"Abbi, will you excuse us for a minute?” he said, sternly. His voice had an air of command to it. “We'll have to continue later, okay?"
“Um…sure,” Abbi said, feeling both disappointed and a bit confused. Chad didn’t even bother to introduce them, which was fine by her. Abbi figured this was a very awkward situation.
Of course, he would have been taken. A man as hot and sexy and good in every way as Chad would have to have been spoken for. Well, the last thing she wanted to do was come in between anything he was having with that woman. And his girl was exceptionally beautiful. Abbi could never compete with her anyway.
Abbi walked away feeling as if her balloon of happiness was deflated by this beautiful intruder into their glorious moment of connection. Of course, this connection was probably all in her mind. She'd go back to the lodge and see if she could help in the kitchen or pick up an extra shift. Abbi couldn't wait to get out of that awkward spot.
All the good men were taken, she thought to herself.
Chapter 12
"What are you doing here, Giline?”
"Is that any way to greet your girlfriend? No hello, no long time, no see?"
Chase’s jaw tightened. He felt his chest muscles squeeze. "You've got some nerve," he said in a dangerously low tone. All he could think of was her betrayal. Her lies she spun to the media, telling them that he’d made her do the tape then leaked it himself. A load of crock. All because she didn’t want to look bad.
"Listen, Chase, I'm not here to argue. You haven't really spoken to me since… Well, that time."
"And I'm not going to be speaking to you now either. Good day,” he dismissed her sharply.
“Good day? You dis me then tell me to have a good day? That old Belmont charm doesn’t go away, does it?”
“How did you find out I was here?"
"I… Wait a minute. Why do you look like that?” she said, scanning him up and down, removing her shades from her nose. She propped her sunglasses on top of her head. “You never wear stubble in public. You’re always clean shaven. I know you can’t be having life too hard. Your family just purchased this ranch resort....And your hair. It’s different.”
Chase almost forgot he was in disguise. So how the hell did Giline know he would be there? Still, he knew she'd be able to spot him from a distance. He'd almost forgotten he brought Giline there last year. When his family first bought the ranch from the old owners. But he never would've thought that she'd return—on her own.
"You're just very rugged today," she commented, still eyeing him up and down. Leave it to Giline to comment on his casual attire. Always the diva. He was even surprised she was there, considering how snobby and uptight she was. She had on her designer duds of course, sporting an oversized designer tote bag and sunglasses. He wondered if she there on a modeling gig or promo tour. She wasn’t one for country life or nature trails and cabins.
"I'm sure you didn't come all this way to comment on my attire today. Or did you?”
"Oh, Chase,” Giline sighed heavily. "I had no idea that you'd be here. But I thought I spotted you out there on the trail. I'm here on a modeling shoot. I thought you looked familiar."
Of course, she couldn't have known Chase was there. Nobody knew he was there except for Brandon. And the other staffers didn't know he was a Belmont. He was glad to know his cover hadn’t been blown at least.
Well, what an unfortunate coincidence this was, he thought to himself.
Chase got the horse back into the corral after removing the saddle. The ranch hand took over for him.
Furious with Giline’s toxic presence, he started to walk off.
"Chase, please don't go. Not unless you hear me out." She followed him as he walked back to the main lodge. The only thing that would make this moment worse would be if those tourists, that couple came back again. That man would surely recognize them from the video. Seemed like that old man had a habit of watching amateur porn. Another aha moment from that dude would really blow his cover.
"I don't have anything to say to you," he declared.
"I want to talk about the tape. Our tape."
Chase stopped cold. He felt ice course through his veins. Our tape? The nerve.
He turned to face her. His eyes were blazed with fury. “Are you fucking crazy?” he asked her pointedly.
"No, Chase. I’m just crazy about you. About us. I really miss us.” She gave her unconvincingly fake pout again.
“How could you miss us? Don’t you have that damn video you made of us having sex to remind you every day?”
"That's not very funny, Chase.”
“What's not very funny is you making that video and then releasing it online and trying to pin the blame on me. Did you know what it did to my professional reputation? You know how things can go viral online fast.”
“It hurt my reputation, too,” Giline snapped back.
"What? You got a reality show out of it, didn't you?”
“Chase, I had to do what I had to do. And if you must know, my phone got hacked at the time. I didn’t just leak it online."
He looked directly at her, dubious of her response. “Your phone got hacked?"
"Yes, it did."
"Well, I warned you about recording stuff like that, didn't I?"
"Yes, you did, Chase. But it's done and it's in the past."
"In the past? Because you recorded everything it's not really in the past, is it? The whole damn world has access to that private time we had."
It was funny discussing this out in the open, not that anyone was nearby to hear them as they walked out into the vast field back toward the main lodge.
But it was as if Chase was getting some sort of closure. He hadn’t accepted any of Giline’s calls after she’d blatantly lied on the TV interview she gave after the tape got leaked. Playing the poor, innocent victim. She really did his reputation in, too. Everyone looked at him like some creepy guy who secretly filmed whomever he was dating, for his own pleasure then exploiting them.
Why it hurt him so much was because Chase hated guys who exploited women. He’d beat the crap out of anyone who did that. And because of Giline, she’d not only lied to him and betrayed him but she’d tarnished his good name.
Funny, but there was nothing he felt for Giline at this time. And the moments he’d spent with Abbi in these few short weeks was much more than anything he'd had with Giline. And he hadn't even had sex with Abbi. Not that he wouldn't want to. But right now everything was just all so complicated. He had so much to think about. Making sure things around the ranch were okay, getting back home to his father, but relationships were not on his agenda.
"I just had to come and tell you this, Chase."
"Well, you told me. So you can leave now."
Giline seemed stung by his cool response. But what else could he do?
"Chase, I need you. I really do need you."
"You need me?"
"Yes, I do. The network canceled my show. I'm doing this little modeling gig for a travel publication. But aside from that I have nothing else. Oh, baby, you and I were so good together. I'm hoping we can start over again."
"So that's it then," he said. Of course she had a hidden motive to being there. And it wasn't just the half assed apology. She needed his money… Again.
That really got him more worked up than before.
"How much do you need?" he asked in a steady, cold voice.
"Chase, I’m not here just for your money."
"Well, I really don't want to see you or speak to you again. If you need a loan from the company, that's fine. I don’t ever mind helping people who are down on their luck. But I want you out of my life for good."
With those words, Giline gave him an evil eye, spun on her heels and strutted back toward her cottage.
She went into one of the cottages on the east side. Chase couldn’t believe she was staying there. But obviously she’d listed under the name of the company doing the photo shoot.
Great. She’d better not cause any drama.
Chase walked off back to the main lodge. He felt as if his heart was about to burst. He couldn't believe the nerve of Giline. But then again, he could. What on earth did he ever see in her? Oh, right. The sex was off the charts. But not even that could sustain their relationship or whatever it was they had. She was all about the fast life. And as much as he wanted that, too, back then, he’d grown up by now. To know they’d known each other since college, that’s what really hurt. He thought he could trust her. She was nothing more than a gold digger.
Chase hoped that was the last he would see of Giline.
Chapter 13
Abbi could not believe the feelings she was having. Waves of doubt washed over her. Earlier, while out on the trail, before that pretty woman came on the scene, she had a spark of hope that something could happen between her and Chad. But that was now drowned out by feelings of doubt.
Why did she care so much about him?
Was it because of the way he made her feel? So cherished, protected, cared for? Was it because they had an undeniable fabulous chemistry between them?
Who cared if his ex-girlfriend showed up? Why should that matter to Abbi? It wasn’t as if she had a chance to be with him, right?
There was simply something about Chad that turned her world upside down in a good way. Abbi just couldn't pinpoint it. There was something about him that meshed with her soul.