The Chase
by Elle Kennedy
Self-Published
Book 1 in the Briar U Series
Everyone says opposites attract.
And they must be right, because there’s no logical reason why I’m so drawn to Colin Fitzgerald. I don’t usually go for tattoo-covered, video-gaming, hockey-playing nerd-jocks who think I’m flighty and superficial. His narrow view of me is the first strike against him. It doesn’t help that he’s buddy-buddy with my brother.
And that his best friend has a crush on me.
And that I just moved in with them.
Oh, did I not mention we’re roommates?
I suppose it doesn’t matter. Fitzy has made it clear he’s not interested in me, even though the sparks between us are liable to burn our house down. I’m not the kind of girl who chases after a man, though, and I’m not about to start. I’ve got my hands full dealing with a new school, a sleazy professor, and an uncertain future. So if my sexy brooding roomie wises up and realizes what he’s missing?
He knows where to find me.
RATED: 18+ CATEGORY: MOOD:
Steamy New Adult Sweet & HOT
The Chase is the first book in Elle Kennedy's Briar U series, which is a spin off of her Off-Campus series. This first book centers around the introverted hockey player/game designer Fitz, who has taken one of the free spots in the Off-Campus house, and Summer Di Laurentus, Dean's (The Score) little sister, and new Briar University student. It's not a secret that Summer has a thing for Fitz, the strong, quiet player on the Briar U hockey team. But when Summer overhears Fitz saying some unkind things about her, she tries to push her feelings for him to the side. But when Summer needs a place to live, and there is a vacant room at the Off-Campus house, suddenly she is roommates with Fitz. She refuses to chase him, and it isn't in him to open himself up to someone ... so how do these two complete opposites end up together?
So truthfully, I liked The Chase, but I didn't love it. I thought I was getting into a brother's best friend trope, but in reality, this is a very small obstacle that leads to a funny, and embarrassing moment. The real obstacle is really themselves. Colin's (Fitz) issues with opening up, and Summer's insecurities stemming from her learning disability. But it all felt a little ... boring. The chemistry is there, don't get me wrong. And I was able to relate to the story a bit, as Summer and Fitz are very much like myself and my husband when we first met. But it all just fell flat. Even the sex wasn't as hot as previous books.
The Chase might have been lackluster, but I still recommend if you liked the Off-Campus series, and want to continue with the Briar U series. It sets up new, fun characters, and we get small updates from the old gang! And it's not that this book is bad. It's not. It's just not as good as the others.
Summer meeting Brenna
The guys ribbing on Hollis for waxing his body hair
Brenna getting in a fight with Harvard fans
Spin the bottle, and Summer and Fitz first kiss
Summer helping Fitz with his interview outfit
Brenna sitting on Fitz lap, only to discover he has a boner after having sexy thoughts of Summer
Summer standing up for Brenna
Brenna and Summer catching Jake and Weston at the hockey game, and watching it with them
Locker room blowjob
"Don't go"
Summer and Fitz's first time
Fitz standing up for summer to his potential boss
Dean catching Fitz and Summer having sex
Fitz coming to the rescue for the fashion show
Dean: "Hey, Boogers. Just checking that you made it to campus in one piece."
Summer: "Why wouldn't I?"
Dean: "Gosh, who knows. You might've run off to Miami with some hitchhiking wannabe rapper you picked up on the interstate - or what I like to call a recipe for becoming a serial killer's skin-suit. Oh wait! You already fucking did that."
Summer: "Oh my God. First of all, Jasper was an aspiring country singer, not a rapper. Second, I was with two other girls and we were driving to Daytona Beach, not Miami. Third, he didn't even try to touch me, let alone murder me. Lacey did hook up with him, though, and he gave her herpes."
Incredulous silence meets my ears.
Summer: "Dicky? You there?"
Dean: "I'm trying to understand how you think your version of the story is in any way more palatable than mine. Aw fuck, didn't I hook up with Lacey at your eighteenth birthday party? The herpes trip would've happened before that party. Dammit, Summer! I mean, I used protection, but a warning would've been nice!"
Summer: "No, you didn't hook up with Lacey. You're thinking of Laney, with an 'N'. I stopped being her friend after that."
Dean: "How come?"
Summer: "Because she slept with my brother when she was supposed to be hanging out with me at my party. That's not cool."
Dean: "Truth. Selfish move."
Summer: "Yup.'
Hollis: "I gotta decide whose tongue I want in my mouth at midnight."
Summer: "Classy."
Hollis: "You play your cards right, that tongue could be yours."
Her response is to throw her head back and laugh.
Hunter: "I was about to ask you what it meant. I've become my worst nightmare."
I burst out laughing
Summer: "Oh, honey. It's okay - lot's of men try to find meaning in New Year's kisses."
I give him a pointed look.
He groans.
Hunter: "Don't rub it in, Blondie."
Summer: "Sorry, I had to. You were so cock that night, acting like any girl you kissed at midnight would demand to have your babies. Well, who's the one who wants to have my babies? You!"
His shoulders shake with laughter.
Summer: "Tables have turned."
Hunter: "Oh relax, princess. Every dude you see on Instagram waxes some part of his body."
Hollis: "Yeah, what's the big deal? There's no shame in manscaping."
Nate: "This is a safe place."
Hollis: "Exactly. Safe place. We all manscape here - or at least we all fucking should if we consider ourselves fucking gentlemen."
Hunter: "We both played for Roselawn Prep. He was a couple of years ahead of me."
Coach nods.
Coach: "Pain in the ass, those Roselawn guys."
Hunter: "I literally just said I went to Roselawn."
Coach: "I repeat - pain in the ass, those Roselawn boys."
Hunter sighs.
Brenna: "Are you blind, ref! That was tripping!"
A group of guys a few rows behind us start cackling at her outrage.
Guy: "Hey, it's not our fault your shitty players can't skate without tripping over their own feet!"
Brenna: "Oh, you really want to go there? The only shitty thing I see is the huge dump your goalie just took on the ice."
I snort, a chortle breaking free.
Brenna: "Take a look at the scoreboard, douchenozzles, and tell me what you see."
The score clearly reads Briar - 1, Harvard - 0
None of them follow her gaze.
Guy: "Watch your mouth."
Brenna: "Watch yours."
Guy: "Your guys are pussies. Standing there begging for a call instead of taking it like a man. Oh nooo, the bad man tripped me!"
His buddies break out in gales of laughter.
Brenna: "Don't make me come up there."
Guy: "Don't tempt me. I don't fight chicks, but I might make an exception for you."
Brenna: "I don't hit men, either. But luckily i don't see any men around here. Do you?"
Summer: "Sorry if it bothers me that one of the guys I live with thinks I'm nothing but a fluffy sorority girl."
Brenna: "You know who else was viewed as a fluffy sorority girl? Elle Woods. And you know what she did? She went to law school and showed everyone how smart she was, and then she became a lawyer and everybody loved her, and her slimy ex tried to win her back and she sent him on his way. The end."
Brenna: "Don't do this to me, Summer."
Summer: "Do what?"
Brenna: "Bring me into the den of Satan."
Summer: "Oh my God. And people say I'm a drama queen."
Hollis: "Wanna go upstairs? To answer Summer's question, I'm a ten. Completely hairless ..."
A giggle pops out of my mouth. Right. As if that's going to entice her.
Brenna: "Absolutely not."
She reaches for Fitz's abandoned Xbox controller.
Brenna: "What are we playing?"
Fitz: "Killer Instinct."
Brenna: "Nice. I know this one. Let me play Hollis. I want to blow his brains out a couple times."
Hollis beams.
Hollis: "All I head was 'I want to blow.' And my answer is yes. Blow away, baby."
Text:
Summer: Be prepared to discuss MH or I wont let you in my car!
Brenna: MH?
Summer: Mike Hollis. AKA king of the bros. I want all the deets today or else this friendship is over.
Brenna: I'll miss u
Summer: "Is he a good kisser? What's our penis situation like? Did he go down on ou? Did you sleep with him? Why did you do this? Is he annoying in bed? Do you regret it? Is he -"
Brenna: "Omigod! I am not answering any of that."
Summer: "Do you have a boyfriend now?"
Brenna: "No, but I have an ex-best friend."
Summer: "Let me spin again. Fitz isn't even playing."
Katie: "No way! I just had to kiss Hollis - in front of my boyfriend."
Jesse: "I wasn't threatened. I mean, it's Hollis."
She unzips the bag and extracts a hanger that holds a ....
Gray sweater.
Fitz: "It's a fucking gray sweater. You know, like the one hanging five feet away from us? The one you were just criticizing?"
Summer: "First of all, it's not gray. It's slate -"
Fitz: "It's gray."
Text:
Brenna: Please please tell me that boner isn't because of me!
The sigh slips out.
When she raises her eyebrow, I quickly type, No.
Brenna: OK good. It was there before I sat down so I assumed it wasn't me. Just making sure, tho. You and I aren't meant to be, sweet Fitzy. I'd eat you alive.
Fitz: Chick sent me some nudes right b4 u got here. I'm a guy. Shit happens.
Brenna: Think about Hollis. That always kills my desire.
Brenna: "First you're mad because you think I tried to steal him from you. Now you're pissed because I turned him down. Pick one injustice and commit, sweetie."
Summer: "Sorry. Adrenaline crash, I think."
Hunter: "I get it. I mean, you did kick someone's ass tonight."
Summer: "Barely."
Hunter: "That was so badass of you, by the way. Defending Brenna like that."
Summer: "Thanks."
Hunter: "Though I'm pretty sure that catfight gave Mike enough spank-bank material for at least a year."
I make a face.
Summer: "Oh God, I hope not."
Brenna: "You touched Fitzy's dick?!"
Summer: "Would you keep your voice down?"
Brenna: "How on earth did that happen? You left the bat to check if he was okay after the fight. Did that require grabbing his junk? Was it under the boxers? Was there sucking?"
I choke on a wave of laughter.
Summer: "Over the pants. And I told you, it was just touching. Maybe some rubbing."
Her bottom lips sticks out.
Brenna: "So no bare dick?"
Summer: "No bare dick."
Brenna: "Pity. I bet his bare dick is phenomenal."
Summer: "That's Casper Cassidy? Did he have some sort of growth spurt? He looks enormous."
Weston: "No, he was always that big."
Summer: "I played 7 Minutes in Heaven with him at a Greenwich party, and he fingered me in a closet. Trust me, he was not that big."
Connelly starts to laugh.
Jake: "you're really something else, Di Laurentis. No filter whatsoever. Doesn't embarrass you at all to admit that, huh?"
Summer: "Nope."
Brenna: "Why should she be embarrassed? What, you don't think girls are allowed to hook up?"
Jake: "Jensen, I think no matter what I say, you'd still argue the point."
Brenna: "That's not true."
Jake: "You're arguing right now."
Brenna: "Because you're annoying me."
Jake: "What a coincidence. You're annoying me too."
Summer: "I'm going to die if I don't have an orgasm. Like, actually die. And then you'll have to explain to my father how my death could've been prevented if only you'd finished going down on me. My father, Fitz. Is that really what you want?"
She gets up from the couch and approaches Grier Lockett
Summer: "Don't move for a sec. Something's not right with this seam."
And then my girlfriend drops to her knees in front of another man's junk and starts fondling him.
Fitz: "Summer."
She pokes her head from around Lockett's crotch
Summer: "What is it, sweetie?"
Fitz: "Do you need help jacking him off?"
Rex and the others break out in gales of laughter. Summer gives me the finger, and my jaw drops when she reaches around and pats Lockett on the butt.
Summer: "It's nine o'clock in the morning, Fitz. How are you always so horny, no matter what?"
Fitz: "My cock can't tell time."
Summer: "Don't hate me, but ... I really have to pee."
Fitz: "Nope. You can't abandon me here with these people."
She giggles
Summer: "You say the word 'people' like it's a disease."
Fitz: "People are a disease."
Summer: "That's the sweetest thing you've ever said to me."
Fitz: "I can be sweet when I want to. But right now, I'm feeling dirty. Spread your legs so I can screw you against the wall."
Her jaw falls open at the wicked demand
Summer: "Oh my God. You're in a mood tonight."
Fitz: "Yeah, I am. So for chrissake, stop trying to break up with me. Stop worrying about this job. Just stop and kiss me."
Summer: "Yeah, Dicky. This isn't just sex between us, okay? I mean, we are having sex, lots of it, but -"
Dean drops his head in his hands.
Dean: "Why, Boogers? Why do you have to say stuff like that?"
She huffs
Summer: "So you're allowed to talk about your sex life with me, but I can't talk about mine with you?"
Dean: "I never talk about my sex life with you! It's a taboo topic! Taboo!"
The fucker doesn't throw a punch.
He knees me in the balls.
I drop like a stone, stars flashing in my field of vision as the pain twists my guy. I curl over and grip my junk, trying to catch my breath.
Fitz: "Jackass."
Summer: "Dicky! Why would you go for his balls! We need them to make your future nieces and nephews!"
Dean: "Nieces and nephews plural? How many kids you planning on having?"
Summer: "A lot!"
Dean: "You're not allowed to get pregnant until you're at least thirty. I'm not ready to be an uncle."
Summer: "Oh my God. Life isn't always about you!"
They stand there bickering as if I'm not bent in half on the marble floor, gasping for air.
Fitz: "I'm not having kids with you. I don't want to be part of your insane family."
Summer: "Oh hush, sweetie. It's too late. I've become attached."
You'd think it would be impossible to laugh while I'm writhing on the floor in agony.
But Summer Heyward -Di Laurentis makes everything possible.
Summer: "Who's going to fill in for Rex? Please don't get mad at me, but ... he's got a huge package."
I close my eyes briefly
Fitz: "Seriously? No guy wants to hear his girlfriend say that, Summer."
Summer: "I told you not to get mad. Anyways, don't worry. He's not much bigger than you. You're almost the same -"
Fitz: "No way. I'm recruiting for you, not volunteering as tribute."
Summer: "Fine. Then you'll need to poll your teammates about their penis sizes. Try to find me a big one."
I fight hard to contain my laughter. God. This girl.
Fitz: "I'll see what I can do."
Check out the rest of the Briar U series below
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