Man Seeks Woman 2, Man Seeks Wife (27 page)

I squeaked at
not only being able to breathe but shock that he was doing this.
“Uh, Christian,” I said trying to push him back. Man was like
Velcro. “It’s nice to see you too.”

Even though it
was a lie or maybe a semi lie,

I mean the
last time I had seen them was six months ago at their Mother’s
house when the Naomi shit had happened. Now, did I really want to
sit across another table with them for the night? No.

“Sorry.”
Christian pulled back and cheekily smiled down at me. God, he
really looked like Sebastian. “It’s just you look absolutely
delicious and it’s been forever since I’ve seen you.” He shot a
glare at Sebastian as he said that then turned back to me. “Come.”
He took my elbow and pulled me none too gently over to the table
where Lawrence, Laura and Ferguson sat drinking wine from their
extra shiny glasses.

Lawrence, ever
the gentleman stood up and leaned across the table, taking my hand
in his. “It’s lovely to see you again, Victoria.” The way he said
it, it seemed to be genuine too.

I nodded and
was turned to Laura who was too small to reach across the table, so
she walked around it in her stupidly towering high heels and
smacked a bright red lipstick kiss on my cheek. She squeezed me
tight and whispered, “it’s about time he got his finger out.”

****

“What can I
get you to drink?” The waiter who had stopped next to my chair,
smiled warmly down at me. He was poised and ready to take my
order.

My mouth
opened to tell him I’d take an ice cold bud but Sebastian beat me
to it. “She’ll have a two thousand chardonnay. In fact, we’ll have
a couple of bottles.”

Christian
clucked his tongue and shook his head. “Bro, can you not see the
table, we have ordered enough wine as it is.” He was right though.
The table was littered with various shaped wine glasses filled with
different golden and red liquids.

“Not the best
though. Only the best for my Victoria,” Sebastian commented and
winked at me.

What the
hell?

“Seriously,” I
snorted and rolled my eyes. “I would have been happy with a
beer.”

Ferguson
choked on the wine that he was currently drinking. He slammed the
glass back down on the table and coughed into his fist. Christian
leaned over and slapped him on the back or more like damn near put
the man’s spine out of alignment. What was it with men doing that
to each other?

“Beer?” he
asked after he’d pushed Christian away with a glare. The man looked
at me like I was from a strange planet or something.

I nodded and
shifted in my seat. “You can’t beat a good beer.” And wasn’t that
the truth?

Lawrence gaped
at me then his brows drew together as he glanced at Sebastian.
“Where do you find these women?”

I was about to
take offense to the comment and give him some mouth when Laura
quickly got up from her seat and moved Christian along so she could
swap places with him. He grumbled something about pushy women
getting their own way but moved anyway. Laura leaned into my side
and whispered, “He doesn’t mean anything by it.”

“Sure he
doesn’t.”

“No,
seriously, he doesn’t. He likes you. In fact,” She smiled warmly at
me, her small dinky hands played with the glass of wine she’d
bought with her. “We all do. What happened at the house when Garth
died was...” she trailed off shaking her head.

“I don’t wanna
talk about that.” I said quietly but sternly.

Laura blinked
wide eyed at me, obviously noting my tone. “Oh, I’m sorry.” She
said quickly. “I didn’t mean to upset you or anything it’s
just...what Naomi and (Sebastian’s mum) did to you was completely
and utterly out of hand not to mention what Sebastian did.” She
shot a glare at him before looking back at me. “I liked you when I
first met you and was absolutely gutted when I heard about what
happened. After that I harassed Sebastian night and day for your
telephone number so I could call you and see if you were okay but
he refused to give it. I did try to have a snoop around but he
caught me and well told me to wait and well...” she waved her wine
glass around. “Here we are.”

I nodded
slowly. “Here we are.”

“Anyway,”
Laura said, her eyes brightening, her cheeks flushed a little or
maybe that was how much drink she’d had already, I wasn’t sure.
“Christmas,” Then she giggled and just about jumped up and down in
her chair. “Even though it won’t be Molly’s first Christmas but her
second, she’s old enough to understand or at least understand a
little bit. I just love Christmas, don’t you?”

Oh no, not
this subject, anything but. The urge to want to stick knives in my
ears or maybe pins in my eyes was overly strong right about
now.

A groan left
me and my chin dropped to my chest. “No Christmas.”

I guess that
was the wrong thing to say because Laura’s smile faltered, her rosy
glow diminishing by the minute. “What?”

“I don’t do
Christmas. Never have, never will.”

Her dainty
little brows pulled together, her hands stilling on the wine glass.
“If you don’t do Christmas then how come you’re spending it with
us?”

What do you
want?

“Where’s the
steak?” I blurted out as I looked down at the menu at my hands.
There was no meat. Why wasn’t there any meat? My eyes scanned the
velvet encased thing back and fourth. There was no meat. There was
Caviar, Lobster, Sea Bass and even Escargot...yuck— but no meat.
Don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t expecting to find a double
cheeseburger or nothing but come on, at least a T-Bone or
something.

Conversation
around the table went quiet.

When the
conversation didn’t start up again, I glanced up and saw that
everyone was looking at me, frowning. Christian actually looked
like he wanted to burst out laughing right then and there.
Sebastian’s lips twitched but no-one said anything.

“Well?” I
asked when no-one continued to speak.

Sebastian
cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. “Well, Victoria.” He
cleared his throat again. “This is a seafood restaurant that’s why
there’s no meat.”

“Oh.” My mouth
formed an O. How come I didn’t know that? I bit my bottom lip when
I felt the heat wanting to burst from my cheeks. I was Victoria
Jennings, I didn’t do embarrassed. Taking a few calm breaths, I
looked up at them all again to find them staring at me
expectedly.

“What?” I
snapped. Now I just felt like a sideshow or something.

That seemed to
trigger something. Christian did start laughing then. He laughed so
hard, he bent over with it. Then if by domino effect, each one fell
over with fits of it. Sebastian’s wide shoulders shook with his
laughter, Lawrence and Laura folded in on themselves and Ferguson
nearly fell off his chair with his mirth.

I huffed and
pushed up from the table. “Alright, laugh all you want.” Then I
turned and stomped my way over to the bathrooms or what I assumed
were the bathrooms. Okay, I was acting like a child, a pouting
child but damn it, no-one told me we were coming to a seafood
restaurant. I’d never been to one before. Every other place to eat
I’d been had all served meat, even some meats I’d never even heard
of before. I mean what did one actually order when coming to a
place like this? I don’t think I’d ever tasted shrimp before. Oh
wait, probably in a curry from the supermarket but then come to
think about it, they probably would have been frozen and cheap.
Yeah, they would have.

I found the
bathrooms and immediately felt out of my depth. The whole place
gleamed and was expensive. What was it with Sebastian and him
needing everything to be expensive and clean? Didn’t people hear of
lime scale around taps and rust around sink holes?

The plug hole
I looked down at was gold for Pete’s sake. Gold!

Shaking my
head, I locked myself into a stall and set my bag down on the
little ledge that was in the toilet with me. What toilet had a
shelf or ledge type thing in it anyway? I was used to peeing in a
space the size of an ant.

I sat down on
the toilet after fighting with my incredibly tight dress and waved
my hands out to the side of me. My fingers didn’t even touch the
stall walls. How cool was that? Normally, I elbowed the walls
trying to wipe myself or pull my trousers up.

By the time I
was finished, I realised I’d been sitting there for near on ten
minutes. I wasn’t even doing anything other than staring. I was
utterly fascinated...by a toilet, I so needed to get out more.

Another five
minutes went by as I sniffed each of the fancy soaps that were in
golden bottles by the sink. I’d never seen things like that before.
The scents of lemon, cinnamon, vanilla and pomegranate drifted up
my nose, making it tingle a little. I dried my hands on soft red
cotton towels and double checked my make up before pulling the door
open. I stepped outside and rubbed my hands down the front of my
dress. My eyes spotted the tab—

“Victoria.”

I jumped when
I heard my name sounded from beside me. I jerked when I saw who’d
spoken. An immediate scowl penetrated my face, my body becoming
tight and tingly and not in a good way either.

“Jacob.” God,
I never thought I’d see him again.

“You look
absolutely ravishing.” He gushed; his eyes flowed up and down my
body, settling on my boobs. When I snapped my fingers, his eyes
found mine again. He smiled and approached me, his hand going
straight to my elbow. He pulled me off to the side, taking me away
from the direct line of sight I had of the table. “It’s good to see
you.”

A snort left
me. “Well, I’d love to say the same about you but,” I drew out the
word so it sounded like
buuuu-uuuutttt
“I can’t.”

His dark eyes
narrowed and his jaw twitched from side to side. “I knew there was
something other than the obvious that I liked about you.” There
went that smile again. How comes before I didn’t notice how oily it
looked? I mean, he was gorgeous no doubt about it but there was
something dark and sinister about him that you could only see once
you got close and now, we really were close.

“Again,” I
huffed, beginning to get irritated. He had to have balls of steel
to approach me anyway after what he did and said six months ago
with the recording. I jerked my elbow from his grip and stepped
away from him, a snarl curling at my top lip. “I’d say the same
about you but I won’t.”

That shut him
up for at least thirty seconds before he tried a different angle.
“I heard about you and Sebastian. I must say, I was surprised.”

My brow rose
and I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t miss Jacob’s eyes
focusing in on my boobs moving with each breath I took. God,
men!

“What did you
hear about me and Sebastian?” Hell, why was I even asking. Why
didn’t I just walk away and leave him be?

His head
lolled back and fourth, a ‘couldn’t care’ look came over his face
but his eyes said something completely different. Jealousy and a
little anger I think. He slipped his hands into his trouser
pockets, his keys rattling as he jiggled his fingers. “I heard that
he belittled himself by begging you to come back to him and after
he,” he paused and seemed to consider his words. “Made you certain
offers and you accepted, I mean, it’s just your way that is, isn’t
it?”

I bristled at
his words. My back teeth ground together. I was officially worried
that they would turn to dust with the grinding. “what do you want?”
there was no way I was going to stand here in the middle of the
restaurant with people walking by eying us weirdly and argue with
him about the ins and outs of mine and Sebastian’s relationship.
Plus it was none of his goddamned business anyways.

Jacob moved
closer to me again, his head moved down to my ear, his breath
against my ear made me shiver but not in a good way. His hand
snaked around my waist and pulled me against his body so I had to
raise my hands and place them on his chest to stop from toppling
into him. My body jerked when I felt the hardness of his cock
pressed against the swell of my stomach. God, I wanted to puke. I
pressed against his chest to move back away from him. Being this
close was making me feel sick. I could feel the wine I’d drunk
churning in my empty stomach. “Get off me you fuck.” I gritted
out.

“You know what
I want, Victoria. Sweet, Victoria.” Jacob whispered against my ear.
His tongue even came out and licked against the seam of my ear
making me gag. The hips I was trying to get away from flicked
against me, brushing that cock over my stomach again.

“Fuck you.” I
whispered fiercely, pushing against his chest again. Damn, he was
strong. The hand around my waist, tightened against the side of my
rib cage, his fingers digging into my flesh. Because my dress was
so tight, as in skin tight, there was room for him to grip my skin
and no doubt leave marks in his wake.

“That’s
precisely what I want you to do, Victoria. In fact, I’d take you
right here, right now if you wanted. I’m sure I’ve got a fifty in
my wallet. It’s still crisp from the bank. Actually I think I have
a couple. That should do it, shouldn’t it? How much is a pump and
run nowadays?”

What the?

Anger, hurt,
humiliation and total shock rushed through my body as if I’d just
been injected with adrenaline. It kicked around my system like a
storm racing through the skies. My breath quickened and my stomach
tightened. My blood bubbled and my eyes burned. Sweat beaded across
my brow, at the back of my neck and along the bottom of my back. My
muscles quivered along with my bottom lip. Damn him.

I did what I
would have done to an attacker. As quick as I could, I raised my
knee and felt it connect with a healthy set of balls. The material
of my dress moaned in protest of the stretch but who gave a fuck? I
needed to get away from him. Jacob squeaked out an unmanly sound
and fell backwards, his knees bowing and his hands cupping his man
parts. Jacob’s knees hitting the carpeted flooring created two soft
thuds that with the fuzz filling my ears, I still heard over the
top of. I stumbled away from him on my heels, my legs felt as weak
as a newborn kitten. I whipped one hand over my ear, feeling his
saliva still coating my skin.
Ugh!
I scrubbed until I
couldn’t feel it anymore and wiped my hand down the front of my
dress. The other hand went to my mouth to stop the sick that wanted
to come up, from coming out.