Sweet Surrender (4 page)

He walked over towards her, and pulled her off the bed. “Yes, you can. Don’t think about him being there. You only need to think of you, and that beautiful baby you're carrying.”

Giving him a hug, she said, “Thank you.” Walking out, she followed Alex towards the lounge room. When they entered, he moved aside and there stood Nate, as sexy as she remembered him. Those jeans he wore should be illegal.

“Skylar.” Although she didn’t want to admit it, that voice of his always made her clench, knowing what it was like between them in bed, but that wasn’t happening anymore. Not since he moved on.

He started to move closer to her, and she knew she would break if he came within a breath of space to her. “I don’t want to be late.” Saying that, she moved towards the door and outside to his truck. She jumped in before he had a chance to help her, watched him as he got in beside her, and then drove them towards the hospital. This was going to be the longest day of her life.

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D
om had tried ringing her countless times, but she never answered. There was no point listening to what he had to say, he made everything pretty clear to her New Year’s night. She deleted all of the text messages and voicemails he left. She didn’t want to hear his excuses over what he had said. He hurt her enough just by saying she wasn’t his type, although she had no bloody clue to what he meant by that.

He had also waited outside of Skylar’s several times, wanting to talk to her. Every time she would arrive, within ten to fifteen minutes he would be outside sitting on his bike, calling her. It was like he had a tracking device on her car or something.

She drove towards Skylar’s house in a car she had borrowed from her, father, as hers was in the shop getting the usual service done. She loved her dad’s black Mercedes, and although he had offered to buy her one, she had declined. She didn’t want that from him.

Her thoughts drifted to the reason she was going to Skylar’s; she needed her help with her shop. It had taken the last five years to get it to where it was. It was a very slow process, but she wanted to do everything herself. After buying the shop, which took the whole amount she had saved up, everything after was tedious. Also, though she owned the shop outright, there were still the payments for rates, water, and power, since they needed to stay on. In regards to the building itself, once she had a certain amount for a job that needed completed, she would organize it. Having half the walls ripped down had cost a fair bit, but it was so worth it since it opened up her shop more. The bathroom had been horrible and she opted to have it completely remodeled. Now, all she had left was the shop sign, painting the inside, and installing the shelving and new change rooms.

Her shop was so close to being open, but she wanted Skylar’s opinion on some things. She had never told Sky what her dream was for the shop. She loved helping Skylar out with her work, and she had had odd jobs here and there, but she was looking for another one to tide her over until her store was ready.

Driving down Skylar’s street, she glanced around to see if Dominic was around and didn’t see his bike. Breathing a sigh of relief, Chantal pulled into Skylar’s driveway. Reaching for her messenger bag with all the paperwork in it she intended to show Sky, she jumped out and walked up to the house. Before she had a chance to knock, the door flew open and Skylar wrapped her arms around her.

“Finally, you’re here. I have been bored out of my brain, Chan,” Skylar groaned.

Laughing, she wrapped her arm around her, too. “I told you I’d be here soon.”

“I know, and I’ve been waiting patiently. I’m ready to kill Alex, he won’t let me do anything, and Nate is the same. If I even go outside, Nate’s there, so I come back inside. Alex knows I won’t attempt to go anywhere if Nate is there. Alex and Nate are working together against me, I swear,” Skylar told her.

“Sweetie, they’re just looking out for you,” Chantal answered.

“I can look after myself. I don’t need their help, unless I ask them, and I would only ask Alex. I can’t be in the same room as Nate. It wreaks havoc on my heart,” Skylar whispered.

Chantal understood what she was saying since Dominic did the same to her, but it was different between Skylar and Nate. They were having a child together, just not in a relationship. Chantal and Dominic didn’t have any of that. The only thing they had between them was a friendship, and there wasn’t even that anymore since she chose to close off from him altogether because of her true feelings for him.

She needed to clear her head from all these thoughts of him, and concentrate on why she was here. “Can we grab a drink and sit down; I need to talk to you about some things.”

“I have been doing that for the last day or two, Chan,” Skylar mumbled.

“I know you have, you told me every five minutes in text messages. I promise once we're done, I’ll take you out of the house, ok?”

Skylar jumped up and down, screaming. Chantal shook her head as Sky walked into the kitchen and pulled out two bottles of water. She handed her one, and then sat beside her. “So, what do you want to talk about?”

“I want your opinion on something.”

“Okay.”

Pulling out her paperwork, she passed it over to Skylar.

“What’s this?” Skylar asked.

“Read it.”

She watched as she read over every single piece of paper that she had given her. This was the most nervous she had ever been in her life, waiting to see what her best friend thought of the idea. Although she had already bought the shop, it was the matter of what was going inside, and that is where she needed Sky’s help. She had several ideas on how she wanted it done, but having another opinion helped a great deal. “So, what do you think?” she whispered.

“This is amazing, Chan. I’ve seen that exact shop that’s in here, it’s very cute. Whose shop is it, and all these ideas?”

“Mine. I bought it several years ago. Since I love to shop so much that I wanted to open my own, and I need your help.”

“Really? That’s great, Chantal. But what do you need me for?” Skylar frowned.

“Well, since you work at Stacy’s, I was wondering if you would help me in my shop. I know you haven’t been doing much at the moment besides send her items that she wanted, but I want you to actually be there with me, help me stock up with products and design it.”

She looked down at the paperwork again and back up. “So, what do you want? Partner or worker?”

“I would love for you to be a partner in it. I know you don’t have the money to put towards it now. Which is fine, since the shop is paid for in full. I just need help designing it, and you’re the best for the job.”

“I would love to go into business with you. I have money saved to throw towards it.”

“I don’t want your money, Sky. Save it for the baby. We both know how much it costs to raise a baby. Don’t worry we’ll figure out the money side of it later, since I know what you’re like.”

“I can’t believe we are actually going to do this, together,” Skylar said excitedly.

“You’re the only one that I would do this with, Sky.”

“Love you, girl. I won’t be as bored anymore.”

“Love you, too. There’s a lot left to do with designing, and I have several ideas on what I wanted, but would like your opinion on it since you’re the one with interior design background.”

“Ok. So what kind of shop is it going to be?”

“What is the one thing I love to shop for?”

Looking again at the papers in her hand, a light bulb went off in her head, and she shot off the couch. “You're opening your own lingerie shop?” Chantal just nodded. “Oh my God. This is going to be so much fun. We both love lingerie, and shopping for it!” Skylar laughed.

Pulling on her arm, Chantal hissed, “Sit down before you have that baby earlier than you are supposed to, or Alex comes in here.” “Ok, ok. So, what’s the plan?”

“I need you to go over the design ideas I have and tell me what’s good and what’s not.” She dug in her bag and pulled out her portfolio, and then gave it to her.

“I have a name already picked out for it, which was the easy part, it’s just everything else.”

“What’s it going to be called?” she asked while looking over the design ideas.

“Um, it’s a little different, but I think it fits well.”

“Well, don’t leave me in suspense. Tell me already, Chan.”

“Heaven’s Devil. I didn’t want to use Naughty or Nice, that's too prissy for me. What do you think?”

Skylar reached over and wrapped her hand around hers. “It’ll suit the shop perfectly, Chan. I wouldn’t want to change anything about the name, it’s sexy as hell.” They both laughed at that answer.

“So, the first thing we need to do is the design and layout of the shop. I have no clue in that department. All I would do is place it where I think it would look good, not where it should be.”

“Chan, this is your shop. If you want things somewhere in particular, we will put them there,” Skylar answered.

“I just want to see how you would lay it out first, and then go from there.”

Skylar reached for her drawing pad and got to work on several designs.

Standing up, she told Skylar, “I have some fabric swatches in the boot for the curtains and stuff like that. I’ll just grab them.”

“Have you got paint cards as well?” Skylar said, without looking up from her designs.

“I think I do,” she replied before walking out the front door. Moving towards her car and opening the boot, she moved things from one side to the other looking for what she needed. Once she had them, she closed the boot and started to walk back towards Skylar’s house.

“Chantal!”

She stiffened where she was, not wanting to deal with him right then, nor any day for that matter. Slowly spinning around, she faced him.

“Why have you been avoiding my calls and texts?” Dom asked.

Is he serious?
She knew the distance she had put between them these last two weeks was too good to be true. She pushed past him, but that only resulted in him grabbing her arm and spinning her around to face him.

“Answer my question, Chantal?”

“You know why I haven’t, Dom.” She struggled to free herself, which only made him tighten his grip on her.

He moved his body closer to her so they were touching from the hips up, and she sucked in a breath at being so close to him. It had been too long since she had been this close to his body. She could feel all those delicious muscles under her hands as they lay on his chest. The smell of him was divine—so divine that she could eat him all up.

“I’ve missed being around you,” he whispered down to her.

She couldn’t help the shiver that ran over her body from his words. She watched as he leaned forward and moved his mouth closer, and she closed her eyes, waiting for his lips to join to hers. After a moment or two, she felt his mouth along her neck, sending goose bumps over her body. She leaned her head to the side, to give him better access.

He started nibbling up her neck towards her ear, which he knew was one of her weaknesses. She started to push him away, when he latched on.

Growling, he wrapped his arms around her waist and moved her back against her car, sliding one of his hands down to cover her ass. He moved her against him and she could feel the hardness in his jeans.

Moaning at the contact, she couldn’t do anything but go limp at his touch, and that was only from his mouth on her neck. She needed to get ahold of herself. She was not going to let him do this, not this time, not anymore.

Pushing at his chest, she panted, “Dom, Stop.”

“God, your smell. It drives me crazy,” Dom groaned.

Damn it. She could never control herself around him. Leaning her fully against her car, he moved his leg between hers, rubbing right against her swollen clit. “Oh,” she whispered.

She couldn’t help but move along his leg. The friction of his jeans and her pants together was unbelievable. Dom slid his hand up over her ribs towards her breast, and massaged. Her nipples pebbled at his touch, and wetness pooled between her thighs. “Dom,” she moaned.

Dom moved his hand down towards the opening of her pants, sliding the zipper down, and inched his hand in. “Are you wearing lace?” he moaned.

Nodding, as that was the only thing she could do right then, she felt his hand move further inside her pants. He pushed aside her thong and rubbed lightly over her clit. She could not believe that she was letting him do this out in public, but she didn’t care. If this was the only way she could get Dom to touch her, she’d take it.

She could feel him lowering his fingers down to her core, right where she needed them, but before he got close enough, his phone rang.

Groaning and using his other hand, he pulled out his phone and answered it, right there in front of her as she watched him, while his hand was still down her pants.

“Yeah.”

He looked down at her with a frown. Ever so slowly, he removed his hand from her, and she whimpered at the loss of it.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he replied to whoever was on the phone. Ending the call, he wiped his hand over his face, and started to help straighten her clothing.

“Why?” She didn’t want the same answer again, but knew it was coming.

“It won’t work out. It never will, Chantal. You can’t give me what I want.”

She pushed his hands away from her; she couldn’t concentrate when he touched her. “How the hell do you know that I can’t give you what you want, Dom. On second thought, don’t answer that, I don’t want to know your answer.”

Once her clothing was back to normal, she moved away from him, and quickly walked towards Skylar’s house.

“Chantal.”

Spinning around, she snarled at him, “Don’t bother, Dom. Stay the hell away from me from now on.” Then she stormed off into Skylar’s house.

As she closed the door and leaned against it, she felt the tears stream down her cheeks. How could she let him near her like that, after what he had said that night? She just couldn’t resist, this was Dom, and no one that she knew that had a thing for him could. She was not going to let him get to her this time. Wiping her face, and calming her breathing down, she got herself under control. She had things to do today. She was going to forget about what he had done to her outside, and instead concentrate on her shop with Skylar.