As he moved closer, the only thing he heard her say was that she was scared. What the hell was she scared of? Was it him? He didn’t hear Nate’s reply, but he watched as Nate wrapped her in his arms. Damn it, something was going on. He needed to know why she was acting like this.
Steeping out of the door, he heard her sobbing. “Chantal?”
Both their heads shot up and looked straight at him. Her eyes were red. Why had she been crying? Stepping out of Nate’s embrace, she slowly walked up to him, not once looking into his eyes. She stopped short, glancing back at Nate as he plastered a smile over his face. Dom frowned.
Seriously, what is going on here?
Stepping closer to her, he lifted her chin. “Chantal, why have you been crying?”
Shaking her head, she couldn’t answer him.
Well, he knew a way to make her answer him. “Did I just ask you a question?” he growled. He couldn’t help it. He wanted to know why she was so upset.
Chantal’s head shot up and she gasped at what he said. He raised his eyebrow at her, wondering if she was going to bite his head off or what.
“Sorry, Sir,” she whispered.
Tracing his thumb under her eye, wiping the tears away, he tried again. “Why have you been crying, are you alright?”
“I’m fine, Sir.”
“If you were fine, you wouldn’t have been crying, Chantal.”
“I don’t feel too well, that is all, Sir,” she whispered, again.
“You should of came and found me, Chantal. Do you want to leave?”
“Yes, please.”
“Ok, you go and say goodbye, and I’ll take you home. I’ll meet you inside.”
She never replied. She walked away from him, head low. Once she disappeared from his view, he spun around and faced Nate. “What’s going on, Nate?”
“Nothing that I know of, Dom. She told me the same thing.”
He knew there was more to it, but he would drop it for now. “Make sure you take Skylar home soon, she looks like she is ready to crash.”
Nodding, they both walked back into the shop. As Nate found Skylar nearly asleep in the corner, he found Chantal wrapped around Joey.
Why wouldn’t she do that with me?
He had to show her that she could do that with him, trust him with everything. Maybe if he could do that tonight, she would open up more to him.
He knew that she trusted him in the bedroom, why not out? Just the thought of her in her bed, naked, had him hard in an instant. Grinning, he straightened himself. Tonight he would worship every inch of her gorgeous body, and then tomorrow morning, they were going to have a chat.
******
N
othing was said as Dom drove towards her house.
Damn it.
Why had she told him she wasn’t feeling well, instead of something else? Because that was the first thing she could think of.
So Stupid.
If she had stalled, he would have known for sure that there was something more serious than her feeling unwell.
As they pulled up, she jumped out before Dom could even open the door. Digging her keys out, she slipped them into the lock. She heard the roaring engine of Joey’s truck, and she huffed out a breath.
Why did both of them have to be here now?
She dropped her purse on the hall table as she made her way down to her room. Dom called out her name, but she kept walking.
Entering her room, she stripped her dress from her body and walked into her bathroom. Once the water was steaming hot, she stepped under it, moaning as the water ran over her body. She didn’t want both of them there...and she did. She could not make up her mind as to what she wanted right now. Sliding down the wall, she wrapped her arms around her knees and let the tears fall.
She tried holding them back, but her body betrayed her and it would do the same once she left the shower. All she wanted to do was curl up in her bed and fall into a deep sleep, but with Dom and Joey in her house, that was not going to happen as planned. She didn’t want to talk about tonight. The only way to stop them from asking too many questions was to distract them with something. But did she have it in her to do just that? Could she take her mind completely off the fact that someone was sending her letters and now a present, and of course, how could she forget, someone out there was watching her. She shook her head. No, she didn’t have it in her to distract them. They could do whatever they wanted. She was going to sleep whether they liked it or not.
Turning the water off, she dried her body as she walked back into her room. Chantal could hear them talking somewhere in her house. Pulling on an oversized shirt and a pair of panties, she crawled up onto her bed, wrapped her quilt around her and closed her eyes. Tomorrow was going to be a mission. Staying back at her family home, having her mother hover over her and her father ordering her around would all only help her to not think about other things. Things she doesn’t want to think about, ever.
––––––––
D
om called out to Chantal as she walked into her house, but she ignored him. There was more to this than her feeling ill, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure it out.
Grabbing two beers from the fridge, he met Joey in the lounge room, and sat across from him. “Has Chantal spoken to you at any time?”
Joey took a sip from his beer before answering, “Nope, only general chit chat, but there is something there. She didn’t seem herself at her own opening party.”
“Yeah, I noticed that. I found her out back talking to Nate. She told him that she is scared of something, and she had been crying.”
“What would she be scared of? Did you find out why was she crying?” Joey asked.
“The reason she had been crying is she didn’t feel that well.”
“She did look a little pale to me, maybe she is coming down with something.”
Glancing down the hallway, towards her room, Dom shrugged. “Maybe.” He was unsure about that. “Anyways, I need to go away for a day or two. Can you keep an eye on her while I’m gone?” He never got a chance to tell her he was going away. Every time he was about to tell her, something else came up. Usually his cock, around her.
“You know I will, Dom. Where are you going?” Joey asked as he walked past him into the kitchen.
“I have some business to attend to down at the Gold Coast.”
“When are you leaving?”
“Tomorrow sometime.”
“So, I’m guessing you haven’t told her yet, right?”
“I was going to tonight, but by the looks of it, she doesn’t want anything to do with me. She kept avoiding me.” Why the hell was she doing that? She did it yesterday, too. He knew what was between them was going to be hard on her part, and especially his. Maybe he needed to rein himself in; it was all too much too quickly for her.
“I’m heading to bed, are you staying?” Dom asked as he stood up.
“Unless you want me to leave.”
“No, not tonight.”
Removing his jacket and tie, once he entered her room, he placed his clothing on the chair closest to the door. When he was down to his underwear, he slid in beside Chantal, put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes, as Joey did the same on the other side of her.
Chantal rolled his way, throwing her leg over his and her arm over his waist, hand splayed over his abdomen. Her fingers lightly traced along the band of his boxer shorts, making him hard at just the faintest touch. That’s all it took, one single touch and he wanted her. Reaching for her hand, he placed it over his heart. Joey’s arm was over her waist. He was going to have to have a chat with Joey. He wanted to know what was between them two. He didn’t minding sharing sometimes, but not the whole time. Really, he wanted her all to himself. He was a selfish bastard, but she was his and only his.
******
C
hantal got up early the next morning expecting Dom and Joey to have a chat with her, but neither of them was there when she woke up. She knew they had been, due to the clothes on her floor. She pulled up at the back of her building, expecting the shop to be trashed since she left early last night during the opening party, but as soon as she walked in, she saw it was pretty clean.
Maybe it wasn’t going to be as bad as she thought. Walking towards her office, she heard a noise to her left, coming from the supplies room. Picking up the closest thing she could use for a weapon, she slowly, very slowly, stepped her way to the door. The noise was getting louder from the room. She raised her hand, but couldn’t even look to see what she held; her eyes were glued to the door. Taking a deep breath, she ripped open the door and screamed.
“Damn, Chantal. Stop screaming, it’s me, Bryan,” he implored, covering his ears.
“You scared the shit out of me, Bryan.” She glanced around the room. “What are you doing in here anyways?”
“I came in early to help clean up. Your shop is opening to the public tomorrow, so here I am.”
“You didn’t have to do that, I set my alarm to get in here to do it myself.”
“Well, it’s done now. The only thing to do now is sweep the floor. You also have a couple of large packages in your office, guessing they’re for the store.”
“Yeah, I hope it is. I ordered several things last week that I wanted to add. I’m going to go in and check them out.”
“Sure thing, I’ll be out in the shop,” Bryan answered.
Walking into her office, she placed all her stuff on the spare chair and looked at the boxes. Damn, she didn’t expect that many. She giggled to herself.
First thing she had to do was call her mother. She really wasn’t looking forward to the charity ball that her parents were holding. The people that attended were too stuck up for her liking, but she loved how much they donated to the causes the ball honoured.
Dialling the house number, she waited for someone to answer.
“Winters’ residence.”
“Hi, Lisa. Is my mother there?”
“Hello, Miss Winters, she is, let me put you through to her.”
“Thank you.”
“Chantilly. What a pleasant surprise.”
“Hi, Mum. Since the charity ball is tomorrow, I was wondering if I could come and stay for a couple of days and help out.”
“You never have to ask to stay in the family home, Chantilly. This is your home, you’re welcome anytime. Is everything alright?”
“Yeah, Mum, everything is fine.”
“Ok, then. When do you think you will be arriving?”
“Um, I was thinking today, like in an hour or so.”
“That’s fine dear. I’ll get Gavin to drop over to your place and grab your things and he can pick you up.”
“Thank you, that would be great. I’m at my shop, so if you could let him know to pick me up from here. Also, I have a bag already packed in my closet.”
“I’ll let him know now. He’ll be there in an hour to pick you up. See you when you get here, dear.”
“Ok, Mum, bye.”
After she spent twenty minutes going through the boxes and placing the items in their separate piles to be stocked out on the racks, Bryan walked in with a funny look over his face.
“What?”
“There’s a truck parked out front, and you left your phone out in the shop. It hasn’t stopped ringing,” he said, as he handed over her phone.
Crap!
“Thanks Bryan. What colour is the truck?”
Looking out the door, towards the front of the shop, he replied, “Dark red.”
She groaned. What was Dom doing here? Going over her text messages, she saw there were ten from Dom.
We need to talk!
Where are you?
Answer your phone, baby.
Why aren’t you answering? What the hell is going on?
And there was more.
Shit!
He was going to be pissed.
Quickly walking to the front door, she stood there watching as Dom climbed out of his truck. Oh yeah, he was pissed.
Storming over to her, he gripped her arms. “Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been calling and texting you all morning.”
“Excuse me? Are you my bloody keeper? I had to come in to the store to clean up after last night. I should be asking you, since you left way before I got up.”
Letting her go, he ran his hand through his hair. “I had some things to do this morning.”
“Well, so did I. I don’t have to report to you about everything I do, Dominic.” She knew by using his whole name it would get to him, but she didn’t care.
As they made their way back into the shop, Dom announced, “We need to have a chat, Chantal.”
Spinning around, she asked, “About what, Dominic?”
“Chantal.”
Both of them turned to the voice behind her. Gavin stood there at the door.
Great! Just great. This was going to be interesting!
Dom glanced from him to her and frowned, then noticed the bag in his hand.
“What the hell is this? What is he doing here?”
“I am going to spend a few nights at my parents’ house,” she whispered.
“Why? What’s going on?”
Shit! Think quick! What do I tell him?
“My mom isn’t feeling good, and she wants me to stay for a while.”
“Ok.” He looked between them again. “But why is he here?”
“My mom sent him to grab my things and drive me over,” she replied.
What was with all the questions?
“Why couldn’t you drive your car over? I want to know what is going on and I want to know now. Are you going away with him?”
Gavin stepped forward as Dom growled the last bit. She automatically placed her hand over Gavin’s chest to stop him and of course, Dom caught what she did.
He took a step forward and she quickly moved between them. It did not help that Gavin protectively wrapped his arm around her middle section, pulling her into him.
Seriously, did this shit have to happen now? What the fuck is with all this testosterone, alpha male crap!
What do I say? If I say no, then he is going to keep questioning me and if I say yes, then it will break us. He will leave me alone for sure, but it will end us and I don’t think I can live with that. Lord help me what do I do?
“Are you with him, Chantal?”
What! God no. How would he think that!
“No. Why would you even think that, Dominic?”
“Well, to me you two look pretty damn cosy.”