“Due to the fact that you have had labor-like pains, we will keep you overnight for observation. If the bleeding stops you will be discharged. If not, you might have to stay until the baby is born. We will monitor the position of the placenta, and both the baby and Ms. Montague’s heart rate overnight. You will need to refrain from lifting anything heavy, get plenty of rest, and are advised against sexual intercourse, for the time being.”
“What?”
“Only for the next couple of weeks. If everything is good, then you can go ahead. If not, no intercourse for the rest of the pregnancy,” Dr. Davis replied with a smile.
Nate stood there mumbling under his breath. Both Skylar and Chantal giggled. Joey laughed as well as Dom.
“Feel sorry for ya, bro.” Dom tried not to laugh too hard, but didn’t succeed, and ended up bent over holding his gut. The room echoed with his laughter.
Holding his hand up, he apologized, “Sorry. Sorry.”
“Come back at thirty-two weeks and we will do an ultrasound, to see if the placenta has moved. If it is still in the same area, a planned caesarean for around thirty-eight to thirty-nine weeks will be performed.”
Sky could only nod, as she asked, “Is there anything else that I need to do.”
“Eat plenty of nutritious foods, particularly those rich in iron. This will reduce your chances of becoming anemic. Keep your circulation going to prevent blot clots; try to move around and drink plenty of water.”
“I’ll make sure she does that,” Nate answered.
“Well, that is about it. We will do another round of blood and urine work tonight. If everything is fine in the morning, you will be discharged.”
“Thank you, Dr. Davis.”
“Take care, Skylar. I will see you in the morning.” Placing her chart in the slot at the end of the bed, he turned and exited the room.
Everyone was quiet after the doctor left. Moving out of Joey’s arms, Chantal addressed them, “Well, since we know that Skylar and the baby are going to be ok, I’m heading to your place to clean up and cook some meals for you, so you don’t have to lift a finger. I’ll come back and pick you up when you’re ready to go home.”
“You don’t have to do that, Chantal. I’m sure Nate can do all that, since he can’t do what he wants to.” Skylar could not help but stir the pot with him.
“I told you that I would do anything for you, Sky,” he groaned.
“I know, Nate,” she purred.
“These next two weeks are going to kill me,” he growled.
“There are always other things to do, Nate,” she whispered.
“And that is my cue. I love you, Sky, and I will see you tomorrow when you get home.” Leaning over, she gave her a tight hug. “I’m glad everything is alright, now,” she whispered in her ear.
“So am I.” Skylar said.
Slapping Nate on the back, Dom told him, “I’m heading out. I have some things that I need to do.”
“Thanks for being here.”
“No need to thank me, Nate. You’re family, and that is the only thing that matters. Now, look after your beautiful fiancée.” He lightly placed a kiss on Skylar’s head. “Take care.”
Dom walked past Joey and slapped him on the shoulder, but never once glanced at Chantal as he left the room.
Staring after him, she wondered,
what have I done to him?
“Are you ready to go? You need to rest after the day you’ve had.”
She smiled up at Joey. “Sure, let’s go.”
She waved her hand to Skylar and Nate as they walked out and waited at the lift. Why was he in such a hurry to leave? She knew that Nate would have closed up shop, for the rest of the day. Maybe he was seeing someone. She shook her head. No, Dom didn’t see anyone. He only slept with them. He never dated or had a serious relationship, that she knew of. She couldn’t keep doing this to herself. Dom didn’t want anything to do with her, and she didn’t with him.
Keep thinking that
.
She wrapped her arm around Joey’s waist, and he pulled her tightly into him. “Do you want to grab something to eat on the way to your place?”
“We can order pizza once we get in.”
Why was she thinking of Dom when Joey was taking her home? She had feelings for him, but not as strong as she had for Dom. She had to decide soon. She couldn’t keep doing this to Joey if she wanted Dom. She could not allow Dom to keep playing with her emotions if he wasn’t interested, which is how it seemed. They needed to move on.
––––––––
D
om strolled into Elite Inc., for the monthly meeting, where they would discuss and assign any new clients, draw up new contracts, and anything else the team had to add.
Walking straight into the conference room, he sat at the head of the table. Everyone was present that needed to be. Lee Anne sat to his right. Marcus sat to the left with their new colleague, Maria. Bradley, Jonathan, Christian, and Stephen all sat at the end.
Lee Anne stood. “Ok, guys. These are the new clients; their profiles are in the file. Contracts will have to be done up once you have picked which ones you want to take on,” she said as she passed each of them a manila folder.
“Dominic, you need to set a time and place for client...” She paused, shifting her paperwork around. “Cassandra Williams. Are you doing the contract alone, or with someone?”
“Marcus will be doing it with me.”
“Good. Have you all picked which clients you want?” she said as she looked around the table.
“I’ll take clients 13, 22 and 17. I’ll let you know the dates.” Bradley said.
“What about you two?” She pointed to Jonathan and Christian, “Rebecca Gibbs and Leona Mathews.” Christian replied.
Dom grinned to himself; they were in for one hell of a ride with those two women.
“I’ll take what is left, Lee Anne.” Marcus grinned.
“Great, since that’s all done...Maria you will work with Dominic over the next couple of weeks so you get the feel of how we do things around here.” She stood, placing all of her documents in her folder.
“No offence, but I’ can’t have someone follow me around to do that. I have a day job, a life out of this job,” Dom growled.
Resting her hands on the table, she faced him. “Dominic, Maria won’t be following you. Just show her around town so she knows where everything is. Is that too hard to do?”
“No, It’s not.” Dom stood up, and growled out, “Remember the conversation we had in your office not long ago?”
Lee Anne paled and nodded.
“Remember that for next time, then. I was bloody serious, Lee Anne.”
He glanced over at Maria. “Ready. We’ll go over some of the places that I can show you.”
“Thank you, Dominic. I really appreciate it,” she purred.
He wasn’t reading anything into it. It was her job to sweet talk all the clients, and he wasn’t even going to look as she sauntered out of the room, either. But he was a hot-blooded male and any male would be stupid not to. As soon as his eyes landed on her walking through the door, he groaned. From the way her hips swayed from side to side and the sound of her high heels clicking along on the wood floors, to her endless legs in that skirt she was wearing and the way it hugged her ass—he knew looking had been a mistake.
He and Lee Anne had agreed on having a woman join the firm, to see how it would work out. He hadn’t been there when Lee Anne had done the interviews, and after one look at Maria, he knew he should have been. Although she did not come across as someone to cause trouble, she sure was going to with the guys, even if unintentionally.
Her layered red hair flowed to stop about halfway down her spine. Her figure represented a swimsuit model; tanned skin, brown eyes, long legs that begged to be wrapped around his waist, and breasts the size of rock melons. So much fun there to be had.
“Are you coming, Dominic?” Maria called out from the front door.
Just the thought of that action made his dick hard against his jeans. He shook his head to free the thoughts of Maria under him...Thoughts that could
never
happen.
“Yeah.” Dom stalked out of the entrance and towards his bike before climbing on and finally looking over at Maria.
“We’ll head over to Joey’s, a popular bar around here, and talk about how we do things here.”
“Ok, I’ll follow you.” He watched as she climbed into a black, sporty BMW roadster and reversed out, waiting for his lead.
Well, she had good taste in vehicles, which didn’t surprise him. He didn’t know what she did before she came to work for Elite, and really it was none of his business. As long as she followed the protocols, she would be all right. Everyone that joined their firm went through an extensive background check, the whole nine yards. With the clientele that they dealt with, they needed to be careful on whom they chose for the job.
As he took off up the road, she kept up with him, zooming through traffic. When he moved past a school bus and pulled up short behind a b-double truck, he glanced in his mirror and saw her coming up fast; overtaking the bus, him and the truck. Grinning, he pulled out and drove after her car. He had never had this much fun, besides in the bedroom. Flying past her, he took the lead as they turned off the highway and down the esplanade.
Maybe Maria could be the one to keep his mind off Chantal. Seeing her with Joey at the hospital had made his gut clench. When he told her about Skylar, he had wanted to be the one to comfort her. It was obvious to him, though, that she didn’t want him near her, which he guessed he deserved.
He needed to explain to her why he left that night. Maybe then she would understand more of why he did it and why they could never be together.
******
W
ith Joey still at her place, Chantal ducked out quickly and headed to her shop to see the progress on what Bryan had done. Opening the door, she was shocked to see how much had changed. She had only left earlier in the day, and damn he worked quickly.
“Why are you back here? I thought I said to go home and relax?”
“I wanted to see how far you got, and pick up the mail. Forgot to grab it earlier,” she replied.
Walking up to her and wrapping his arm around her shoulder, Bryan asked, “How are Skylar and the baby?”
“Both are good, now. It was scary as hell waiting to find out what had happened. Something to do with the placenta detaching. But she is happy now that the baby is safe and healthy. It was actually quite funny what the doctor said to both Nate and Skylar.” She giggled.
“Care to share.”
“Well, the doctor said no sex for two weeks. Nate whined about that. Then the doctor said if it doesn’t get any better, no sex for the
rest
of the pregnancy. Poor Nate. Skylar wasn’t helping the matter, she kept flirting with him.”
“Well, I feel for him. That really has to suck. Pregnancy sex is the best, I must say.”
“TMI, Bryan. Although I love kids, I don’t see me having any, haven’t found the right person to have them with.”
“Well, you will be missing out on the best sex of your life, Channy.” Bryan laughed.
“I have great sex now, thank you.” She grinned broadly as they walked into her office.
“So, how is it going with Joey?” Bryan stood next to her desk as she sat down.
“Things are going good, so far. I really like him. He makes me happy, treats me well. What else could I ask for?”
Kneeling down beside her, he whispered, “Chantal. I know you like him, and I can see that he does all that for you, but he isn’t the one you want.”
She frowned up at him. “What are you talking about; of course he’s the one.” She knew in her heart though, that he wasn’t the one. But how could she have whom she wanted most when they did not want her?
“I see the way you look at Dominic, and the way he looks at you. You can’t miss the chemistry there. When the two of you are in the same space, the heat in the room skyrockets. No one else is there but you two. He wants you, Chantal. It’s not hard to miss, although he is trying really hard to hide what he feels, I can see it.”
‘”I think you are seeing things, Bryan. He doesn’t want me like that. Well, maybe for sex, yeah, but nothing more than that. I don’t want just the sex. I want the whole lot. Someone to love me for who I am...not my name, or money. Someone to cherish me, make me laugh, you know? I want all that.” Standing up and moving towards the storage area, she spoke the words she thought to be true. “Dom isn’t like that, he only thinks of himself, and his next bed partner. He is not capable of loving anyone other than himself.”
Reaching for her mail that sat on top of a box, she walked out.
“He wants more than sex, Chantal. The look he gives you, it’s hard to explain. It’s like he wants to own you”
Folding her arms over her chest, she snarled, “No one is going to own me, Bryan. No one.” Chantal turned around, storming away from him.
“It’s not like that, Chan. It’s something different. He struggles with himself around you like he is holding something back.”
What the hell did that mean? Why would he hold something back from me?
“Well, I don’t like secrets. I want the truth up front. Everything up front.” she whispered.
“I doubt it is an actual secret, I think he is just holding himself back from you. I have no clue why. I don’t know him that well. Maybe you could ask Joey, or Nate. They might tell you why he is doing it.”
“If he has a secret, Joey or Nate aren’t going to tell me.” She shook her head. “I don’t care what it is. If he has something to tell me, he should have by now. I don’t judge people, but it doesn’t matter...he doesn’t want me the way I want. I’m fine with that, Bryan.”
“I know you’re not fine with that, but I will drop it for now.”
“Thank you. The shop looks great. What you have done is amazing. I’m glad I hired you to do it. The last guy I asked didn’t have a clue what I wanted.”
“Well, I’m glad I know some things about you, on how you would want your shop. I only have a couple more shelves to do, and then it’s all yours.”
“I can’t wait to start placing all the items up.” She giggled.
“This is going to be one hell of a shop.”
“I know, not long now until it’s open. Anyways, I’m going to head back home; Joey is waiting for me. He’s taking me to lunch at his bar.”