Redemption (The Bet) (45 page)

"Hey," he caught her arm and gently turned her around, "Did you not hear me or were you purposely ignoring me?" he sounded slightly winded, as though he'd ran to catch up with her.

Samantha pulled her arm away and avoided his bright, searching eyes, "Hi,"

"So I was being ignored." He didn't seem annoyed, just partially amused, his lips rose in a crooked smile. "At least you didn't mace me."

"Are you in the habit of getting maced?" she couldn't help but ask.

He glanced away and appeared as though he was truly contemplating the question, before meeting her gaze once more, "No," he shook his head and boyishly grinned. "I can't think of any recent scenarios that involved me getting maced. Matter of fact, I can't really say that I've ever had the misfortune of being maced. You probably would've been my first."

She smiled in spite of herself, "I'm sure it would've been an unforgettable experience."

"Which I'm sure we can discuss over dinner?"

Samant
ha stopped smiling. "Dominick…"

"Dom."

"Dom, I'm…what happened-we can't. What I'm trying to say is that---I'm not really looking for a relationship right now." Had her mother heard this, Samantha would've gotten a good smack across the head for it. Here was a guy, who actually wanted her, asking her out on a date and she was turning him down. Why? Samantha could probably pull off blaming it on her unrequited love for her boss.

Five years of crushing that hard, building a dream around that crush, and attempting to have it come to fruition wasn't something that she could easily relinquish. It'd defined a good portion of her personal life for so long, that giving it up now would leave her floundering.

She just couldn't.

"I'm not looking for a relationship either." He brought his hand behind his head and nervously scratched, "Look, I like y
ou Sam, I like being with you."

"You don't even know me."

"You're far better company than most women, let me tell ya," he ruefully smiled, "I just want to be with you, no strings attached, no complications, just you, me and the occasional body wrestle in the sack ."

"Like,
" she looked around and leaned closer, "sex buddies?"

Dom laughed, hearty and joyful, finding her odd naivety refreshing, "So to speak," he stepped closer to her and tenderly caressed her pink cheeks.

She wanted to fall into those deep blue pools, she wanted to lean closer into his warmth and take what he offered, but Samantha wasn't sure she was the sort of girl who could do impersonal sex without getting emotionally involved.

She was the sort of girl who needed structure, she needed goals, she needed a day-by-day agenda. She matched her panties with the days of the week---she organized her freaking cereal for God sakes! She didn't do impulsive-she didn't do casual flings. She certainly didn't have one-night stands with even stranger men and think nothing of it, but that very first night with Dom had pushed
 that out the window, now hadn't it?

"I…
"

"Samantha?" Samantha jumped away from Dom at the sound of Nicholas voice, as though she'd been scorched. She spun around and like a cadet saluting her commanding officer, she gave him her undivided attention, but Nicholas gaze was no longer on her, it was on the ginger haired man behind her.

"Dom?"

"Nicholas?" they chorused simultaneously, astonishment sweeping across their faces.

"Well if it isn't the Devil himself, how've you been man?" Dom pulled the dark haired tycoon into a friendly hug and Samantha continued to stare on, stupefied that Nicholas returned the embrace. "Heard you were on your way to conquering the world, how's that going for you?" they pulled apart, the grin on Dom's lips almost split his face.

"Can't complain," Nicholas shrugged broad shoulders, reciprocating Dom's smile, genuine it all its sparkling white glory. "How about yourself, how's life treating you?"

"Well, I'm no fucking billionaire that's for damn sure, but what can I say, life's a bitch." If Nicholas noticed the acrimonious dryness in his tone, he did not let on. He did, however turn his attention back to a dumbstruck Samantha. "Dom and I attended the same high school, hung out in the same circles,"

"Oh," she weakly laughed. "I see." Which explained his forthcoming demeanor and the uncharacteristic hug he'd just given. She, more than most knew that Nicholas was never big on public display of affection and if he was, it was rarely towards anyone other than the members in his family.

"How do you know, him?" Dom offhandedly asked, slipping his hands inside the pockets of his slacks.

Samantha's face warmed, how exactly did she explain that, wi
thout divulging too much? "Uh…”

"She actually saved my life," at Nicholas raised brow, Dom laughed, "long story, man. How about you, how do you know Sam?"

"She's my personal assistant."

"Well isn't this a fucking small world, huh?"

"Sure is." the moment was becoming increasingly awkward, so Nicholas decided it was time he took his leave. "Listen, get my number from Samantha, we'll set up a time to catch up." He took his hands out his pockets and took hold of Dom's hand, "it was good seeing you again." He looked as though he meant it, and he more than likely did, Dom to Nicholas, had been one of the very few people he'd been able to tolerate back at John Edgar and after years of estrangement, he found that he still liked the guy.

Dom nodded, "Yeah, man, it'd be great to catch up. You'll definitely be hearing from me."

"Then I'll be expecting your call. I really do have to run." Before he left, he turned back to Dom and said, "Oh and keep your wife at home. I'd much rather you brought along Samantha." He took his leave then and entered the interior of the black limousine awaiting him by the curb.

Dom cursed Nicholas for his tactlessness, before turning to an expressionless Samantha. "I can explain."

She brushed past him and stabbed her key into the keyhole of her car, "You don't owe me an explanation." To think, she silently fumed, that she had been so close to submitting to his previous proposal! When the idiot knew he was married! Married for heaven's sakes!

"It's not what you think; just give me a chance to explain." He held her put, preventing her from entering her car.

"There's isn't anything for you to explain," she retorted, far too irritated than she wanted to be, "what we did was wrong, had I known you were married, we wouldn't have gone as far as we did."

"But she cheats on me!"

She looked up, her eyes blazing with a thousand furies of an incensed woman, "So you decided to sleep with me to get back at her?" never mind the glaring fact that she'd also used him, to some extent, to forget about her unrequited love for Nicholas, but, he didn't need to know that.

"No! okay, so maybe a little---" he stepped between her and the car when she made to jump in. "Look, Sam, I'm not the sort of guy who can go around sleeping with women on a whim. That night---" He sighed in frustration, unable to properly express himself. "I don't think this is the sort of conversation I want to be having in the middle of downtown's business district. Can we just have dinner and I'll explain it to you?"

She turned and faced him, "Dom, this thing between you and me, it's just not going to work. You're married and since I last checked, married men, weren't my type."

Dom leaned in and kissed her then, she gasped when he nipped on her lip and he took the moment to quickly slip his tongue between her lips and swallowed her moan. She reluctantly held him, he knees far too weak to hold her up.

Far too quickly, it ended before she wanted it too. She struggled for air.

"Have dinner with me and I'll explain everything." Dom pressed.

"I---"

"Please?" his eyes were her undoing.

With a show of disgruntlement, she sighed and glared at him."Bring the Chinese food." She whispered, before pulling away and getting in her car, staying any longer would've prompted her to say no.

Dom grinned as he watched her car signal and merge into traffic.

~*~*~*~

Ellie broke the news to her parents a few days later
. Her mother hadn't taken it well. Ellie knew how much her mother and the rest of her family rooted for her to find joy. To them Devlin had been it and on the surface it'd looked that way. But no one knew. No one understood that she couldn't do it anymore. Ellie couldn't continue to convince herself that love would eventually come. She was tired of wondering if passion, desire and yearning were something she could live without.

The appearance of Nicholas back in her life had served to awaken something that'd she'd buried long ago, something she hadn't known she'd given up until Nicholas firs
t kissed her. But Ellie couldn't say that Nicholas was the sole reason why she'd ended things with Devlin. From the very beginning there had always been the niggling feeling deep inside her that her relationship with Devlin wasn't all that it should've been.

She and Devlin never truly fought, never truly felt the heart
pounding emotions that swept you away during a fevered argument. The gravitational force that compelled you to push as hard as you were pushed. To parry every move your partner made. To fight for dominance that you knew you were going to lose but relished the lost when it came because your mind, your soul, your heart, and your body craved what that lost promised? It was rapture, the highs and the lows, the chase and the capture. It was pure, resplendent rapture.

Ellie had remained quiet for the rest of their conversation, unable to say much. Her mother had told her she loved her and supported her, no matter her choice. Ellie had been warmed to hear that, feeling foolish that even at twenty-seven she still felt as though she needed her mother's approval, still felt horrible at the fact that he could disappoint her and her father. But this wasn't about them, this wasn't about anyone but herself and what she'd needed to do to find the peace of mind she was warranted.

They’d said their goodbyes, with a promise that she'd call her soon. Seconds after hanging up the phone the doorbell rang and Maddie yelled that she'd get it. Ellie didn't make any move to rise from her seated position on her mattress, nerves and dread kept her rooted to the spot. If her conversation with her mother had made her nervous, then the upcoming tete-a-tete between herself and Gabe was going to give her a heart attack.

Gabe knew the deal. H
e'd been there from the very beginning and he would stop at nothing to make Ellie understand that what she'd done was by far one of the biggest mistakes she'd made in her short life. He wasn't above playing dirty if it meant getting his point across. He would no doubt slam home the fact that Nicholas was not the man for her, rehash buried events of his past indiscretions and throw it in Ellie's face.

Ellie was ready for
it. She just wasn't ready for another confrontation so soon after the one she'd had with Devlin. Could she prevent it from happening, she would've. But this needed to happen, she had to tell them and she knew one of her two guardians was going to froth at the mouth and Ellie knew it wasn't going be Ronnie.

"Ellie...?" Ellie sigh
ed. "Gabe and Ron are here."

"I'll be right out!" She called back the
n grabbed a shirt from her closet, deliberately ignoring the three boxes marked Devlin she'd carefully packed and stuck in the corner. Maybe in another week, Ellie silently rationalized, she'd be ready to face Devlin again. Right now she just couldn't bring herself to do it.

She opened her bedroom door and quietly closed it behind her.

"You okay? You look a little green around the gills."

Ellie rolled her eyes, "I'm glad I can always count on your uplifting sense of humor to brighten my mood, Maddie."

Maddie slung an arm around Ellie's shoulder and smiled. "That's what friends are for. Mooch off ya, occasionally piss you off, and lighten the mood when things seem especially dismal."

"When you'd you get to be so smart?"

Maddie scrunched her face in concentration, "I think it was somewhere between India and China but not exactly in Tibet."

Ellie glanced at
Maddie as they crossed the threshold into her dining room. "I envy you sometimes."

Maddie
looked at Ellie as though she were insane. "Okay, no," she shook her head and glared at her best friend. "Ellie, I would give my right boob just to have a little bit of what you have. Your kids are amazing. You have a wonderful family who loves you to pieces. And let's not forget the fact that you can reduce gorgeous, intelligent men to Neanderthals with your insane hotness! You have all these things going for you and yet you envy me? Why, I feel I need to ask you."

"I don't know. I guess
it's just that you get to travel, get to see all these beautiful places. You have the freedom to just up and leave when you want to. You can…you can be whoever you want to, be with whomever you want to be with without feeling guilty." She worried her bottom lip, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I envy your freedom."

"Ellie,"
Maddie gently touched her arm, "Where is this coming from? You're really scaring me now. I know life's been a little tough for you, but you can't just cop-out, now. What's going on with you?"