a bright smile and she looks at him with a bright face.
As if she's in love with him and God they look so perfect next to each other. Perfect compared to me and Luka. I sigh and lean back onto the couch.
"I can't believe you're already making it on the cover page with me," Luka taunts sarcastically in a challenging way.
"That's what I'm saying. Cut the girls out and let's have a shoot together. Naked," Chase expresses cheekily.
"Oh stop it," Luka girlishly flings his hand and pretends to blush.
"The bromance will hit more views than me and Liya," Chase pointed out as if he was serious about doing an underwear promotion with Luka.
"I think you're onto something. I'll give Ellah a call tonight and we must consider this. New York's handsome face and New York's youngest most dashing billionaire," Luka expresses spreading his hands in the air in a banner motion to signal a headline.
"The best headline I have ever heard," Chase agreed.
I felt invisible for a while between their bromance.
"Hello," I wave my hand in Luka's direction to let him know I'm here.
"I'm sorry Liya. We don't mean to take your shine away, but this is a good idea," Luka laughs grabbing a cushion off couch and throwing it at him.
I smile looking at them. They're having a cute little pillow fight. It reminds me of my uncle's sons. They would often argue like this as well but this fight was playful, not toxic. I grab the magazine off the coffee table whilst Luka heads back to the kitchen to place our cups in the dishwasher. Mira was gone home. It's late night.
"I'm surprised to see you here sober," I speak flicking through the magazine.
"I'm not," Chase spoke.
I look up from the magazine to his face. His eyes look drowsy meaning he's had a little to drink but not too much. He's still in his senses. I look back into the magazine and flick through it when my eyes widen at the weekly gossip.
'Former Ruel CEO found with another mistress – not even 2 days after the last scandal'.
I look up to Chase who just stares at me. Be normal Liya. You don't have to overreact. I look back into the magazine again and turn the page.
"I already read it," he spoke letting me know.
"Read what?" Luka asks coming back.
"The joke of the week," I lie closing the magazine and pushing it behind my back.
"Wow, there are other things making you laugh," Luka jealously fell onto the couch acting heartbroken.
"Oh come on, you're so dramatic. I didn't laugh it wasn't even that funny," I winced.
"And let's get back to the movie," I commanded avoiding further discussion.
Both, Chase and Luka turned their heads to the screen in sync and watched the movie. The Fault in our Stars. That's the movie we were watching. To think I'd be focused on such an interesting movie was an understatement because I wasn't.
My eyes roughly glanced Chase's way second by second rather than Luka's. Chase was still and he didn't look away from the screen. He didn't even move an inch but Luka. You could hear him yawning.
The movie finished shortly, and we all headed to our rooms. Luka was so tired I bet he fell flat on his bed and there he was, dead asleep.
It was just me who couldn't sleep. For hours I turned side to side feeling a weird burn and excitement in my stomach thinking of Chase. That he was near me at the same place as me and it was driving me crazy.
I left my bed and walked up to Luka's terrace for some fresh air when the smell of cigarettes mixed in from above. I turned to look and there was a ladder to the roof of the house and Chase sat there.
He was faced in a different direction to me so he couldn't see me. I climbed up the same ladder he had, quietly and walked stably on the roof. I was scared of heights, but I thought he was upset about his father's scandal.
Normally I'm a bitch to him but there's also something called curtesy. As I approached him, I saw the light of his phone screen. He was zooming in on me in photos from the surprise Luka had prepared for me yesterday.
I took a seat beside him on the cold tiles of the roof which made him panic a little. He immediately turns his phone off and places it to the side when he sees me. Then he also moves a few inches away from me.
"Why'd you do that?" I asked.
"I don't want you to throw up again from the smell of alcohol and cigarettes," he answered in a drowsy voice.
I shifted a few inches down and towards him. This time he didn't move away from me.
"You took photos of me yesterday?" another question comes out of my mouth whilst I look at him take a sip of his cig.
He nodded yes, puffing out smoke that diffused with the cold breeze. He didn't look at me, he looked out into the night sky.
"Can I see them?" I questioned to which I finally got to be the sight of his eyes.
My eyes blink a few times. He goes to grab his phone and unlocks it. He zooms out of my face and I see a wholesome of me and Luka. My lips turn into a smile. There's a photo us putting the half strawberry pieces into each other's mouths and one where he's putting the bracelet onto my wrist.
"I never thought you'd take photos of us," I surprisingly commented.
"You looked really happy," he spoke minimally with the tiredness.
"Yes, I was happy," I smiled thinking back to Luka's bright smile and effort of making that cake for me.
We both stare out into the night sky with silence. The corner of our elbows touch lightly from time to time but there's not another word. For the first time, I want him to say something to me. To talk to me. But he isn't and it's making me frustrated.
"Beautiful," he finally randomly said in a drunk tone.
"Hm?" I respond confused.
"A beautiful bracelet for a beautiful girl," he elaborated turning to look at me.
His hand reached to tuck my hair behind my ear. The touch of his soft fingers excited me so much that I could feel my eyes spark with happiness. I wasn't panicked in this moment. I wasn't worried about him touching me or hurting me.
I understand what he meant. Luka's incomplete sentence yesterday, he was finishing it. But the complete sentence out of his mouth made my heart race uncontrollably and I felt my mind diffuse into another universe. The heat in my body only got worse as our eyes locked with intensity.
His gaze travelled around my entire face, tracing it like a pencil as if he was drawing a visual portrait of me in his mind. Once they landed onto my lips, his eyes kept open. Initiating a strong need and desire for them that somehow injected in me through between the air.
"Yes," I softly breathed out to which his eyes widened even more.
My brain and the butterflies in my stomach argued at what I was saying.
"Yes, you can kiss me," I elaborated even though he understood what I had said yes to.
Chase didn't waste a single minute. With the hand he had cuffed my face with, he pulled my face close to his and softly pressed his lips onto mine. My stomach dropped out of amusement. It was pleasurable. It was magical. It was exactly like feeling a first kiss.
His thumb brushed along my earlobe as his lips kissed mine over and over again. He was mannerly eating them at this point. My hand raised around his neck once he had asked for entrance. The ecstasy of his tongue against mine was so lure and hot. The heat in my body only increased and this was becoming like an addiction.
Thinking about him was becoming an addiction. Touching him was becoming an addiction and this addiction was not good. I just couldn't pull myself back from this kiss. Our breaths mixed in. The taste of wine and cigarettes mixed onto my tongue in my mouth. It didn't make me want to throw up at all. Rather it made me move closer to Chase.
The gap between our chests closed and his free hand snaked to my waist. God I couldn't take this. I can't believe I'm kissing Luka's best friend. Chase breaks our lips apart for us to catch out breaths. My eyes open and my hand snakes down from the back of his neck.
Now my hand has cupped one side of his face, feeling it. He's so soft. So beautiful. His eyes could nearly be the end of me if they weren't so drunk all the time. My thumb grazed over his cheek.
"Eto kak ray, kogda tvoy krasivyy rot tseluyet moy greshnyy," Chase muttered in Russian so drunken.
"Why can't I resist your touch?" I softly questioned, fully mesmerised into the darkness of his eyes and not bothering to ask what he said to me in Russian.
"Why can't I resist yours?" he questioned back, darkening his gaze more than it already was.
There's a moment of silence between us again and all we do is try to read each other. But we're both so frustrated and confused that we can't.
"Can I kiss you again?" he asked.
My eyes shortened and I looked away from him, taking my hands off him.
"No," I answered getting up off the roof.
Chase doesn't attempt to stop me. I come down the ladder and instantly head to my bathroom. What have I done? I gave in. I gave in to his malicious act. Tears flow down my cheek, and I am unable to meet my own gaze. I really am filthy.
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