Sweet Surrender (50 page)

Standing up, he made his way out to the bar, looking to see who was left. Rounding the corner, he heard Kristen’s laughter echo down the hall. Grinning to himself, he was ready for a little stirring towards her. She was a wildcat, at most, but he could see the sweet innocent side underneath all that.

As he made his way towards her, he stopped when he heard Bradley’s voice.

“So, what is it between you and Joey?”

“Nothing. He’s my boss.”

“Like anyone cares about that.” Bradley laughed.

“There is nothing going on between us. I don’t date anyone where I work. Plus, I’m with someone,” she replied.

“So, this someone, is it permanent?”

“Why wouldn’t it be? We’re together,” she said, sounding shocked at his question.

“That doesn’t mean anything, if you’re together or not. Does he make you happy?”

What the hell was he doing?
By the look of her, she was ready to go ape shit on his ass.

He took a step out and stood at the end of the bar, where at least Kristen could see him there, ready if she needed him for anything.

“Do you think you could make me happier than what he can, Bradley?”

Bradley threw the rag he was using to wipe the countertops down, walked over, and stopped in front of her.

“Hell yeah, I could, baby. I’ll rock your world,” he said, lifting his hand up and rubbing his thumb over her cheek.

Why was Bradley doing something as small as that making his blood boil? It wasn’t as if she was his. She didn’t belong to him, not at all. Shaking his head, he wasn’t up to what he had planned when he first saw her standing there at the end of the bar.

Turning around, he walked off towards the back door. He knew Bradley would close up, whether he was there or not. He didn’t need to see what happened between them. He couldn’t do anything about it besides remind them of the ‘no workers hooking up’ rule.

Jumping into his truck, he drove towards home. The one place where none of the work shit could follow. He left it at the door as he left. His place was his sanctuary; nothing could ruin what he had there. It was his space. He could do whatever he wanted there without any backlash coming back and biting him in the ass.

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S
kylar was getting ready before she headed over to Nate’s for their prenatal appointment with their doctor. She was a little nervous as usual. At every single appointment, she was afraid to find out any bad news about the baby. Standing in front of the mirror, as she rubbed over the huge baby bump. She was thirty-two weeks pregnant, and nothing major has happened since that one time. Thank God. Nate had been watching her nonstop. She loved him for that but it was annoying half the time.

She grabbed her bag as she left her place and walked over to Nate’s. Walking in through the back door, she turned on the kettle, and made her way down towards his room, knowing his was still asleep since it was his day off. As she was walking down the hall, she heard the spare room shower on. Pushing the door open softly, she thought that Chantal would have stayed at her parents’ house last night after the event.

Sitting down on the end of the bed, she waited for her to come out. As she sat, the baby started kicking, hard. Leaning to the side to let some of the pressure off, she started giggling to herself when the baby moved with her, kicking under her ribs.

“What are you giggling about?” Chantal said from the bathroom door.

“The baby was kicking, so I moved. Then, it decided to follow. It’s so uncomfortable.” She laughed.

“I bet it is. Why are you up so early, anyways?” Chantal asked, as she went back into the bathroom, closing the door halfway to get dressed.

“Nate and I have our thirty-two week check-up at the anti-natal clinic today.”

“What does that involve?” Chantal shouted from the bathroom.

“Blood work, urine test, ultrasound, blood pressure. All the boring stuff except for the ultrasound. You should see Nate. Every time we get the ultrasound, he tears up. It is so cute. Every time I see him crying, I ask why he is doing it.”

“What does he say?”

“One, he denies he’s crying, which I know he is. And two, he loves seeing our child on the screen.”

“That is so adorable.” Chantal giggled as she walked out of the bathroom, drying her hair.

“I thought you would have stayed at your parents’ house after the event last night.”

“No, Dad isn’t feeling the best, so I didn’t want to catch whatever he has. Plus, I had some things to do at the shop today, and it’s closer to Nate’s than their house.”

“Well, I hope he gets better soon. I love your mum, but your dad, well, he’s a bit harder to get along with.”

“I know what you mean. What are you doing after the appointment today, any plans?”

“Not that I know of, did you have something in mind? Don’t you have any plans with Dom?”

“I have no idea what his plans are. All I know is that he is due back from his meeting sometime today. I thought maybe if you wanted to come down to the—”

“What the hell is that?” Skylar interrupted as she saw the state of her neck.

“What?”

“The marks around your neck. What happened, Chantal?”

“Nothing.”

“Seriously, Chantal, if you’re in trouble in any way, you would tell me right?”

“Of course I would, Sky. You’re my sister. It’s nothing to worry about, really. I had a scarf on last night and it hooked on one of the fancy ornaments, that’s what the marks are from.”

“It looks more like someone did that to you, Chantal, not something.”

“Who did what to whom?” Nate asked from the door. Both Chantal and her spun at his voice. She watched as Chantal tried to cover the marks around her neck from Nate, but she was too late in doing so.

Storming his way over to her, he pulled away the towel. “What is that?” He gripped her chin and moved it from side to side, looking over the bruises wrapped around her neck. “Who did this?”

“Nate, it’s nothing.”

“Nothing? Have you seen the state of your neck at all? Who did this to you?”

Skylar stood up, she knew what Chantal told her about how it happened was nowhere near the truth, but she wasn’t going to stand in here arguing with her about it. “Nate, Chantal will tell us the truth when she is ready. We need to go, or we’ll be later for our appointment.”

“Skylar.”

“Nate.” She said as she crossed her arms across her chest.

Pointing his finger towards Chantal, he said, “You and I are talking when we get back from the appointment, understand?”

“Ok,” Chantal whispered.

“We’ll see you when we get back,” she said, before leaving the room with Nate.

Once they were in his truck, driving towards the clinic, she asked, “What was all that about, Nate?”

“How the fuck did she get those marks? Did she say anything to you about how?”

“She told me that she got it from a scarf she was wearing that caught on a hook at work. But I don’t believe her. I’m not stupid; I can see the fingerprints,” she whispered.

“That wasn’t from a bloody scarf. Who does she think she is going to fool with that story?”

She reached over, grabbed his hand from the steering wheel, and wrapped it in hers. “We shouldn’t get involved, she will tell us when she is ready, Nate.”

“I know, baby. She’s just like a little sis to me, that’s all.”

“I know, and I love you more at how caring you are towards her.”

“Well, I should do more and see what else I can get out of you,” he growled, as he pulled her closer to him.

She couldn’t help but touch him. Her hormones skyrocketed as soon as they were in his truck. The confined space set her senses on high alert, remembering back when they had made love in there. She stroked up his thigh until she reached the crotch of his jeans, and then stroked down without touching him there. Seeing his body shiver at what she was doing to him, she had to press her legs together.

“Baby, if you keep that up, we won’t be making it to the appointment. And since I know what you are wearing under that dress, we wouldn’t even make it to the closest motel.”.

Sliding back over to her side, giggling, she couldn’t help but torment him just a little. She knew what would happen if she went that extra bit, but she didn’t care, they could pull over anywhere, the way she was feeling. He could do whatever he wanted to her.

She couldn’t be having those kinds of feelings when they walked into their appointment. She checked the time on her phone. They were still minutes away from the clinic. Once they were done, she needed to spend some time with Chantal, and find out exactly what had been going on with her.

C
hantal sat there on the bed, tracing over the mark around her neck. She knew what it looked like, she had seen it in the mirror, and was shocked at how dark the bruising was. When she lightly touched it, it hurt. She hadn’t realised how tender it was. She was pissed at being that close to Derek and allowing him to do what he had to her.

It was a going to be a different story once Dom saw the marks. She should have pushed Derek away from her better than what she did. He was always in control of the relationship, no matter the situation. But, she had had enough of it in the end when she found him in their bed with the new secretary. After that, she told herself that she was not going to allow another man ever to take full control over her...until she met Dominic.

Now she craved that control, especially from him. She was usually the one in control when it came to the bedroom, but being with him, she needed that from him, badly. She needed it in her life. If he ever decided to stop what was happening between them, she had no idea how she would cope. What they had was special, nothing like she had ever had with another person, and she knew she would never have it again if something happened between them.

She wasn’t going to sit here and think any more about him not being in her life. He loved her. She was his and his only. When she woke this morning she forgave him over the blunt text she received from him the night before, knowing he was busy. She knew what it was like. She had sat through many of them at her father’s firm.

Picking up her laptop off the dresser and walked out into the kitchen. As she was grabbing a glass, her phone rang. She ran over to where she had placed it earlier and answered.

“Hello.”

“Chantal.”

“Hey, Dom. Are you back from your meeting?”

His breathing was deep over the phone. “Yeah, baby. I was about to head over your way.”

Crap! What am I going to tell him about why I am staying at Nate’s house!
There was no way he would take that very well, that she was staying at his house and not Skylar’s. She knew she had to tell him about the letters, the gift, and now the video of them.

“Um, I’m at Skylar’s house,” she lied, grabbing her bag and laptop as she quickly and quietly moved towards the front door.

“Why are you there?”

“Um, no reason.”

“Chantal. What is going on?”

She could tell by the way he said her name that he wanted to know exactly what was going on, and now.

“Dom,” she whispered his name as she stopped where she was.

“I mean it, Chantal. I know something is wrong just through your voice. I’m coming over now, and when I get there we are talking.” After saying that, he hung up.

Shit, shit, shit!
She couldn’t tell him the real reason right then, when he just got back from a meeting. She needed something else to tell him, to distract him, from the real reason. Something to take his mind off of it. She only needed enough time to think over how she was going to tell him the right way.

After running over to Skylar’s house and through the back door, she stood there trying to get her breath back to normal. When it was calm enough, she walked down towards her room, pushed the door open, and stood there shocked as to what was in front of her. Quickly pulling the door closed, she shouted through it, “Crap, sorry guys. I didn’t know you were both here.”

There was no way she was going to get that image out of her head, of Nate fucking Skylar, doggy style. Nate laughed on the other side of the door. “It’s not the first time someone has walked in on me having sex, Chan.”

“Nate, I seriously don’t want to know about what you have done, ok,” Skylar hissed.

“Sorry, baby. It would have looked pretty hot from her angle.”

“No, it didn’t. Trust me,” Chantal shouted. “I’ll wait out in the kitchen. Sky, I really need to talk to you, so if you could hurry up in there and come out, that would be super.”

She wasn’t waiting around to hear them go at it, again. Walking into the kitchen, she grabbed that drink that she was about to have back at Nate’s house before Dom rung.

Making her way towards the comfortable couch, she sat, waiting for Skylar to finally come out. As she was sitting there going over exactly how she was going to tell Dom about everything, both Skylar and Nate walked out. Nate had the hugest grin over his face and as she noticed, she realised it was from her walking in on them doing the deed.

“What’s up?” Skylar asked as she sat beside her.

“Dom just called and is coming over. I told him I was staying with you. I need something, anything to tell him why I stayed last night and possibly the night before. He won’t like it one bit if he knew I stayed at Nate’s, although nothing would ever happen between us.”

“Why are you staying over at Nate’s anyway in the first place?” Skylar looked from her to where Nate was in the kitchen.

She had no clue how to answer that at all. She could not tell her about the letters, or even what she had received that day when she was there. Or the video, damn, that would shock her like no tomorrow. She didn’t want to hear what she would think if she ever watched it. It would break her heart knowing what her best friend really thought of her after that video.

Nate walked back in. She shot him her best look, saying she needed his help on this, and he quickly jumped in.

“I told you why she was staying at my place, baby. Her kitchen flooded. The pipe under the sink busted and water was everywhere. They need to replace the whole kitchen as well as the carpet in the lounge room. They said it could take up to a week for it all to be done.”