Protect Me (20 page)

Abbi and Ryan looked at each other; she could see he was trying to read her answer the same as she was trying to do to him. In sync they both answered.

“Dark chocolate.”

“Ok, dark it is then. I will melt you down some white as well to sprinkle on top.” George smiled as he grabbed the two large mixing containers from the marble top.

“Great minds think alike.” Ryan looked as though he had just aced a chemistry test.

“Yes they do.” Abbi giggled. “Usually I am the only person around that likes dark chocolate, but I love it.” She looked up at him. “This is a great idea Ryan, thank you. You have been too good to me the past few days.” She suddenly felt a slight feeling of guilt. Here he was bending over backwards to make sure she was happy, and yet she had nothing to give him in return. Her gaze lowered towards the table in front of them.

“Hey, what’s going on in that beautiful head up there?” He slowly lifted her chin with his hand.

“I just wish I could do things to make you happy too. You have been so amazing this week, hell you slept in the smallest chair ever made to make sure that I was ok and now all of this today. I can’t really do things like this for you.”

“Oh babe, don’t ever worry about having to do things for me. I am completely happy just having you in my life finally. I am sorry that I didn’t court you like I should have. I have been stupid about this from the very start and I promise that I will do my best to make up for that for as long as it takes. But please know that all I ever need to be happy, is to see you happy and smiling.” She could see the sincerity in his eyes. This wasn’t an answer he was giving just to make her happy, this was truly how he felt.

She stepped closer to him wrapping her arms around his stomach and pulling herself into him. She could feel his arms enclose around her, as he laid his cheek against the top of her head. “I am happy Ryan.” She smiled against his chest where her head was pressed into.

Slowly he pulled himself back a few inches and looked down at her. Oh those eyes, her stomach knotted and her heart started beating frantically. She stared up as him, certain that you could see her heart beating wildly in her throat. He leaned down towards her and she slowly closed her eyes as she clenched her fingers into the skin at his back. Just before their lips met she felt his breath slowly blow against her lips.

“Abbi, may I kiss you?” her heart melted with the request.

She didn’t verbally answer, but instead brought her body up onto her tip toes meeting his lips with her own. She felt two things happen in that instance. First the fireworks, little sparks of light and energy exploding around them as she pressed her lips so tightly against his. She could feel the electricity as his tongue slipped into her mouth and teased her own. Then her body reacted, the knot in her stomach turning into burning fire. Spreading out through her limbs and down into the apex of her thighs. This man made her hot, made her soul melt into his own with his touch. If he could do this with just a kiss she could only imagine what it would be like to be in his bed. Her hands traveled up his arms to his neck as she pulled him to her urgently. His hands brought her body closer to his as she could feel his slight erection pressing against her stomach.

He suddenly pulled away, holding her face in his hands with a huge smile on his face. She felt the immediate sting from the absence of his lips.

“If you keep that up, this date isn’t going to last very long. And until your body is back to normal, I am not going to put my hands on you.” He reached down brushing a stray hair from her face.

Her lips formed into a pout; ok she was still a little banged up and given the circumstances and nature of the situation that had happened she could understand why he would feel reluctant to be with her. Well, reluctant to be with her naked as they were jumping each other’s bones. But damnit, her body was on fire for this man.

“With time babe. With time.” He chuckled at her pouting face before kissing her forehead.

“Ok, my two love birds are we ready to play in some chocolate?” Before she could protest further, George made his way back into the room holding a large container of melted dark chocolate and another half full of white chocolate. “This just needs to be tempered and you will be able to start dipping.” Abbi gasped as the man poured the entire container of chocolate onto the marble slab. He smiled up at her reaction as the chocolate splattered onto the front of his black apron.

“You get to play in a big puddle of chocolate all day? That has to be the best job ever.” She laughed as she watched him.

George took the two metal scrapers and quickly smoothed out the chocolate onto the marble stone. Scraping it up and jostling it around, every few scrapes he would test the temperature onto his wrist before spreading it back out. Abbi was mesmerized. He made it look almost like an art. She would never have thought that it would be such a talent to make chocolate. After testing the temperature one last time, he quickly used the scrapers to scoop the chocolate back off the marble slab and into the bowl only leaving a few dark streaks across the marble table. He then presented them with gloves, a spatula, and with his hip pushed over a cart filled with goodies for them to dip into the chocolate.

“Ok, your chocolate is ready. Here is an empty tray to use for after you have dipped your fill of treats, have fun and get messy. That’s half the fun.” He reached in between them and placed an empty tray in front of them along with two matching black aprons. “I will be back shortly to check on you two and I will have your mousse ready also.” He said as he headed towards the back of the long kitchen.

“Dig in.” Ryan handed her a stack of graham crackers.

“You don’t have to tell me twice!” Her eyes lit up with excitement.

For the next twenty minutes the two dipped everything from marshmallows to pretzels into the chocolate. Tasting as they went, and making a complete mess of themselves. Abbi giggled as Ryan smeared the chocolate onto her cheek before licking it off. She liked this side of him, light and playful. She liked this side much better than the serious and angry side of him. But she knew that even though he hadn’t been angry at her all those times, what if one day she did something that did make him angry. She could only hope that wouldn’t happen, of course no relationship was a breeze. She would just have to take it a day at the time.

As they finished their tray of goodies George returned back into the kitchen laughing at the sight of them both. They had definitely taken his advice of getting messy. He decorated the treats with a few streaks and splatters of white chocolate before putting them into the cooler to solidify, and presented them with two decorated glasses of chocolate mousse. They found two stools and took a seat at the marble slab. Ryan offered his first bite to Abbi as she tried seductively to take the bite into her mouth, audibly moaning when the decadent chocolate hit her tongue.

“Damn, I guess I better stock up on this stuff.” Ryan laughed as she opened one eye up at him.

“Shh, I’m in the moment.”

As they finished their glasses of dessert, George presented them with two plastic bags tied off with ribbon. Both full to the top with the treats they had dipped into the chocolate. They took the bags and thanked George for a fun afternoon before heading out towards Ryan’s truck. The last part of the day went by quickly, too quickly. She felt as if her fairy tale were coming to an end. Soon the weekend would be over and she knew that Ryan would want to start sleeping in his own bed again and honestly she wasn’t sure what would happen from here. All she could do at this point was hope that it would all work out in the end. She just had to stay positive.

“Damn Country, you sure you wanna come back to work yet?” Trent looked concerned as she approached the bar counter.

Even though most of the swelling and marks had gone away a few still remained. She had tried her best to cover them with make-up, but the bruises that covered her body were still fading away. And these short ass shorts didn’t help to cover those in any way.

“Missed you too, Trent. And if you think I look bad, you should have seen the other guy.” She gave him a sideways glance before making her way behind the counter.

“Yeah, I imagine. So any word on what’s gonna happen to his sorry ass?”

“He’s being held without bond right now, I got a lovely visit from some cop over the weekend. He got my statement and said he would take it from there. Ryan wasn’t too happy with me speaking to the cop, but if I intend to press charges they had to get my statement.”

“Oh yes, Ryan. Judy mentioned that you two had been spending a lot of time together.” Trent looked almost defeated. “I was going to come by and visit you, but I didn’t want to get my ass kicked too.”

“Oh be quiet. Ryan is harmless and he mean’s well. We are just enjoying each other’s company right now.” Abbi was done talking about Ryan with Trent. Trying to change the subject, “So how has business been without me? I’m sorry that I was out so long.”

“Good, busy. I hired a few new people so you may see some unfamiliar faces in here. No worries though, you are still one of my main girls.” He smiled over at her.

“Well that’s good to know, I would hate to be late on my bills.”  She grabbed a stack of clean glasses and began to distribute them in stacks behind the bar.

“You’re not having problems with money are you Abbi?” He looked concerned, enough that he had used her real name.

“No, Trent. I’m fine. I just don’t want to get behind on anything you know?”

“Ok, but if you’re ever having problems just let me know. I have only shared this with a few of the girls. But I have a little side venture that I am working on and if you ever need extra cash you just let me know and I will hook you up with a gig ok.” He stepped in close to her.

“Trent, I am not doing porn or being a prostitute.” She glowered back at him, getting only angrier as he started laughing.

“Oh Country, you are really funny sometimes you know that. Shit I wasn’t talking about porn. And around here they are fondly referred to as escorts. But if you ever need help you let me know and I will make sure you’re taken care of.” He laughed again as he made his way from behind the bar towards the upstairs office.

She didn’t know what the hell was so funny, but she did know that she didn’t like the way he had just propositioned her for something. It made it feel illegal and the fact that he didn’t go into depth about what it was only made her feel more uneasy. What on earth could he be into? But she could only assume being a business man that, whatever it was, was legitimate. Although considering the conversation she had overhead a week ago it didn’t favor that outcome, so she could hope at least he wasn’t into trouble.

“Hey girlie, you sure you’re ready to be back at work?” Judy’s words snapped Abbi from her thoughts.

“Yeah, I’m good. Thanks for checking on me last week. It meant a lot that you girls stopped by.” Abbi reached out and took Judy into a hug.

“Girl, that vision of you when I walked through that door still haunts me.” Her words became choked. Abbi could feel her start to shake, as she sniffled against Abbi’s chest.

“Hey, hey, Judy it’s ok. I’m ok, it’s all being taken care of.” She held Judy out at arm’s length trying to reassure her that everything would be ok.

“I know. I just blame myself for everything that happened. I shouldn’t have encouraged you to hook up with that ass bucket. If I hadn’t told him where you were then he wouldn’t have been able to go down there.” Judy wiped the tears that were running down her face.

Abbi tried to interrupt her rambling but it was pointless, this was something Judy had to verbally get off her chest.

“I was so scared, Abbi. When I saw you I didn’t know what had happened and I didn’t know what he had done. That bastard hit you. You were bleeding. It was everything in me not kill him with my bare hands. If it hadn’t been for Jace that night I would have probably gone to jail for murder.” Judy took a deep steadying breath.

“It’s ok, Judy. I promise. But please for me, just like I told Ryan please don’t make this something I’m reminded of everyday. Y’all just have to trust that I am being truthful when I tell you I am ok.”

“I trust you, but just remember if you ever need anything you can always let me know.”

“I promise I will.” Abbi smiled down at Judy.

“I know you two aren’t having a chick fest without me.” Ashley’s voice came across the room towards them. “You know I dig that sort of thing.”

“No, none of that.” Abbi laughed as Ashley came up taking her into a hug.

“How are you Honey?”

“I’m good. Better.”

“Good, now I want to know how big Ryan’s dick is.”

Abbi gasped at her crudeness. She looked over at Judy who was smiling waiting for the answer as well. “I can’t believe you two think I already slept with him.”

“Ok, I will give you a get out of jail free card this time, but only because of the circumstances. By this time next week I need an answer for that question.”  Ashley grinned as she joined Abbi in setting up the bar.

“Abbi, don’t listen to her. Just take it one day at a time. It’s ok if you wait.” Judy reassured.

“Yeah, like you and Jace.” Ashley shot over her shoulder. Abbi detected a hint of irritation in her voice.

“What? You and Jace! Really?” Abbi beamed at Judy.

“We have not had sex, yet, Miz Nosey. We just, fooled around.” Judy rolled her eyes in Ashley’s direction before spinning around to face Abbi. “Oh my goodness Abbi he is so hot. And he is even more beautiful with his shirt off.” Judy was almost jumping up and down. “We have been talking on the phone every day and he is taking me out this week on my night off.”

“That’s great Judy!”

“Yeah, yeah. Fantastic. You gonna continue to host your talk show over there or are you gonna actually do some work tonight?” Ashley snickered towards Judy.

Judy leaned in towards Abbi’s ear “She is a little upset that she hasn’t heard from Gabe.”

“You know what, I will be back in a few minutes.” Ashley threw down the towel in her hand and headed for the office upstairs.