Chasing Chelsea by Maren Smith Page A

slid down off the steps, submerging right up to her shoulders. “Oh, that hits right in the nethers!”
    Even Chelsea laughed at that, and when she did, Selena gave a push and swam to her side of the koi pond. Folding her arms over the grassy lip, she grinned. “Are you still coming to my commitment ceremony tomorrow?”
    Hugging her knees to her chest, more content to watch than swim, Chelsea nodded. “Sure.”
    “Are you still going to be my bridesmaid?”
    She barked a soft laugh.
    Selena flashed her teeth in a grin. “We are practically sisters, after all.”
    “How long have you been friends?” Kaylee asked, lowering herself to sit on the steps. She dipped her legs in the water, gradually getting used to the cold.
    “Ages and ages.” Selena threw Chelsea a wink.
    Shaking her head, Chelsea was about to tell her she was crazy, that they were practically strangers, but that’s when they heard the first sharp snap of a stick out in the darkness beyond the dimly lit garden pond.
    As one, the women froze, heads turning to the sound. They all listened, including Chelsea, who quickly scrambled to stand. A thin veil of excitement quickly grew up around them, but all she could hear and feel was her own quickening heartbeat.
    “Was that them?” she whispered.
    From out of the night came a man’s laughing sing-song reply, “Here, kitty-kitty-kitty. Daddy wants his sweetness.”
    In a burst of splashing and laughing, Sinclair dove for the stairs. “They’ve found us!”
    “Run!” Kaylee shrieked, and suddenly a volley of bright garden lights snapped on, lighting up the pond, the maze, a pair of romantically-involved statues that Chelsea hadn’t even known were there, and all the lawn of the surrounding grounds.
    Chelsea nearly fell into the pond when a shadow dashed past her. Jackson didn’t even bother taking his shoes off. He leapt fully dressed into the water, coming up with a mighty splash and a roar with his arms thrown around Sara. He plucked her neatly off the underwater steps and rolled them both playfully back under water. They came up again sputtering and laughing seconds later, with Sara shrieking in mock dismay as his hand came smacking down twice across her wet bottom. Her legs were wrapped around his waist by the time he heaved them both up onto the grassy bank.
    “Hello, beautiful,” the brawny security guard told her, wrapping his hand in her long blonde hair and pulling her head back to trail his nipping kisses down the exposed line of her throat.
    Chelsea stared, frozen in surprise until Kaylee dashed by her, grabbing at her arm.
    “Run,” she said again, laughing. “I guarantee, honey, he’s brought someone for you too.”
    That startled Chelsea back to life. “What? Who?” She grabbed her sandals up off the grass, but there wasn’t time to stop and put them on. “I don’t need anybody!”
    “Oh, but he would never overlook a chance to pleasure a guest.” Kaylee gave her arm a squeeze. Her gaze darted past Chelsea’s shoulder. “Run!”
    “For all the good that will do you,” Master Marshall drawled, as he came striding out of the darkness. “Run as fast as you can, for as long as you can. But you, my love—” He pointed at Kaylee, those devil-blue eyes of his seeming much darker and fairly glittering in the brightness of the garden lights. “—you are already caught, and I will have my prize.”
    Chelsea and Kaylee bolted in opposite directions. Heading for the maze, Chelsea could have got away but she couldn’t help glancing back instead. She hesitated. It was a giddy sight playing out behind her. The redheaded Sinclair, dripping wet, her slave’s garment in her hands, was grabbed up from behind. She and the leather-clad man who caught her twirled together before he heaved her up onto his shoulder. He laughed, slapping her bottom while she shrieked and kicked, doing everything except breaking free as he carted her off into deeper shadows.
    Kaylee barely made it to the